ACTIVE & ADVENTURE TANZANIA BY BIKE DESTINATIONS


w WILD SIDE We’ve got two support vehicles – one to carry bikes and another for us to travel in when we’re not cycling. When meals aren’t provided by staff at our accommodation – which includes lodges, campsites and hotels – our travelling team of cooks whips up delicious, energy-sustaining feasts. Hygiene standards are high: when we eat on the road, water-filled bowls are laid out so we can wash our hands. More than once I’m quizzed by a cook who’s not convinced I’ve washed my hands with the required thoroughness. Although there are some short


stretches when we travel on the bus, we rely mostly on pedal power, cycling to new accommodation every night, after days filled with stop-offs that simply aren’t accessible when transport has four wheels rather than two. And it’s a format which suits Tanzania perfectly. The highlight is the Ngorongoro


Conservation Area, a sprawling Unesco World Heritage Site covering more than 3,000 square miles. We ditch our


bikes today, and clamber into jeeps before sunrise, entering the reserve under a cloud of fog. It’s only minutes before we spy three giraffes, their long necks forming beautiful silhouettes through the mist. We drive down into the crater and spot a beady-eyed hyena. They’re impossibly ugly, with hunchbacked gaits. We admire a line of wildebeest, snaking along under a lioness’s gaze, before eating lunch by a hippo-filled watering hole, keeping watchful eyes on the creatures, which sink beneath the murky depths like muddy submarines. A cycle ride through Tanzania left me with memories of encounters I’d never have had if I’d experienced them from the confines of a jeep. Now that’s true pedal power. Book it: Intrepid Travel’s Cycle Tanzania 13-day tour costs £1,950, including six nights’ camping, three nights in hotels and three nights in guesthouses, and almost all meals. Flights not included. The next available departure is July 9.


1 June 2017 travelweekly.co.uk 67


PICTURES: LUCY PIPER/INTREPID TRAVEL


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