On Wednesday we left Karonga for Tanzania. We'd been informed that the campsite near Mbeya wasn't as good as we'd hoped, so we decided to make a short hop over the border to a campsite near Tukuyu. Between the Karonga and the Malawian side of the border we were stopped by police 4 times - did we have our passports? did we have a fire extinguisher? Did we have this? Did we have that? At no point did they actually check!At the entrance to the border post a guy approached us - "I run the insurance office on the Tanzanian side, I will see you there" - actually he followed us through the formalities on both sides! The Malawian side was straightforward - a guy came and took our road tax receipt, we filled out the emigration forms, passports stamped, carnet stamped and off we went - oh, we filled in the famous "vehicle register" - there were two of them to do for some reason....As soon as we got to the bridge that marks the actual border, the road was full of touts and motorcycle taxis - this is a big change from Malawi where most local taxis are bicycles. Lots of people offering to change money - these guys all try to rip you off somehow, so as Richard and Sophie had already been through here and had told us that there was an ATM at the border (this I think is a first for us to see in Africa - but why on earth all countries don't do it is a mystery - it would avoid the need to use touts and therefore clean up the act and improve their image), we ignored them.
Immigration - pay for visas - they gave us 90 days and clearly explained that they acted as "multiple entry" visas so long as we didn't come back in from outside of "East Africa" - he stressed this, and stressed even more that going to and from Zanzibar would therefore be free - very good of him as we've heard tales of people being charged extra by touts "for visas" when coming back from Zanzibar. Off to customs for the carnet - here we had to pay road tax ($20 per month for the time we were going to be in country - only problem being that we didn't know how long to ask for! So we decided to take 2 months) and "fuel levy ($5 one-off, which I really don't mind as fuel here is so much cheaper than Zambia or Malawi that we'll get this back in our first top-up!). Mr Insurance was following us through all these steps, so I asked him how much insurance was going to cost as I wanted to get cash out of the ATM. He wouldn't say - "oh, there are too many variables...we'll have to see in the office". So we left him and went to find the ATM - just in front of it was a kiosk advertising "insurance" - but no-one was there - just next to it was a bank advertising insurance - but they patently didn't have a clue! So we got cash and drove to the exit gate where Mr Insurance was waiting for us! The police man on the exit gate filled in the famous vehicle register for us (this was a first) - but he was obviously totally stoned!
Off to Mr Insurance's office - it was a "hole in the wall" with 3 guys in it - very uncomfortable and not at all inspiring. At this point he explained that insurance would cost 30TSh per engine cc - why he couldn't have told us this in the border area I don't know - that works out at 171000TSh for 3 months. That's a lot more than all other countries so far (except Malawi) - maybe an indication of Tanzanian roads? We explained that it was too much (remembering Ellen's achievement on entering Malawi), after much leaving the office, walking around, talking to other people (touts etc), we finally got him to come down to 125000TSh - more like it, but still more than most countries, so paid up, thanked them and got them to help us buy some chips from a stall for the road - one of the issues with Tz is going to be that very few people speak anything other than English. Getting back to the truck, one of the touts who had been trying to get us to change money suddenly became a SIM card salesman - $5 for a SIM which should cost $1 - we turned him down - more of this later!
Off we went munching our chips - to the first fuel station where we effectively recouped our $5, then on to Tukuyu. the road climbed and climbed and climbed - from about 500m at the border/lake to over 1500m at Tukuyu - the scenery was stunning with green, lush, rolling hills everywhere and vistas that made the whole border process seem worthwhile. Tukuyu is a very busy little town - lots and lots of fruit and veggies for sale - bananas everywhere - lots of motorcycle taxis flying around and people all over the place - we were glad that the campsite was a bit further. Bongo Camping(!) is down a very narrow track, but not too bad - when we got there a group of girls welcomed us warmly (Sue had been practising Swahili welcomes on the way from the border - so we were sort of prepared), some spoke a little English, and we settled in for the night. The campsite is very green, the area quite rural, but instead of being quiet it seemed as if it was being used as a bit of a community centre for the locals - so a lot of coming and going, we seemed to be the attraction for the evening, so felt as if we were in a goldfish bowl! We bought some drinks from the campsite, but as the beer was warm we popped it into the fridge and drank the cold one that was already in there. The air up here is so cool and clear compared to the lake - so we slept well.
