I couldn’t get over how good the road was down through the centre of Tanzania. On our original entry, from Mbeya to Dar Es Salam it was appalling. Maybe I’d have to take back all my curses at Tanzanian roads & drivers?
We knew there would be little camping until we got back to southern Tanzania but there are a few motels / hotels to chose from on this route. We made it to Singida on the first day – the power steering was still squirting juice every time the steering was turned and the radiator water still looks pretty greasy, but the drive was otherwise uneventful. We took a room at Aqua Vitae Resort – not sure what makes it a ‘resort’ but it certainly has a pretty unusual look…
Clean, air conditioned rooms with good showers: $25 for 2 with breakfast. The next morning, another 7-hour ‘blast’ down to Dodoma. It doesn’t seem to matter how good the road is, between vicious speed humps in villages and police roadblocks we find it impossible to average more than 50kph.
The landscape was much more interesting than we’d been lead to believe. Huge plains littered with hundreds of Baobab trees – they’re ancient (even as small as these, they’re likely to be 2-3 hundred years old)…
Boabab are surreal trees, rarely in leaf. With the Rift Valley in the background they look like someone has dug up each tree and replanted it upside down, with it’s root system in the air.
I was surprised at how much our altitude had reduced over the previous few days. We’re down to 550m now and it’s noticeably warmer. There’s no sign of water in any of the rivers. Most sandy river beds are full of people looking for drinking water by digging 2-4 meter deep holes to get to the water table.
We stayed overnight in Dodoma at VETA (Vocational Education Training Association) a motor engineering, hospitality and carpentry training charity with 400 pupils. They also run a small lodge with a nice bar / restaurant and good rooms for $18 (2 people, including breakfast).
Despite driving through the middle of nowhere for 700km, we still had to endure 8 stops by the Tanzania Police. Unfortunately (for them) in their brilliant white uniforms they stand out from quite a distance away, so we managed to avoid being fined for speeding. It still doesn’t stop them from waving the car down, checking papers and asking for some ‘lunch money’ though.
Most speed traps in Tanzania use radar guns. Their favourite trick is to stand behind a bush at the exit of a village, beside the sign showing that the 50kph limit has finished. Given that there’s nothing else on the road and the signs can be up to 2km outside the settlement area, it’s pretty inevitable that by the time you approach their trap your speed will be above 50kph.
Even the two times we were speeding (52 and 56kph) I said I didn’t have the money to pay until we found an ATM (major towns only). The statutory fine here is 30,000 Tanzanian Shillings (about $15). I gave the first guy $3 and told him I didn’t need a receipt. At the second speed trap I showed the officer I had only $1 in my pocket and told him I would pay in Iringa when I get there and get more money. He eventually let us go – I said he could have the $1 but he said “That would be a bribe” and didn’t take it. I think he meant that it wouldn’t be enough of a bribe!
As we passed through Iringa, for the first time we are back on a route that we had taken over 18 months ago our way north – the Mbeya / Dar Es Salam highway.
Suddenly I remembered what I hate about Tanzanian roads. The truck and bus drivers are maniacs – although the roads are narrow, vehicles are often three abreast as they try to overtake each other. Dirt / marram roads prevail. But there are a bunch of tar highways – they’re worse! The highways are littered with people on foot and on pushbikes and the substandard tar road surface is rutted like a bobsleigh run from the pounding of the double-articulated trucks that hammer up and down these main roads.
Car axel widths are much smaller than the trucks. Any attempt to drive over 50kph puts all four wheels into a wobble and is like steering a small boat across the wake of a supertanker. It certainly gets the heart pumping.
Throw in the corrugations; miscellaneous dogs, goats, cattle, chickens and people darting across the road; and hours of prehistoric vehicles overtaking us (swaying across the ruts) as we approach hill crests or blind bends – my fingers ached from gripping the steering wheel and my eyeballs ached from trying to watch 5 things at the same time for 6 hours.
