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| Baby Giraffe a few hours old |
Day 14
We made an early
start from Kapishya Hot Springs due to a border crossing at Tunduma into Tanzania
leaving at 06h30 complete with a packed Breakfast and Lunch. The first 30kms
are on gravel and then we join the Great North Road, for a while the going is
good on the Chinese built road, which will be lucky to last 2 years not only
the poor quality, but also the amount of heavy traffic feeding landlocked Zambia
from the Port of Dar-es-Salaam, there was plenty of tankers and a lot of
abnormal load vehicles, how much they utilise the TanZam railway is not known,
but we only saw one train in the day, quite sad.
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| Digging for Water in a Dry River bed |
The new road did not last long and we are convinced it is
Claudia’s fault as every time she takes a driving stint we hit horrendous
roads, today was no different with holes you could lose your car in, and if you
are ever in this neck of the woods never, never drive these roads at night. The
villages you pass through often do not have speed warning signs, but you have
to be very alert and cautious as they have the next best thing; multiple speed
bumps or in some cases hillocks. We also get stopped by the police several
times, but only twice were we asked for any papers or driving licenses.
We finally arrive at the border and are adamant that we will
not use an agent after the Kazungula experience, the Zambia side was no problem although
we had to fight of hoards of the so called agents, although one stuck with us
even though I told him a dozen times we did not need his assistance. Our first
problem on exiting was that the Kazungula officer had filled in the Carnet
incorrectly and I was sent backwards and forwards between the exit gate and the
offices to get them to fill it in, but put arrows on the form to indicate that
we were now exporting the vehicle and not importing, so my patience had already
been tested and we had not reached the Tanzania side.
The sequence on the Tanzania entry side is much like the
Zambia entrance and went something like this, Immigration, Road Tax Carnet
completion, Pay Road Tax & Foreign Vehicle Permit, Obtain COMESA third
party insurance, pay Council tax, pay Fuel Levy, now all these are in different
offices or buildings or shacks all 20 to 30 metres apart, when I went to get
the Insurance I was accompanied by the Insurance Broker and I was convinced I
was about to be mugged when we went down an open drain, between ramshackle huts
to get to the Insurance office, it took so long, Denise was about to have a
search party formed to find me. This all took just under 2 hours, but it seemed
longer and this is the time we allowed for so not bad.
The border town of Tunduma is
a hustle bustle place with teems of people criss crossing the border with
impunity, this Sinead enjoyed very much especially the loud music and the mass
of people driven through and not be stopped, but we may have had a problem
later if not when exiting Tanzania .
Some 2 hours later we find the Utengule Coffee Lodge run by
Tony and Sharon Greenaway and we enjoy a couple of cold Kilimanjaro’s with
Denise and Claudia having a large shandy and an excellent dinner and we crash
pretty early after a long day of some 9 hours travel and to make us feel even
more tired we put our watches forward by an hour. The beds were rock hard
otherwise comfortable accommodation.
Day 15
After a very nice breakfast we head for Mbeya town as I need
more Tanzania Shillings and upon changing US$400 I need a trailer to carry
TzS644, 000.00, at an exchange rate of TzSh1610 to the dollar. Petrol is
cheaper in Tanzania
at an equivalent of R11 a litre.
We set off for Iringa the fourth biggest town in Tanzania
where we are staying at the Old Farm House also called Kilolonza Farm some
50kms West of Iringa town, the road is good in parts and very potholed in
others and at around the 100kms to go mark we hit a very nicely tarred road
that is being funded by Denmark and they have obviously laid down the
conditions appertaining to the funding somewhat different to the Chinese funded
roads which they are building themselves.
At The Old Farm House we have a chalet, which other than the
beds is very nice accommodation and some of their facilities have utilised old
mud huts that gives a unique character, this included the bar and dining room
facility, but best of all after the cold frosty was the excellent cuisine,
which was hard to correlate with the rustic surroundings and if we do not put
on a kilo or two this trip we will be very surprised.
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| Up close and personal |
We, once again have to make an early start the next day all
the way to Kongwa where my folks first came to Africa in 1949/50 and where I
went to school for 6 years.
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