Next day we got ready for an early start as we had 320km to cover to Kisalanza near Iringa - quite a distance for us! It seemed that everyone was there early - lots of very young school children had arrived - it seems as if they hold classes there. Farewells were made, photos taken, and they asked us for the empty beer bottle back! It seems that there are hefty deposits in Tz - so we gave the full bottle back and they returned the money!
Further up we went - the scenery becoming alpine with pine forests on the hills and fields in the valleys - we went through a village where carrots were for sale by the side of the road (surprise!) - then suddenly we were going downhill - more and more - there were overturned trucks by the side of the road on corners, and trucks going downhill at almost zero speed, obviously fearful of meeting the same fate! At the bottom, just as we entered a small town, there was a freshly overturned truck with it's contents visible through a large gash and lots of people gathering - it had almost hit a house.....
Just around the corner was a weighbridge - we usually just drive up - tell them that we're not "commercial" and they wave us on - not here - they wanted to weigh us. We acted dumb, created some delays, but they still wanted to weigh us...so weigh us they did - we weren't full of water or diesel but were well within our limit (although I could ascribe that to the fact that I got Sue to get out to talk to the officials....!!). We joined the main road from Dar Es Salaam to Zambia and headed East once more. Lots of trucks and coaches thundering along - lots of police, lots of villages with roadblocks and harsh speed bumps - we weren't making fast progress today. More dead trucks - one was across almost the entire road in front of us having jack-knifed, edging round it there was another on it's side with people reaching in through the cab windows taking things out (salvaging or looting?).
We finally got to Makambako which was a town that we had earmarked as a possible emergency stop in case progress wasn't sufficient - it was a bit of a mess, so we got fuel and went looking for a SIM card for the phone. Lots of shops/kiosks with Airtel and/or Vodacom signs outside - but none selling SIM cards (or able to communicate) - eventually, on the point of giving up (after maybe an hour) we found 3 guys under an umbrella selling SIM cards....apparently this is how it's done in Tanzania! Sorted we continued - the road got slowly worse - the scenery by now was dry and arid again, until suddenly we were traversing an immense plantation of pines and eucalyptus - not very "African"! Finally, after hours on poor roads we got to a town which marked the start of a beautiful new road built with Danish and Dutch money (thanks guys!) - rarely have we seen such a good road - even in Europe - this led us almost to the front door of Kisalonga.....
Immigration - pay for visas - they gave us 90 days and clearly explained that they acted as "multiple entry" visas so long as we didn't come back in from outside of "East Africa" - he stressed this, and stressed even more that going to and from Zanzibar would therefore be free - very good of him as we've heard tales of people being charged extra by touts "for visas" when coming back from Zanzibar. Off to customs for the carnet - here we had to pay road tax ($20 per month for the time we were going to be in country - only problem being that we didn't know how long to ask for! So we decided to take 2 months) and "fuel levy ($5 one-off, which I really don't mind as fuel here is so much cheaper than Zambia or Malawi that we'll get this back in our first top-up!). Mr Insurance was following us through all these steps, so I asked him how much insurance was going to cost as I wanted to get cash out of the ATM. He wouldn't say - "oh, there are too many variables...we'll have to see in the office". So we left him and went to find the ATM - just in front of it was a kiosk advertising "insurance" - but no-one was there - just next to it was a bank advertising insurance - but they patently didn't have a clue! So we got cash and drove to the exit gate where Mr Insurance was waiting for us! The police man on the exit gate filled in the famous vehicle register for us (this was a first) - but he was obviously totally stoned!
