This is The Beauty of Remote Tanzania vA 122
Uvinza, Tanzania - Morning, my friends. - Bye. - Bye-bye. - Bye-bye. - Bye-bye. - Ay. - Goodbye. - Okay, goodbye. - Okay. - You speak Swahili. - A little bit. Goodbye. - Bye. - Bye-bye.
- Bye. - Bye-bye. - ...my friend. - No, no. I need to go. I need to go. - Wait, wait, wait, wait! - Bye, bye, bye. - Wait, wait, wait. Wait a bit! Wait a bit! - No, no, no. - A bit. Wait a bit. - Every time I pass by, you tell me to wait. - Wait, wait. - No, no, no. I need to go.
Hello. - Safi. - Hello. - Peace. - Peace. So, in this video, guys, we are going to Mpanda. It's gonna be a difficult way. It's almost 200 kilometers with 1,800 meters of elevation gain, and it's almost all the way dirt road.
And, of course, to make things easy, no electricity on the way. So I will have to save battery a lot, to use the least battery possible. It's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be very interesting. So probably two days, maybe three days. I don't know. Let's see how I manage to go to Mpanda, 200 kilometers across the wild western Tanzania.
Let's go, guys. Hello. Mambo. Hello. - Good journey. - Good. - Thank you. - Yes.
- Hello. - How are you? - Good. - Good, good. - How are you? - Good. How are you? - Where are you going? - Mpanda. - Mpanda? - Yes. And look at the road, guys. That's not too bad. Hello. - Yeah, safi.
- Hello. - Safi, mambo. - Cool, cool. The road is so, so bad. It's quite mind-blowing. If it's like this all the way, it's gonna take me three or four days to reach Mpanda. This is a disaster. Oh, this river is a bit...
There are some floods. Oh my God, this river is beautiful, guys. Oh, flat tire. Hello. - Hello. I... Oh. He's asking if I have a pump. Do you want a pump? - Yeah, pump, pump. Good morning.
- Good morning. I don't know if it's good enough. I... - I don't speak English. - Yeah. Yeah. - Yeah. - I have this. - Yes, yes. - It's here. But I don't know if... For a car... Oh, like this.
Wait. Up. Push, push, push. Okay. Okay, okay. Where are you going? - We're going to town. - Uvinza? - Yes, Uvinza. - Is it working? Does it work? - Yeah. - Yeah? - Yes, yes. - Okay. - Yes, yes. - Yes, yes. Ah, it's going up. It's going up, I think. Up, up. - Yeah. - Long journey. - Ah? Long journey? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Good, good. Yeah. - Good, good. - Comfo... Relax. Relax. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. So we are repairing a car with the bicycle pump, but... It seems it's worked. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
- Going up. Okay. - Yeah. - Good? - Very nice. - Okay, good. - Ay, ay. - Happy journey! - The same for you. - Happy journey! Bye. Have a nice trip. - Cool, cool. - Ay, ay. Have a nice trip! - Nice trip! Yeah. - Ay. - Thank you. Well, that's a journey that starts very well.
I helped a car reach Uvinza. That's a good point. Good start of the day. Let's go. Hello. - Salama. - Hello. - Hello. - Good, so I start from about 1,000 meters high, and I start with a 50-kilometer climb to reach 1,700 meters high. And then it's gonna be slowly downhill to Mpanda.
Oh, that's crazy. Crazy steep. Hello. For this kind of part — very, very steep. I really need the engine because, without the engine, I would probably not be able to move. Hello. - Salama. - I really feel like I'm really going deep inside the jungle now. A bit of paved road, guys.
Oh, f***. Oh, putain. The road is turning into a battlefield. Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay. Welcome to Katavi Region! Mpanda — 184. Ah? Where? - Where...?
- Ah, okay. Two days to Mpanda. - Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Ah? - Two days? - Two days. Yeah. Ah, okay. - Yeah. - Okay, okay. Thank you. - ...together... - Good, good. - No problem. - Ah, it's really, really hard. It's climbing constantly now.
