Tanzania

We entered Tanzania a week ago after two days of solid driving along the western shores of Lake Malawi, another sign how big this lake is, especially bearing in mind that our starting point was about a third of the way up.

Driving  up the lake was really beautiful with the road meandering through mountains and valleys  and the lake on our right. All along the way are little villages and local people offering their produce and services. Something we hadn’t seen before were roasted rats on kebab stick, head and tails included, decided to give those a miss!

Before we headed off towards the Tanzanian border we spent a few more days with Bruce and Beryl, this time in the Sheri valley where Bruce is GM of a large sugar plant. We had a very interesting tour of the plant and now know how sugar is made before it reaches the shelves of Sainsburys.  Stop buying organic girls, the sugar is regularly tested for pesticides and none are ever found in the final product!

Left Bruce and Beryl with freshly cut hair and our larders stocked with homemade cookies, homegrown tomatoes, peppers and carrots and our water tanks replenished with the last water from a ‘known source’. We were also lucky to be able to watch the Olympics closing ceremony and actually felt a pang of homesickness. Thank you again Bruce and Beryl, we hope we can repay the hospitality in the UK one day.

Now we are making our way slowly up to the Serengetti where we are hoping to see the annual wilderbeast migration.  Planning to stop off at a couple of game reserves on the way and also hoping to get a glimpse of Kilimanjaro on the way north. Pity I only brought my flip-flops!

As we are making our way closer to the equator the climate is slowly changing and it is getting hotter. Yesterday we hit 35 degrees for the first time. We have not had a single day of rain since starting our trip and the mosquitoes are now joining the tsetsies to plaque us. Up until now we have been relying on supermarket bought food mostly. As we are depleting our stores we are having to rely mostly on locally produced fruit and vegies, that is tomatoes and onions and bananas and oranges for Tanzania.  We are left with about six meals worth of meat in our freezer, also bought down south, so we are not sure what we will find up ahead.  The same goes for drinking water so, next time you drink a glass of cold sparkling mineral water, think of us!

The four of us are in good spirits and continue to marvel at the fact that we can pick up our maps daily and pretty much make up the route on the spot.  Difficult to imagine how we will settle back into ‘normal’ life after this but don’t worry Mel, we ARE coming back!