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CYCLE THROUGH TANZANIA Words: Tatyana Leonov, editor, Travel ideas magazine
Experience the exhilaration of exploring Tanzania by bike – with safari and a Maasai village visit included. Intrepid Travel has launched a brandnew range of ‘Real Cycling Adventures’, and Cycle Tanzania is one of the most remarkable. The tours offer an enthralling combination of culture and cycling, so it’s not a fitness-nut-only kind of holiday. The Tanzania jaunt includes cycling through Arusha National Park, where you can catch glimpses of warthogs, giraffes, hippopotamuses, hyenas and leopards. The ride to a Maasai village is another climax; the tour follows a bicycle-riding Maasai warrior flanked by cattle herders and excited kids into a Maasai settlement, where you’ll experience a memorable afternoon. Welcomes can vary from village to village, but feasts of slow-cooked goat (prepared the traditional way – on sticks in the ground) and jump-dancing are on the cards. So why cycle through Tanzania? Experiencing life outside the confines of a safari truck offers travellers a real taste of the country. You can hear the kids shouting as you swiftly pedal past; you can smell the meaty stews cooking as you cycle through little towns; you can watch animals feed without a glass pane in the way. Now that’s real Tanzania.
Meeting Maasai warriors is one of the highlights on a cycling tour.