We entered our third country Tanzania through Kasumulu and soon noticed Tanzania to be a wealthier country to Malawi. The bicycles were replaced by motorcycles, the minibuses by busses and the woman's apparel was all
shiny. We travelled through luscious tea plantations and after the town of Tukuyu we climbed through thick mist to a height of 2600 m above sea-level with a visibility of about 5meters.
We watched our first sunset on Tanzanian soil from Utengele Coffee estate and had some of the best coffee so far.
The next morning we left to sort out internet connections and get a few things we needed. After three hours in a container shop and after the shop assistant changed the phone menu to Swahili and not being able to change it back Rui got so upset with him he threatened in killing him, so eventually we left without internet. At the market we realized they were trying to rip us off with Mzungu(Swahili for white man) prices and left Mbeya without anything done on the list, but with our money in our pockets. Along the road we bought some vegetables and headed for The Old Farmhouse at Kisolanza Farm Iringa with Richard and Sophie following.
We got stopped twice by traffic police looking for reasons to get paid but one just wanted to chat about Madiba and the next one really wanted to know if we were going to pay the fine, but by now we have learned to speak to them and ask them a question before they get a chance to speak. So in this case we
pleaded to be completely lost. Eventually they gave up and we drove off, not even Richard and Sophie gave them anything.
What a nice surprise we had at Kisolanza, 6 fellow South Africans camping there! We met up with Arno and Elize from Arnizego2 Africa . We went for the best 3 course meal we had in 3 months and enjoyed good company.
We stocked up on chocolate brownies, jam tarts and home baked breads.
We headed north and camped at Riverside lodge close to the town of Iringa, about 40 Americans were at this camp and they were all on a three month course learning Swahili.
Heading for Dar es Salaam with Zanzibar in mind we stayed over at Tan Swiss
camp at Mikumi and met an Austrian couple which seems to be doing the same route as us. We drove through the Mikumi wildlife Reserve and had a good laugh at the road kill fines, but were stunned at the prices they charge for non
citizens 100USD for 2 persons and the vehicle for single entry. On the free drive through we saw very little game, 3 giraffes, two warthog and a few impala. We decided to skip the Tanzanian parks purely because of the rip off of tourists.
At Morogoro we arrived at lunchtime only to find most of the shops to be closed and the exceptions that was open to be well stocked but very expensive. We called it a day a far as travelling was concerned and booked into Kola Hotel' campsite where we once again met up with the Austrians of the previous night for whom everything with the exception of beer seemed to be expensive. The owner of the hotel came around ever so often to find if we were still happy and comfortable although there was no electricity or hot water. We camped at the foot of the beautiful mountains and it almost felt as if we were in the Cape province.
We made an early start the next morning and headed for Dar Es Salaam. All geared and worked up for the traffic we were pleasantly surprised with this city.
Shopping centres, Shoprites, Games and even Woolworths and KFC. We decided to head to the south and base ourselves there for a while and to visit
Zanzibar. We crossed with a decent size ferry and about 8kms south of Dar
came to Sunrise Beach Hotel with a campsite. We found the beach to be a piece of paradise and the hotel all we could have hoped for. Here we spent the time we awaited to go to Zanzibar as there was 2 public holidays coming up. We visited
Dar and got caught up in traffic jams where drivers would get out of their
vehicles to inspect the severity of the congestion, find a solutions of who
should drive and who should wait and went sightseeing through the city. By
now it started to get annoying to negotiate each and every price of what ever
you want to buy and once decided and paid they wanted some more money because whites must pay more. Never experienced such discrimination. We both only wanted to buy or eat from a shop / restaurant where you could see what you are letting yourself in for. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, swam in
turquoise sea, walked on sandy white beaches and had drinks at the beach bar at night. We were awaiting the time for Zanzibar.
