The Road To Kigali

We departed Mwanza just after 5:30pm on Friday. Destination Rwanda! Our first stop was to be Shinyanga just three hours down the road but enough to shave off our journey to allow a realistic arrival at the border

As we travelled south we saw flashes of lightning indications of the oncoming storm. 

  
As night fell so did the rain but the road to Shinyanga was fine other than the extensive use of speed bumps and the insistence of most Tanzanian drivers to keep their lights on full beam. There were many Kamikaze frogs leaping out in front of us on the roads as we travelled.

  We finally pitched up in Shinyanga at 9pm and looked for the recommended hotel- not as easy in the dark. Eventually we found the Diamond Fields Hotel. Initial perceptions were good, the rooms were clean and the food menu was extensive. 

For three of us the food promise fulfilled expectations but the fourth meal, a cheeseburger was missing the vital ingredient- the burger. There followed a long discussion in Kiswahili about what actually constitutes a Cheeseburger, our waitresses and chefs adamant that the constituents should resemble a hot cheese roll. After over ten minutes of arguing  and resorting to google images we eventually got a burger! At midnight!

We resolved we would leave at 6pm forgoing the breakfast! Although our rooms were comfortable enough sleep was a little disturbed by the sound of the adjacent nightclub, alternating with the cacophony of croaks of the locals frog chorus and finally the local Imam who sounded like we was praying right outside our door for the morning call to prayer!

Our morning journey went well – the roads were good and we made excellent progress. 

  It was as we were nearing the border that the roads began to crumble. Speed slowed as we needed to negotiate significant pot-holes. The number of lorries (especially Petrol Tankers) did nothing to speed us on our way. 

The cars taking vicarious routes along the broken road.  

There were vain attempts to repair them with earth being used to infill the pot-holes. 

We reached the border late afternoon and waited for the officials to process our visa applications. 

The other side of the line there were changes. Rwanda is a much cleaner place, a ban on plastic bags contributing to a lack of litter. The roads are much better too as we climb through the hills to Kigali, passing rice paddies and other farms.             

       

 At 6pm we reached Kigali and our accommodation -Discover Rwanda Youth  Hostel. 

  
 

The Road To Kigoma

Saturday 23rd October

We’re ‘upping sticks’ and heading out of Mwanza- for the week that is. It’s half term (mid-term) break and co-inciding with the election as it does makes it an excellent time to escape Mwanza (an opposition (Chedema) stronghold where some folk may not take kindly to losing). It was a good day to get up and leave town early as in the last day of the campaign the President, an ex-President and the man who would be president were coming to town to campaign for the governing party (CCM).

We were out at 4:30am packed for a week in Kigoma on the shores of Lake Tangyanika.  It’s a long journey estimated at 10 hours but in reality more like 16 with stops and this time unlike our journey from Lake Victoria to Victoria Falls we’re taking the car.

The journey  takes us from Mwanza to Shinyanga and on to Nzega and Tabora where we turn right and head across country to Kigoma.

Our early start allows us to make a good pace out of Mwanza, though the road is not good to begin with. Once into open country we cross the plain towards  Shinyanga and the road improves, though the frequent villages mean we need to keep switching from 80kph to 50kph at regular intervals. None of this seems to deter the coaches one of which regularly passes us at 100 kph only to be overtaken by us when it stops, as it does regularly, on the route. 

 We stop for Chai and Chapatti at a local stall just south of Shinyanga – so far no police have stopped us (a regular pastime seems to be stopping car drivers and demanding money for a spurious infringement whether it can be justified or not). 

    
 Beyond Shinyanga we are surprised to find they are building a new Tarmac road – this is the first road building program we have seen in Tanzania -at first the road is slow as the surface is newly gritted but soon we are zooming along.  It is the first time we have taken our car (ANA Gari) on a long trip, but newly serviced ‘she’ is behaving herself. The road takes us all the way into Tabora and on out towards Kigoma. This is so much better than we had expected and we make excellent pace, fewer villages and 100kph limits really help eat the miles. 

    
 We get about a quarter of the way from Tabora to Kigoma before the road stops and we are on a mud road. This has been graded and although the rippled ridges give it the feel of driving on a washboard  we are able to travel well, though oncoming lorries  and coaches tend to hog the road and we share it with bicycles and pedestrians many of whom tend to meander the roadway as they seek the best route. 

   
We cross the railway line many times on our route and on one occasion this passes nearby a market where we are able to source some provisions (we are self-catering this week). We also grab some late lunch at a local cafe (beans and rice and meat followed by banana). 

