Mbeya, Tanzania

Drove back down the scary hill and a few hundred kilometers to the Tanzania border.
Driving in Malawi has been very stressful. There are just so many people on the road (walking, on bikes, on motorbikes…) and huge trucks on sometimes very narrow roads where the highway has become a single lane because the road has degraded on the sides. This is a country whose booming population seems to be seriously straining the available resources. While there’s tons of water around, the lake has been over-fished and there are virtually no trees left as people have needed the wood to build fires to cook.
The border crossing into Tanzania was relatively straight-forward, though we found the officials to be much less friendly than in other countries.
After crossing the border, we were struck by how much more developed and green it is in Tanzania. Most villages had very large, brick homes (we saw virtually no huts), very few people were walking on the roads and livestock was tended by shepherds so weren’t darting into the roadways. Trees and rolling hills of farmland were on both sides of the road- a stark contrast from Malawi.
A few hours after entering Tanzania, our engine light came on and the Land Rover lost power. It wasn’t able to make it up hills. Of course it was getting dark, we were still ~30 KM outside of town, and our cell phone wasn’t working to call the owner for advice. We had to use the satellite phone! So glad we had it, and that it worked. We were told to try to limp the vehicle into town, which we did. Unfortunately, we were further delayed by over an hour when the police stopped us to issue a speeding ticket. We wanted proof of the speeding (police here use speed cameras and WhatsApp to tell the police down the road who to stop. We wanted to see the picture so had to go into the police station and wait for the cameraman to arrive). We eventually paid the $15 ticket before things developed into a new “Locked Up Abroad” episode and then drove slowly into town in the dark. Our worst nightmare (almost).
Found a hotel, but it was full. Luckily a man in the parking lot recognized our South African plates and came up to us to ask where we were from. He was a South African working in Tanzania. He was able recommend another nearby hotel and was kind enough to escort us there given it was hard to find.
The next day was spent sitting at the garage (luckily very near our hotel) while the mechanics tried to determine what the issue was. After several test drives and ruling out many issues, it was discovered that our diesel had been cut with kerosene. Apparently this happens because kerosene is cheaper than diesel and we believe the small Total station we stopped at in Malawi before crossing the border was at fault. Luckily they got us up and running again after changing the fuel filter, some sensors, and dumping over 80 liters of diesel (ugh!). We were just happy to be able to get back on the road.Read more