We were on our way to Tanzania. New adventures, millenia of history and world-famous sites awaited us.
When we arrived at the border we were amazed to find the French couple, the Swiss/Indonesian family with the young boy and the French cyclist all there at the same time. We chatted, laughed and shared information whilst we waited for our visas and carnets to be processed – we had definitely formed a small community for a while.
I should introduce our new friends properly at this stage as they became a regular part of our lives for a while.
The French couple are Lulu and Flo
The Swiss/Indonesian couple are Tino, Liza and their son Liano
The French cyclist is Quentin
This border was smaller and a little more friendly than the border we crossed from Zambia before Christmas and it took less than half the time. Once out the other side we high fived with big grins on our faces.
The first thing we noticed here was the number of tuk tuks everywhere around the town
Squeezing into any spare space no matter how small and frequently grinding the traffic to a halt
The next thing we saw was bananas – thousands and thousands of bananas growing in huge plantations along the road
Being transported on everything from large lorries
To bicycles
To people´s heads!
And the markets and roadside stalls were full of them – from small to large, yellow to green to brown. The banana choices were endless.
For all the excitement of being in Tanzania, there was one downside that we were dreading – the traffic police. Renowned by travellers as being corrupt and difficult, if not down right aggressive. We had heard endless stories of harassment including photoshopped speed camera images. It was the aspect of this country that we weren´t looking forward to and which we thought may cut our stay shorter than it otherwise might be.
The speed signs were as vague as predicted. The speed limit is strictly 50km/hr through the villages but once out the other end there was often no ´end of 50´ sign so we were left not knowing whether we could speed up or not. It was all getting very difficult and we ended up driving for miles at 50km/hr not daring to go any faster.
After a short time we approached our first police roadblock, the tension was high. We drove towards it, the officers smiled and waved us through – not the least bit interested. We looked at each other – this was not what we had expected.
The next town approached and with it the next roadblock. More smiles, more waves to pass right on through. We started to feel a little hopeful.
And rightly so. Whilst writing, we have been in Tanzania for six weeks and passed through hundreds of police roadblocks. We have had nothing but friendliness, smiles and fair treatment. Occasionally we are pulled over but never for anything other than a friendly chat, an enquiry as to where we are going and a smiling wish that we have a good trip.
In fact, we have been caught actually speeding twice – accidentally both times, on roads that were not obviously 50km/hr. Fortunately I was driving once and James once so it´s all fair! Both times we were pulled over and politely told that we had to pay a 30,000TSh fine (about £10). But when we offered our Visa card saying we had no cash we were told that their machines don´t take Visa so we could carry on but please just be more careful next time.
There is no doubt that there used to be a problem with the traffic police, so why the big change – from one of the least friendly to one of the most friendly countries almost overnight? Reading comments on IOverlander, up until 2022 there were regular complaints about corrupt police officers; from 2023 onwards, nothing. I can´t be sure but it seems like too much of a coincidence to me that a new president took over in 2023 when the sitting president died. She is the only female president in Africa and is concentrating on restoring democracy, encouraging investment and growing tourism. I think she´s had a word – don´t give tourists trouble, they´re too valuable to the economy.
Either way, it has been a welcome surprise and our time in Tanzania has been actively improved by some friendly and humorous encounters with various police officers rather than ruined by it.
The recent history of Tanzania is rooted in imperial exploitation but these days it is independent, peaceful and economically successful. The Arab influence is very strong with a third of the population being Muslim. As we drove we could see that the culture of the country was very different from the countries we had been travelling through up to now. Many women wore an African version of the hijab, mosques were in every town and village. We could hear the muezzin call to prayer everywhere we went.
We noticed that the Muslim population, the Christian population and those following more traditional religions seemed to mix together with groups of people walking and talking together obviously from different religious backgrounds. We were talking to a local guide a few days ago and he told us that everyone gets along together, religious festivals are shared and everyone is part of one community.
In fact the only difficulty for us here is that the official language of the country is Swahili – few people speak English and all road signs and other information is in Swahili. Given that my Swahili is limited to knowing how to say dinner is ready and ask where the toilet is, we were going to face a communication challenge we hadn´t faced since leaving French-speaking West Africa.
We were aiming for the nearest town to the border – Mbeya. More of a small city but our expectations for finding supermarkets, banks or a sim card had been set low by our research on the facilities across Tanzania. So we headed to the home of someone who we hoped could help – Paul the Butcher.
