Tanzania: Rungwa to Mbeya

Friday 26th June. Tanzania. Rungwa to Mbeya:

Having gone to bed around 10pm last night, we set our alarms for 6am. I read for a couple of hours, using a small travel head torch which didn’t disturb John. The alarm went off at 6, John said he wanted another half hour. What comfort on a camp mattress. I got up & used some of the bucket of water to freshen up, and then read again for half an hour. It was still dark outside. We stepped out of our ‘suite’ at about 6.45.

We did of course provide our own bedding, which does help. Dusty got a quick push start again, always parking on any available slope, & we were off, just under 300 kms to our next stop, the city of Mbeya. The road looked promising for a while & we made good progress. Then it deteriorated quite suddenly & we were back on the road of hell. We stopped for breakfast at 10 o’clock, 3 hours after departure. As always, we had our cereal, milk & a cup of tea. We were hoping to get to Mbeya at about 2pm but with the road conditions, that might be later.

At one stage, we took a direct hit on the differential when we hit a large rock protruding out of the ground. The crash shook the vehicle, and ourselves, to the core. Thank goodness we insisted on fitting a metal diff protector plate as part of the preps for this trip. It had done its job. You might never need it, but in this case, it was a good call. We knew that everything was taking a beating. When we were within 15 kms of Mbeya, on the most dreadful road of gravel & dirt, we heard a loud bang. The rear tyre had shredded, the sidewall ripped, no longer good for anything. You could shave with some of the rocks we had to drive over, they looked so sharp.

We jacked up & changed it, now we were putting the dodgy tyre back on, the one that already had a gash in it. But, it should get us to town. Once there, we quickly found the local land rover dealer & asked him about tyres. He took us next door to the main BF Goodrich dealer in Mbeya. He only had one tyre but it was the wrong size. As he also had a sign up for batteries, we thought we might at least get that job done. Wrong; no batteries in stock. Mr Land Rover was great. He went in search of a battery for us in town. When we took the other spare tyre off the rear door, we discovered it too had a slow puncture. He took that with him & returned a short while later to say air was escaping at the rim. We gave him a tube we carry for such emergencies, as they are tubeless tyres, and off he went again. He was back within an hour with a new battery, although 70amp was the best he could get. We needed 100amp. It would do, so it was filled with battery acid and given a quick charge.

The tyre was also fixed and that was put on in place of dodgy one. Now we only have one spare and it’s already ripped, but it’s better than nothing. While we were there, we took the opportunity to change the rubber bushes on the shock absorbers. They too were shredded so we replaced them. Proof, if proof was needed, that even the Old Man Emu shocks, designed for just this sort of punishment, was taking a beating. We carry lots of spare rubber bushes for this purpose although today the mechanics provided their own. A couple of sticky door locks were adjusted and we were on our way, with a total cost of just under £100, battery included. For all the work that was done, including the running around getting bits for us, that was remarkable value as we were in there for 3 hours.

Paradise Inn Mbeya

Now we needed to secure beds for ourselves. there would be plenty of choice. John & I remember seeing some hotels as we left Mbeya back in March so we headed out that road. Sure enough, we happened on Paradise Inn and it was just that. We got the remaining 2 rooms, all spotless, and with good bathrooms. Downstairs was a bar & restaurant & we’d be there as soon as we showered. We were filthy. I had to laugh when I saw my hair was now almost red, from all the dust today. Dust & Diesel was a very appropriate name indeed, copious amounts of both.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was very acceptable, a haven from the chaos outside. Dusty was parked in a secure car park at the back of the hotel & the night security guard was going to wash it for us. Shame we couldn’t let him inside to get rid of some of the red dust that is everywhere. Just too many valuables. One of the other attractions of this hotel was internet in the rooms. They connected me up before dinner so I was going to be all set to update the blog when I returned to my room. Unfortunately, two power failures in the hotel in quick succession rendered that impossible as it knocked out the service completely. It still wasn’t back when we checked out in the morning.