NorthCape-SouthCape:
060131
Dementia
Today we rode 592kms from Dodoma to Mbeya
Tanzania seems to have solved the money problem by running
double shifts in their print shop. Funny money gets a new
meaning because there are 1200 Funnymoney on one US dollar.
Lukas needed a wheel barrow when he changed 100 US dollars.
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We have had five days of left-hand traffic through Kenya and Tanzania.
I am the medical expert in the team, but have not felt allright, as
it’s always difficult to heal yourself. After much thinking
I have now diagnosed myself. I have problems finding the right side
of the road, forget the names of the places we have passed and forget
things that happened a short while ago. When I’m in a roundabout
I schortcircuit and everybody else seems to be doing wrong. My short
memory tells me where I am and I simply block up and fall back into
old patterns. In my medical dictionary I find the description of senile
dementia: The patient gets lost, forgets recent things and the names
of everything and everybody. I have decided not to say anything to
Stefan and... the others, whatever their names are.
In Tanzania I finally found my roots, woodworking. Sawmills start
turning up and real plant schools. Where no trees grow, erosion explodes
and only shrubbery can survive. For a woodsman this is a sad sight.
After cutting or burning, new trees have to be planted.
These piles of saw dust don’t seem to be used for anything,
a factory for making pellets might be something. Here you don’t
have to dry them before processing. The planted trees grow enormously
fast, irreal.
Talking of age, I find women here like vintage wine, getting better
– more beautiful – with age. This woman sat in the door
of a shop and worked on a shirt. After much persuasion she agreed
to have her picture taken.
Today we had the first rain since Roumania. The drops were heavy,
like getting bombarded with peas from the sky.
GPS is a must on trips like this one. Without, it would be much more
difficiult.
Were we surprised? This is the sign to the hotel where we are staying
tonight.
/PG
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2006-01-31
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