Tanzania: Ruaha to Morogoro.

Ruaha to Morogoro:  

This is a distance of 450 kms and will get us within 250 kms of Dar Es Salaam. We had breakfast at 7.30 and were given a lovely send off by the staff. Our total bill for two nights came to $204 for both of us. That included beers on both nights and a good dinner on the 2^nd night. Definitely one of the places we’d highly recommend to anyone, especially for peace and solitude. 

Now we have the corrugated road to look forward to, 83 kms back to the tarred section, just before Iringa. Today, we’re going to drive it much quicker. We asked the manager what speed he drives his 4x4 at & he said 60. So, we’re going for that, or more. We set off and the difference between two journeys on the same road was amazing. We kept it up towards 80 and it was almost smooth. That is, until we arrived at an unexpected dip in the road, and it was rather deep. We went into it at about 70kph, because there was only enough time to stab the brake. 

We came out of it airborne and landed in a cloud of dust. How the prop shaft stayed intact is a miracle, never mind everything else. The young boy who was standing nearby has probably only stopped laughing about now. We’re so well packed and secured that nothing moved and we stopped a km or so down the track, just to check everything was OK. It was, and off we set again, keeping up the speed for a smooth ride to the tar.

We filled up with diesel in Iringa and set off for Morogoro. We stopped at the Tanswiss Restaurant in Mikumi for lunch. It’s on the edge of the Mikumi National Park and the highway to Dar runs right through the park. We then drove through the park and saw lots of Elephants, Water Buffalo, Giraffe & Impala.

We passed a few more wrecks along the way. It's amazing the number of truck wrecks we see on our trip.

Tuesday 10^th March

'Own goal' for Real Madrid!

We arrived in Morogoro at 4pm. What a luxury, 3 hours of daylight left. I saw that there was a hotel at the Morogoro Golf Course, called the Morogoro Hotel. We went to see it, feeling confident it would be fairly good. It was, and after securing the local rate, we got 2 single rooms. I am updating this now from Morogoro at an internet café and we are going to head back to the hotel for a couple of beers and dinner. Tomorrow morning, like I said, we’ll be on the road early for the drive to Dar Es Salaam. On Wednesday morning we hope to take the 7am ferry to Zanzibar & stay there overnight. Then we’ll return to Dar and if time and conditions permit, we’ll narrow the gap between Dar and the Kenyan border, staying someplace close, maybe Tanga.  I think this section of road is particularly bad as well. Then we’ll head for the coast of Kenya. We’ll then have completed the Coast to Coast part of the trip, so after that we’ll head for Nairobi and then on to Nanyuki, on schedule so far, on the 19th. We’ll be back in touch from Dar. We’re both having a great time & we thank you for your continued interest and support via email, guestbook & texts. We love catching up with all the messages so keep them coming.