With the sun. Oh my God. Okay, guys. So it's... It's one o'clock in the afternoon. I did a whopping, I don't know, 26-27 kilometers this morning. It's time to stop for lunch.
Three hours and a half I rode. Average speed — about eight kilometers per hour. It's hard, but it's very beautiful when you stop, because there is this silence.
I just love this silence. And I have avocados, guys. Perfect. And a bit of salt. I don't have olive oil.
No fancy life in Tanzania. Good. And I also have a lot... I made a big stock of dried fruit. So I have some almonds. I stocked up on dried fruit, on nuts in Kigoma. Hello.
Hello. - Very cool. - Okay. Let's resume, guys. Hopefully, I'll go a little bit faster during the afternoon. I think there is a bit less climbing. Let's go! Beautiful tree. - This is a motorbike or what? - It's an electric bicycle. - Yeah.
Okay. What are you doing? Like a tour? - Across Africa. - Across Africa? - Yeah. - Where are you from right now? - Today, Uvinza. - God damn, this is a huge experience. - Yes, it's a huge experience. Yeah. - So can I get a picture?
- Yeah, no problem. - Yo, Jimmy, come and get a picture with my friend. This is a huge experience. - Yes. - God damn, all alone by yourself. - Yeah, all alone. Yeah. - Okay. Get me a picture with my friend. - You have a... You're American? - No. - Because you have an American accent.
- Yeah, I've been in Philly. You can take a video, too. So, this tour goes up to where? - Cape Town. - Cape Town? - Yes. - With this shit up to Cape Town?! - With this shit up to Cape Town. - You're kidding me. - I came from France with this already. - How long? - Two years and a half. - From France? - Yeah. - Up here? - Yeah. - Two years and a half? - Yeah.
- How long would it take, do you think, up to South Africa? - Up to Cape Town. Probably six or seven months. - Holy shit! Yeah, yeah. Mr Wei. Mr Wei, you also want a picture with our friend. - Show your videos to him. He's very interested in the... - Yeah, I'll post it up. I'll post it up.
- I have a YouTube channel if you want. I have a YouTube channel. Y-V-E-S. - You have been to China? - YouTube, YouTube. - Okay, okay. - You have been to China? - Well, in the past. Yeah, a long time ago. Yeah, yeah. - How many years ago?
- Ten years ago. - Ten years ago, you have been to China. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I think you'd better go to China again. It's very different now. It's very different now. - I imagine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, it was already very developed at that time. - Safe ride. - Okay, thank you. Have a good time. Yeah. - Have a good trip. - Thank you, thank you. Xiexie. Bye-bye. Have a good day. - Have a good ride. - Thank you. Thank you. So I have a bad road ahead. You know, all the roads here...
It's the Chinese who built all the roads here in... In most of Africa, I would say. They do a pretty good job. And I guess if you come back ten years from now, most likely it will be a paved road here, because the Chinese are building roads everywhere in Africa. How am I gonna do that? Here in the middle. Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Beautiful rocks around here.
Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay. This is exactly what I fear. Because if there is something my bike can't do, it's going in the water. Ah, shit.
So let's see how deep this is. How could I figure this out? That's pretty good. Ah, that's way deeper. Ah, f***.
So this is all the way to here. Oh, shit. The battery's on the wrong side. Ah, man. This is too close.
Oh, f***. How am I gonna do that? How are you? - Good. - Good, good. - Cool. - So how am I gonna do that, guys? (I have to cross without getting the battery wet) (The battery is under seat) Yes. Come on. Yes. Like this.
Yes! Big success. I don't have enough water. There is a place 70 kilometers from where I started, where they sell water. I thought I could reach it today, but I will not reach it, so I... I didn't buy enough water because I thought I could buy water again today. But luckily, you see... Well, it looks good.
