Mikumi

I woke up this morning feeling pretty rough. I had a dodgy tummy last night before I went to bed, but I put that down to the doxycycline tablets we take against malaria in conjunction with a curry. My sleep was poor, with disturbing dreams (military style execution for example). Today I've been running a low temperature accompanied by a mild headache... All the books say malaria is symptomised by a high fever so we think I'm okay. Grumpy though. Accordingly we got a late start from the Kisolanza Farm where we camped last night. We were hoping to purchase some of the great fresh produce we'd heard about, but two overland vehicles in for dinner last night had wiped their stocks out. Never mind.

About 10km out of Iringa we hit roadworks, which extended all the way up the hill to the bustling town. By the time we finally got up there we were ready for lunch and enjoyed cold chipatti wraps. We also hoped to check on the progress of the carnet renewal at one of the many internet cafes but a town-wide blackout prevented that (and explained the cold only options at lunch). The roadworks continued for miles, with lengthy stops waiting for traffic coming in the other direction on the single lane. When we were given the signal to go, it was like the starting flag had dropped at the grand prix. All the private cars and mini busses (daladalas) were racing to pass the trucks in front of them before they got onto the single lane! Suffice to say we covered fewer kilometers than planned and stopped just before dark at the little town that borders Mizumi Wildlife Park at Tan-Swiss Camping, which I dont recommend as they have no camping facilities - we just pitched up in the carpark - and their extra-high camping fee doesnt include showers.

Traffic on Tanzanian roads is chaotic to say the least. The main road we were travelling today it was packed with heavy trucks, daladalas (minivans), busses and completely mental 4x4 owners. On the whole the truck drivers drive fairly sensibly and use their indicators to signal to you if it is safe to pass them or not - left to say its clear, right to say its not. But it can be a bit tricky. Are they indicating its okay to pass or indicating that they're turning left? You can quickly tell when they haul on the brakes. Its even more confusing from the other side. Is that enormous freighter coming towards me indicating right because its about to pass the vehicle infront of it and narrowly avoid a head on collision with me? Or is it warning the cars behind it not to pass? All too often an oncoming vehicle had misjudged their passing opportunity and flashed their lights at us to make room for them in our lane or hit them head on.

We saw all too many heavy trucks and buses in varying states of distress, from breakdowns on blind corners to upside down freighters beside the road. The worst I saw was a burnt out fuel-tanker.

We encountered a couple of police escorted convoys of VIPs or something. They're a bit intimidating. First in the convoy are a couple of police Land Rovers with flashing blue lights and cops in high visibility overalls shouting and waving their arms at you to pull over on the side to let the convoy through. These are followed by half a dozen Land Cruisers with flashing headlights and one passenger each speeding down the centre line. Then the convoy is concluded by a couple more police Land Rovers.

Aside from the last 100km where all vehicles were more or less in a procession, and police roadblocks stopped all traffic every 20km or so we made much better progress today. Duncan spoke with the ever helpful Paul Gowan of RAC carnets about our renewal and he says that we should be able to pick it up at DHL in Arusha in about a week. So that leaves us some time to visit Zanzibar and for Duncan to do some diving.