Tanzania Day 1: Arrival in Kilimanjaro, plus: How Many Mattresses Can You Fit on a Bike?

It was a long journey that included a brief layover in Paris, an overnight stopover at our friends' place in Dar es Salaam and finally another short flight to northern Tanzania, but we have finally arrived in the Kilimanjaro region!

After 20 hours of being seated in airplanes I'm more than ready to get in a bike seat, but we still have another day before then. Tonight we met our guide and other participants on the gbconnect trip and had a brief orientation and got settled into our hotel. Tomorrow is a tour of the local area around Moshi including a coffee plantation and getting fit for our bikes before setting off riding on Thursday. 

The kids have noted sights and smells that remind them of Guatemala, where we spent the summer of 2019 with our neighbors' family, and they got their first taste of life in a less developed country. Obviously there are many differences in culture and language, but a lot that looks similar. The walls and gates around properties, the smell of cookstoves and exhaust, people selling any and everything on the street, roads in various states of repair. And on them: pedestrians, cyclists (both motorized and not), vehicles and trucks all jockeying for position. There may be frequent horns and close calls, but on the whole, because of the lower speeds, people mostly manage to get where they're going, including these three guys we saw in Dar along the main road to and from the airport:

Now if you would have asked me previously, the number of mattresses that I would have said could be transported on a bike would be pretty close to zero. Certainly not 25! 

But there they were, piled high. Yes, they were technically on tricycles, but still moving by unassisted pedal power in mixed traffic. These deliverymen aren't going to win the fame, notoriety or remuneration of the riders in the Tour de France, but I'd say that these cyclists are no less impressive or worthy of respect. And if I were building a team for the Kinetic Sculpture Race and had the choice between them and Jonas Vingegaard, I know who I'd be choosing. (Hint: it's not the Dane.) 😉