I was pretty glad to get to The Old Farmhouse Camp for a cold beer and one of Nicki’s legendary evening meals. Not cheap at $75 for 2 including camping, but worth it as a belated birthday dinner for Helene.
It’s much colder here at night. Beautifully sunny during the day but at 1,750m altitude by midnight we needed our sleeping bags for the first time in 18months. No light pollution though so wonderful star gazing and views of The Milky Way.
To round off our stay in Tanzania we headed to Mbeya for a visit to the Mbalizi Workshop to get the car checked over after the poor job that was done in Mwanza.
The 250km took over 6 hours – including another 6 roadblocks / speed traps and our first puncture in Africa. More of a blowout really as we hit one pothole too many (sometimes you just can’t swerve round them when there’s a lunatic truck or bus coming the other way and another one overtaking you at the same time). These BFGoodrich All Terrain tyres have been really excellent. Almost 70,000km so far and they’ve had a hell of a life.
We dropped into the MVTC to make sure they had a slot to look at the car the following day…
…and then camped 10km up in the hills on the helipad (next to the volleyball & tennis court, beside the squash court!) at the Utengule Coffee Plantation. Really nice people, a good bar and – as might be expected – excellent coffee.
Bright and early the next morning we were back at the Mbalizi Vocational Training Centre workshop (MVTC). We’d had work done there going north 18 months ago and were really impressed with the whole setup.
While foreman Christopher did a quick inspection, Helene made us all a nice cup of Earl Grey tea. I think that was a first for Christopher. We had a biscuit with ours – he declined the biscuit and ate a dried fish with his Earl Grey.
As we had pulled into the workshop the previous day, our power steering failed completely. Chris & his finance director had given us a quote to replace the entire Power Steering gearbox (supposedly fixed by Schumann’s in Mwanza), flush out the whole water system (not done properly by Schumann’s) and refill all coolants & oils.
This morning Chris said he’d managed to get an original Land Rover part (brand new) cheaper than he anticipated and therefore reduced his quote by 20% to TS 2.5million ($1,000). That was made up of about $940 parts / fluids and $60 labour.
MVTC have around 100 in-house apprentices studying motor mechanics or carpentry on a 3-year course. Around 30% of them are girls. They’re there full time, boarding at the workshop and spending mornings in uniform, studying in classrooms above the work-ramps. After lunch they change into overalls and get stuck in with learning the practical side.
It really is a great setup. Chris has worked at MVTC for 29 years – since he finished his own apprenticeship here. Everyone is enthusiastic. Chris and his senior mechanics spend hours with the kids showing them how things should be done. What a totally different experience to Schumann’s Garage in Mwanza.
At one point the old, bleeding, Land Rover power-steering gearbox was discarded on the bench like a surplus body part after a transplant.
After a closer look it’s hard to believe that the previous workshop in Mwanza could have believed they had fixed it – I wonder if they actually did anything?
Replacing the power steering and removing all water hoses & and water bottles to clean & flush everything took 3 hours longer than anticipated. MVTC did everything cleanly, safely, thoroughly, right first time and stuck to their original labour estimate (after discounting the parts 20% from the original quote – that I had actually previously accepted).
Great job. Much appreciated. Can’t recommend MVTC in Mbeya highly enough.
That was almost a week ago. Since then old ‘Trigger’s Broom’ has been running pretty sweetly. We’re a bit short of time now as we have to meet pals Judith & Tamsin in Livingstone, Zambia in one week.
Not much time therefore to linger in Malawi. Fortunately the border was a breeze (no visa fees for Brits!) and the roads are quiet (the country is so poor that hardly anyone has a vehicle). It’s a beautiful drive down the lake Malawi shore.
Nevertheless, we did manage to find time to spend a couple of days at Chitimba camp, owned by Dutch couple Ed & Carmen. A great place to chill after a pretty expensive, stressful and tiring month or so.
View from The Penthouse:
