070421 Mtwari

Saturday 21st April 2007 TenDegreesSouth
We realized that most of the trees around the villages were huge old cashew nut trees which were not in flower at this time of the year, but produce around December. There were hundreds of kilometers of cashew nuts planted in rows that at one time must have been very organized, and the locals must still be getting a significant income from the trees.
In some parts the trees are very well tended and have been hoed underneath The trees look indigenous and the locals have not allowed the indigenous bushes to grow back and smother them. The man villages we passed through look very poor and the locals seem to eke out a living with maize, cassava, bananas, cashews and citrus.
We saw some scrawny cattle which look small Nguni type with not much colour which do not look like they are thriving.
We wasted some time and distance today because Brian decided he wanted to spend two days in Lindi, then go south and spend two days in Mtwara. Lindi was a busy town, but very African, and there was really nowhere that we were prepared to stay the night. It gave the impression of being dirty and we would rather have spent a night in another bush camp. The girls are starting to get agitated with not being able to wash clothes because we have spent so many nights in the bush, so are needing to find a place to wash and dry laundry. So my Bradt book came in handy and we went south to Makindani to a backpacker lodge run by and English chap called Martin. Very basic but clean and good grub.

Friday 20th April 2007 Bush camp – Cashew nut trees
Not much to report today- another day, same old potholed bumpy road, grinding our way along this appalling boring road. Then Nev said I should drive for a bit. None of the other girls have tried. So he tutored me and told me to ‘ride the contours’ to avoid hitting the holes head on. Afterwards he told me that he thought he had done very well. I couldn’t believe my ears!! I thought he got it wrong, but then clarified his statement by saying he hadn’t lost his temper or got irritated once! I thought I did quite well, anyway.
We came across what looked like an abandoned cashew nut factory and wondered where the cashew nuts were grown.


Thursday 19th April 2007 Bush camp at Road Works
We stopped at an hotel to ask how the road was between Songea and Lindi. It is very difficult to assess the information as a good road for us is not necessarily a ‘good’ road for them. The hotel manager said it was good for 4x4 but bad for 2x4. This confused us because that meant it was a bad road, we thought, but we weren’t going to turn back anyhow. After a cold drink we proceeded through Songea. The road turned out as we expected, some parts good, some parts really bad. Then we all screeched to a halt at the bridge. There in front of us was a 12 tonne truck (probably loaded with 20 tonnes) lying on its side in the shallow river on top of the collapsed bridge. This truck had passed us when we stopped to buy tomatoes and broke the bridge not 5 minutes before we got there. We couldn’t believe that a bridge which had stood for some 60 years would fall down 5 minutes before we arrived. No-one was hurt, but we think that the truck will lie there until they build another bridge over it because there are no evident recovery vehicles in the vicinity. The thought of going round to Lindi via Dar Es Salaam was horrifying, but luckily a local arrived in a Landcruiser who told us to follow him because he knew an alternative route, and he took off like Sarel van der Merwe doing a rally course with us in hot pursuit. A police vehicle loaded with a fully armed army patrol unit, machine guns slung across their chests was headed for the bridge too. When Nev told them the bridge was down, they didn’t go and investigate, but they said they would follow us as well. We had to move fast over a rutted potholed track between the houses of small villages with goats, chickens and children scattering out the way. The villages stood with their mouths agape as five 4x4s sped past with a police car and armed men chasing. It would have made a good movie as our guide knew of only one speed with his accelerator stuck flat down!!!! After a while he lost us, but we found the way by following his tracks. We proceeded along the road until we found a bush camp to spend the night. Nice weather, mild night, open air shower, no mozzies. Who said Africa is not fun?
We have settled into a very good routine. Each couple caters and cooks for themselves. We sometimes use each other’s hot water and showers. We find a camp at about 4pm, set up camp, cook, clean up, talk or play cards nd then read in bed till we fall asleep. We have a meeting each night to discuss what we intend to do the next day. Dave wakes us each morning and we have coffee and rusks and leave on the next day’s adventures. We all get along very well and there is a lots of teasing and bantering back and forth over the radios during the day. We take it in turns to lead the convoy each day, and it is all working very well. We are all happy campers so far. Except for poor Maureen who has some strange painfull infection or something on her hands which is making her trip miserable because she is in continual pain. She managed to get some pills at Livingstonia hospital, and we hope they work soon.