After once again stocking up at a shop where you can see the prices and don't need to negotiate we left to Bagamoyo, north of Dar along the coast. This town used to be a German post and the ruins left dated from the slave trading days. The camping did not appeal and we decided to move on to Peponi beach. We made the mistake of calculating kms and not driving time and we had to do the last 40 kms of horrendous roads in the dark. Little villages all along
the road with kids running and playing in the road, pedestrians walking and the ever present motorbikes and taxi all dodging the potholes, some with lights and others without lights. We were all to happy to arrive safely at Peponi Beach
Resort and the next morning could not believe our eyes as it was low tide and
the sea was a good 1000meters from the beach with blackish claylike sand
covering shallow coral. We spent the day doing our washing as by now we
did not have any clean clothes left and once again a thank you to Douglas for
the Sputnik. We lingered around the pool and booked ourselves a snorkel
trip for the next day.
Early morning we were all ready to go only to find out it will only be the two of us. We had the best snorkelling on two reefs with amazing coral and a big variety of tropical fish. The
underwater world and clear visibility left us stunned, but you can already spot
the damage done by the dynamite fishing that happens all along the coast.
The resort packed lunch and our skipper took us to a sand island where the crew set up shade on the little island. We had crab sandwiches and prawn, mango and avo salad. All around us the turquoise sea in different shades
that not even the cameras would pick up. After lunch we lingered along in the luke warm seawater and reluctantly getting back to the dhow Peppi. As we set sails back to mainland the tide was coming in and washed away our footprints. This will always be one of our favourite memories, the day we had an island for
ourselves. We should have proclaimed it and called it Ruje island.
All too soon we had to move on this time towards Kilimanjaro and we drove with the sisal plantations on the left and the Usamburu mountain range on the right.
We turned off, into the mountains and did a windy pass climbing 1500 meters in about 10 km with trucks and busses speeding in both directions. We saw a sign Irente view point hotel and as we were still early decided to pop in for a cup of coffee. We came to a lovely hotel with stunning views but the camping spot looked not so hot, we asked if we couldn't park in the parking area seeing we have no camp to set up and they agreed and we had the most beautiful view and sunset. Here we went for a guided tour through the village and forest to another viewpoint. As Rui said, thank goodness we decided on the three hour tour and not the 5hour one as we will already need 5hours to recover. This is serious mountainous area. While we were away Tiny got his Tanzanian tattoo of 3 Maasai. We now realised how privileged we are to be doing this trip as
every day brings new surprises.
After once again stocking up at a shop where you can see the prices and don't need to negotiate we left to Bagamoyo, north of Dar along the coast. This town
used to be a German post and the ruins left dated from the slave trading
days. The camping did not appeal and we decided to move on to Peponi
beach. We made the mistake of calculating kms and not driving time and we
had to do the last 40 kms of horrendous roads in the dark. Little
villages all along the road with kids running and playing in the road, pedestrians walking and the ever present motorbikes and taxis all dodging the potholes, some with lights and others without lights. We were all to happy to arrive safely at Peponi Beach Resort and the next morning could not believe our eyes as it was low tide and the sea was a good 1000 meters from the beach with blackish claylike sand covering shallow coral.
We spent the day doing our washing as by now we did not have any clean clothes left and once again thanks to Douglas for the Sputnik. We lingered around the pool and booked ourselves a snorkel trip for the next day.
Early morning we were all ready to go only to find out it will only be the two of us. We had the best snorkelling on two reefs with amazing coral and a big variety of tropical fish. The underwater world and clear visibility left us
stunned, but you can already spot the damage done by the dynamite fishing that happens all along the coast.
The resort packed lunch and our skipper took us to a sand island where the crew set up shade on the little island. We had crab sandwiches and prawn, mango and avo salad. All around us the turquoise sea in different shades
that not even the cameras would pick up. After lunch we lingered along in the
luke warm seawater and reluctantly get ting back to the dhow Peppi. As we set sails back to mainland the tide was coming in and washed away our footprints. This will always be one of our favourite memories, the day we had an island for ourselves. (We should have proclaimed it and called it Ruje island.)
