Hakuna Matata...

02/06/10

One of the many varied faces of Tanzania

It has been 5 days since I’ve had time to write. The best time for doing that is when we’re sitting on the bus and we haven’t done that in a while. The mountains of Malawi and Tanzania have officially killed Benji. Even the mechanics at Mercedes in Dar Es Salam haven’t been able to fix it. After we left on the Romping Rocket minibus they managed to fix ii briefly before it broke down on a main road running right through the centre of a game park. With the help of lots of friendly villagers they got themselves to Dar and into the Mercedes workshop. Apparently it’s common for vehicles to go into African workshops and come out having had all the good parts discreetly stolen and replaced with older ones. At Mercedes every time either John or Ebron went into the workshop they got patted down on the way out. We had to stop off there and collect our tents and say an early goodbye to two thirds of our crew. They have to stay with the truck while Gareth carries on with us. It is up to them to get the truck ready for its longer and more challenging return journey.

Tanzania is an incredible place. It really is the Africa I’ve always imagined. With Mt Kilimajaro and the Serngetti planes, it has dramatic and majestic mountains that skirt the edges of flat and fertile grasslands. This is Lion King country. The people here seem more proud and confident than others when faced with a bus full of mazungus (white people). Brightly dressed women in head scarves carry heavy loads on their heads, Masai tribesmen with varieties of rich red cloth draped around them sit and laugh on their mobile phones with trainers on, holding their spears at their sides. The women here are beautiful. Tall, graceful and elegent. As well as the bright wraps many of them wear long black dresses and full headdresses. These plain outfits are surprisingly flattering, with only dark kohl rimmed eyes to be seen.

Some of the amazing beach scenes on Zanzibar

 
As well as ‘Lion King Country’, Tanzania has huge variety in landscape. We have just driven through an area that was pure ‘Hawaii’. Sharp mountains covered in lush vegetation plunging to a palm tree forest floor. Then there is Zanzibar, the feather in the cap, adding floury powder white beaches and turquoise crystal wasters to Tanzania’s tourist pulling repertoire. Zanzibar has the best of many worlds. It has the beauty of the Caribbean, the style of Morocco, and the laid back attitude of Africa. The locals greet all with ‘Jambo’ and give up on sales pitch hastles with relative ease, leaving you with ‘hakuna matata’. It is a stunning stunning place and I can’t wait to go back for a week of chill at the end of the tour.

The only bad thing about Zanzibar was the return ferry trip to the mainland. Got so seasick that my arms cramped up, my jaw started to lock and my hands went green. Glad to be away from the boat and back on a bus, even if it’s 5.30 pm and we’ve still got 300km to go.

Death of Benji...

28/05/10

The next day... We have travelled 35 km in 5 hours. We have stopped and started again 5 times. It is 3.30 and we have 350 km to go today. An integral part of the engine has just been sent off in a public minibus full of strangers to be fixed and returned on a later bus. Our guide and chef hiked off up the road hours ago to hitch into the next town and find us alternative transport. Not only do we need to get 350 km to our next camp, but we also need to make it the 600 km to Dar Es Salam tomorrow. We have packed our bags and are leaving John and the truck. We have spent the last nine days breaking down, sitting around at the roadside, leaving in the dark, arriving in the dark, and basically trying to keep calm in the frustration of the journey. The aim of the trip has changed. We are no longer trying to spot wildlife and experience African culture, we are simply trying to carry a broken truck across a very large continent.
….
It’s 10.30. Another long, long day. Just arrived in camp. Not the camp we were supposed to sleep at mind. It’s not the camp where we had a meal prepared and waiting for us. That camp is some 70 km back in the other direction and we passed it about 2 hours ago, where hopefully the staff have now had a nice bonus meal that they had ready prepared for us no shows. How nice it would have been to stop at 8.30, eat and get an early night. Instead we have to arrive at an unknown camp, wake the owners, and pray they have rooms or set tents. We are now ‘travelling light’ and have left our tents on the bus.
We left our Benji the truck at 4.30, having managed 30 km of our 390 km day. Gareth commandeered a big minibus to take us and all our stuff the next 900 km to Dar Es Salam. Dan quickly named our new minibus the ‘romping rocket’. It is manned by to locals who drive it at breakneck speed with African music blaring out and drowning any possible conversation. With another great African sunset behind us and the most incredibly vast full moon rising in a lilac sky to the right of us, it feels like we’re really doing it African style. To be fair though, our bus is built for 26 people, and there are only 12 of us on it. To do it African style we’d need at least 60 more people on here. Earlier Gareth and Ebron the chef stopped a minibus on it’s way into town. Much to their disbelieve they were herded onto a 12 seater bus that held 30 people for the 20km ride into the next town. As Busman told us all those weeks ago in Namibia “In Africa a vehicle is never full”.
Today has been the most testing day of the journey. Sitting at a roadside for over 6 hours, being subjected to ‘Heal the World’ and ‘Words’ blasting out on a loop for 6 hours (bad dated western music soon replaced the African music), getting lost in the dark and wasting 2 more hours, and having to say goodbye indefinitely to two of our three crew. I never considered for a moment that I would be the first to flip out on the trip, but today I came really close. Frustrations are running so high that even Dan, our most optimistic traveler became despondent. 600 km day tomorrow.

There has been no photo taking on this part of the trip.