Kpaisha Hot Springs to Makumbako (Southern Tanzania) - July 5th

July 5th, 2008:

Short: Head north for the Tanzania border, Dodging fuel, Border madness, Find great insurance, Bid farewell to the Germans, Have a beer in a completely random bar, Fall asleep with a good first impression of Tanzania

Long: With typical German efficiency we managed to leave on time this morning and began driving north for the border with Tanzania. We stopped only once on the way, at Isoka, to take on some fuel. Niki and I decided to use one of the Jerry cans in order to make it to the border, while the Germans stopped at the town’s only petrol station. While the station had proper filling machines, they had stopped functioning long ago, and instead the attendant walked around the back of the station and returned with ten, one liter, water bottles filled with fuel. After a “smell test,” they emptied the bottles into the German families Mitsubishi and we were on our way. This would not be the last time we bought fuel in plastic, one liter, water bottles.

As expected, the Zambia-Tanzanian border was a chaotic muddle of trucks, workers, and government agencies. Surprisingly, we moved through the Zambian side of the border quickly, only to become bogged down on the Tanzania side with Visa and insurance issues. While our visas were being issued, I began asking around for COMESA insurance. Each country requires you to purchase additional third party insurance for anywhere from $50 to $100 dollars, but COMESA can be purchased once, and used for most eastern or southern African countries. It took almost two hours, but both Niki and I, and the German family, left the border with COMESA insurance at the same price it would have cost to purchase Tanzania third-party (We think the insurance agents probably receive more of a commission on the Tanzanian, and this is why we never saw COMESA being sold – We had to ask and prod). We hope to never have to purchase insurance again, but we are somewhat skeptical.

After paying for the visas and completing all of the paperwork, we quickly left the chaos of the border. Here are some first impressions of Tanzania: The population of Tanzania is approximately 35 million, while Zambia was approximately 11.5 million, and this increase seemed to be evident as we drove. The road from the border to Mbeya was an almost continuous string of people commuting on foot, or bike, from one village to another. The change in religion is also readily apparent, as we began to pass many mosques (Tanzania’s are approximately fifty percent Muslim). Lastly, the lower prices in Tanzania (Fuel is 2-3 times cheaper) were a welcomed relief and, after a short distance, we filled our tank and bought some snacks.

An hour of driving later we stopped in a village near Mbeya, and bid farewell to the German family. They had planned on spending a day in the Mbeya area, but both Niki and I continued north, as we are planning to meet a friend in Dar es Salaam tomorrow evening. Once again we found ourselves driving at night, but decided to stop in the town of Makumbako around 9 pm.

Makumbako is basically a truck stop between the two larger cities of Mbeya and Iringa, in southern Tanzania. We managed to make the best out of it. After driving around for a few minutes we pulled in front of a guest house with an attached bar. Finding no one at the guest house, Nikolai walked into the bar and quickly returned with the owner of the guest house and the bar. The owner seemed very happy to see us and told us we could pitch our roof-top tent in his parking lot for no fee. After parking, we joined him in his bar for a drink. The record basically stopped when we entered. It was all local people and us…the token white tourists. It was an odd scene with people sitting around in plastic chairs, drinking, and watching Animal Planet on T.V. (Yes…Random). A very cute, 2 -3 year old, kid kept walking up to me, and giving me bottle caps, while his mother drunkenly danced somewhere else in the bar. I was disappointed to see him crying later in the night as his mother tried to dance with him. Despite this one exception, everyone was well-behaved, and very nice. The owner told us his guard would be out all night, and that we were welcomed to have a shower in the morning for no charge. We were both exhausted from the drive and left the bar after one hour and fell asleep. We were awakened shortly after as alcohol-laden locals left the bar yelling and screaming at each other. We can’t complain though – We were sleeping for free, in a fairly secure location, because of the help and hospitality of a friendly local.