Playing Cards In The Local Brothel With The Town Cop And The Rest Of Tanzania's Wild West.

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Bordering on madness

So we crossed the border from Rwanda to Tanzania at Rasumo. We were expecting a long trip by truck and minibus along the northern edge of the country then a long zig zag up and down in order to reach Dodoma and then eventually Arusha (destination for safari and Kilimanjaro climb) So we were delighted when we heard a bus was leaving early in the morning direct for Dodoma, and even happier when we heard we'd timed it perfectly because the bus actually only goes 3 times a week. After a quick look at the available 'accommodation' we decided instead to spend the night sleeping on the bus. That sorted, we set off in search of food. We soon realized we were the only white people in the area and also realized Tracey was the only woman there who wasn't 'working'. We very quickly learnt the Swahili word for wife and settled down for a few beers. Tracey still seemed to be considered fair game whenever Dave went to the loo, so another flick through the Swahili book and the phrase "I'm with my husband" was soon flowing off the tongue! Once most of the local men had given up trying, we settled down to a quiet game of cards. But not for long! The local policeman decided he wanted to play with us and not wanting to upset him we of course said yes, learnt the rules to his crazy game and said nothing when he changed the rules whenever he needed a helping hand. He drunkenly reassured us he would be on the bus with us tomorrow with a loaded machine gun, to protect us from bandits and with that he went home to bed.



The next morning we were indeed escorted along about 150km of dirt road by 2 machine gun touting policemen, but luckily no bandits or highway men appeared! In all we spent 16 hours traveling in the bus and maybe half an hour of that on tarmac. When we got off in Dodoma we felt sorry for the majority of the passengers who seemed to be staying on board all the way to Dar Es Salaam.

Capital in nothing but name

Dodoma is the capital of Tanzania, but you wouldn't know it to stay there. By 8pm everything is closed and dark and there's no one around. Apart from the 3 main roads almost everything else is dirt track and there is not a high rise to be seen. Even in the day you struggle to bump into anything resembling a crowd. We stayed as long as necessary and not a moment longer then got on another bus towards Kolo to try and see some ancient rock art. Again the guidebook warned this would be hard and that there was nowhere to stay in Kolo. The bus was bumpy and uncomfortable and we only just managed to understand a change of bus was needed at a sandy middle-of-nowhere junction…but we got there in the end. Kolo is a tiny little town miles from anywhere but there is actually somewhere to stay (with a lovely man who's trying to get a guest house up and running but is relying on the money from occasional passers by to carry out all the changes he needs to make to his home). In this tiny Muslim village we somehow managed to find the illicit bar in the back of a young woman's house for a luke warm beer before bed and an early start to see the paintings.



The paintings were, it turned out, a 2 hour walk away and our guide walked very fast! They were interesting, but not the best you've ever seen. Still, we were the only people for miles around and hearing that the ancestors of the tribes that painted them still exist in far flung parts of Tanzania was pretty cool.



Not wanting to spend another night in Kolo we waited for the only bus out that afternoon and our hearts sank when it arrived so full, people's body parts were oozing out of the windows and through the door. Tracey decided the only thing was to get up on the roof with the luggage so up we climbed and rode for half an hour with a new plough, several sacks of spuds and three or four local guys. At one point the hill was too steep and everyone had to get off and walk. The bus driver forgot about us so we clung to the railings with dear life and hoped very hard that it didn't tip over…it didn't!



Eventually we had to get down because apparently the police don't allow riding on the roof - can't think why!

Touts and Hawkers everywhere

2 days later we finally made it to Arusha and we were a bit stunned by the size of everything after so much quiet local village life. Here in the big city there were hawkers, con men and more taxi drivers and safari touts than you can imagine. Even the hostel owners are on the make, so when we refused to stay at one because its prices had doubled in a year he took us next door. They gave us a cheap room but then, from what we could make out of the argument, they refused to give the guy from next door a cut of the cash and suddenly he was telling us our room wasn't available any more because someone else had phoned up and asked for it - ha! In the end we found a nicer, cleaner place anyway but it wasn't a great introduction to the city.

Then we played the 'Muzungu tout lottery'. The problem is we stick out like a sore thumb, so anyone trying to sell anything pounces on us immediately. We had batiks, bangles, newspapers, necklaces, safaris, batiks, trips to Masaai villages, earrings and did we mention batiks, thrust on us about 30 times within 15 minutes - exhausting!

In the end, even though the guide book warns against it, we were won over by one much less pushy and somehow very convincing safari tout to go to his offices to look at prices…and boy are we glad we did.



We ended up booking both a 5 day safari and our Kilimanjaro trip with a company called Shidolya due to a combination of great value, customer care and professionalism. We checked out three other companies including Roy's which gets a great plug in all the books. We found them to be complacent and really not interested in what we wanted to do, or when or how we wanted to do it. Their prices were also much higher for exactly the same or less of a service.