Yeah, it looks very nice. Fantastic. I have a filter... I don't have a filter, but I have a UV... something that kills all the bacteria and the viruses, so... This should be good enough because I'll probably camp before reaching the shop for the water. I'm happy. That was... Actually, that was what I feared the most:
to have big deep puddles to cross or deep rivers. The first obstacle passed. Oh, man. This is freaking hard. Oh, man. Shit. Come on. Shit. No, don't fall. F***ing hell. Freaking side slopes.
Come on. Yes. Oh, man.
Almost went upside down there. I avoided the potholes, and I went on the side, and it was too... It was too tilted, the ground was too tilted. And my bike started to drift towards the ditch. Beautiful flowers.
Hello. - Hello. - Well, it's quarter to five. This would be a very nice spot to camp. Ah, the mud. Okay, I gotta go.
Yes! Yeah. Guys, this road is something else. I go at four or five kilometers per hour because it's a battlefield. Look at that. And it's been like that for quite a few kilometers now.
Now I'm wondering whether it's gonna take me... I'm not gonna make it in two days. So I wonder if I'm gonna make it in three or four days to Mpanda. You can start guessing, start betting. Hello. - Salama, salama. - Salama.
Thank you. Thank you. Look at that. Wow, the horns. Beautiful. We've got a rich man here.
If you count probably at least $500 per head, there is surely at least $10,000 there. Probably more. I am hungry, guys. I'm starving. It's crazy. And what makes me sad is that I'm not gonna have anything good tonight because...
Well, there is nothing in the shops here, so... I'm dreaming of being in Italy or France or whatever, or China or Japan, and arriving after a hard day and having a wonderful meal. Oh my God. Something really, really good. Oh my God.
Yesterday I saw something. I went to have dinner, and I saw, "Oh, they had spaghetti." So I was like, "Whoa, let's get some spaghetti." And I tasted it, and it was sweet. Can you believe it? In Uganda, they were putting sugar, a lot of sugar, in the bread — and here it's in the spaghetti. I had the same in Kigoma.
In my hotel, I ordered some expensive spaghetti bolognese, and I tasted it, and it was super sweet, and it was like, "Ah! Ah, disgusting." So I'm looking for my campsite for tonight. There is a spot very close proposed on iOverlander. I mean, this is beyond belief.
The guy is just basically standing at the entrance of the spot. Hello. What do I do? Do I find another one? I guess I'm gonna find another spot. Great. Great, great. Let's check here. Well, this is maybe even better. Okay, it's raining. So I have to...
I'm so tired, but I have to pitch my tent as fast as I can now. So I'm setting up my tent, guys. And first surprise... Now it's very nice. Look at that. Oh, f***. I have this snake that was inside my freaking mattress.
How am I gonna get it out? Look at that. I need to get my mattress out. Come on. Come on. Come here. Come on. Ah, putain.
It did not bite me. Because I almost touched it when I unfolded the mattress. Come on. It was eating my freaking mattress. Come here. I want to set you free, idiot.
Freaking idiot! Come on. Yes. Ah, yes! Come on. Go away. Oh, f***.
Okay. No more snake. Oh, f***. Okay, I think the storm is coming. So I have to get on with my freaking... Now I'm wondering, was I beaten or not? I don't think so.
And can you believe it? It's my first stealth camping since Northern Sudan with Roger actually. Eight hours today to do 60 kilometers. Can you believe it? I'm so freaking slow when I do battery saving. The good point is, my battery saving is going very well. So the batteries... I will manage, probably for sure, to get my batteries to last all the way to Mpanda, but...
Oh my God. Eight hours for 60 kilometers. Okay, I've got to hide because it's raining. So let's go in the tent, guys.
And hopefully, no more snake. Just on time. Just, just, just on time. So I guess from the tent because it's raining, see you for the next adventures; ciao, guys.
2024-06-21 23:42
