Clive & Ann were heading the same way as us (generally) - they setoff from River Valley to go to the Tan-Swiss campsite at Mikumi while we filled with water, we were going to go to Mikumi then head south to a campsite (Hondo Hondo) just outside Udzungwa National Park. We'd heard of this campsite from a few people, Patrick and Chloe (who we'd met at Kisolanga) had warned us that maybe the entrance would be too small for our truck, but I'd called the campsite with our dimensions and been assured that it would be fine.
The road to Mikumi was quite interesting as it heads downhill from the highlands onto what is effectively the coastal plain - a lot of attractive mountain scenery with the road passing through gorges and river valleys, one of which was full of baobabs - very impressive. Other scenes along the way included a regular procession of broken down or post-accident trucks by the roadside, at one breakdown on a steep hill in the middle of nowhere a very desperate driver(?) was asking for food - he'd probably been there for days trying to repair his truck - all that we had in the cab were biscuits, so we gave him some, but they wouldn't have lasted him very long unfortunately. We caught up with Clive and Ann taking tea in a layby on the way, so stopped for a break ourselves, then caught up with them again as they struggled up a very steep hill behind an incredibly slow truck, then lost them as we turned right towards Udzangwa and they went straight on to Tan-Swiss.
We followed a good winding tar road south, entering a small town where it turned to gravel - in fact it turned to clay and boulders as roadworks had just begun and we seemed to be the first vehicle to have the pleasure to drive over their newly laid mess - it consisted of sticky clay interspersed with large stones (large as in 2 to 3 foot diameter) - so we picked our way through hoping it wouldn't be too far - it was only 500m or so, but felt longer. After this the road was generally poor to average, so we made reasonable progress to the Hondo Hondo campsite. Getting there we spotted the problem Chloe and Patrick had mentioned - they had a bamboo fence surrounding the campsite with a gate in it just a bit wider than the truck but at right angles to the entrance and with a tree leaning over it with only 2m clearance. Having confirmed that this wouldn't be a problem, we asked where the entrance for us was - the manager and his deputy indicated this gate and seemed somewhat amused by the fact that we wouldn't fit - they suggested driving the truck through the branches (and therefore damaging the solar panels and hatches on the roof) - when we asked about cutting the branches back they didn't react - we've never seen such indifference before, taking this as a bad sign for the rest of the campsite which didn't seem at all appealing, so we decided to debark back to Mikumi (oh well, only another 50km of gravel,,,,,). The manager really didn't seem perturbed by the fact that they'd made us do a 100km round trip for nothing - this is one campsite that we definitely would not recommend to anyone else travelling this way.
Back at Mikumi, we quickly found Tan-Swiss - it has a good reputation and lived up to it - the reception was very good (complementary granola juice when they saw how tired we looked!), the restaurant looked excellent and it had an air of efficiency about it. We surprised Ann & Clive who were just getting ready to eat in the restaurant, so they waited for us to settle in, get washed before we all had a meal together. They have ahd some very interesting experiences both in Africa and elsewhere, so the time passed quickly - they were considering taking a game drive into Mikumi the next day and were hoping to find someone to share the vehicle and costs with - a natural choice for us - Clive organised it all while I slaked my thirst from the day (thanks Clive!).
The road to Mikumi was quite interesting as it heads downhill from the highlands onto what is effectively the coastal plain - a lot of attractive mountain scenery with the road passing through gorges and river valleys, one of which was full of baobabs - very impressive. Other scenes along the way included a regular procession of broken down or post-accident trucks by the roadside, at one breakdown on a steep hill in the middle of nowhere a very desperate driver(?) was asking for food - he'd probably been there for days trying to repair his truck - all that we had in the cab were biscuits, so we gave him some, but they wouldn't have lasted him very long unfortunately. We caught up with Clive and Ann taking tea in a layby on the way, so stopped for a break ourselves, then caught up with them again as they struggled up a very steep hill behind an incredibly slow truck, then lost them as we turned right towards Udzangwa and they went straight on to Tan-Swiss.
We followed a good winding tar road south, entering a small town where it turned to gravel - in fact it turned to clay and boulders as roadworks had just begun and we seemed to be the first vehicle to have the pleasure to drive over their newly laid mess - it consisted of sticky clay interspersed with large stones (large as in 2 to 3 foot diameter) - so we picked our way through hoping it wouldn't be too far - it was only 500m or so, but felt longer. After this the road was generally poor to average, so we made reasonable progress to the Hondo Hondo campsite. Getting there we spotted the problem Chloe and Patrick had mentioned - they had a bamboo fence surrounding the campsite with a gate in it just a bit wider than the truck but at right angles to the entrance and with a tree leaning over it with only 2m clearance. Having confirmed that this wouldn't be a problem, we asked where the entrance for us was - the manager and his deputy indicated this gate and seemed somewhat amused by the fact that we wouldn't fit - they suggested driving the truck through the branches (and therefore damaging the solar panels and hatches on the roof) - when we asked about cutting the branches back they didn't react - we've never seen such indifference before, taking this as a bad sign for the rest of the campsite which didn't seem at all appealing, so we decided to debark back to Mikumi (oh well, only another 50km of gravel,,,,,). The manager really didn't seem perturbed by the fact that they'd made us do a 100km round trip for nothing - this is one campsite that we definitely would not recommend to anyone else travelling this way.
Back at Mikumi, we quickly found Tan-Swiss - it has a good reputation and lived up to it - the reception was very good (complementary granola juice when they saw how tired we looked!), the restaurant looked excellent and it had an air of efficiency about it. We surprised Ann & Clive who were just getting ready to eat in the restaurant, so they waited for us to settle in, get washed before we all had a meal together. They have ahd some very interesting experiences both in Africa and elsewhere, so the time passed quickly - they were considering taking a game drive into Mikumi the next day and were hoping to find someone to share the vehicle and costs with - a natural choice for us - Clive organised it all while I slaked my thirst from the day (thanks Clive!).