Off to Mr Insurance's office - it was a "hole in the wall" with 3 guys in it - very uncomfortable and not at all inspiring. At this point he explained that insurance would cost 30TSh per engine cc - why he couldn't have told us this in the border area I don't know - that works out at 171000TSh for 3 months. That's a lot more than all other countries so far (except Malawi) - maybe an indication of Tanzanian roads? We explained that it was too much (remembering Ellen's achievement on entering Malawi), after much leaving the office, walking around, talking to other people (touts etc), we finally got him to come down to 125000TSh - more like it, but still more than most countries, so paid up, thanked them and got them to help us buy some chips from a stall for the road - one of the issues with Tz is going to be that very few people speak anything other than English. Getting back to the truck, one of the touts who had been trying to get us to change money suddenly became a SIM card salesman - $5 for a SIM which should cost $1 - we turned him down - more of this later!
Off we went munching our chips - to the first fuel station where we effectively recouped our $5, then on to Tukuyu. the road climbed and climbed and climbed - from about 500m at the border/lake to over 1500m at Tukuyu - the scenery was stunning with green, lush, rolling hills everywhere and vistas that made the whole border process seem worthwhile. Tukuyu is a very busy little town - lots and lots of fruit and veggies for sale - bananas everywhere - lots of motorcycle taxis flying around and people all over the place - we were glad that the campsite was a bit further. Bongo Camping(!) is down a very narrow track, but not too bad - when we got there a group of girls welcomed us warmly (Sue had been practising Swahili welcomes on the way from the border - so we were sort of prepared), some spoke a little English, and we settled in for the night. The campsite is very green, the area quite rural, but instead of being quiet it seemed as if it was being used as a bit of a community centre for the locals - so a lot of coming and going, we seemed to be the attraction for the evening, so felt as if we were in a goldfish bowl! We bought some drinks from the campsite, but as the beer was warm we popped it into the fridge and drank the cold one that was already in there. The air up here is so cool and clear compared to the lake - so we slept well.
Next day we got ready for an early start as we had 320km to cover to Kisalanza near Iringa - quite a distance for us! It seemed that everyone was there early - lots of very young school children had arrived - it seems as if they hold classes there. Farewells were made, photos taken, and they asked us for the empty beer bottle back! It seems that there are hefty deposits in Tz - so we gave the full bottle back and they returned the money!
Further up we went - the scenery becoming alpine with pine forests on the hills and fields in the valleys - we went through a village where carrots were for sale by the side of the road (surprise!) - then suddenly we were going downhill - more and more - there were overturned trucks by the side of the road on corners, and trucks going downhill at almost zero speed, obviously fearful of meeting the same fate! At the bottom, just as we entered a small town, there was a freshly overturned truck with it's contents visible through a large gash and lots of people gathering - it had almost hit a house.....
Just around the corner was a weighbridge - we usually just drive up - tell them that we're not "commercial" and they wave us on - not here - they wanted to weigh us. We acted dumb, created some delays, but they still wanted to weigh us...so weigh us they did - we weren't full of water or diesel but were well within our limit (although I could ascribe that to the fact that I got Sue to get out to talk to the officials....!!). We joined the main road from Dar Es Salaam to Zambia and headed East once more. Lots of trucks and coaches thundering along - lots of police, lots of villages with roadblocks and harsh speed bumps - we weren't making fast progress today. More dead trucks - one was across almost the entire road in front of us having jack-knifed, edging round it there was another on it's side with people reaching in through the cab windows taking things out (salvaging or looting?).
We finally got to Makambako which was a town that we had earmarked as a possible emergency stop in case progress wasn't sufficient - it was a bit of a mess, so we got fuel and went looking for a SIM card for the phone. Lots of shops/kiosks with Airtel and/or Vodacom signs outside - but none selling SIM cards (or able to communicate) - eventually, on the point of giving up (after maybe an hour) we found 3 guys under an umbrella selling SIM cards....apparently this is how it's done in Tanzania! Sorted we continued - the road got slowly worse - the scenery by now was dry and arid again, until suddenly we were traversing an immense plantation of pines and eucalyptus - not very "African"! Finally, after hours on poor roads we got to a town which marked the start of a beautiful new road built with Danish and Dutch money (thanks guys!) - rarely have we seen such a good road - even in Europe - this led us almost to the front door of Kisalonga.....