Mbeya rest day

Soooooo nice to lay in, stretch out and doze off again. But eventually the need for coffee took command. Only powdered instant here at hotel; still, could always be worse. I really don’t have anything interesting to report; didn’t venture away from this hotel in fact.

Breakfast was followed by a morning of cleaning bike (the drive train especially) and swapping over the 50 mm dirt tires for a 40 mm ‘all rounder’ tread which will hopefully be able to cope with the next month of tarmac. For those few who give a hoot, I’m running these tires tubeless, using a sealant instead of conventional tubes. Ok, I’ll try not to bore anyone further in this issue.

The next week might be very wet, given the downpour going on this evening. We’ll be climbing out of Tanzania first thing in the morning and then crossing over into Malawi; then a very long downhill to the Lake.

Some may notice that I'm now including the Stage number on the riding days' account followed by a second number in brackets. The larger number is my effective stage number, starting in Cairo, January 2020, while the bracketed number is the stage for the shortened 2023 tour d'afrique. The difference arises from the fact that this years TdA had to skip from Khartoum to Nairobi due to the situation in Ethiopia. I'd like to use the larger number, as it lets me keep it all sorted in my own head; it's one contiguous ride to me, after all. I hope that's not too confusing.

More tomorrow and hoping for dry roads.