Convert days to weeks

Ramon Sagués

I cross the bridge that separates Tanzania from Malawi. I'm doing slalom among an anthill of people loaded with a thousand things that go up and down. In Africa there are many people who cross the border daily, few who stamp their passports… I ask a uniformed man: – Passport? – He points his index finger at a building at me. I go straight there with the soundtrack of each border: “Change money?”, “Simcard?””… I park the bike at the same entrance door and place the lock from the handlebar to the same doorknob.

It is a building in clear decay. Old and worn wooden counters, dirty glass display cases, burned out light bulbs and cobwebs on the walls.

Behind the counter, another uniformed man, all he needs to do is yawn. I give him my passport and my Malawi e-visa made a few days ago. On the other side of the bridge they have already stamped my exit from Tanzania, now “only” the entry stamp is missing. The border routine…

The man in uniform tells me that they have to check all the data and that this will take a few minutes. With a movement of his face he points me to a wooden bench... To escape a bit from that tense wait, with the uncertainty that an arbitrary decision will make the day complicated, I begin to try to remember these last few days crossing Tanzania.

Enter Tanzania from Kenya. This was a month and a half ago. It was in the middle of the rainy season, tropical rains, where the water fell daily with a rage typical of hell. My first impression of the country was mud, a lot of mud. My first town had brown streets, a sticky clay that complicated the already difficult task of getting a new SIM card in a tiny town.

When traveling for a long time it is difficult to choose the best time to visit a country, there are too many variables to control, so there is nothing better than learning to dance with the circumstances. Perhaps it is the best metaphor for what it is to live. A “Be water my friend”, never better said…

After those humid days, now every morning, just seeing this blue sky, I already draw my first smile. When you chain countries, one after another, you don't have much time to assimilate anything, but even less time to plan. But almost better, I love the feeling of not knowing what you are going to find. Discovering little by little without expecting anything. Well, Tanzania would be a clear example of this way of traveling, let's call it “unconscious”.

It has been about 3000 km across the country. The first days camping on Lake Victoria, a lake that during the rainy season ends up growing until it floods the trees on the shore. The rainy season continued daily and trying to get to see the tribal societies in Lake Eyasi I had to cross a river with water up to my neck -literally-. Border Maasai reserves, surround Kilimanjaro, cross the country along trails and lost villages, monumental pine forests on the plateau, summit at 3000 m to descend in a few kilometers to Lake Malawi at 500 m...

All of these could be (or are) some of the “highlights” of these last days. It's only been 40 days and it seems like months ago... Too many things to remember on a hard drive that's too full.

In recent years, there has been a boom in traveling by bike. Decades ago, it was only accessible to a few crazy people, usually solo travelers. Loaded with a thousand saddlebags and only guided by 1:50,000 scale maps, they embarked on the adventure of the unknown. But luckily all this has changed a lot, I could say that it has become democratized. It is no longer necessary to buy those traveler books to have some inspiration, and then go out into the unknown emulating their footsteps.

Now there are social networks with a thousand travelers spread across the planet. Infinite bikepacking routes that we can follow just by downloading a track. But with all this, and despite everything, I encourage you to take one more step. To raise your level of bike-traveler…

Choose a random country, draw more or less a route depending on the days we have and let yourself go, let yourself flow. Follow your own route and not one created by someone we don't know. Feel that sensation of freedom, of getting out of the GPS arrow. To stop wherever we want. To eat wherever we want. Of making mistakes, but above all, of letting ourselves be surprised when you don't expect anything. Starting each day without knowing where you are going to sleep... Tanzania would be a good destination for this. To miss a few days, which in the end will seem like months. Of course, find your own path...

I hear: «Pssst!!! Mister!! He looked up and the man behind the counter waves a brown passport.

—It's ok! Welcome to Malawi. -he tells me with a smile-

I grab my passport, put it in my fanny pack and fly. Another new country awaits me. A thousand more stories await me, more GB of life to store on my hard drive.