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West Tanzania

Entry 8 : Into Tanzania, and up the B8 with our piki-piki (one description for motorcycle in Swahili, whether a 50cc scooter or a 1200cc BMW). What an experience!

Tanzania didn't start good for me - no sooner had I gotten my passport stamped, when my camera dropped onto the tile floor and shattered the LCD display! I had to get my Carne de Passage filled out, and somehow the camera strap got hooked up in my documents folder, and as I removed the folder, the camera slipped out of it's own protective case, out of the tank bag and straight onto the floor. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper... but there's nothing I can do about that.. so, from now on, you will probably get less zoom (as I cannot frame the subject) and poorer framing of the picture in general... But while traveling you make do with what you have!
Our first night in Tanzania was in Tunduma which is a border town to Zambia. The GPS points-of-interest got a little confused, and it couldn't direct us to either of the two places to stay over.. there is no campsite within 100miles this side of the border, that we know of... We drove through the town, trying to miss all the 3-wheeled scooter taxis, while looking for a suitable place to stay.  Eventually we picked the newest and nicest sign and followed it to to the Silver Stone Hotel. It was new, well maintained, seemed clean and above all had secure parking for our bikes!
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We had a couple of local cold ones on the terrace and Kobus insisted we try the soup they were serving. It was a meat broth served with a boiled potato and fried banana on the side... I didn't recognize 90% of the "meat" and it certainly didn't come from any animal or at least part of an animal that I was accustomed to eating... but, I'm still breathing ;-)
The menu alone is a good reason to visit the hotel. Deciphering it is a challenge in itself. From "Scrumber eggs" under the "break fast" section, (Scrambled Eggs), "Freid Fish" and "Paper steak". For me the evening ended at 1am, when I eventually convinced myself that I was not going to get any sleep without my earplugs because the local disco was in the building next door. It was Friday night and I think they were aiming for sunrise!
The next morning we headed out to Sumbawanga, the first stretch of our B8 experience.. and what an experience it was going to be! The B8, although not tarred is one of Tanzania's main roads, and pretty much the only major road connecting the south to the north-west of Tanzania. We had received a lot of mixed information about this stretch of road, ranging from "ok if you go slow" to "you better not get caught there in the rainy season - trucks and buses get stuck for days.." From what we could tell the rainy season in the south and south-west is January to March, and it hasn't rained significantly for almost 4 weeks now (according to the locals), so we should be ok...
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The first 10 or 20km were average for a deteriorated, heavily used road, and once you understood the rules of the road (rule 1: the larger/heavier object has right of way - get out of its way fast!) The trucks and busses, mostly overloaded, drive in the middle of the road. The road falls away sharply to both sides (in an attempt to channel water away from the middle section of the road), and the overloaded trucks and buses might fall over, hence they won't move to either side!
Then the fun began... the potholes got more frequent, until soon it was impossible to pick a line between the potholes - there just simply are too many and they are all connected to each other.. you end up slowing down (20-30km/h) and picking the best line you can... and this goes on for 180km! Then 7.5 hours later, you reach Sumbawanga... Physically and mentally I was drained. I honestly didn't think either of the bikes could withstand 3 days of this. Most certainly, mechanically something was going to fail catastrophically!
As if the road knew my state of mind, the following day, from Sumbawanga to just north of the Katavi National Park, was a great piece of road - Four hours after setting of, we completed our 206km journey for the day, and that included the last 50km through the park, where we must have averaged 30km/h, trying to spot as much game as we could (the tall grass after the rain season makes this really difficult).
We camped on the border of the Katavi park at the River Side Camp. As the name suggests, the campsite is right by the river (directly behind the little grass roofed sunshade.  We counted 6 hippo in the water on the bank directly opposite the campsite. The owner, Juma, said they were used to humans and were friendly hippos!
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We didn't sleep all that well that evening. We were awakened by the hippo marking their territory... right next to our tents and bikes! I'm talking 1 and 2 meters here, strolling though the camp site and between tents and bikes right by us!
Katavi National park is rumored to be one of Tanzania's hidden treasures, which is one of the reasons why Kobus wanted to come up this way. The previous evening we had arranged a safari with Juma for the following day. He knows the park very well, and has extensive knowledge of the animals. Buffalo, hippo, zebras, impala and giraffe are present in great numbers, and herds can easily be several hundred for zebra and buffalo!
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We were VERY lucky to spot a lioness in the tall grass. She was lying just shy of this large herd of buffalo.
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Ever heard of a saussage tree? Wonder why it's called that?
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The following day we set of, through Mpanda, to Kigoma. We didn't know whether we would make Kigoma - that would depend on the road condition, but if it was anything like the previous day, we would reach Kigoma with plenty of daylight to spare... Surprise! Once we headed north of Mpanda, we were not sure whether we were on the right road - but it was the only one on the GPS! the road surface was good at times, but quickly and without warning deteriorated into anything from patches to long stretches of thick sand, dried mud ruts, marbles... you name it, we had it! The 180km stretch from Mpanda to Uvinza took us the better part of 7 hours.
It is a very scenic route - when you have a moment to spare to glance at the forest or over the valleys - then all your focus shifts to the road surface again...
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Then you get the leftovers of the rainy season, the mud ruts - sometimes nice and hard in the track, and sometimes like thick tulcan powder...
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Within the first 50km north of Mpanda, we stopped several times, just to confirm that we indeed were on the correct road... the B8, the MAJOR MAIN road between the south and the nort-west! At times the road became single track through the forests. This was also very remote and isolated. Where in the past days we always had locals walking or on bicycles along the road, and never more than 5-10km between little mud-housed villages, we now were completely alone - no people, no animals and no villages... really a strange feeling. Somewhat Jurrasic park! At other times, there were improvised changes to the road, rocks placed in large ruts, or diversions as the real road was definitely impassible. Here is a section that is as broad as a car and has a 1meter vertical rock section on the one side (to the right - unfortunately photo's just can't do this any justice)... how cars get up here I have no idea!
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And then followed the sandy stretches... for miles on end...sometimes 2-track and other times just plain thick sand... Here we are passing a truck that got stuck...
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Now we understood why we had only come across 3 vehicles on the hole stretch (besides this truck) and all three of them were Landcruisers!
We eventually reached Uvinza and decided to find a place to sleep over... and tackle the remainder of the road to Kigoma in the morning - who knows what surprises that stretch would hold, and we definitely did not want to get caught on the road at dusk, or even worse, at night! Uvinza is pretty remote - don't believe the big dot on the map! No electricity, no running water and here is the only place you can buy fuel.. by the liter... spot the bottles! This is Africa!
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Finally we reached Kigoma and lake Tanganyika - who said a desk job cannot be rewarding!
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And of course the customary African sunset! This is the sunset over lake Tanganyika as seen from Kigoma (the opposite shoreline is the DRC).

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Next up: Burundi and Rwanda!