Wednesday 18th April 2007 Quarry camp
We left the mission early before the students arrived. Tanzanian time is one hour earlier than SA time. We proceeded to Mbeya to get brake pads for Will’s Landrover, a brake cylinder kit for Brian's, and Dave had to get punctures fixed. We had to get money and download blog.
Mbeya is a sprawling third word city with modern parts and shanty town with African markets. Everyone was very helpful and friendly.
We then proceeded west to Makambaku then south towards Songea and was amazed at how the country changed every 100 Km from the tropics at the border to like the Northern Transvaal to Estcourt to the Midlands type of countryside. In the midlands there were huge commercial tea plantations of thousands of Hectares, all neat and efficiently run, seemingly rotated with maize. Very impressive and the countryside is like Greytown and is 1800m above sea level. There were also large wattle and gum plantations and a wattle tannin extracting plant and saw mill, all commercially run. The country gradually changed to subsistence farming and the same type of Miombo woodland as in Zambia. The people here are far poorer than when we first came over the border. In Nyerere’s time, he forced the people to congregate and live in villages and collective farms, which is still very evident, but the collective farms have been divided into small individual plots. The road west is very good with very few potholes. One difference between Malawe, Zambia and Tanzania is that there very few of the road verges have been cut.
After a Bridge game in which Nev didn’t get to play once, he went to bed grumpy. We slept in a quarry and it rained all night, letting up for a short time in the morning for us to jump out of bed and pack up.

Tuesday 17th April 2007
After the 3x3 museum yesterday it was recommended that we go to a wonderful waterfall on the South Rumphi River and find Geoffry who would be our guide. After 6Km of dirt and breathtaking views of the Lake down below we found Geoffry who said walk would be 20 minutes and steep, but not too steep. After 30 minutes of slipping and sliding in moss down quite a steep slope we started to protest, but were encouraged and reassured that we were nearly there. After another 30 minutes now climbing down the rocky steep slope we could hear the waterfall and were again reassured that it was really close. After another 60 minutes of sweating even going downhill, in 34 degree heat, our thighs groaning and getting “jelly-legged” we reached a shear precipice and were told it was “just around the corner” which we believed this time. Nev followed the guide for another 200m straight down hanging by finger tips onto trees expecting the others to follow and arrived at the bottom to find a 10m high massive waterfall. There were huge trees on the opposite side of the gorge, with spray billowing up like a mini Victoria Falls. He waited for the others who never arrived, and after about 20 minutes realized that they had abandoned him. It was then alarm stations thinking he had to climb the vertical drop of 500m on his own with the guides, but soon caught up to Beryl who was suffering from dehydration and accompanied her slowly all the way to the top. It was a very welcome excuse to go slowly. The whole excursion took us 3.5hours with much mumbling and grumbling and whinging about African time, but everyone needed exercise. We found the first campsite on the shoreline and jumped into the lake without even booking into the site. Phil at the Vipya campsite was amazed!
Today, Tuesday, we proceeded to the border via Karonga and refueled and bought provisions. The border was without incident but slow. The fees were $50 each for a visa and $25 for ‘toll’ for the car. It was really late and we found a mission station to sleep. It rained and rained, and there was mud!
After crossing the border, we were amazed to see the change of vegetation compared to Malawe. It was suddenly very tropical, fertile, wet and hilly like the South Coast of Natal. The banana trees were at least 8m high and the bananas were huge and planted everywhere and there were huge bunches being sold on the sides of the roads. Under the bananas were coffee plants and madumbes. There were also Maize, mangoes potatoes and rice in the valleys and tea.
The Malawians seem much poorer than the Tanzanians. Southern Tanzania has the highest rainfall of up to 3000ml per annum.