Bad roads and worse roads

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We knew today would be tough roads but it was certainly that and the good new is Nelly survived.

We got up early to head to the border at Rusumu Falls to get to Tanzania. It would be polite to say it took us 2 hours to get through but there was a lot of queuing and then queuing to que. All told to get a visa we had to visit one desk to get a form, one to have the form put in a computer, one to get an invoice to go to the bank next door, one to provide the invoice once paid and then you get a stamp.

Anyway we cleared the border and we knew the 80km getting into Tanzania were supposed to be bad. The road was tarmacked, but likely 30 years ago and there were potholed that were in excess of 1 foot deep. There were also crazy lorry drivers overtaking, undertaking, driving down the wrong side of the road, jack-knifed lorries and more.

We made it through although the suspension did take an absolute beating. The road continued and we eventually got on a lovely stretch of tarmac for 30km but sadly it came to an end and we spend the next 240km on mud roads. At times they were poor and very hard work, at times they were underwater but mostly they were well bedded in and we managed about 30mph. We did see the consequences of driving too fast and two cars were smashed by the side of the road and they were pulling people/bodies out.

Eventually after nearly 10 hours we made it to Kasulu where we are staying in the grounds of a hotel recovering. We’ll have 2 more big days of driving to get us into Zambia but hopefully we are through the worst of the roads in Tanzania.

By the way Tanzania is lovely lush and green, the police have smiled and waved us through and the people are very happy to see us. So far we’ve seen no other foreigners so as always we’re choosing the path less travelled.

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