A travel log by Jon Hill.  Photos by Jon, Liane, and Kassandra.

In July 2001 I took a road trip to Western Tanzania from my home in Dar es Salaam.  Two other teachers from my school (Liane and Kassandra) and one teacher from Oklahoma (Karah) joined in the adventure.

Day 1 - Karah arrives from the U.S. and is mercilessly stuffed into the overloaded LandCruiser a few hours later.  We travel from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro and stay at Kola Hills Hotel.

Day 2 - We get an early start (6:38 AM) and drive to Mbeya, passing through Mikumi National Park and the Iringa Region.  We stay at the Karibuni Center and meet Anne (pronounced "AHN-eh") a Dutch missionary with Dorcas International who is returning to a mission near Sumbawanga.  He invites us to stay at their guest house the following night and we accept.  Dinner at the Livingstone Hotel is mostly in candlelight because the power goes out.  Nobody tries the Kidney Surprise from the menu.

Day 3 - Another early start.  It is still the 4th of July in the US and we show our patriotism by taking a photo with each of us wearing a stick-on American flag.  After a couple of hours driving we say goodbye to paved roads and get into the dirt and washboard surfaces that we will grow to hate.  Around 2 PM we encounter a bridge where a crew has just begun some maintenance work.  They tell us it will be one hour before we can cross.  Bored, we reach for the digital cameras and entertain ourselves and the locals.  Before long several vehicles are stopped on either side of the bridge and the audience for the bridge workers approaches 100 people.  After exactly one Tanzanian hour (2.5 hours on my watch) we are allowed to proceed.  We get a few supplies in Sumbawanga and join Anne and his family at the mission shortly after sunset.

Day 4 - After breakfast the mission station manager, Moses, gives us a tour.  The mission consists of women's ministries, bible story distribution for children in nearby villages, an orphanage, and a vocational training center where Anne passes his carpentry expertise on to several young men.  We leave midmorning and head for Katavi Plains National Park.  The road worsens slightly.  The Tsetse Flies are banging on the windows trying to get into the car and we are thankful for air conditioning.  Karah starts her new career as an Expert Tsetse Fly Hunter and learns that Tsetse Flies are one of the most satisfying pests to kill. We get to Katavi by mid-afternoon pay the fees and ask where we should camp.  We are told that we can camp anywhere in the park and a road is pointed out to us.  We decide to explore the area around Lake Katavi.  On the way to the lake a 2 meter dark-colored snake with its head well off the ground rushes across the road in front of the car.  The field guide confirms it is a Black Mamba, the fastest and most deadly snake in Africa.  Cool.  The lake is mostly a big mud puddle with scattered islands which we soon realize are wallowing hippos.  Some cheeky Vervet Monkeys entertain us from the branches of a tree.  We find a male lion resting in some shade near the lake.  He tolerates us for a short time then wanders off into the brush.  We settle on a sandy campsite on a hill overlooking the lake where there are some small open huts built by the park staff.  Kerosene lanterns are placed around the camp in a ring to discourage curious beasties.  The hippos grunt all night.  See more Katavi wildlife photos at the Katavi page.

Day 5 - We explore the Lake Katavi area more on our morning game drive.  Lots of hippos, buffalo, waterbuck, topi, zebra, hornbills, giraffe, and assorted birds.  We go a bit beyond the point where the road becomes indistinguishable from the bush... and then we keep going a bit more.  At lunch we decide to make the small journey to Lake Chada in the south of the park.  On arrival we discover the posh Greystoke Camp where those more financially capable stay in the park.  We see a few elephants at Lake Chada and spy a small pride of lions across a river.  On the way back to our camp at Lake Katavi a strange snake crosses the road in front of us.  It is stocky with a wide head and a forest camouflage pattern.  And it moves in a straight line like a caterpillar.  Field Guide: Puff Adder.  And we learn it is responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other snake species.  Cool.  Great sunset at the lake on this night.  We haven't seen any other tourists in the park.  It gets only about 50 visitors per year and almost no one ever drives.  Most fly in.