All too soon we had to move on this time towards Kilimanjaro and we drove with the sisal plantations on the left and the Usamburu mountain range on the right. We turned off into the mountains and did a windy pass climbing 1500 meters in about 10 km with trucks and busses speeding in both directions. We saw a sign Irente view point hotel and as we were still early decided to pop in for a cup of coffee. We came to a lovely hotel with stunning views but the camping spot looked not so hot, we asked if we could park in the parking area seeing we have no camp to set up and they agreed and we had the most beautiful view and sunset. Here we went for a guided tour through the village and forest to another viewpoint. As Rui said, thank goodness we decided on the three hour tour and not the 5 hour one as we will already need 5 hours to recover. This is serious mountainous area.
While we were away
Tiny got his Tanzanian tattoo of 3 Maasai. We now realised how privileged we are to be doing this trip as every day brings new surprises. The landscape changed dramatically and we drove along the never ending Sisal plantations. By referral we headed to Lake Chala through a terrible gravel road, after turning at the Kenyan border and being escorted to the right turnoff by a Tanzanian traffic officer speeding ahead on his motorbike without helmet. Upon arrival they charged top class prices for 3rd class facilities, so we turned back and headed for Moshi. What seemed to be camping on the GPS and maps either did not exist any longer or did not do camping. Eventually we came to Keys Hotel Annex where we inspected the campsite and after approval went to Reception to book in, only to find out the campsite has been closed due to no electricity. By now it was getting dark and we negotiated to sleep in the
parking lot with access to room 13 for ablution facilities at a reasonable price. We had supper and soon another "camper" pulled in next to us and pitched his rooftop tent.
We woke up the next morning with breath taking views of a cloudless Kilimanjaro and after having a cup of coffee with our fellow camper ( Dave on his way south) in the luscious hotel gardens we went to explore the town. We were pleasantly surprised with the hustle and bustle and tried to arrange a Masai tour but being only two people the operators were not interested in giving us discount and we were not interested in paying the exorbitant prices. From the coffee shop veranda Rui bought 3 pairs of Real Madrid short socks, he was first offered second hand socks and very offended negotiated new socks.
We also went for a haircut at a barbershop at 19h30 at night. After snipping halfway the hairdresser admitted he cuts by passion and has no formal qualification. He did however have a lot of jewellery and after showing us photos of his whole family in their Indian attire, and paying 6 times more than the locals we left with our new hairstyles back to the hotel. They offered us space in the campsite as the electricity was repaired, but we chose the same facilities as the previous night. Moshi is bustling well to do town with big coffee plantations and a lot of Europeans passing through. We left to Arusha and found this town with its lovely new buildings and Saturday morning bustling quite surprising. We filled the gas bottles and visited a Safari camping
equipment shop. We found the stove we were looking for and negotiated an better price with the Indian shopkeeper (we are getting better, even negotiating a better price in a shop with priced items) and offered him our primus stove as a trade in. Brand new never used! And he gave us more than the R70 we
paid. We set off to Masai camp where we one again tried to book a tour to
no avail. Rui started the brand new stove with the paraffin we had and
almost burn the campsite down, we made a scramble for the fire extinguisher and put the fire out. Read the instructions and headed back to
town to buy petrol as the instructions on the packaging did not mention paraffin. This time it worked. We hardly slept That Saturday night as the Karaoke and disco music stopped at 05h30! Too much!
Exhausted and irritated we spend Sunday cleaning out the car and do all the washing. By now I realised my personal weaknesses was not so much where I expected it to be, but I missed home and became really teary and negotiated with Rui to make turns with driving. I turned down his offer to return home for a week and Monday morning all packed and cleaned we set sail. Myself at the steer.
With just the last thins to buy we each had a meat pie at an upmarket shopping
mall and decided to head to Babati when disaster striked.
At a traffic circle an oncoming vehicle crashed into our rear back side with me at the wheel. Within the first 3kms of me driving, and to top it all the other car
speeded away. We returned to Moshi where there is a Toyota approved agent
and had the wheel balanced, diff checked out, but according to them no further
damage, but no rear fender cover. By now we were pushed to the limits and
exhausted. Another "karibu" from any Tanzanian and we would possibly
attack or ride him over. We reached another campsite in Arusha which seemed
to be better than the Masai campsite and after supper had a long discussion
with the manager Robert.