Paul is British but has lived in Tanzania for over 20 years – he opens his home to travellers and welcomes them to stay as long as they like
When we arrived at his place we were greeted by the 16 year old daughter of Paul´s Tanzanian partner. Her name was Esther and she was wonderful. She settled us in, showed us around and called Paul to let him know we were there. He turned up a few minutes later and greeted us like old friends
We were treated to beer, beef curry wrapped in doughnut balls and given anti-mosquito cream as a gift.
A few minutes afterwards Lulu and Flo arrived followed shortly by Quentin – how he kept up with us all on his push bike was beyond me. We spent a happy evening together playing pool and feeling very comfortable in our new country
For some reason I cannot fathom, the time changes in Africa as you go north. When you cross from Namibia to Angola the clocks go forward an hour and the same is true when crossing from Malawi into Tanzania. As the countries are on the same line of latitude this means that it gets light an hour later in the morning and dark an hour later in the evening.
So when I woke up at my usual time of 5:30am it was still pitch black. I lay in bed watching the sky from my window whilst the dawn slowly broke around us. It was 6:45am before I finally got out of bed which felt like the middle of the day.
I did my training by the pool table whilst the rest of the household slept and by the time everyone was up, showered and dressed it was after 11am. This was a whole new experience for me.
Paul drove us into the town centre and pointed out the best bank for cheap international cash withdrawals. He showed us where the Vodacom store was for a sim card, two local food shops and the fruit and veg market. He also recommended a good café for lunch. Armed with all this local knowledge we jumped out of his car and started sorting out the necessities of life.
At the café he had recommended we met up with Lulu and Flo and they had found the couple with the big overland truck we had met in Zambia. The six of us had lunch together chatting about our experiences on the road
James and I managed to restrict ourselves to a small toastie each as Paul had promised to take us to a great place for tandoori chicken that evening. But sadly we spoilt our good intentions with ice cream and milkshake!
Just as we were leaving the café it started to rain and as we had done three washing machine loads of laundry at Paul´s that morning, which was still hanging out on the line, we had to run back to bring it all undercover. But by the time we got there Esther had already unpegged most of it and carefully laid it out by the pool table. We really were being well looked after whilst staying here.
Paul was keen to share more local knowledge with us and suggested a trip to a local chocolate maker. We didn´t need asking twice! We all jumped into his car and drove across town to the Livy Chocolate Bar.
The owner, Naomi is a very entrepreneurial Tanzanian woman who was brought up in Yorkshire. It was quite funny to be sitting in the middle of Africa chatting to a Tanzanian with a broad Yorkshire accent. Naomi set up the chocolate factory on her own about two years ago and already sells across southern Tanzania as well as exporting to a small number of other countries.
She opened a large selection of her chocolate bars – from white chocolate with cashew nuts to dark chocolate with mint, from milk chocolate with ginger to baobab chocolate. Her range covers 35 different flavours and they are all made with locally sourced ingredients supporting local farmers.
And they tasted amazing! Despite our excessive lunch we managed to demolish at least two bars of chocolate each and walked out with armfuls of significantly more
From there we went to the tandoori chicken street café where we were served huge platefuls of the best tandoori chicken and chips we have had in a very, very long time.
We went to bed late that night, full up with chicken, chocolate, ice cream and milkshake – feeling a little sick but very much enjoying our introduction to Tanzania.
High on the successes of our first full day here we decided to make the most of the area and spend the next day seeing some local natural sights. We were up before the sun and heading off to Lake Ngosi early in the morning.
Lake Ngosi is supposed to be an amazing, crystal blue crater lake in the shape of the continent of Africa. It was a long, slow drive up steep dirt roads to the gate of the reserve surrounding this natural wonder. We parked up and headed along the footpath that would take us to the lake
Given how much rain there had been over the last few weeks, we weren´t surprised to find the path muddy and slippery. At first the sky was as clear as we could have expected at this time of year but the clouds were starting to come in
As we walked the rain started, only gently but we were getting a little wet and the path was getting more and more slippery. At one point the way was blocked by a fallen tree and we had to climb over it, getting covered in moss and slime. But eventually, after about an hour, we made it to the viewpoint.
By now we already knew the inevitable but had still held out some hope that we could see something. It was not to be, all we saw was clouds in every direction…..
Disappointed we walked the hour long trek back to Henry. Right at the very end the path sloped steeply upwards to the gate and the mud had got so slippery that I lost my footing and ended up on my hands and knees unable to find anywhere to get a grip.
We climbed back into Henry, wet and dirty, and drove an hour and a half in the other direction towards God´s Bridge, a natural rock formation across a river.
We were 7km away from our destination when we came across an incident on the road in front
Cars and lorries queued up to get past the one which had sunk, some getting stuck themselves – it was chaos.