Day 6 - Our plan is to drive along Lake Katavi again, then break camp and make the short drive to Mpanda before evening.  The game drive is fun and we especially get into poking through old bone piles.  We leave the park and get to Mpanda with no trouble.  At the gas station some shifty characters try to open the doors on the car.  I get a really bad feeling about the town, like it is an Old West town and someone just shot the Marshall.  We go to the one lodging establishment that has been recommended to us and it is full.  They offer us one dingy room not intended for guests.  My unease in the town prompts me to suggest that we get back on the road and just keep driving into the night.  We do.  The road gets MUCH worse.  At around 8 PM we come across a big truck with about 40 passengers in the road.  It is a group of refugees returning to their camp after a trip to Mpanda.  They have two flat tires and have been waiting for 24 hours for help to come along.  We help them out with tools and a patch kit and stay to watch them work.  After a while a HUGE cargo truck comes flying along and slides to a halt in a cloud of dust.  They have better tools than we do and so we carry on into the night.  The terrain, including the road itself, is mountainous and rocky.  Rabbits, nightjars (birds), and assorted wild cats and dogs appear on the road and often flee before us in the headlights.  At one point a particularly dumb bunny runs ahead of us for a few minutes... then we come on a jackal who also starts running.  It was very comical to watch a rabbit chasing a jackal for about a minute or so.

Day 7 - We are still driving through the mountains when the date changes.  We are amazed that the road is even on a map.  Often it resembles a rock strewn river bed more than a road.  Driving at night is nerve-wracking, but the night is clear and the moon is up.  We are in 4-wheel drive.  A 2 AM a rocky slope looms ahead.  Near the top the back end of the LandCruiser slips sideways a bit and our forward momentum slams the rear right shock absorber into solid rock with a sickening crunch.  The car makes it to the top of the hill.  The right rear wheel has been pushed back and is rubbing on the wheel-well.  The drive shaft is partly pulled apart.  On closer inspection we see that the front mounting hanger for the leaf spring has broken away from the chassis.  There is no way to firmly reattach it because the frame is closed steel tubing and the hanger was originally riveted in place.  I jack the axle back into place and jury-rig something with a few bolts, two pieces of an axe-handle, and, of course, duct tape.  My new Hi-Lift jack gets a good work out.  The ladies sleep for a few hours in the back of the car while I sit and think about what the morning will be like.  We have about 40 km to travel before the next town and I don't know if it is big enough to have a shop with a welder.  And I'm not sure if the car is drivable that far.  Prayers are said.

At daybreak we set off slowly.  The axle slips backward again within 200 meters.  I try Plan B which came to me in the night.  I run the winch cable under the car and wrap it around the frame once before attaching it to the leaf spring hanger.  Then I tighten up the cable being careful not to crush the bumper.  We set off again and things are a bit better, though the road is still requiring four-wheel drive.  Two more times I have to stop and readjust the axle and winch cable.  As we approach the town we meet extremely helpful and friendly people who tell us of a good mechanics shop with a welder.  Our spirits lift.  God is good.  In the town of Uvinsa we find the shop and a mechanic.  He confirms that the hanger must be welded back onto the frame.  But his welding outfit is down at a bridge that is being rebuilt.  So we all drive down to the bridge where the work is carried out.  The mechanic tries to send us on our way without taking any payment.  He fails and I'm 10,000 shillings ($12 poorer) when we leave.  God is good.

We continue to Kigoma on bad but passable (no four-wheel drive) roads.  The Kigoma Hilltop Hotel welcomes us warmly with cold sodas (no alcohol since they are a good Muslim establishment).  The hotel has an amazing view and sits above a cliff right on Lake Tanganyika.  We meet a couple (Clayton and Zoe) who are teachers from the International School of Moshi in Arusha.  They are traveling in the opposite direction but will be in Kigoma for a few days at least.  I sleep for the first time in 36 hours.  

Day 8 - We enjoy the hotel and pick up supplies in town.  We buy our tickets for the ferry to Mahale.  We have dinner with Clayton and Zoe and then swap stories and photos (connecting our digital cameras and their camcorder to the hotel room TV).

Day 9 - We make preparations to leave for Mahale and lounge by the pool.  In the afternoon we go down to the boat and board.  The MV Liemba is a rusty old derelict on its third or fourth engine that was originally built by the Germans in 1914.  The boat was then sunk by the Germans to keep the British from getting it.  The British eventually did get it though and it was raised and put back into service.  The word is that it has sunk one or two other times in its life, but we couldn't get any details.  Anyway, it is a 7 or 8 hour ride on the ferry to Mahale and then another 2 hour boat ride to the park guest houses.  We arrive at about 3 in the morning.

Day 10 - Me meet Mohamed, a 60+ year old guide who will try to show us the chimpanzees in Mahale Mountains National Park.  We set off mid-morning and toil up steep hills for several hours.  We hear a leopard.  We hear chimps eventually and Mohamed's face falls.  They are far.  We search some more but we are hungry, thirsty, and tired and the chimps are nowhere to be found.  Reluctantly we go back down to camp, trying not to break our wobbly legs on the steep trail.  Kassandra has bad blisters.  We go to bed praying for chimps on the following day.