Once again it became clear that the locals do not see any harm in charging you more than fellow africans because you are white,and because you are white, you must be rich.
We never experienced discrimination like this before and trying to explain to them we are born and bred Africans as well went beyond them.
We made the decision that in spite of our 90 day visas to move on to Rwanda and Uganda. Early the next morning we tackled the long road, bumpy, roadwork's and traffic cops at every village stopping us to say "hi" or check the drivers license. As if we could drive 12 000kms without a valid license..At the
town of Singida we decided to call it a day and started to look for
accommodation. No camping!, but a Catholic guest house where we could
share a room with chicken of all sorts for dinner. We explored further and
Rui was in a better state of mind today so
he really negotiated us a comfortable room WITH DSTV at a cheaper price than our camping budget. Breakfast included! All to soon we were relaxing and watching DSTV. if all goes according to plan we will cross the border to
Rwanda and be heading to Kigali with new challenges and surprises in two days time. After a hearty buffet breakfast of fruit, meat broth, "vetkoek" and bread we hit the road early morning and travel through vast open spaces of land with rock formations reminding us of the Aus and Klein Aus of Namibia. We planned to pushed to as close to the border As possible and planned around the German Boma for camping in Biharamulo. Our expectations were German quality accommodation.
Lets just say ou dreams were shattered by the dilapidated building which
now gets used as conference centre. We went for a drive as all
conference goers were lying around on the little lawns left having lunch at
16h00 and stopped near a dam watching herders bringing their long horned cattle for a drink, the herding dog swam and then the men had a bath while we were having a cup of coffee along the roadside.
We drove to Kigodi nature reserve and although the T4A state armed escort and very bad road the Chinese were almost finished with a lovely new tarmac and the armed escort has turned into two booms manned by civilian clothed policeman with AK47's, the natural forest was dense and luscious green and really made the drive worth while in this beautiful mountainous area. We woke up to the last sunrise on Tanzanian soil with mixed emotions, will we miss the all round Karibo(welcome)? Or will we be relieved to just say "safari" ?
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CURRENT TRIP:
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shiny. We travelled through luscious tea plantations and after the town of Tukuyu we climbed through thick mist to a height of 2600 m above sea-level with a visibility of about 5meters.
We watched our first sunset on Tanzanian soil from Utengele Coffee estate and had some of the best coffee so far.
The next morning we left to sort out internet connections and get a few things we needed. After three hours in a container shop and after the shop assistant changed the phone menu to Swahili and not being able to change it back Rui got so upset with him he threatened in killing him, so eventually we left without internet. At the market we realized they were trying to rip us off with Mzungu(Swahili for white man) prices and left Mbeya without anything done on the list, but with our money in our pockets. Along the road we bought some vegetables and headed for The Old Farmhouse at Kisolanza Farm Iringa with Richard and Sophie following.
We got stopped twice by traffic police looking for reasons to get paid but one just wanted to chat about Madiba and the next one really wanted to know if we were going to pay the fine, but by now we have learned to speak to them and ask them a question before they get a chance to speak. So in this case we
pleaded to be completely lost. Eventually they gave up and we drove off, not even Richard and Sophie gave them anything.
What a nice surprise we had at Kisolanza, 6 fellow South Africans camping there! We met up with Arno and Elize from Arnizego2 Africa . We went for the best 3 course meal we had in 3 months and enjoyed good company.
We stocked up on chocolate brownies, jam tarts and home baked breads.
We headed north and camped at Riverside lodge close to the town of Iringa, about 40 Americans were at this camp and they were all on a three month course learning Swahili.
Heading for Dar es Salaam with Zanzibar in mind we stayed over at Tan Swiss
camp at Mikumi and met an Austrian couple which seems to be doing the same route as us. We drove through the Mikumi wildlife Reserve and had a good laugh at the road kill fines, but were stunned at the prices they charge for non
citizens 100USD for 2 persons and the vehicle for single entry. On the free drive through we saw very little game, 3 giraffes, two warthog and a few impala. We decided to skip the Tanzanian parks purely because of the rip off of tourists.