James jumped out to see whether he could help but came back shaking his head saying it was carnage. As we waited to see what would happen a queue formed behind us and more vehicles joined the queue in the other direction. Eventually we decided that even if we managed to get round we had no idea what would happen whilst we were at God´s Bridge. If other vehicles got stuck after we´d gone we could be trapped on the wrong side with no other way through.
So with deep frustration we turned around and went back to town. We had spent over three hours in the Landrover and two hours walking and seen nothing all day!
To cheer ourselves up we bought a huge bundle of fresh, juicy carrots from a roadside stall and marvelled at the sheer number of bananas everywhere around us – it was clear what the main market was around here
The rain had really settled in by now, it was torrential, making it difficult to see the road in front – we were actually quite glad we had turned around as we could have been stuck out on the river in this
Once back in town we went straight to Vodacom who had promised the day before to fix our new wifi hotspot that hadn´t worked since the day we bought it back in the UK. When we arrived we waited for half an hour only to find it was still broken. So we went back to the chocolate bar where Naomi had promised to have new flavours of chocolate waiting for us – but Naomi wasn´t there and her staff told us that the chocolate was still not ready. We tried to buy some tonic water for our evening tipple from the local supermarket but when we got there it was closed.
It seemed like today was not going to be our day so to try and make something good from it we went back to the café where we had enjoyed lunch the day before. But today the food was soggy, the order wrong and the costs very high.
Back at Paul´s we were sure that the day had been against us right from the start – absolutely nothing had worked out. Paul was very sorry for everything and gave me a slice of his own pizza to cheer me up and challenged us to more pool. Paul and I teamed up against James and Esther. We won! Finally I managed a smile.
The next morning Paul made us a fantastic breakfast with bacon from his own butchery, eggs, sausages and bread. We hadn´t eaten this much in months and felt like we could have stayed here forever. But Tanzania is a big country and we needed to get a move on – we only had 90 days on our visas afterall.
We were generally going to be heading east and north, anticlockwise in a big circle around the country but first we headed west to the Utengula Coffee Lodge
The clouds were low and heavy but for the moment it was dry so we were keen to do their coffee tour before the rain started. It was all arranged quickly and we headed out to meet our guides at the coffee factory
The tour was fascinating. We started in the nursery where they grow their new plants
Then moved into the plantations, learning all about the different varieties of coffee
We moved to the processing plant where the beans are sorted and shelled
They were not harvesting at the moment so everything was empty and still, apparently in the main harvest season the whole ground is covered in drying beans and the machines are in constant motion.
But even so, when we looked down into the pit where the sorted beans are stored I hoped that my Mum never finds one of these in her coffee cup in the morning!
Finally we were taken up to the very posh tasting room
And shown how the coffee beans are sorted into the various grades
We were offered two different sorts of coffee to try. Sadly I´m allergic to coffee and James can´t stand it so this part didn´t go so well! James valiantly sipped a little of each option and was quite interested to find how different the varieties tasted, but most of it went to waste
Tino and Liza had been staying here for a couple of days and told us that we could stay in a self-catering bungalow for little more than the cost of camping. We found that the campsite was a bit basic whilst the bungalow was spacious and comfortable, so we treated ourselves to a night in a little house
It felt very decadent with so much space all to ourselves and the views were gorgeous
That night we cooked steak from Paul´s butchery and watched a movie in our new living room. It was dark and peaceful and we were feeling very contented. We even had a little friend to look after us in bed – waiting on the mosquito net to snap up anything that got too close!
Before leaving the next morning we spent some time chatting to Tino and Liza with Liano running around with a big grin on his face dressed as a Zulu warrior – he had borrowed various items from the security guard at the lodge
We were aiming for a farm stay that was about six hours on the other side of Mbeya so after one more night with Paul to break the journey up we started fresh and early in the morning hoping to arrive by the middle of the afternoon. But not before sorting Henry out with his obligatory monthly wash – he was starting to get a little smelly!
The traffic through the city was terrible and our first hour was frustratingly slow. Just as we thought we were coming out of the worst of it all the traffic stopped in front of us
We ended up stuck behind an accident for about two hours with the traffic gridlocked and unable to move in either direction. I honestly thought that we would be camping there all night but eventually we started moving again – slowly crawling along behind endless lorries through the mountain passes.
We finally arrived at our farm stay early in the evening, exhausted but relieved to have made it at last. We found Lulu and Flo, Quentin and the French couple with the large overland truck all at the campsite and had a little reunion.
We also met a German couple who lived in Namibia, Katerina and Ulrich, and spent the evening chatting to them about life in Namibia.
We spent three nights at the farm stay and managed to get some maintenance done on Henry as well as catching up with the blog. The campsite was lovely and the restaurant area was very comfortable.