Day 11 - Mohamed meets us again in the morning and we set out.  After only an hour or so he makes a bird call and is answered.  His face lights up as shouted words find us through the trees.  Chimps are here!  We leave the trail and find two Japanese researchers and their team of Tanzanian assistants watching three male chimpanzees high in a tree.  Eventually the chimps come down and we follow them through dense undergrowth.  One of the chimps is the oldest in the park at 35 years of age.  It is strange following chimps at such close range.  A few times they pass within inches of us.  It seems as though we are intruding on their lives, especially when we learn that they are hunting for monkeys.  But the researchers say it is not a problem for us to be near them.  Eventually they do catch a Colobus Monkey and eat it, so we feel better knowing that we are not spoiling their hunt.  We find out from the researchers that we are very fortunate to be seeing chimps, as they themselves have only been able to find them once a week recently.  After several sweaty hours of climbing through brush, we call it a day and go back to camp.  The sunset is simple but spectacular.  We share our meals with a French couple, Alexi and Laura, who are also visiting the park and who have joined us on our search for chimps.

Day 12 - We take a day to just relax in Mahale.  The boat will be coming for us after dark.  It is a lazy day spent reading and napping.  In the evening we pack up and eventually take the two hour ride to park headquarters in the north.  There we are told that the lake ferry is delayed and won't get to us for several hours.  So we sleep a bit.

Day 13 - We catch the ferry at 4 AM and are assigned to a cabin in the rear of the boat that smells like something dead and shakes in a strange harmonic with the deafening engine noise.  We get a few more hours of "sleep."  After a good breakfast in the ship's mess, we find out that most of the cargo (sugar, rice, and dried fish) on the ship is being smuggled into Tanzania from Zambia.  So the ship stops short of our destination and unloads the cargo into a smaller vessel before we reach the main port, thereby avoiding the customs office.  It "only" takes four hours to unload the cargo and we are entertained watching the smaller boats bring local food (cooked fish, beans, bananas, and ugali) out to the passengers on the ferry.  We arrive at the Hilltop Hotel in Kigoma in the late afternoon and once again enjoy the simple pleasure of a cold soda or two.  The engineer for the hotel helps me out by re-welding some joints on my car roof-rack that have cracked on the journey.  We rendezvous with Clayton, Zoe, and some other acquaintances at the Lake Tanganyika Beach Hotel for drinks in the evening. 

Day 14 - We get a midmorning start and hope to make it to Singida.  But the roads do not improve as we hope, and instead we stop in a little town called Bukombe.  Just before reaching the town the road becomes paved and we marvel at the luxury of it.  The guest house that we find is fairly clean and secure, but is surrounded by noisy donkeys, bone-crunching dogs, and loud revelers who keep us up most of the night. 

Day 15 - We set out again, hoping to get to Dodoma or even Morogoro today.  But the road becomes unpaved again and around noon we slam into a massive pothole.  The front left shock absorber is mangled and its top mounting bracket has broken away from the chassis.  I remove the shock absorber completely.  We carefully drive 120 km to Singida and decide to spend the rest of the day nursing the car.  We get a flat tire repaired, get an oil and lube job done, get the shock absorber mounting bracket welded back on, buy a replacement shock absorber, and have the roof-rack re-welded and reinforced.  The bill for all the parts and 6 hours of work is a staggering 50,000 shillings ($60 USD).  We stay at a nice quiet place that night with a restaurant.  Each of us orders something different from the menu but we all get Chicken Curry. 

Day 16 - We set out again and continue to be amazed at the poor quality of the roads.  But today nothing happens to the car, and when we reach Dodoma at lunchtime the dirt road transforms into blessed pavement.  We continue on to Morogoro and again stay at the Kola Hills Hotel.

Day 17 - Desiring one last wildlife experience before returning to Dar, we head west again, destined for Mikumi National Park.  We have a great day exploring parts of the park that are only accessible in the dry season and seeing elephants, zebras, impalas, giraffes, hippos, and many other animals. We find the biggest Baobab that any of us has ever seen. Tonight we camp in a familiar spot: Campsite #2 under another big Baobab tree.  According to friends and the rangers, this campsite has been visited recently by lions, so we are careful to place our lanterns and keep the fire going all night.

Day 18 - After one last game drive we pack up and head for home.  The drive is uneventful except for getting caught in a speed trap and being fined 20,000 shillings.  It is my first moving violation after two years in Tanzania.  The woman police officer can't be convinced to let me off.  Oh well, tonight I sleep in my own bed.

Return to the Africa Page.  Or see more photos from Katavi or Mahale.