At Morogoro we arrived at lunchtime only to find most of the shops to be closed and the exceptions that was open to be well stocked but very expensive. We called it a day a far as travelling was concerned and booked into Kola Hotel' campsite where we once again met up with the Austrians of the previous night for whom everything with the exception of beer seemed to be expensive. The owner of the hotel came around ever so often to find if we were still happy and comfortable although there was no electricity or hot water. We camped at the foot of the beautiful mountains and it almost felt as if we were in the Cape province.
We made an early start the next morning and headed for Dar Es Salaam. All geared and worked up for the traffic we were pleasantly surprised with this city.
Shopping centres, Shoprites, Games and even Woolworths and KFC. We decided to head to the south and base ourselves there for a while and to visit
Zanzibar. We crossed with a decent size ferry and about 8kms south of Dar
came to Sunrise Beach Hotel with a campsite. We found the beach to be a piece of paradise and the hotel all we could have hoped for. Here we spent the time we awaited to go to Zanzibar as there was 2 public holidays coming up. We visited
Dar and got caught up in traffic jams where drivers would get out of their
vehicles to inspect the severity of the congestion, find a solutions of who
should drive and who should wait and went sightseeing through the city. By
now it started to get annoying to negotiate each and every price of what ever
you want to buy and once decided and paid they wanted some more money because whites must pay more. Never experienced such discrimination. We both only wanted to buy or eat from a shop / restaurant where you could see what you are letting yourself in for. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, swam in
turquoise sea, walked on sandy white beaches and had drinks at the beach bar at night. We were awaiting the time for Zanzibar.
After once again stocking up at a shop where you can see the prices and don't need to negotiate we left to Bagamoyo, north of Dar along the coast. This town used to be a German post and the ruins left dated from the slave trading days. The camping did not appeal and we decided to move on to Peponi beach. We made the mistake of calculating kms and not driving time and we had to do the last 40 kms of horrendous roads in the dark. Little villages all along
the road with kids running and playing in the road, pedestrians walking and the ever present motorbikes and taxi all dodging the potholes, some with lights and others without lights. We were all to happy to arrive safely at Peponi Beach
Resort and the next morning could not believe our eyes as it was low tide and
the sea was a good 1000meters from the beach with blackish claylike sand
covering shallow coral. We spent the day doing our washing as by now we
did not have any clean clothes left and once again a thank you to Douglas for
the Sputnik. We lingered around the pool and booked ourselves a snorkel
trip for the next day.
Early morning we were all ready to go only to find out it will only be the two of us. We had the best snorkelling on two reefs with amazing coral and a big variety of tropical fish. The
underwater world and clear visibility left us stunned, but you can already spot
the damage done by the dynamite fishing that happens all along the coast.
The resort packed lunch and our skipper took us to a sand island where the crew set up shade on the little island. We had crab sandwiches and prawn, mango and avo salad. All around us the turquoise sea in different shades
that not even the cameras would pick up. After lunch we lingered along in the luke warm seawater and reluctantly getting back to the dhow Peppi. As we set sails back to mainland the tide was coming in and washed away our footprints. This will always be one of our favourite memories, the day we had an island for
ourselves. We should have proclaimed it and called it Ruje island.
All too soon we had to move on this time towards Kilimanjaro and we drove with the sisal plantations on the left and the Usamburu mountain range on the right.
We turned off, into the mountains and did a windy pass climbing 1500 meters in about 10 km with trucks and busses speeding in both directions. We saw a sign Irente view point hotel and as we were still early decided to pop in for a cup of coffee. We came to a lovely hotel with stunning views but the camping spot looked not so hot, we asked if we couldn't park in the parking area seeing we have no camp to set up and they agreed and we had the most beautiful view and sunset. Here we went for a guided tour through the village and forest to another viewpoint. As Rui said, thank goodness we decided on the three hour tour and not the 5hour one as we will already need 5hours to recover. This is serious mountainous area. While we were away Tiny got his Tanzanian tattoo of 3 Maasai. We now realised how privileged we are to be doing this trip as
every day brings new surprises.
After once again stocking up at a shop where you can see the prices and don't need to negotiate we left to Bagamoyo, north of Dar along the coast. This town
used to be a German post and the ruins left dated from the slave trading
days. The camping did not appeal and we decided to move on to Peponi
beach. We made the mistake of calculating kms and not driving time and we
had to do the last 40 kms of horrendous roads in the dark. Little
villages all along the road with kids running and playing in the road, pedestrians walking and the ever present motorbikes and taxis all dodging the potholes, some with lights and others without lights. We were all to happy to arrive safely at Peponi Beach Resort and the next morning could not believe our eyes as it was low tide and the sea was a good 1000 meters from the beach with blackish claylike sand covering shallow coral.
We spent the day doing our washing as by now we did not have any clean clothes left and once again thanks to Douglas for the Sputnik. We lingered around the pool and booked ourselves a snorkel trip for the next day.
Early morning we were all ready to go only to find out it will only be the two of us. We had the best snorkelling on two reefs with amazing coral and a big variety of tropical fish. The underwater world and clear visibility left us
stunned, but you can already spot the damage done by the dynamite fishing that happens all along the coast.
The resort packed lunch and our skipper took us to a sand island where the crew set up shade on the little island. We had crab sandwiches and prawn, mango and avo salad. All around us the turquoise sea in different shades
that not even the cameras would pick up. After lunch we lingered along in the
luke warm seawater and reluctantly get ting back to the dhow Peppi. As we set sails back to mainland the tide was coming in and washed away our footprints. This will always be one of our favourite memories, the day we had an island for ourselves. (We should have proclaimed it and called it Ruje island.)
All too soon we had to move on this time towards Kilimanjaro and we drove with the sisal plantations on the left and the Usamburu mountain range on the right. We turned off into the mountains and did a windy pass climbing 1500 meters in about 10 km with trucks and busses speeding in both directions. We saw a sign Irente view point hotel and as we were still early decided to pop in for a cup of coffee. We came to a lovely hotel with stunning views but the camping spot looked not so hot, we asked if we could park in the parking area seeing we have no camp to set up and they agreed and we had the most beautiful view and sunset. Here we went for a guided tour through the village and forest to another viewpoint. As Rui said, thank goodness we decided on the three hour tour and not the 5 hour one as we will already need 5 hours to recover. This is serious mountainous area.
While we were away
Tiny got his Tanzanian tattoo of 3 Maasai. We now realised how privileged we are to be doing this trip as every day brings new surprises. The landscape changed dramatically and we drove along the never ending Sisal plantations. By referral we headed to Lake Chala through a terrible gravel road, after turning at the Kenyan border and being escorted to the right turnoff by a Tanzanian traffic officer speeding ahead on his motorbike without helmet. Upon arrival they charged top class prices for 3rd class facilities, so we turned back and headed for Moshi. What seemed to be camping on the GPS and maps either did not exist any longer or did not do camping. Eventually we came to Keys Hotel Annex where we inspected the campsite and after approval went to Reception to book in, only to find out the campsite has been closed due to no electricity. By now it was getting dark and we negotiated to sleep in the
parking lot with access to room 13 for ablution facilities at a reasonable price. We had supper and soon another "camper" pulled in next to us and pitched his rooftop tent.
We woke up the next morning with breath taking views of a cloudless Kilimanjaro and after having a cup of coffee with our fellow camper ( Dave on his way south) in the luscious hotel gardens we went to explore the town. We were pleasantly surprised with the hustle and bustle and tried to arrange a Masai tour but being only two people the operators were not interested in giving us discount and we were not interested in paying the exorbitant prices. From the coffee shop veranda Rui bought 3 pairs of Real Madrid short socks, he was first offered second hand socks and very offended negotiated new socks.
