Sorry I took such a long time to post. I have been traveling and didn’t have much time. Our trip to Berlin was great! We saw relatives and friends and had a fantastic time. But, I must admit the cold weather scared me off a bit and I am happy to be wearing my colorful skirts and flip-flops again.
After landing in Tanzania we stayed a few days in Dar es Salaam. I spent the afternoons with Clara and a friend who also has two kids, while Max was taking care of our new car. It is a bit scary to buy a car in Tanzania; people will try to trick you and sell a car with mechanical defects or without duties paid. My friends, the kids and I went to Mikadi for the weekend and during the week we stayed at an Italian catholic mission which offers nice accommodation for small prices. Dar was hot and humid during the first days but then the temperatures dropped suddenly and it was cool and cloudy. It felt much better! After some mzungu-shopping we were ready to hit the road with our new fully loaded Land Cruiser direction Ifakara. The trip is about 400 km which means 8 hours drive. The road is good up to half-way but the last 100 km are dreadful, no tarmac, many holes and mud. Unfortunately we saw a couple of accidents on the way, mostly trucks. Sometimes the vehicles were in the strangest positions and we couldn’t even imagine a way for the accident to happen.
We traveled the first day until Mikumi National Park and decided to stay a night at the lodge. We did two safaris with our car and saw lots of wildlife, this time Mikumi looked much different. The golden plains and stunning red sunset was replaced by fresh green young grass and cool foggy weather. The animals were not concentrated at the water holes anymore because there was water everywhere! It must have rained a lot while we were away. We saw giraffes, zebras, antelopes, impalas, crocodiles, hippos, baboons, kudus, buffalos, elephants, lions and even a glimpse of a leopard. It is extremely hard to see a leopard. At the lodge we even had the chance to see a green mamba, it was a very young animal probably just a few days old, and its head was poking outside the rocks of the hedge next to us. The lodge is lovely; it is a great place to relax, till now definitely the nicest place we stayed at in Tanzania.
Next morning we were off to Ifakara. We needed to cross the Great Ruaha River and the Udzungwa Mountains to reach the Kilombero Valley. The sharp rocks on the road are punctures waiting to happen. Luckily we didn’t have any problems and arrived safely.
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