We only had a day before our Malawi Visas expired, so drove 160km north up the lake to the Songwe Bridge border with Tanzania. A good road, but pretty slow due to the heavy rain and a number of slow trucks.
Arriving at the border at noon (usually the worst time of day) we got our Carnet stamped out and passports checked on the Malawi side within about 15 minutes. We also changed money at a small Forex booth just through the Malawi side of the crossing, having been told by many people not to use the money-changers on the bridge because “they know a hundred ways to rip you off”.
The Tanzania side of the border was more chaotic, but still friendly and only took about 1 hour.
$50 each for a 90-day Tanzania visa at the first booth,
Then the Carnet stamped at the second booth to allow the car in ($20 import duty, even though the Carnet is recognised), plus $5 for Road / Fuel Duty.
All paid in US$ only.
I gave the cashier a $50 note for the Carnet & Fuel Duty, got receipts for the $20 & $5 and got $20 change.
“I should have another $5” I told her.
“No”, she said, smiling broadly.
“Yes, I gave you $50 and you only gave me $20 change. What is the other $5 for?”
“It is for me” she grinned
“Can I have a receipt then please?”
“No you can’t. I don’t have any change and I cannot open the safe for another 6 hours”
Oh well, you live and (hopefully) learn.
Top Tip: When you pay in US$, have the correct money ready in small notes.
On the plus side, just outside the border I managed to finally buy 90-days COMESA insurance, which should mean that we don’t need to buy local 3rd-party vehicle insurance at the next few borders.
The guy in the insurance booth also back-dated it a few days so that I didn’t need to also buy Tanzania Insurance and the COMESA would cover me here. They started out quoting 200,000 Tanzanian Shillings but I managed to get them down to 120,000 (£43 /$70) and saved the normal $20 Tanzania 3rd-party insurance cost.
Top Tip: National 3rd-party Insurance costs are fixed. COMESA costs don’t seem to be. They will charge what they can get away with. Negotiate.
Over the border, Mbeya is the next town of any scale, where we were heading to get the car fixed. Its 120km on a tar road that is endlessly rutted with the weight of the trucks climbing the hills. The ruts are like the tracks on an olympic ski-jump and if you lose concentration they can throw the car into a major tank-slapper. We saw at least 5 trucks turned over on their side.
It didn’t help that it rained heavily and constantly as we climbed from 450m altitude at the lake to 2,260m at the top of the pass.
If the weather had been better, it would have been a very scenic drive through numerous Rongwe Tea plantations and small terraced subsistence farms.
The workshop we had heard about was run by the Karibuni Mission and based about 20km North West of Mbeya. That gave us a chance to camp at Utengule, a coffee plantation owned by a Swiss couple up in the hills. A nice place, with a good bar, friendly staff and a good restaurant (but not cheap, $25 each for dinner).
It was only spoilt by a table of 3 middle-aged guys (American, German & S African) bragging about how they had set up an NGO locally to promote safe sex to men. Their whole marketing stance was that sex is fun, men should go out and have as much as you like, whenever you like, just wear a condom. As a result they were making a fortune selling their new brand of condoms and spent much of their time “surrounded by beautiful women for all the advertising campaigns“. If they paid any attention to the rape statistics in Africa (in & out of marriage) they may not have been so blasé.
Dickheads.
We camped on the Helipad on the edge of the hill. Not much in the way of campers’ facilities though. There’s only 1 shower and 1 toilet – both of which are in the squash court (yes, there’s a squash court: in the middle of nowhere).
Excellent view from The Penthouse at dusk though.
The next morning we were at Karibuni Mission Garage in Mbelizi around 10am. Quite a big setup, with 10 ramps / inspection pits, a Chapel, classrooms for the mechanics that they train, mission offices and a carpentry school.
They took the Vac Pump apart and said that it was damaged to the point that any repair may not last.
Fortunately they had a new one in stock and could fit it while we waited. Their quote was 410,000 TSH (£160 / $250) for the part and 95,000 TSH labour to fit it (including greasing the props and cleaning the engine).
