Roof of Africa Run - Stage 4

Stage 4 - The Farms

To Simba Farm

38km / 23mi – 3500 feet vertical, 6:45

This morning as we awoke we could already hear kids coming to school – it was before 7. Soon enough they were all assembled, doing warm up exercises – including head, shoulders, knees, and toes in Swahili and English. And then they were off in groups for a morning run chanting and smiling. Another of the amazing experiences we witnessed this trip.

For us, the first few miles we warmed up on a gravel road continuing around the northern part of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Simon seemed to believe today would be a shorter day and so we took our time for the early part of the day. After those early miles on the gravel road, we began an ascent into and through farm fields. That’s what we would see the rest of the day – farm fields. Today we would run through and along four very large (multi-thousand acre) farms. The warmth we experienced early on seemed to dissipate both as we climbed in elevation and light clouds covered the sky. After yesterday’s heat, I found today’s coolness refreshing and really woke me up.

For the most part of this trip we were pretty isolated from what was happening in the rest of the world. There were no TVs that we passed anywhere, or newspapers of any kind of scan. The Tanzanians had cell phones, but nothing like the smartphones commonly seen in the US. A few of us had phones, but mostly they were used to send short text messages since air time was relatively expensive. Andrew, though, had his phone going almost continuously as he communicated with his camera crews who were preparing for other assignments. It was at one of our water stops today that we received just a few bits of news. We heard two headlines – Armstrong stripped of his titles by the UCI, and Obama pummels Romney in the second presidential debate. On the second bit of news, we were a small cheer thousands of miles away from the action. Both made for a few bits of conversation as we headed down the trail.

After the slow morning, Simon realized this day was going to be a bit longer than he had thought, so we began picking up the pace a little bit and keeping stops shorter. We still had plenty of daylight left – in fact I don’t think any of us were worried. By now we had come to accept that the day could be long or short – all we had to do was keep moving and enjoy ourselves.

One of my favorites trails of the whole run was on this day. After we had peaked at around 7000 feet we began a slow descent along tractor trails along the fields. Soon enough we were on the acreage of Simba Farm. At this point we began what I think was a 15-20 minute descent on the smoothest, windiest, downhill of the whole route. If you like mountain biking this would be awesome. On foot, I felt just as awesome flying downhill, planting my feet in the corner berms, and riding the wave of fun all the way down. It was steep enough to be effortless, but not so steep that using the quads to brake was needed. What a blast!

Today was also the day my body decided to wake up! Having done many multi-day events before, I know it usually takes my body 3 days to warm up. And it was warmed up now. Halfway through this day my body changed gears and suddenly I had new energy and a smoother gait. I just motored along the second half of the day.

After our 23 miles of farm land and rolling terrains we arrived at Simba Farm where we would be treated to beds and hot showers, not to mention the beautiful grounds and amazing views of Mt. Meru across the valley. The dining table was outside under a canopied roof looking over the same green grass, plentiful flowers, and grace of Mt. Meru.

We ended the day with another amazing dinner family style, this time with some other guests at the Farm, including a couple from Vancouver who would be heading to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro the next day. At this point we were halfway done and it seemed we were all feeling pretty good!