 The road is dusty and the aforementioned lorries kick up plumes which gets everywhere and coats everything. We travel like this for an hour then suddenly the road diverts and we see the next phase of construction of the new road alongside for many miles. 

   
    
 Finally we are allowed on and we have the luxury of Tarmac. This road lasts a long while but suddenly reverts to mud. The road keeps swapping from mud to Tarmac to mud over the remainder of our journey in 20-30km stretches. One such piece of Tarmac is possibly the best road we’ve been in here an excellent stretch which ends quite suddenly after Kikwete Bridge (named after the current President). We imagine this was built for him so the bridge could be opened before he returned by helicopter. This excellent road both starts and finishes in the middle of nowhere.

Talking politics we encounter numerous rallies along our route representing Chedema, CCM and a third party ACT which seems stronger in this region than elsewhere. 

 The land either side of the road is jungle forest but there is evidence of mild deforestation – the people here ‘harvest’ the wood and burn it to make charcoal- there are bags of it along the roadside and these enormous sacks are loaded onto bikes and pedaled off.  

    
 Late afternoon dust turns to mud on the muddier road as the aftermath of rain take its toll – we have had little rain ourselves but there’s been a lot. Then it’s back to Tarmac and the last leg of our journey into Kigoma.

This takes much longer than it seems on the map – that last stretch of a journey always does. In the pitch black we arrive in Kigoma and sought out Jakobsen’s Beach – not the easiest place to locate in a the dark. After a couple of lost turns and a little more luck than judgement we finally stumble on the road to our accommodation. This road quickly becomes a dirt track which almost disappears into a ditch at one point – we persevere and finally find our place. We’re here for a week in a bedded tent, self-catering. Untypical of recent holidays we’re not going far but after a 16 hour journey to get here- not that I’m complaining.

Drive Home from Work

Now that we have a car we have begun to explore Mwanza on four wheels. It was particularly useful last week when my wife was admitted to hospital with Malaria.  Whilst we don’t always drive to and from work preferring to walk, there are  occasions when we do. Here is the route to and from work which is bumpy to say the least. Much of the ‘road’ gives an off-road experience and it is vital to have a four-wheel drive.

Here is a video of our route home from work.

Meet ANA Gari

Finally we have made the leap. For those who followed our previous blog posts, this has been budgeted for and paid out of allocated UK funds. 🙂 We finally have a car – welcome to ANA (A part of the Reg plate and Kiswahili for car is…) Gari. ANA is a Toyota RAV 4. The majority of expats drive one of these and one of my colleagues has sold it to us.  Actually ‘a na gari’ would literally means he/she has a car in Kiswahili.  The great thing about card here is that they hold their value. Therefore we will get back the price we paid for it when we sell. In the end this will give us the freedom to travel locally and allow the children to more easily socialize. We’re not ceasing walking about town, it’s the best way of being part of the community, but it will add flexibility.

Kite Flight

T Minus 49

Today as usual on the way home I viewed the kites sweeping majestically through the sky. These kites are not

the man made sort; all fabric and cord, but the feathered variety; Red Kites.

Foggy Road Ahead!

T Minus 163

Today’s journey to work was interesting. The familiar journey was shrouded in thick impenetrable fog – like much of the Southern England. This was probably the thickest fog I’ve travelled through for a few years. Luckily I was prepared (a tweet from the met office at 6:15am helped) and left earlier than usual. Even so it was tight timing!

Travelling across  Buckinghamshire along country roads it was often hard to see more than a few metres ahead. Amazingly some drivers didn’t have their lights on which was a surprise but I think this has something to do with having automatic lights.  One of the problems with automatic lights is that they respond to light levels – which means they don’t switch on in daylight even if fog is really thick. I’ve been caught out myself before now. To use the fog lights you obviously need to have the main beams on too. In my car I do this by switching the beams from automatic to manual.

I doubt there’s much fog in Mwanza – though living by a lake you never know. However, as I travelled this morning I  thought about the metaphorical  foggy road ahead for us in the next few years.

A Different Road

T minus 166

For almost 11 years I have travelled daily from Milton Keynes to Thame.

In essence the route takes me from Milton Keynes to Whitchurch (via Stewkley or Drayton Parslow / Swanbourne), then on to Oving, Waddeston before ascending Winchendon Hill and going over the top via Upper Winchendon and Chearsley, arriving in Long Crendon before descending to Thame. The journey takes about 50 minutes and takes in some great countryside. The main thing is to avoid Aylesbury and it’s traffic jams.