My crazy and wild crossing of western Tanzania: how to go along the Tanganika lake on a nonexistent road or how to fight against the bitter attacks of the tsetse flies...

After the mythical the border checkpoint between Burundi and Tanzania, I I am getting started on the catastrophic roads that  I will meet everywhere in this gigantic country. I am crossing a national park which protects a lot of different species of monkeys I am getting stuck every 5 meters minutes in the sand. I am starting to be a real professionnal of "sand driving-pushing-holding", well, long life Africa...
I believe to have suffered on the track before and after the Tanzanian border, but it was nothing, I just didn't knew it. The beginning of a long series of always crazier and tiring days. In Kigoma, the capital of the Norht-West district, I am doing my shopping and trying to pick-up information about the road I am seeing on a map (on 3 maps, it appears only on one). I am finding some people who know about this road, the first 50 kilometers are passable, afterwards nobody knows. It sounds like a challenge then, of course, it's too tempting for me. I am deciding to ride into the unknown. At this point, I still have no idea of what I was getting into    (if I had known, perhaps I wouldn't have done it). The road of the 50 first kilometres is unforgettable. 2 meters large, a lot of sand but still correct. I’m often crossing Congolese refugees who live illegally on this side of the lake because as they are running away from violence in their country. In a way, it's good for me, as I can communicate (in French) with them. I must admit that my Swahili is not really good at all and I won’t improve it a lot during my Tanzanian visit (if I had met people with whom I could practice, perhaps I would have learned it, but I won’t meet many people on the 1000 first kilometres...). Suddenly, I am crossing my first river, infested by crocrodiles like all the rivers in this area, by boat, then a second river and suddenly the path stops! The first boat could carry cars, on the second river, it's only a canoe... The path changes into a small 20-30 centimeters wide footpath! high grass on each side, dirt road and savannah all around me as companion.

At the beginning, I thought the footpath would get bigger again but, after biking for a few hours, when I saw people running away from me as soon as I appeared, I quickly understood that I got myself in a mess again. But well, nothing to complain, I was looking for more adventures, I am finding what I was looking for ! I am taking my courage in both hands (my handlebars as well)  and I am riding my bike when I can, if not I am pushing. Sometimes I have to push from behind in a acrobatic position because there is not the room for me and the bicycle side to side on the small way. To push a bike of about 60-65 kilos on a slope of battered and stony dirt road, in the blazing sun, is not a piece of cake, believe me ! The air I am breating is hot and full of dust. This dust is getting all over my body because of the perspiration. The few people I am meeting are not crazy enough to travel by bicycle. Even on foot it is not so obvious to progress on this footpath close to the lake, but most often going through small hills a few kilometers from the shore.
It is also the beginning of my love story with the animal world and especially the world of the insects. I didn't know that so many different kind of flies was existing... Between tsetse flies, blue and purple flies or those, quite small, just wanting to get on the wet part of my eyes, all these flies are driving me crazy and bug me the whole day long. They are harassing me by getting on me or just simply flying around me, making such a terrible noise that anyone would get crazy I think, except for natives.
 
Apparently, I am one of the first, if not the first white man, in some places, to go through the area. What would a white man do in such a place? Good question... I am starting to wonder myself.... The surprise is therefore great for people when they see me coming, a white man on this small footpath! And moreover the white guy has a bike loaded with stuff ! Later on I will learn that people got scared because they had never seen a white man before and because the last stories of the white man in the area go back to the sad past of slavery... You can imagine how it feels, after having struggled in the bush, to finally meet someone, to want to ask him where to find food or water and, before you can say anything, to see the person looking at you with wide open eyes, turn all white and dive back shouting into the bush. Next time I will shave, then I might be less frightening...
A few bits of conversations I heard in the Tanzanian bush from the few persons who spoke English and who did not run away after seeing me :
- You are a real gentleman (don’t forget I am lost in the bush, several days without shower and wearing the same clothes)
- Are you searching for new slaves?
- Do you practise Kung fu? (Where did he find such a question ?)
- You are the first White man to come in this village, I have to arrest you and ask our chief what I must do with you (a kind of police officer in a small village by the lake. After having talked about football with the chief, the story ended up around a good meal cooked by the policeman himself and I was given a small hut on the gorgeous sand beach.
- Are you looking for gold ? (No, I am looking for interior enrichment but, in Africa, it is difficult to explain what cannot be exchanged against dollars)
After a tiring day, as more or less all those I spent in Tanzania, I am stopping and putting up my tent in the bush. Each night, I got used to it, animals visit me. Usually they are small animals, like impalas or wild pigs. But this time it is a lion who is coming for a visit. He is roaring just next to my tent and I am finding myself upright in bed in a quarter of a second, breathing short and my senses wide awake. Never did I wake up so fast... Suddenly, I can see the lion's paw at the entrance of my tent ! It is so warm that I am only closing the mosquito net inside as well as the outside doors, but I leave a bit more than 10 centimeters between the ground and the tent so that air can go through. Suddently, I am hearing him smelling my tent, well, he is rather smelling the little white man inside. I never felt so small in my entire life. After going around my tent 2 or 3 times, he is disappearing in the bush...
The days go by and are not alike, except that water is difficult to find and that I eat pasta in the morning, at noon and in the evening. I am alone all the day and I am fighting to progress kilometre after kilometre. I will never forget the hills where I had to push my bike and the immensity of the bush when I am at the top and that on all sides I don't see any living sign with the forest and savannah all around. Of course, I feel very small during these moments, but I never had that feeling of living so far from everything, lost and very small compared to the powerful nature.

