Tour d' Afrique - Cycling Cairo to Cape Town

Nor far south of Arusha on the road to Iringa there is a Snake Park run by a South African couple.  I popped in there on the way out as I have heard that they treat snakebites from all over Tanzania.  Thats were I met 'Ma' who showed me around the clinic where they currently had 5 snake bite victims.  They have become known as the centre for treating snake bites, so people come from far and wide with people who have been bitten by snakes to come for their serum which they get from Onderstepoort. They are woken up at all hours of the night as people arrive their in bakkies having travelled for hours to get to them.  They also run a free clinic for the community and are also starting an orphanage.  They also have a snake park, so you can view all the snakes that people are likely to be bitten by.  Some pretty nasty creatures.   Clinic at Snake park.  "Ma" on left.

More about these guys if you are interested on www.meseranisnakepark.com.

The past 6 days have been really tough.  It was dirt roads all the way, and the roads were rough with lots of sand, corrugations and mud at times.  We were very fortunate that it only rained on the last day, so we were able to have a fairly mud free ride.  The dinner truck did get stuck in a ditch once, and took a while to get out, but they were about 100m from camp so they the riders were able to walk to fetch their tents and clothes.  One the same day we had some technical problems to be sorted out with the dinner truck, so we loaded all we needed to make dinner for 70 people onto a landcruiser, and parked off under a huge tree and started making dinner.  Here is a photo of the bush kitchen with all the exhausted riders waiting for soup to be ready.

Although we felt as though Nairobi was half way, we actually only reached halfway 2 days before Arusha as mileage goes.  Here is a photo of our lunch stop at half way mark.  With me is Dana who has little off road experience and battled through every inch of the dirt bravely with a couple of falls to show for it.  This is her 29 inch bike.  She is one of the amazing riders who just plod on day after day with a huge smile on her face.  So now we only have 5850kms to go!!!

Along the way we stayed on a school field, and as usual we were surrounded by villiage people.  In Ethiopia we have to push a perimeter rope around to keep the people at a distance, but since then we just need to tell people where the boundry is, and they generally respect it.  I put up my tent a bit away from the others as I get up much earlier than the riders to help prepare breakfast and dont want to disturb them.  I saw some kids next to my tent, and as I approached they took off and ran, so I knew they were guilty.  I noticed my torch was missing, and went to some of the adults and told them the torch needed to reappear before we left or there would be trouble.  Next morning the torch was back.  Amazing.  It was may solar powered torch that I read with at night, so I was rather anxious to get it back.  It just amazes me how this network works though. We have had several similar things happen before all along the way, and even had a silver necklace retrieve in the same way before.

The scenery in the past few days has been magnificent - everything is so green and fertile.  We arrived in Iringa in the rain yesterday, and are now enjoying a lovely sunny day to get our laundry and tents dry.  Tomorrow we head off onto a notoriously dangerous stretch of road for 2 days in Mbeya, before crossing into Malawi the next day.  All the staff are allowed to take a few days off at some point, and I am going to spend a few days with a friend on Lake Malawi.  I leave from Mbeya and rejoin the group in Lilongwe.  Till later..............