Singida

I've been waiting for it to happen. The Landy has covered 56,000 km on the trip so far and no puncture. Until today. We'd been bouncing up and down a dirt road for hours alongside which were various road improvement efforts. About 20km from the turn onto the main road on to Kigali the rear left tyre blew, so we stopped, put out the warning triangles and proceeded to get out the jack etc. The whole village came out to see what was going on, then pulled up a seat in the dust by the side of the road to watch the show, with commentary we couldnt understand and lots of laughter.

Once we got the wheel off it was apparant the tyre had been slit on the inside. I went walking down the road to see what could have slit it as Duncan continued fitting the spare with the help of all the men in the village. I saw some bits of shock absorber and thought, well we're not the only ones who've had a problem on this bit of road. Oh, wait. Duncan now has the spare wheel on and notices the shock absorber is missing... it seems the shock absorber sheared off and slit the inside wall of the tyre before exiting through the other wall of the tyre and landing in the red dust on the side of the road. Pity its not a simple puncture - the tyre was new in Namibia.

The speed Duncan takes judder bars (of which there are thousands in Tanzania) and potholed/corrugated/rough surface/livestock infested/heavily pedestrianed roads is a source of contention between the two of us. I think he's a madman and should slow down, he thinks I'm overcautious and should stop asking him to slow down. I'm pleased to say he drove the remaining rough road to the turnoff at a speed that pleased the both of us. I hope he'll keep it a bit toned down in the future.

Tonight we're staying at the Aqua Vita resort in Singida. The GPS suggested they offered camping but they werent really into that idea when we enquired, however the cost of a clean double room with private bathroom, mosquito net and cable TV for the night was the same as the cost of last nights camping and included breakfast, so we took a room. Dinner was equally good value. Duncan ordered moussaka which took a forever but was a gargantuan size, if interestingly interpreted. I ordered the only non meat option on the menu (the fish was unavailable), the local delicacy Chips Omelette which was exactly what it says on the tin. While we waited we were served pea soup and peanuts at no charge. I went out to the Landy to get the malaria pills to take with dinner to discover one of the staff washing the Landy. 'It is very dirty' he said. True enough. By the time we finished dinner the Landy was unrecognisably clean and again, no charge.

Ngorongoro Crater, Lions vs Buffalos

On the road west out of Arusha we started seeing many more long limbed Masai in their distinctive red and blue coloured robes. We'd seen a few youths hanging around in Dar and cycling along the main highway north with the stick slung casually over one shoulder, and passed the odd herdsman ushering his stock across the road infront of us. 

Yesterday we passed through several whole townships full of Masai trading at the market or hanging about chatting. We made our way up to a town about 15km east of the Ngorongoro park gate (where it seemed every second vehicle was a Land Rover) and made enquiries about tours into the crater. We could drive in ourselves of course, but in addition to the $50.00 park fee each, there is another $250.00 of vehicle related fees and we were looking to be able to split them with some other tourists.

An early start this morning as we were being picked up at 6am. It was dark and misty and although the light dawned, the mist stayed with us all the way up the outside of the volcano until we started our descent into the crater.

Arusha

The November rains have arrived. We've been getting intermittent showers since we arrived in Dar but last night the sky opened and drowned Arusha. The upside of this is that Mt Meru is mostly visible with only the peak shrouded in mist, the downside that the streets are flooded and I got very wet.

We stopped by DHL to see if they could tell us if the carnet was on the way - they advised there were no parcels in the system from London to Arusha for any Duncan or Irvine... so Duncan called the RAC again and they're going to get it on the courier this week and send it to Kigali in Rwanda.

Otherwise in Arusha we dodged touts trying to sell us tours to Ngorongoro and Kalahari and changed lots of Tanzanian shilling into USD as ATMs in Rwanda are reputed to be unreliable and you require USD for many payments anyway - like visas or gorilla tracking permits.

Moshi

We had discussed on and off whether we wanted to climb Mt Kilimanjaro or not while we were here. What mountain? The clouds are so thick and dark the mountain is invisible, so that is a bit disappointing, but also reinforces our decision not to climb at this time of year.

Duncan called the RAC again and the carnet bloke is on holiday this week. The staff there are unable to tell us if it got on the courier on Friday or not. Moshi is a chaotic little town where we finally found an internet cafe with power - though excrutiatingly slow. I was happy to discover that given our respective passports (UK/Sweden), neither Duncan nor I require visas for Rwanda so we dont have to find somewhere to print out the online app you're supposed to complete and take with you.

My bank's online services were not up to the lack of speed so I still dont know why I've not been able to withdraw funds since Botswana (fortunately my NZ bank has given me no such problems or we'd still be stuck in Malawi with no money for fuel).

Dar es Salam

The city is bustling with crammed buses and 4x4 vehicles charging about without even a cursory nod to road rules. It is also oppressively humid. Today we spent around three hours walking around in 35 degrees of sticky heat, sorting out money and trying to find a safe place to leave the Landy while we spend a couple of days in Zanzibar. We also needed the internet to apply for our Rwandan visas in advance, but every internet cafe we came across was inoperational due to rolling blackouts.

As the afternoon wore on we decided we werent going to get ourselves sorted out in time to take the last ferry to Zanzibar for the day so we headed to the ferry that would take us over to the south coast. Cue more motor chaos.

 We are now camped on a pristine white sand beach with azure blue sea and palm trees etc and have decided to spend a couple of days chilling here before heading up towards Arusha to pick up the new carnet (hopefully).

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.

Matema Beach, Tanzania

We wanted to spend another day at the lake in Malawi swimming and lazing in the sun and stopped at a few places up the coast, but didnt find anywhere as nice as the beach at Nkwazu Lodge, so decided to head to Tanzania. The only problem at the Malawi border was finding someone to open the gate for us once the paperwork had been done. Tanzania was equally straightforward - we just had to pay visas ($50), road tax ($5) and temporary import permit for the Landy ($25) in USD. Thankfully we had both Tanzania Schillings and the Comesa insurance so didnt need to deal with any of the aggressive border touts.

It took a lot longer than we planned to get to Matema Beach and we ended up in the pitch dark, driving a dusty rutted road dodging bicycles, pedestrians and livestock. Although I couldnt see very well, my impression was that it was lush and full of vegetation.

The next morning we woke to a long grey/black sand beach with gentle waves rippling the blue lake, parked ourselves under the shade of a tree and spent the day reading and swimming.