The spectators were lined up and the jury was out; could the next ‘contestants’ (Western cyclists) successfully reach the other… side? They had seen the earlier ‘challenger’ flounder. He stranded midway; with his truck wheels sinking into the river mud. The kids watched eagle-eyed as we began the crossing. We made it! We were happy, but I’m not sure if they were…
Our route to India led us through Nepal’s foothills. I still can remember stopping to look back at the vast… Himalayan panorama we soon left behind.
Cycling during the rainy season with a leaky tent meant that as soon as dusk approached, we were on the… lookout for a dry place to sleep. We often camped in schools. The headmasters always gave a warm welcome and a tour of the classrooms.
Cheap guesthouses there have everything a cyclist needs: a bed, mosquito net, shared bathroom and a bar full of beer… Some owners go a step further by decorating the walls, placing a couchor even fetching a Chipsi Maya for you.
As the Liemba slowed down we could see the passenger boats racing to dock alongside. It was a competition between… them since they were only paid by the number of passengers and amount of freight they carried back to shore. The scenes were reminiscent of the chariot race from Ben Hur.
A photo gallery of East African bicycle culture. For East Africans bikes aren’t just for personal transport. They’re also used… to haul goods, passengers and are often an undervalued workhorse. We asked an old Tanzanian villager why we kept seeing young men cruise around on motorcycles in the evenings yet during the day we only came across cyclists. “For young guys, motorcycles are for showing off,” he said. “But when they need to go to work in the fields or get somewhere, then they grab their dependable bicycles.”
There is a sense of camaraderie between cyclists; we always check out each other’s bikes, want to know where the… other is going and we all struggle up hills. Since the locals rode single speeds, they couldn’t keep up with us on steeper inclines.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh as the boda bodas (bicycle taxis) darted back and forth carrying their passengers to and from shopping…, school, and work. The chauffeurs were intent on getting to their destination while the passengers – they didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
African taxi chauffeurs hang out together, smiling at female passersby and listening to the radios that are attached to their… handlebars. They don’t always relax. They can pedal furiously when the need arises, even with the added burden of a ‘big African mama’ on their back seat.
