Category: Tanzania

Day 310 and 311, Friday / Saturday 09/10 November 2012 – Snake Park, Arusha, Tanzania

I had been looking forward to this day for a wee while. It was the day when everyone on the tour but me left for an overnight trip to the Serengeti. I had elected to not take the trip for a number of reasons, one of which was the cost, almost 600 NZD to stay in a tent overnight in the national park. Yes, I could afford it – sort of, and if I had a job to go to I probably would had done it. However two days of relaxing almost on my own was something I was really looking forward to. I have been used to being solo for so much of 2012. Forty one days of sharing my space with a group was draining me and I was starting to get a bit tetchy – and I was not the only one. Myself and the rest of the curmudgeon club were starting to get restless.

It was another restless night, very noisy again and it rained briefly but heavily around 2:30 am, fortunately Leonie heard it before me and got up to close the rain flaps on the tent while I stayed dry in my sleeping bag – yes it has been sleeping bag weather. I was really surprised that I have been using my sleeping bag so much, I am very glad I bought it.

It is the last full day with the truck for most people so Ebron cooked up bacon and eggs for breakfast. I was planning on not eating as I so badly over indulged the night before, but meh – bacon and eggs, they have to be eaten 🙂

Everyone was packed and off on the new adventure for 8:30

I helped clean up the site and pack the truck for our planned departure at 10:00. However, the truck battery was dead flat so it was another two hours of hanging around Kudu camp waiting for the battery to charge enough to start the truck. The battery final had enough charge just as the kettle boiled.

We were finally on the way back to Arusha and Snake Park just before 1:00. I rode up in the cab with Will and Ebron and I very much enjoyed the journey. Sitting up front does give you a whole new perspective on the roads and how to drive them – I got to experience first hand what all the honking was for. We arrived in Snake Park at 3:00 and had couple of their delicious home made burgers for lunch. I put up my tent and spent the rest of the day doing very little. With only having one mattress in the tent it was not configured normally – so the first time I went into it after setting it up I stood on my new Riy Don sun glasses and broke the arm off them. Damnit, The last pair lasted two years, this pair has lasted three days, lucky they were cheap.

I had a beer in the bar with Will and then went and watched a movie – Machete in the truck and then went to bed early, didn’t feel like eating after that late lunch and a night off was a good idea. Sadly the rest of the camp ground did not subscribe to that at all and made noise all night.

So I was a little grumpy when I woke on Saturday morning, the last full day of the tour. I had breakfast with Will and Ebron and they spent the rest of the day working on their part of the truck.

I mooched around for a bit, walked around and saw the snakes in their glass enclosures. Even behind glass they scare me !

I still had some data left on the plan I bought from Vodafone NZ so had a play and set my phone up as a wifi hotspot and managed to connect to the internet, reception was hopeless sadly so I didn’t get to post any blog entries but I did get a whole lot written. Once everyone had left the campsite I enjoyed a few hours of peace and quiet, with only my tent in sight.

The others all arrived back in camp a couple of hours earlier than expected and just before the rain set in. There was a quick rush to get all their tents up before the rain came down. We have been so lucky with the weather, this was really only the third shower we have had and the first one that eventually turned into quite a bit of rain.

Soon after they arrived back we cracked a cask of red wine and had a couple of pre-dinner drinks. It was our final meal together, a large spread catered by Snake Park. Post dinner turned into a bit of a drunken mess, most of us stayed up way past our bedtimes, spending the remains of the Tanzanian money in the Snake Park bar. I was wise and stuck to whisky and coke, no mixing drinks this time, except for the few rounds of Jagermeister shots that appeared throughout the evening. Even Bill and Dave, my fellow curmudgeons were up past their bedtimes. It was a good night and a nice way to end the tour.

Day 307, Tuesday 06 November 2012 – Honey Badger Lodge, Moshi, Tanzania

Grrrrrrrr, an early start. Up at 4:20 and on the truck for a 5:00 departure. I had gotten used to sleeping till 7:00!

The journey through and out of Dar took close to two hours, about half that of the journey in a few days ago. My back was still quite tight and the pounding on the temporary lanes around the road works was quite painful at times. There was a large number of busses on the road, many of them are beyond packed, even at that early hour. With a population of about four million and few cars; buses are an essential means of travel. A lot of the inter-city/town buses have western names, Liverpool, God loves you, Spider etc, though my personal favourite was the bus named Facebook.

They are without a doubt the craziest drivers I have seen. It is fortunate that their buses are not that fast or we would have seen more overturned buses than the one we have seen so far. Having said that we are routinely passed by buses and were passed by one going through some road works, crazy!

We stopped for a late breakfast at a roadside cafe, it was so good to have that first (and second) coffee of the day – the Africa instant coffee is not too bad, better than the Nescafe anyway. I was dreaming of the latte I had yesterday in Stone Town as I took the first sips.