Four hours later the new pump was on, engine cleaned up, a new bracket made and welded for an exhaust clamp that had been broken for some time, the reversing light (that I was fined for in Malawi) replaced, the top cover of the engine removed and a new gasket fitted.
Parts cost had gone up by a massive (!) £20 and the labour price didn’t increase at all (£38). Seemed to be a really thorough job and Christopher and his team really seemed to know what they were about.
The garage is a large and inspiring setup, run in order to finance the Kibuni Mission Hospital in Mbeya and also the training schools they run for mechanic and carpentry apprentices at the workshops themselves.
All morning, 30-40 teenage boys (and girls) sit in the classrooms above the workshops at the MVTC (Mbelizi Vocational Training Centre). After lunch they change out of their immaculate school uniforms into overalls and crowd round any cars in the shop to gain as much practical teaching as they can.
This probably meant our car took an hour longer than necessary to fix, but I didn’t mind in the slightest – a really worthy cause.
Besides, how often are they going to to get the chance to see what a properly rusty vehicle looks like!
That evening we went to the Kibuni Mission Camp (yes, run by the same people as the workshop and the hospital) in Mbeya town itself. The camping area is really just their carpark. After we found out that they let a massive, rough-looking guard dog out after 11am (making night-time toilet trips a bit of an assault course) we decided to take one of their simple, clean rooms (with an en-suite) for only 30,000 TSH (about £11 / $18).
Bargain – plus at this altitude its pretty cold, it’s still raining and my leg hurts like hell. Decision made.
The other decision we made was that we were going to head east to Iringa and, from there either north to Dodoma or further east towards Dar Es Salaam. We would have liked to have gone directly north up the side of Lake Tanganyika, but after weeks of rain, all the local reports are that some bridges are out and the road will be impassable for at least another 2-3 weeks.
Fortunately the road to Iringa took us through some interesting little towns…
…and some scenic countryside.
Unfortunately, although it is a long, straight, tar road, the speed limit within a couple of miles of every one of the numerous villages is 50kph at best and, in some areas 30kph (19mph). The speed bumps are so vicious (even on uphill sections!) that anything above second gear will shake bits off the car.
We went through at least a dozen speed traps.
Actually that’s not quite accurate. We went through most of them: at 2 of them we didn’t get through and twice within 100km I was fined 30,000TSH.
Eventually we drove into Iringa looking for fuel (and more cash). In the centre of town we were pulled over again by another group of police who, this time, wanted to fine me another 30,000TSH for having a cracked windscreen.
Given that we’d spent most of the day driving past cars and trucks with lights missing, odd wheels, bald tyres and chassis so crooked they drove down the road sideways like crabs on a beach, I said “no, I’m not paying“.
“You must pay, your car is defective.” the officer said.
“No, one of your bloody lunatic busses hurtling past us at 50kph over the speed limit smashed this windscreen yesterday.” I said. “There is nowhere here I can fix it so I am going to Dar Es Salaam to get it replaced. You can’t fine me just because I can’t fix it right this minute”.
“Yes I can, you must pay”.
“No. I will not.”
“Look, just pay the fine, then you can go”.
“No. I want to go to the Police Station and see the senior officer. This is unreasonable. If I had just had a car accident, would you fine me because my car had been damaged?”
The officer and his 3 pals took my license, jumped into his car and we followed them to the Iringa Police HQ.
After 30 minutes explaining the situation to the senior officer, he sent his chief mechanic to look at the car.
That got me a bit concerned – what else would they find?
“No, you must pay. The car is defective under section 36a and 43c. If you had a problem with the windscreen you should have reported it to the police and got a note from them stating that you were on your way to fix it.”
I showed him on his list that 36a was ‘Bald Tyres’ and 43c was ‘Defective Lights’.
“Look“, I said, “I’ve been stopped twice for speeding on the way here. Neither officer was concerned about the windscreen, so the Police know all about it.”
That tickled them no end.
A lot of laughing amongst themselves and finally one of them said “You may go Mr Unlucky Mzungu. I think you have seen enough of the Police for a while.”
I didn’t need telling twice. Into the car, and out of town as quickly (under the speed limit) as possible.