Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

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Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

12th pictures

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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With Boda-Boda through Tanzania.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Two-wheel taxis in Tanzania: single-cylinder Chinese crackers up to 175 cm³. New price around 800 euros.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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At the taxi stand: Boda-Boda drivers calmly wait for customers. Sometimes for hours.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Petrol station, African: The fuel is sold in small containers at the kiosk.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Usually only small, unpaved roads lead through the hinterland of the Usambara Mountains.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Long bench and sweeping luggage rack – very functional means of transport.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Freedom on two wheels: taxi driver Liku has only just left school behind.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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The louder and louder, the better: additional headlights, mega horn and music on board.

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Thorsten Dentges

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Hakuna Matata – no problem (Swahili everyday saying)

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania
Dentges

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to travel

Motorcycle trip in Tanzania

Motorcycle taxis in Tanzania
On the pillion through the Usambaras

Boda-Bodas are motorcycle taxis in Tanzania that take you to the furthest corners of the country. As a Boda-Boda passenger from abroad you get to hear a particularly warm Jambo (common greeting).

Thorsten Dentges

December 8, 2016

Bongo Flava, a very popular pop music in Tanzania, which mixes with the single-cylinder tacker of the 150-cubic soft chopper, roars from loudspeakers attached to crash bars. A 60-liter trekking backpack hangs over the shoulders, supported on the wide luggage rack of the machine, whose elongated bench seat would also hold three adults, or an entire extended family if necessary.

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On the pillion through the Usambaras

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Hike to the Usambara violets.

Tropical air, heated to 30 degrees, is pleasantly cooled by the airstream to a warm breath, with a gentle swing the machine swings past dense banana trees, bright purple bougainvillea and shady acacias. The ribbon of red earth meanders and undulates with tight turns and deep potholes through a fertile landscape, from the bushes along the way curious monkeys stare from time to time. Playing children run wildly behind the motorcycles waving, brightly veiled women balancing large carafes on their heads give us a friendly nod, and older men with large gaps in their teeth resting in the shade under the canopies of small grocer’s shops call out “Jambo!”, Which means “Hello “Or” Hey “means. This is how you usually greet muzungus, i.e. white tourists. We, two muzungus, travel through the Usambara Mountains, located between Kilimanjaro and the Indian Ocean. An area about the size of the Eifel with peaks over 2,000 meters high. We wanted to hike there. In fact. The Usambara violets, which are so popular with flower growers, were supposed to grow wild there. Actually too.

Motorbike-free active vacation?

We didn’t see a single violet, and there was no need to buy new hiking boots, because we now ride motorbikes. Actually, my loved one had pronounced a two-wheeler ban for this trip, after all, as a MOTORRAD editor, I am already on the road enough with a moped for my job. And the last few times I would have turned my Allgau hikes into comfortable coffee-and-cake tours with a fat cruiser on my own initiative. So I grudgingly prepared myself for a motorcycle-free active vacation through the Usambaras. It turned out differently. Luckily.

Review: hiking may be the miller’s delight, but Muller’s farm, our destination for the day, is still 17 kilometers away. And to Mtae, where the Usambaras drop steeply over 1,000 meters and below only the Mkomazi National Park with elephants and antelopes, there are still three days’ march. Phew The heavy pack on your back stuffed with tent, provisions and sleeping bags pulls you down like a wrestler. Sweat drips from my forehead, my shirt is soaking wet from the last climb. In the next village, a few youngsters are lounging around on their machines in the shade. “Jambo!” They call and wave to us.

Bongo flava music and four-bar sound

We ask if anyone is driving a bus. Yes. Perhaps. There is hardly any public transport to the furthest corners of the Usambaras, and it is not very reliable. The people here therefore used Boda-Bodas, motorcycle taxis. They point to their machines, single-cylinder four-stroke engines from China and India from brands that are hardly known in Germany, such as Boxer, King Lion, Huoniao, Sanlg or Shineray. Spare parts for the good ten HP 125 to 175 cc, which master every type of road and path like a tractor, could be obtained at the kiosk, just like gasoline in plastic bottles, hakuna matata, no problem! Boda-Bodas reached every remote mountain hut, the drivers also delivered building materials, firewood, food, and sometimes even the sick grandma was strapped to the back of the moped and carted to the doctor.

Convinced! A small blister on the foot is sufficient medical indication to also take a motorcycle taxi. The price also fits. We reach Muller’s farm in 45 minutes. Your loved one is enthusiastic about the driving experience – so close to the country and its people, almost like hiking! We spend the rest of our “Usambara Expedition” on Boda-Boda pillion seats with the lively mix of bongo-flava music and four-stroke sound. A perfect vacation!

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