We also went for a haircut at a barbershop at 19h30 at night. After snipping halfway the hairdresser admitted he cuts by passion and has no formal qualification. He did however have a lot of jewellery and after showing us photos of his whole family in their Indian attire, and paying 6 times more than the locals we left with our new hairstyles back to the hotel. They offered us space in the campsite as the electricity was repaired, but we chose the same facilities as the previous night. Moshi is bustling well to do town with big coffee plantations and a lot of Europeans passing through. We left to Arusha and found this town with its lovely new buildings and Saturday morning bustling quite surprising. We filled the gas bottles and visited a Safari camping
equipment shop. We found the stove we were looking for and negotiated an better price with the Indian shopkeeper (we are getting better, even negotiating a better price in a shop with priced items) and offered him our primus stove as a trade in. Brand new never used! And he gave us more than the R70 we
paid. We set off to Masai camp where we one again tried to book a tour to
no avail. Rui started the brand new stove with the paraffin we had and
almost burn the campsite down, we made a scramble for the fire extinguisher and put the fire out. Read the instructions and headed back to
town to buy petrol as the instructions on the packaging did not mention paraffin. This time it worked. We hardly slept That Saturday night as the Karaoke and disco music stopped at 05h30! Too much!
Exhausted and irritated we spend Sunday cleaning out the car and do all the washing. By now I realised my personal weaknesses was not so much where I expected it to be, but I missed home and became really teary and negotiated with Rui to make turns with driving. I turned down his offer to return home for a week and Monday morning all packed and cleaned we set sail. Myself at the steer.
With just the last thins to buy we each had a meat pie at an upmarket shopping
mall and decided to head to Babati when disaster striked.
At a traffic circle an oncoming vehicle crashed into our rear back side with me at the wheel. Within the first 3kms of me driving, and to top it all the other car
speeded away. We returned to Moshi where there is a Toyota approved agent
and had the wheel balanced, diff checked out, but according to them no further
damage, but no rear fender cover. By now we were pushed to the limits and
exhausted. Another "karibu" from any Tanzanian and we would possibly
attack or ride him over. We reached another campsite in Arusha which seemed
to be better than the Masai campsite and after supper had a long discussion
with the manager Robert.
Once again it became clear that the locals do not see any harm in charging you more than fellow africans because you are white,and because you are white, you must be rich.
We never experienced discrimination like this before and trying to explain to them we are born and bred Africans as well went beyond them.
We made the decision that in spite of our 90 day visas to move on to Rwanda and Uganda. Early the next morning we tackled the long road, bumpy, roadwork's and traffic cops at every village stopping us to say "hi" or check the drivers license. As if we could drive 12 000kms without a valid license..At the
town of Singida we decided to call it a day and started to look for
accommodation. No camping!, but a Catholic guest house where we could
share a room with chicken of all sorts for dinner. We explored further and
Rui was in a better state of mind today so
he really negotiated us a comfortable room WITH DSTV at a cheaper price than our camping budget. Breakfast included! All to soon we were relaxing and watching DSTV. if all goes according to plan we will cross the border to
Rwanda and be heading to Kigali with new challenges and surprises in two days time. After a hearty buffet breakfast of fruit, meat broth, "vetkoek" and bread we hit the road early morning and travel through vast open spaces of land with rock formations reminding us of the Aus and Klein Aus of Namibia. We planned to pushed to as close to the border As possible and planned around the German Boma for camping in Biharamulo. Our expectations were German quality accommodation.
Lets just say ou dreams were shattered by the dilapidated building which
now gets used as conference centre. We went for a drive as all
conference goers were lying around on the little lawns left having lunch at
16h00 and stopped near a dam watching herders bringing their long horned cattle for a drink, the herding dog swam and then the men had a bath while we were having a cup of coffee along the roadside.
We drove to Kigodi nature reserve and although the T4A state armed escort and very bad road the Chinese were almost finished with a lovely new tarmac and the armed escort has turned into two booms manned by civilian clothed policeman with AK47's, the natural forest was dense and luscious green and really made the drive worth while in this beautiful mountainous area. We woke up to the last sunrise on Tanzanian soil with mixed emotions, will we miss the all round Karibo(welcome)? Or will we be relieved to just say "safari" ?
FOR TANZANIA FOTOS:
CURRENT TRIP:
TANZANIA FOTOS:
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