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ALEX CYCLES AFRICA
  • Home
  • About
    • Who’s Alex?
    • Tour d’Afrique
  • Itinerary
    • Interactive map
    • Planned itinerary
    • Detailed schedule
  • Gear
    • My bike
      • Selection criteria
      • Bike specifications
      • Packing my bike
    • All other gear
      • My packing list
      • Packing my gear
      • TDA packing list
  • Countries
    • Botswana
    • Egypt
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Namibia
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Sudan
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
  • One lesson a day
  • Social impact
  • Links

Category Selected: Tanzania

One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 71: Go slow to go fast

March 24, 2017 Leave a Comment 1807 Views

Coming into Mbeya, cornfields covered the agricultural landscape as we climbed our way up to higher altitudes. Today, cycling out of Mbeya, it was mostly banana plantations to start with. 50km into our ride, we entered a busy village. Banana was sold in big bushes everywhere, something like a banana wholesale trading point. I...

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StatusTanzania

Day 70: Raiding the best coffee shop in Mbeya

March 23, 2017 Leave a Comment 2411 Views

Finally, after seven consecutive days on the bike, we’ve had a rest day again. This time, we stopped in Mbeya, the largest city in southern Tanzania. Though spoilt by scenic green hilly surroundings that—while cycling through—at times looked like just back home in the Swiss or Austrian alps, the city of Mbeya itself is...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 69: If you stand still, you will fall—always keep moving

March 22, 2017 4 Comments 1663 Views

On a steep rocky uphill, I shifted down to my lowest gear. I kept pushing the pedals, but—unexpectedly—my bike didn’t move. And when you don’t move, you lose balance. And when you are clipped in with your cleats, you can’t catch yourself. Logical consequence—I fell over like a dead-weight! Luckily, I didn’t hurt myself...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 68: Reading the news is a waste of our limited time on earth

March 21, 2017 Leave a Comment 1181 Views

I used to be addicted to reading the news every morning. Sure, part of it was due to my career and the need to be up to date. Part of it, however, was simply due to me thinking I’d miss out on important stuff otherwise. On this tour, I only check the news every...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 67: Running barefoot is good for the kids

March 20, 2017 Leave a Comment 1638 Views

Kids seem to be everywhere in Africa. As soon as they see us coming, they run towards, if not into the middle of, the street. Often, when we go past, they keep running next to and after us. In the remote rural regions, unless still wearing their school uniforms, they usually run barefoot. “They...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 66: Follow your natural sleeping cycle

March 19, 2017 Leave a Comment 1282 Views

Ever since we’ve started this tour, the nights that I’ve been sleeping through have been rare and far in between. To some of you, this might seem entirely normal. To me, used to not waking up a single time overnight, it seemed like I wasn’t getting any good night’s sleep. More often than not,...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 65: When buying fancy gadgets, better use them properly

March 18, 2017 Leave a Comment 949 Views

My Garmin watch keeps resetting from kilometers to miles these days. (I think this might be because I’m trying to connect it with my new phone.) Only because of that, because I had to venture into the depths of its system settings in any case, I felt incentivize to also customize my interface so that...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 64: I can “read” a book a day while cycling through Africa

March 17, 2017 Leave a Comment 1014 Views

I’ve listened to audio books throughout my entire cycling day today, finishing the one I started yesterday, and making it almost to the end of another one. (No, it’s not dangerous. I only use one earplug, and traffic always has priority.) Usually, I like reading a lot, especially before going to bed, but due...

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One lesson a dayTanzania

Day 63: Don’t blindly trust your gadgets

March 16, 2017 1 Comment 1138 Views

Today, we’ve had our longest cycling day so far by distance—172km. No problem, I was up for it. Just that my day didn’t start well. My rear tire, that I had spent over an hour fixing last night and that Ed had helped me check that there was nothing sharp stuck inside the tire,...

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StatusTanzania

Day 62: Great rest day in Arusha

March 15, 2017 Leave a Comment 1814 Views

This might as well have been my most relaxing yet productive rest day so far. With all my washing done on our last cycling day and/or during our safari, the only thing left to do this morning was to clean my chain. I noticed that my rear tire had gone flat during the transport, but...

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