After more than 8 days far from everything, the way is getting bigger and later in the same day, I am seeing a car!!! Civilization, well, more or less... I never rode my bike as many days without seeing any vehicle. Arrived in Mpanda, the police men want money, welcome back in the « civilized » world. I am promising them to show up the next day, something that I will never do of course. On the next day I am jumping on my saddle and leaving town like a rascal. Here in Tanzania, as more or less everywhere in Africa, the police is very corrupted and when they want to stop me on the road during the road checks I don’t stop anymore. The less I see them, the better I feel. So I am leaving Mpanda and the second wild part of my trip in Tanzania is starting. I must cross the national park of Katavi. I am sleeping at the entrance and early in the morning I am throwing myself head first at the 55km of track because I do not have the right to camp in the park. Giraffes everywhere, antelopes, monkeys and suddenly... a herd of buffaloes. They are crossing the road at less than 50 meters in front of me. I am stopping but suddenly I am spotted and buffalos are stopping and looking at me nastily. The best idea I have at the time to get me out of this situation is to... charge into the herd. Yes, I know, I am starting to get real nuts, but I couldn't see myself being charged by a dozen of these beasts. Therefore the best defense is to attack myself ! I am throwing my bike at full speed, aiming at the holes so that my saddlebags make as much noise as possible against the rack and, after a bit more than 30 meters biking towards them, ouffff, a buffalo is getting scared, is running away and the whole herd is following him. I am going by rapidly, but suddenly I am seeing on the side of the road a big vicious male looking at me and blowing to impress me (he succeeded very well of course as, after blowing, buffalos charge...) and I am running away as quickly as possible at full speed. I believe I did the most difficult part, but in Africa you never know... Suddenly I am swamped with tsetse flies. Since Kigoma, the tsetse flies are everywhere, but here it is a real swarm of starving tsetse flies dashing for me to suck my blood. I got bit nearly fifty times during about 3 hours. They bite through the clothing  and even my legs while I am riding. Apparently, they also get through leather outfits or manage to bite cows, elephants or other big animals. I was driving with one hand on the handlebars and, with the other one, cap in hand, I was whipping my body to make them go. I experienced hell on earth. The hysteria of the flies is such that, with this non stop biting, I can't think anymore, the noise of the flies around me are driving me crazy, I see the road when drops of sweat don't block my sight, I feel the bites on my whole body and they hurt (at least 5 times more painful than a puncture of mosquito) and I just want it to stop. But 3 hours, believe me, it is long, very long... Afterwards everything is becoming easier. It is always track, it is still hot, but I am starting to cross villages. Wild animals come very seldom that far south in the country and my nights in the bush are less lively. An antelope is coming to visit. One day, I am deciding to put up my tent a little earlier than usual to read a little bit and to relax me. The evening, while I am cooking, a small antelope is visiting me and suddenly it is the illumination. My most beautiful meeting since I have been in the African bush. A bird is coming and flying at less than one meter of me and looking at me. It is splendid, black and white, at the end of its wings, it has additional feathers flying in emptiness and making a kind of music, magic. It is staying there about 20 seconds over my head, looking at me cooking my spaghettis - sauce curry – and finally he is leaving quietly.  Later on in the darkness, I am hearing it go by and by again. Even in my tent later on, I am still hearing it. Like a guardian angel, it is rocking me and offering me a great very relaxing night. Thanks to him, I am feeling safe. After nearly 3 weeks on the track, miracle!!! Tar! I am at some kilometres from the Zambian border and I going to Mbeya. The road is easy, undulating, but the asphalt is so great !! I resting a few days in Mbeya, meeting nice people and I am treating myself to a beautiful room at USD 5.-- with a TV satellite! The evening, movie performance in my bed and no flies!  I am treating myself to a well deserved rest. I am starting to digest my crossing and I realize I went far, very far.