We walked down to the farm shop twice for a delicious lunch
But it was too hot and humid to attempt the farm walk.
Lulu, Flo and Quentin left on the second day but Tino and Liza arrived with Liano. They were having some problems with their Landrover so James spent a morning underneath identifying various issues that they would need to get fixed when they arrived in Dar es Salaam.
Ulrich then came over with their broken stove and asked James if he could fix it
I had to smile, it was just like being back in West Africa when James ran surgeries where everyone on the big truck could come and get things fixed.
On our last morning I went to pay our bill and ended up spending over an hour chatting with the owner, Nicky, who told me about someone who was walking from Cape Town to eastern Russia! He is currently in Tanzania and thinks it will take him 12 years which is about how long we think it will take us to drive around the whole world – we must all be a little crazy I think…
We were on our way to the town of Iringa but stopped off at a place called Isimila first. Isimila is a site of archaeological significance as well as natural pillars which jut out of the ground a little like a smaller version of Colinas that we loved so much in Angola
It had been pouring with rain all morning so we weren´t sure whether we would be able to do the canyon walk. But just as we arrived the skies cleared and the site manager advised us that the canyon floor wasn´t too flooded at the moment – we were in luck.
As we were paying for our ticket Katerina and Ulrich arrived so we explored with them, starting with the museum of stone age tolls that had been unearthed
The canyon might not have been flooded but we still had to pick our way carefully through the water. Both James and Ulrich at some point sank in soft, deep sand up to their knees and we all got filthy
We got lost a few times and almost gave up but finally the pillars appeared and we were able to explore to our hearts content
It was well worth the effort of getting there
As we maded our way back we found evidence that we were not the only ones visiting the pillars that day!
We pressed on to the lovely town of Iringa where we had lunch at Neema Crafts. This place is run by and for disabled people. Out waiter was deaf and we had a smile and a laugh with him as his tried and tested way of taking orders went more smoothly than in most other restaurants.
As usual it was pouring down with rain but we happily waited it out eating our chicken wraps under cover of the pretty veranda
Once the rain had stopped we wandered up to an old German war cemetery but sadly the gates were closed and locked. Undeterred we headed to the Boma museum and wiled away a couple of hours learning all about the history of the area. It was a typical, small African museum – interesting but old and faded although the building itself was fabulous
We had been on our feet for too long by now so we skipped the Masaai crafts market in the park and headed straight to Mama Iringa´s restaurant.
Mama Iringa runs a well known Italian restaurant and also welcomes travellers to camp in the garden area at the back. It is the place to go for overlanders and we were looking forward to great pizza and good wine.
We were also looking forward to more good company – Tino, Liza and Liano were heading for the same place and Katerina and Ulrich were already there when we arrived
We spent a wonderful evening with everyone including a fabulous three hour dinner with real Italian wine and the best pizza we´d had in months
James and Liano were starting to bond over vampires and zombies and we were all laughing so much we didn´t get to bed until nearly midnight which is unheard of for us!
Despite the late night I was up before dawn and training as the sun came up. Life was good and I was keen not to miss a moment of it.
Iringa is a bustling town and we managed to find a large bottle store for wine and beer, a cash machine, a fuel station, a food store and a thriving fruit and vegetable market where we filled bags full of fresh food for pennies. The people were so helpful – the lady selling the avocadoes asked me when I planned to eat them and chose the best ones for me that would last a few days.
We were heading in the direction of Dar es Salaam on the coast but it was a long way and there was plenty to see before we got there.
At first we found ourselves driving out of the town along pretty mountain roads with local traffic of all shapes and sizes
But unfortunately, as we headed further out of Iringa, the only thing to see was the heaving mass of slow, crawling lorries making their way up and down the steep mountain roads
Patience was going to be our only saviour here
At one point there were baboons along the side of the road and the lorry drivers were throwing fruit to them, the baboons at least were happy about all the lorries
Once we had cleared the traffic we found ourselves driving through a beautiful baobab forest with the majestic trees spreading out on all sides of us. But by the time we had spent four tortuous hours in the Landrover we were exhausted. We pulled into a campsite on the edge of the Makumi national park tired, very hot and ready for a quiet evening
We were low down now out of the mountains so the humidity was high and the whole place was swarming with mosquitoes. Although there were some prettier flying things around
Katerina and Ulrich had beaten us to it again and Tino, Liza and Liano were only half an hour behind. But for tonight we just needed some downtime to get used to the heat again and rest our weary brains.
If the less developed southern part of Tanzania was keeping us this busy and worn out, how would we ever cope with the rest of it??
The Sidetracked Sagas 