Saturday 12th August – Day Seven – Moshi to Same
Everyone was fresh and full of energy after a good night’s sleep and a relatively easy ride, so we got started slightly earlier and made excellent time on the first 25 miles.
Until today, all things bike-related had run suspiciously smoothly, so it seemed somewhat inevitable that we would get our first puncture soon. So much so, in fact, that 26 miles in, Matt had the honour of not one but two punctures within the space of the hour.
He and Jake are the appointed mechanics on the trip and wasted no time in fitting new inner tubes to get everybody on their way again.
They say news comes in threes and less than another hour later, Jake went over a speed bump a little too eagerly and jarred one of the covers in his gear cogs, which meant we were in a lay by for another 45 minutes. The mechanics patched it together again though and we finally started to make up ground, heading south of Kilimanjaro and onto Same which, whilst much smaller than Moshi, is still popular with tourists given the nearby safari park.
Today’s ride was the longest so far at 71 miles and we arrived at our destination later than usual at 5.30pm but our support crew of Ken, Francis and Simon picked a great lodge on the edge of a small rainforest for us to stay for the night.