Mwanza

The time has come to cross into Tanzania and tick another country off the list.

There are a couple of methods to get from Rwanda to Tanzania, but, given the distances involved, the sensible option is to fly. We do not take the sensible option. Instead, we opt for a multi-day overland slog through the sparsely populated western-Tanzania.

To get to the Rwanda/Tanzania border, we take a minibus from Kigali to the border town of Rusumo Falls. There, we find a guesthouse to stay the night before crossing the border in the morning.

The guesthouse is very basic- it is around the back of a small bar, and the concrete rooms feature an open-plan bedroom/bathroom situation. It's the most basic place we'll stay in, but it's cheap, the owner is friendly (and fluent in English -he studied at the University of Hull), and it's very close to the border. Before we leave, the owner gives us tips on crossing the border, including the advice to watch our pockets on the other side of the border- "Tanzania is not like Rwanda", he says.

In the morning, we walk the few kilometres across no-mans land between the two countries. It's early morning, but it's already hot, and carrying our bags up the hill is a challenge.

Martyn and Laura have already booked their visas online, so are able to get into Tanzania in record time. We, however, opt to get them on arrival, which takes considerably longer, not least because we have to pay for them at a bank kiosk which is unmanned.

And then, once we're through, we get an unexpected stroke of good luck. We had been worried about the bus situation here at the border- some reports suggest that we would have to get a taxi to the nearest city, then get a bus wherever we can. Fortunately, there is a bus waiting to take us to Mwanza, a considerable distance towards our destination of Arusha. After causing a confusing argument between the conductors and the guy who acts as our agent, we're welcomed aboard. It's a big bus and quite comfortable, with loud east-African music videos being played on the TVs.

We reach Mwanza at night, after crossing a ferry and making up the last few kilometres into town in a minibus (they're called Dalla Dallas here), which is so full that Chris ends up sat on the gearbox, moving every time the driver makes a gear change.

We get a taxi from the minibus stand to our accommodation for a really low price, without any bargaining. Navigating through the darkness, our driver points out Lake Victoria (which we can't see), and telling us that Mwanza is known as "Rock City!". Because of the geology, not the music scene.

The next morning, we wake early to catch the 6am bus to Arusha. We don't do much research, and just jump into the first bus we find.

For a while, it's an uneventful journey, but the landscape is interesting. It's very sparsely populated, and the beige plains are occasionally interrupted by large rock formations that tower over the surrounding country. They look as though they could have inspired Pride Rock. Chris makes a note to look up the geology of the area to learn something more about it, but to date has not done so.

Then, our of nowhere, the bus violently swerves across the road and back again, leaving the confines of the highway and skidding across the gravel. We safely make it back onto the road, and everyone looks back out of the window to see and large crowd around a girl, who must have been hit by the bus. The driver, after waiting for a couple of seconds, puts the coach into gear and leaves the scene. We're confused as to what's happening, and at the next town, a policeman gets on the bus and instructs the driver to head to the police station, where he's promptly arrested. We learn that, fortunately, the girl had not been seriously injured, as it wasn't a head-on collision. We wait for around an hour for a new driver to arrive to take us the remaining distance.

Arriving into Arusha, our tour guide, that we've booked the Ngorogoro tour with, picks us up from the bus station and takes us to our comfortable accommodation for a good night's sleep.Weiterlesen