I took the opportunity of being off the bus at the right time to ring my mum back in NZ, I was hoping to Skype but she was not online. Mum has been on a three week trip to north eastern USA, a fall trip to Maine and Vermont etc. She only just made it out of NY before it was all shut down due to Hurricane Sandy. It sounded like she had a great trip, though it was only a brief call. I am looking forward to seeing the photos and hearing more about it one day.

Back on the road we passed another rolled over truck, the first for the day. Unlike the fuel tanker from a few days ago, this one had a police presence at the accident site, so no one helping themselves to the product – and no photos.

Pineapple and sisal are the big export crops from these parts.

I am finding it very hard to be photographically inspired at the moment. I loved Stone Town but took far less photos than I did in the similar streets of Barcelona. I have taken the guidance about not taken photos of the people seriously – and there are people everywhere! The views out of the truck are also just not that interesting with the landscape being nowhere near as diverse, or startling as Namibia.

I spent most of the drive reading, emailing and writing blog posts on my phone, not ideal for blog writing but at least I can email them to myself and get them on the laptop. I am learning to be productive on the truck when I can, good to get some work discipline in now, before I have to start working hard to find a job when I get back to London in December.

We stopped for lunch at the newly opened Rock Hill Rest. Clean loos, with paper – I cannot see it lasting ! The food was good and the cokes were cheap, I could see why it was a busy spot, I wish the owners well, it was a nice respite from the normal roadside rests.

After lunch we started climb into a more mountainous area of Tanzania and I take back my earlier comment about the scenery being really boring, the hills are quite lovely in the late afternoon sun.

I quite liked the Kiwi that Leonie spotted in the cliff face.

We stopped for a “comfort stop” along a long straight section of road, there were some quite cool cactii around so I nipped out with the camera for a walkabout. Similarly to most of Asia I am constantly amazed at the amount of trash in the roadsides in Africa, particularly here in Tanzania. I think the manufacturers of plastic bags should take a long hard look at themselves and stop polluting the third world, it is a disgrace !

Train ride would be a cool way to travel here, – long and straight !

As we drew closer to our campsite in Moshi we started to get glimpses of a cloud shrouded Mt Kilimanjaro, we were of course hoping for an unobstructed view but it was not going to happen this day. We did get a good viewing of Mt Meru from just outside the Honey Badger campsite.

Once in the camp the usual routine unfolded, tents up, chores done, beer in the bar, dinner, a drink or two then sleep.

Fingers crossed for a cloudless morning!

Day 302, Thursday 01 November 2012 – Dar es Salaam

I had a lousy sleep last night, and struggled out of bed at the ridiculous time of 4:30 – and there was no coffee either. It was a hurried pack up and we were on the road for 5:00, starting on a twelve or thirteen hour trip to the camp ground on the beach outside Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. It is damp and cold this morning, I had a polyprop on to start with and as we progressed on the journey I was regretting not having socks on as well.

The road was a wee bit quieter first thing, but the trucks coming the other way barely slowed to pass us and the road was almost a single lane for a long section through constant road works – almost all the way into Dar. (this was taken later in the day !)

The Japanese were proud of this section of road, not sure why.

Will was stopped for supposedly crossing the centre lines in some no name town and after pleading with the cop was still issued a ticket. There are a lot of cops on the roads into and out of Dar and apparently this is very common.

At 8:00 we stopped for breakfast in a roadside cafe – and coffee, times two for me.

The road to Dar passes through baobab valley and I have been really looking forward to seeing these trees and getting some time to photograph them. We did stop for a wee break and I nipped out with camera and grabbed a few shots, I definitely wished I had more time there.

The valley is quite long and I enjoyed looking out the window at the trees, we passed another truck crash, this time a fuel tanker had rolled and it was mobbed by local people stealing the gas, while a couple of policemen looked on – I guess I would not be wanting to try and stop them myself.

We stopped to buy charcoal at the roadside, we are not allowed to burn wood in some places in Tanzania.

I loved the satellite dishes on the roofs of some houses, there is no power going in – I assume they have a generator. It is likely that they will charge other villagers a nominal fee to watch TV and most likely football.

There was one village where they were selling clothes and baskets – either that or they were growing a t-shirt tree.

I was not always fully concious, at least I wasnt dribbling – and a lesson learnt about leaving the camera out 🙂

We passed through Mukumi National Park and saw a number of animals on the way through, nothing worth stopping for, but it was very exciting to see wildlife so close to the road again.

As we had such a long journey i bought a roaming data plan from Vodafone NZ, it was great to be able to cruise Book Face and do emails as we travelled. Over the next few days I used this to write blog posts on my cell phone and email them to myself so I could pick them up on my laptop. Of course after I had done it a few times I realised I could have just saved them as drafts and opened them on my notebook anyway and saved the data traffic.

We arrived in the outer suburbs around 3:30, amid complete chaos on the main street. The entire street was being widened so temporary dirt lanes were in use. The lanes were probably single but there were always two lanes of vehicles and at one point where the lines blurred between temporary and new road there was six lanes of cars.

It took 3 hours to get through to the far side of the city and then we hit a road that seemed even worse. It was lined with market stalls and as it was rush hour there was people everywhere, buses were pulling in and out of the traffic, seemingly without looking.