5 dusty days of heaven

Our safari was great. We were sharing with another couple called Pauline and Stefan and luckily we got on really well. In fact it kind of made the trip because there was a lot of sitting around in the car and driving from place to place and the like minded and halarious converssation was great. Our trip took in Lake Manyara, The Serengeti and The Ngorongoro Crater. After not really considering Lake Manyara as a destination it turned out to be one of the highlights. Around every corner we found another animal, so that in the space of a few hours we had been very close up to elephants, giraffes and zebras as well as seeing hippos, wilderbeast, impalas and flamingos. Our campsite for the night had the surprise bonus of a swimming pool. Neither of us had anything to swim in, so in we went in our undies, closely followed by Stefan and Pauline. It was great to cool off after a long day in the car. Sadly the other camps weren't quite so glam.

On the prowl

In fact our second and third nights (in the Serengeti) were somewhat challenging. Firstly the long-drop. Not so bad in itself except that during the evening and night bats would be flying in and out of the door, and also in and out of the toilet hole. If the lid wasn't shut when you went in you had no idea if a bat was going to try and fly out while you were sitting and hit you on the bottom at any moment! Also there was the small issue of the lion. A large, male lion that sat under a tree a short distance from camp all day and didn't move as it got dark. We were given dire warnings from our hilarious and brilliant chef Bahati that we should not go outside our tents after dark and we most certainly shouldn't venture over to the toilet block. We thought he was winding us up until our guide Stephen repeated the warning. Nothing makes you need a wee more than being told you can't go, so we all spent the night trying not to drink too much before bed. Unfortunately poor Stefan had an upset stomach so had to leave the tent in the night. He saw eyes in the bushes nearby and footprints the next morning confirmed the lion has indeed been in to the camp, but had not touched anything. Unlike the hyeanas which tired to drag away a huge blue plastic drum full of rubbish leaving it strewn all across the campsite. In The Serengeti we saw lionesses so close up it was scary , lots of wonderful elephants and of course zebra and wilderbeast. It turns out the wilderbeast hang out with the zebra because the zebra are very clever. As well as knowing which way the water is they also sense predators very quickly. We decided the zebra tolerate the wilderbeast because in a 'numbers game, who will the lion catch first' scenario the wilderbeast is most likely to get it in the neck! We also spotted (thanks only to our guide Stephen) two leopards hiding up in trees and a beautiful cheetah cooling off in the shade. Suddenly our love for the zebras went out the window as we prayed for a tiny baby to stray near enough that the cheetah would chase. That day the zebra foal lived.

Water tank or drinking glass?

At the Ngorongoro Crater we stayed at the scarily named Simba Camp and spent the day down in the amazing crater created by a volcano that collapsed in on itself. Its a beautiful setting and we saw plenty of wildlife again, but sadly the 20 resident rhinos managed to avoid our searching eyes!
We did, however, get a final treat just as we were preparing to leave the camp. Two enterprising adult elephants have realised that the huge water tank feeding the camp toilets and showers does not have a lid. Why then should they bother walking miles to the nearest river when a short saunter into the camp when no one's looking provides them with as much water as they want. As you can see from the picture our car was parked right next to the tank and we had a wonderful view of what happened. Afterwards we watched them wade into a muddy hole and throw brown gloop all over themselves from about 3m away. One foot was always engaged in the 'run away' position after the bigger of the two had fired us a few warning flares with his ears when he first spotted us.

After all that excitment we only just made it out of the national park in time to avoid paying for another 24 hours and with that our Safari and almost an entire camera memory stick were over. We dashed back to Arusha and to our same lovely little hotel to do some washing ready for the next adventure...... tomorrow.


(PS...photos now uploaded on our earlier blogs and will come soon on this one)

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Photos

Our home for the next 16 hours
The 'Mad Max' bus from Rasumo to Dodoma

Bobby on the beat
Our gun toting chaperone through Tanzania's wild west.

Rock Art
'Can you guess what it is yet?'

Local bus stop
Waiting for the bus in Kolo

Nosey parker
This one just wouldn't stop staring at us!

Here kitty, kitty
Just a big pussy cat?

A helping hand
Is somebody keeping an eye out for lions?

Zebra Crossing
As it should be...

The toilet guard
He certainly helps loosen the bowels

The longest drink in town
Why bother walking to a watering hole?

Team Safari
Tracey, Dave, Stefan and Pauline in The Crater

Comments

[Andrea Wall]

Interesting Views
Hello - I found your blog from a Google Alert I get on the word Dodoma. I am from Minnesota but have lived in Dodoma for the past five years - I love hearing the insights of people who come for a visit - I loved your blog - hope you had a great time in Tanzania despite all of its little issues. Seemed like you came with the perfect attitude - flexibility and an open mind.