Tanzania
Posted on20th of February, the official start date of the expedition trip. We started to move west out of Dar Es-Salaam. Soon we would drive up in the mountains, away from the larger roads. After about one day of driving we arrived at a national park called Mikumi National Park which we entered. Saw the first animals of this trip which was nice. No lions but we saw elephants, giraffes, buffalos and many gazelles. We stoped in the village of Mikumi for the night and a spent the evening at a resturant and some bars there.
We countined along the road and eventually we found a stone age site which turned out to be a quite large piece of land that had been severely eroded by weather and wind. It was a cool experience walking around in the area though.
On our journey through the southern Tanzania we would come upon some various towns, Iringa is one of them. We went out for a dinner and some nice time and found a very simple resturant but the food they served was world class. We also had to eat with our hands but that kind of adds to the experience. Further on we would arrive in Mbeya where we wanted to party one night. The locals tried to take us to a place with disco lights but we wanted something more local.
We found the kind of place we were looking for and had a blast at that place. One of us almost got married off. What a night, what a night! Our last stop in Tanzania was in a small town called Tukuyu where we spent the night in a hotel because it was raining so much.
Continuing towards the border to Malawi we found a crater lake on the GPS and thought we should check it out so we headed into the jungle. After some hour or so of driving in the jungle we came to a stop where we left the cars and started hiking on a trail.
It was a slippery path between large ferns and tall trees. Somewhere along the path we saw a gigantic spider web which even made me feel a bit unconfortable for a moment. We pressed on further into the jungle over slippery rocks and under huge dead branches. I think we walked for a couple of hours but no sign of the crater lake. Even though walking upon a ridge we couldn’t see the lake so we decided it was time to make a descision of some sort.
Getting lost in the jungle after dark is not a good thing to do so we started to back track and eventually we would end up in the clearing where we left the cars. Getting into the cars and having dry clothes on again we started to drive back to the main road that we had left many hours earlier. Proved to be easier said than done but we made it.
We searched for a good place to make camp for the night just a couple of miles from the border to Malawi.
Also, the gallery is updated with pictures from Tanzania!