It was chaos both on the streets and the footpaths. The air was full of noise from sound systems, car and motorcycle horns and the hubbub of human voices. The smells were overwhelming, diesel fumes, fires, food cooking and the occasional stench from the sewage filled rivers. I would like to say it was enjoyable but after 4 hours it was wearing thin, we had been on the road for 15 hours, I can only imagine how driver Will was feeling.

We arrived in the beach side camp in the dark and hurriedly put the tents up before having a meal on the beach catered by the camp ground – I assume to the relief of our cook, Ebron. The meal was pretty good and was proceeded by a rather humorous event when one of my fellow curmudgeons sat himself down in the chair and went sailing backwards as the rear legs of the chair sank into the sand. As his feet came flying up, they kicked the table and beer went sailing over the last of our curmudgeonly trio – there was a lot of merriment from us not impacted !

I didn’t stay after dinner, fifteen hours in a truck was too much and I needed to go and have some space in my tent for a while before sleeping.

Day 301, Wednesday 31 October 2012 – Farmhouse camp, Tanzania

It was nice to sleep in a double bed for a change, it has been a while. I got to starfish in the middle and sprawl; it was a pretty good sleep. Even better was the fact we had breakfast in the cafe at 8:00, so no morning chores – and no tent dropping. I made the most of the space and had another hot shower, cut finger nails emptied my pack and repacked and got damp clothes dry – all while listening to music out loud. I miss those mornings!

Breakfast was a bit Faulty Towers, the people of Tanzania do not speak English like those in southern Africa (Tanzania is East Africa) so most of the staff had limited ability to communicate. I was the only person at our table of four who actually got what was expected for breakfast, two got slightly different things and one got nothing at all, and was still waiting to be served when I came back to the table twenty five minutes are leaving. I rang both my sons before we left this morning, I haven’t spoken to them in ages, no reception in Malawi when it was my youngest 19th birthday. It was great to chat to them and I will do it again soon.

We did not make the 9:00 am departure time, probably the first time we haven’t on the whole trip.

Our one and only visit today is a tea plantation tour just outside Tukuyu. The highlands of Tanzania are extremely fertile and are the breadbasket for the nation. Tea is grown all over and is the prime cash crop. We visited Kyimbila Estate, one of the larger private tea estates in the region, there are 15,000 tea growers – the majority of which are small family plots of one or a few hectares.

The visit was a tad boring, I am glad I did not do the tea plantation tour in Malaysia! The highlight was a small invasion by the tea pickers kids, there is a pre-school on the plantation as well as accomodation for the workers.

The scenery was good, but it is quite hazy in the hills – a mix of smoke and dust, so photos were not stunning.

We left the plantation after a couple of hours and drove for an hour or so before stopping for lunch on the roadside. Will and Brett changed one of the front wheels as the tyre had quite a deep gash and they did not want a repeat of the tyre blowing incident from a couple of days back. We were back on the road for 1:15 on the long drive towards our stop for the night.

Once out of the hills the scenery change back to dry and arid flat(ish) lands, and the people look noticeably poorer than the hill folk. Like Malawi there are a lot of half built and half derelict houses all along the road side.

Tanzania has a large muslim population so we passed many small mosques on the journey.

There is also a road upgrade project on, well that is what I am assuming anyway. Along virtually the whole length of the road stand houses with red and green X’s painted on them. Red are closer to the road than green and some of the green have 30m on the side, which I am assuming marks a line thirty metres from the edge of the current road. I guess someday they will be flattened.

We have been advised to not take photos of people out of the truck as it can upset some of the locals, so most of my shots are empty of people, but I assure you there are a lot about. Some are friendly and wave, the kids on the way to and from school particularly so. Most of the photos are taken through the window so loads of reflections – too lazy to drop the window!

This road is apparently littered with crashed trucks, we saw a couple today.

As mid-afternoon came around and we were still three of four hours away from the campsite for the night we arrived in one of the bigger towns looking for a gas station, there were plenty but none seem to have diesel, apparently there is a massive shortage – we didn’t realise the guys had been looking for a while. The government forced the oil companies to lower the cost of fuel so they just stopped delivering it…. we pulled into a deserted forecourt (that had loos !) and using air from the compressor pushed the last of the fuel from the secondary into the primary tank and with fingers crossed carried on.

Yay – tuk tuks !

Eventually we found a gas station that had diesel, we were there for a while as we waited for the local black marketeers to fill jerry can loads of diesel they can sell to stranded trucks and cars on the way. I think we were lucky, we did get two full tanks – about $600USD worth. Hallelujah !

Will had wanted to get to the campsite in daylight as driving on the roads are stressful as it is. However, it was dark soon after leaving the gas station and it started to get cold and rainy, luckily the rain stopped before we reached camp. The farm house campsite was really nice, great hot showers and clean non-smelly long drop loos. The added bonus was a lovely amurula hot chocolate they make in the bar, I had one for dessert. Up at 4:30 tomorrow, so an early night.