Eerste stop was Kahama waar het keihard begon te regenen dus we moesten op zoek naar een hotel. We vonden een geschikte die helaas vol bleek maar de eigenaar was zo vriendelijk om voor ons uit te rijden en ons naar een andere goede verblijfplaats te brengen. Daar aangekomen hebben we hem een drankje aangeboden en hebben we leuk gediscussieerd over de situatie in Rwanda, de rol van M23 in Congo en andere politieke issues in landen waar we doorheen waren gereden. Daarna viel het licht (zoals zo vaak gebeurt in Afrika) uit en hebben we onder het geraas en de diesellucht van de generator een hapje gegeten.
De volgende dag reden we naar Dodoma, de hoofdstad van Tanzania. Inmiddels plannen we van tevoren niet meer waar we gaan verblijven want we merken dat het altijd wel goed komt. Zo ook hier waar we aan de rand van de stad een guesthouse vonden bij een vriendelijk vrouwtje die alleen Swahili sprak. Haar naam was Happy :-). De voetbal die we in Khartoem hadden gekocht werd uitgeladen en met het zoontje van Happy hebben we een balletje getrapt. Wiep heeft een Feyenoord shirtje aan hem gegeven waar hij uiteraard erg blij mee was, ook al was het een paar maatjes te groot.
We only had 7 days in Tanzania and in these 7 days we had to drive from north to south to pick up Chris in Mbeya on the 25th of April. We were not sure whether to take the western or the eastern route and decided to get information about the roads at the border. The lady we asked was very clear about it and advised us to take the eastern route covering more kilometres but on much better roads. We wanted to go to one National Park in Tanzania and this would be Ruaha National Park which we preferred anyway.
Our first stop was Kahama. It started to rain heavily so we had to find a hotel. We found a good one but it was fully booked. Fortunately the manager was a very friendly guy and he brought us to another place where we had some drinks with him. We had some interesting discussions about the current situation in the African countries we had passed, and especially about the current situation in Rwanda and Congo. There was a power cut down as happens so often in Africa so we had dinner with the smell and sound of a big diesel generator next to us.
The following day we drove to Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania. Now that we’d been travelling for a while in Africa we had stopped planning where to stay and as this turned out never to be a problem. We now found a guesthouse at the edge of the city that was run by a friendly lady who hardly spoke any English and introduced herself as Happy :-). We played some football with her son using the football we bought in Khartoum and Wiep gave him a Feyenoord t-shirt which made him very happy of course although it was a bit oversized.
The next day we arrived at a campsite near Ruaha National Park which was not easy to reach and took a drive of about 100 kilometres on very bad roads.
Hieronder onze beste foto’s uit Ruaha, de beelden spreken voor zich...
The park was great and had many Baobab trees, but also open plains and dense forest areas. We did some gamedrives with guide Suwedy who was very experienced and had worked in all the national parks in Tanzania but like Ruaha the best. The goal of one of the gamedrives was to spot a leopard that is abundant in Ruaha. At another trip in South Africa –which was the pilot trip for this adventure- we inspected every tree there was in two park until our necks hurt to look for a leopard but we were not successful. We went to a forest area to increase our chances of seeing one. After a couple of hours we almost gave up and speeded a bit to go and see some lions that Suwedy heard off from a colleague. But then Wiep suddenly saw one at the side of the road!! Ali quickly put the car in reverse and we had a fantastic view on this fascinating animal.
Here are our best pictures we took, we think no further comment is necessary..
We were almost the only ones in the park but later we met Bart, a Dutch guy with his English girlfriend Vicky, who invited us to stay at their compound in Iringa. Bart’s parents were visiting him for a couple of weeks and we had a nice evening with them. Bart and Vicky were both volunteers in Tanzania but Bart got tired of it since he felt it was impossible to build up something that would last for a longer time… He told us the story that we had heard a couple of times before now about NGO managers earning a lot of money and living a luxurious life, while the people who are in the field and do a lot of work don’t get the rewards for this.
We gingen door naar Mbeya, waar we met een gevulde koelkast precies op tijd op het vliegveld aankwamen om Mzungu Chris op te halen. Een beter onthaal had hij zich niet kunnen wensen! We konden verblijven op de binnenplaats van een hotel en na kwartier gemaakt te hebben kon het eerste biertje gedronken worden. Niet veel later werden we uitgenodigd om deel te nemen aan een videoclip, die op dat moment opgenomen werd en al dansend stonden we, met een camera op ons gericht, midden in een gospelgezelschap. Aangezien het koningsnacht was had Chris oranje attributen en oranjebitter meegenomen en we hebben het goed gevierd.
De volgende ochtend zijn we doorgereden naar Karonga, de grensovergang met Malawi.
We drove to Mbeya after filling our fridge with food and cold beers. We were exactly in time at the airport where Mzungu Chris got a warm welcome! We stayed on a grass field at the compound of a hotel, put up our tents and had a few beers and a few laughs J. We were soon invited to join a gospel group who were recording a video clip and before we knew it we were dancing with them so by now we are famous in Tanzania.
Since it was King’s night in The Netherlands Chris brought orange party stuff and an alcoholic beverage called Oranjebitter so we had a good celebration.
The following day we drove to Karonga, to cross the border to Malawi.