The loud music from the bar restarted at 6:15, however even before dawn we'd been aware of movement outside - the night watchman had been cleaning what appeared to be the owners car from 4am!
The road from Singida to Babati was prettier in general, the dry scrub changed to dark orange sand with a lot of green acacias and yellow grass. We came to the edge of an escarpment where we had long views onto an enormous plain stretching off towards the coast, we passed Mount Harang where we took a small side road looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch, but were foiled by the amount of curious people around, so we turned around and ate a bite on-the-go. Some very good new stretches of road, some old road, lots of kamikaze bus drivers (they seem to be the worst drivers in Tanzania - but they seem to get away with it most of the time as all of the wrecks that we've seen by the roadside so far have been trucks). In just 100km we were stopped by police 10 times! Every time it's "Where are you coming from? Where are you going? Why are you going there?" It'd be fine if they actually wanted to check something useful - but the incessant useless questioning - and the fact that they're obviously blissfully unaware that another 9 people are doing exactly the same job on exactly the same stretch of road (there is nowhere to turn off to) - so all that they're doing is keeping themselves occupied and slowing everyone else down.
At Babati we had difficulty finding the hotel we were aiming for (in spite of asking the last of the police roadblocks...) - when we did eventually spot the sign for it we weren't impressed - it seemed to be huddled behind a shanty-town, so we decided to press on towards Arusha knowing that when we got to Tarangire we'd be back in an area more-frequented by tourists so with hopefully more accommodation options...None of the campsites looked good or open, the last one wanted a fortune for a very poor site, so we decided to pay the extra and stay in the Roike Tarangire tented-lodge for the night. Another 15km - but now of some of the worst corrugations that we've seen since Namibia (the Namibian road builders would have been proud if they'd managed to achieve this level of corrugation-excellence!). There was a fork in the road - we followed a sign right, the corrugations improved, the track narrowed and became sandy (bliss - to be on soft sand!), the track went on, and on, and on until there was a small sign for another lodge, nothing else. We called the lodge again, they were just explain how to find them when one of their vehicles bounced up next to us - we followed him into reception few km further on.
Outside reception there were Maasai with spears and automatic rifles to greet us and take our bags (what bags? They aren't packed yet - this is our home! Obviously not been confronted by a motorhome before - what a surprise!!) The lodge was nice, but the service was, well, a bit over-the-top in that everytime you saw a member of staff (even if you'd only seen them 5 minutes ago), they had to go through "Jambo, how are you? Is everything fine?" to which you are of course expected to reply. Dinner was included - the environment was great, the service good, but very African - nothing was QUITE right - again lots of "Is everything ok?" from several people throughout dinner....Even the room was "not quite right" - there were 2 double beds, both with mosquito nets, but the lovely wood carved with buffalo heads supporting one of the nets was literally falling off - but as it's Africa - if one bed still works, then that's fine! It was fine for us, but I expect that this sort of thing must be a bit of a surprise for some high-paying "safari guests"!
Sue's back has started to give her problems - the corrugations coupled with some long drives over the last few days have taken their toll. Luckily the bed was comfortable.
The road from Singida to Babati was prettier in general, the dry scrub changed to dark orange sand with a lot of green acacias and yellow grass. We came to the edge of an escarpment where we had long views onto an enormous plain stretching off towards the coast, we passed Mount Harang where we took a small side road looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch, but were foiled by the amount of curious people around, so we turned around and ate a bite on-the-go. Some very good new stretches of road, some old road, lots of kamikaze bus drivers (they seem to be the worst drivers in Tanzania - but they seem to get away with it most of the time as all of the wrecks that we've seen by the roadside so far have been trucks). In just 100km we were stopped by police 10 times! Every time it's "Where are you coming from? Where are you going? Why are you going there?" It'd be fine if they actually wanted to check something useful - but the incessant useless questioning - and the fact that they're obviously blissfully unaware that another 9 people are doing exactly the same job on exactly the same stretch of road (there is nowhere to turn off to) - so all that they're doing is keeping themselves occupied and slowing everyone else down.
At Babati we had difficulty finding the hotel we were aiming for (in spite of asking the last of the police roadblocks...) - when we did eventually spot the sign for it we weren't impressed - it seemed to be huddled behind a shanty-town, so we decided to press on towards Arusha knowing that when we got to Tarangire we'd be back in an area more-frequented by tourists so with hopefully more accommodation options...None of the campsites looked good or open, the last one wanted a fortune for a very poor site, so we decided to pay the extra and stay in the Roike Tarangire tented-lodge for the night. Another 15km - but now of some of the worst corrugations that we've seen since Namibia (the Namibian road builders would have been proud if they'd managed to achieve this level of corrugation-excellence!). There was a fork in the road - we followed a sign right, the corrugations improved, the track narrowed and became sandy (bliss - to be on soft sand!), the track went on, and on, and on until there was a small sign for another lodge, nothing else. We called the lodge again, they were just explain how to find them when one of their vehicles bounced up next to us - we followed him into reception few km further on.
Outside reception there were Maasai with spears and automatic rifles to greet us and take our bags (what bags? They aren't packed yet - this is our home! Obviously not been confronted by a motorhome before - what a surprise!!) The lodge was nice, but the service was, well, a bit over-the-top in that everytime you saw a member of staff (even if you'd only seen them 5 minutes ago), they had to go through "Jambo, how are you? Is everything fine?" to which you are of course expected to reply. Dinner was included - the environment was great, the service good, but very African - nothing was QUITE right - again lots of "Is everything ok?" from several people throughout dinner....Even the room was "not quite right" - there were 2 double beds, both with mosquito nets, but the lovely wood carved with buffalo heads supporting one of the nets was literally falling off - but as it's Africa - if one bed still works, then that's fine! It was fine for us, but I expect that this sort of thing must be a bit of a surprise for some high-paying "safari guests"!
Sue's back has started to give her problems - the corrugations coupled with some long drives over the last few days have taken their toll. Luckily the bed was comfortable.