Tanzania, western route - early July 2016
 

I am riding Cape Town to Cairo June to Sept 2016.

I want to ride the western route in Tanzania, from Tunduma in the South to Rwanda, via Sumbawanga, Katavi national park, Mpanda (and Kigoma).

I understand it is better not to ride these roads alone so would love to find someone to travel with for this bit of the trip.

My aim is to do this in the first couple of weeks of July 2016. If you might be interested please get in touch.

My overall route is probably South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt (but may go to Zimbabwe via Botswana rather than Mozambique). I have 3.5 months to complete the trip (sabbatical from work) and am planning to leave the Cape around 4 June 2016.

Cheers
Andy


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hey Andy... for what it's worth, riding buddy and I just did a fair bit of western Tanzania in mid-November 2015. North from Cape Maclear at the southern tip of Lake Malawi to Rumphi, then thru Nyika Park to Chitipa, Malawi.

From Chitipa a road runs north to Tanzania, past Kameme (Malawi) to a Tanzanian border post. Don't worry if it's not on a map, it's there, just ask the locals in Chitipa (best lodging / camping is at Butuzyo Hotel). I was a bit skeptical because no road or border post was shown on Track4Africa, Michelin, ITMB or Map Studio... but maps.me did have it. It's a great dirt road, no sweat, and eventually you end up in Tunduma.

From Tunduma rode north to Sumbawanga then Sitalike at the north edge of Katavi Park (lodge at Riverside Camp next to 300 hippos in the river!) then north to Uvinza. Turned east at Uvinza and made Dar es Salaam a few days later.

None of the western roads we rode were especially difficult or dangerous, I wouldn't hesitate to ride them solo if needed. Best wishes ~~

Thanks - really helpful to get recent on the ground experience.

I assume you are still on the road - you having a good trip?


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I'm sitting in Zanzibar looking out at the Indian Ocean... :cool4: ... left Johannesburg like 6 or 7 weeks ago, 5000 mis aka 8300 kms so far thru Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania... from here we head back west across Tanzania to Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt. Awesome ride!

Sounds fab - 5 degrees C and raining in the UK!

Are you blogging? Would be great to follow how you get on as i suspect i'll be riding most of the roads you are riding.
(My route in here: Route | Cape Town to Bristol
https://temporaryescapee.wordpress.com/route/)

Cheers
Andy



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haven't made the time to blog, but am posting photos to Facebook now and then https://www.facebook.com/mark.hammond.7587

Great to see the pics! Can't wait.


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Hi temporaryescapee (love the name)

I'm currently doing the Cape to Cairo route and am a bit behind Ride Far. A thought for you to ponder is timescale. I was hopelessly over optimistic in my initial planning and talking to people that seems to be a commen theme. For what you've mapped out I think three and a half months will prove far too short unless your willing to ride a strict schedule like Charlie and Ewan and look how much that seemed to sap their enjoyment.

I'm following roughly the same route as you plan to do and originally thought 4 to 5 months I now reckon, early in the trip, it will take me 6 month plus to Cairo. I accept I tend to be slow but to get it down to your target I think would just not make it enjoyable - the road here are just not suited for high average speeds, for example I'm in Mozambique at the moment riding the main N1 highway an though the open road limit is 120kph there's a village every five or ten minutes with a 60 limit and often a traffic cop with a radar gun. I'm hard pushed with fuel and food stops to average 60 kph.

Another thing to consider is the Ethiopian visa situation. By all accounts it is currently not available anywhere except your home country embassy (puting this to the test I've been refused twice here already) If you get it before leaving the UK you only have three months after the initial issue date by which time you need to exit the country, which leaves you only practically only 8 - 9 weeks to get up that far off you want to look around where you describe. Alternatively of you choose to send your passport home mid trip to get it issued you are going to have to spend 2 -3 weeks in one country waiting for it to come back.

My advice, for what is worth, is either extend the planned time or if that is just not possible really think about what are the important sights for you and prune your itinerary to match those. Anyway happy planning.

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Thanks navalarchitect

Always helpful to get insights and I appreciate you taking the time to give them.

I am nervous on the timescales so your challenge is helpful. I am in the process of working through my provisional route to map out sensible timescales and see what to keep in the itinerary. This is proving interesting so my plans are adapting. If you'd be happy to have a look it would be great to run it past you when i'm done to hear your thoughts. (For reasons I won't bore you with my detailed planning has started on Malawi and then headed north so not done Mozambique yet).

I don't have the option of extending my timescales, but a possible 'plan B' for me might be to leave the bike in Ethiopia and carry on next year.

Hopefully the visa is less of a problem for me (famous last words!). I have links with a couple of charities, one of whom supported my application for a duplicate UK passport (which I now have). I have an agent lined up to sort my Ethiopian and Sudanese visas in my second passport, while i start the trip on the first so I believe I can get these in London.

The average speed and realistic distances is a challenge. I have travelled a bit in Southern Africa (RSA, Zim and Namibia) but not further north. I am trying to test my timings against recent travellers blogs so your comments are really helpful.

I hope you enjoy your trip and really look forward to following how you are getting on.

Cheers
Andy