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Tanzania – July and September 2007

Route
In total we spent 30 days in Tanzania, effectively going up the east coast and down the west. We entered over the Rovuma River car ferry in the south, driving up to Arusha via Dar and Zanzibar and into Kenya and Uganda. We then re-entered through the north-western border at Mutukula and travelled down the edge of Lake Tanganyika to Malawi.

Border formalities
The Rovuma River* border-post at Mwambo was quiet and easy. Customs were friendly and had good English but failed to inform us that we needed to pay $20 for road tax and $5 for fuel tax (payable in US dollars and valid for one month). We found out about this when we tried to leave the country and had to find the money in order to get our carnet stamped.#

The border at Mutukula was also easy to navigate. On the Tanzanian side, we paid another $20 for road tax and $5 for fuel tax. You have to register at the police station after Immigration and Customs.

Visas (UK citizens) - $50 for an automatic 90 days multi-entry, obtained on the border.

Third-party insurance is compulsory but there is nowhere on the Mwambo border to buy this. We got ours from a Reliance Insurance representative in Mtwara for 25,000TSH (about £10) for 3 months.

*Note: see the Mozambique entry for details of the Rovuma River crossing.

Impressions
Tanzanians on the whole appear business-like and progressive. The Swahili language and culture is to the fore and it’s good to see billboards and adverts in a non-European language. English is still the business language and you will find it spoken in most of the larger towns.

General driving conditions
Speed limits are 60 and 120 km/hr (with other signs). We saw no police cars outside Dar es Salaam but there are police road blocks in most small towns. These slow you down rather than cause any problems. Road conditions varied from good tar to rocky riverbeds.

After Mozambique, there seemed to be a lot more vehicles on the road (especially Landys!). Most of the vehicles along the western side were UN and aid agency cars, driven by aggressive young men quite prepared to sacrifice child pedestrians and other motorists for the greater cause.

N.B. Tanzanian drivers indicate to inform you of the oncoming traffic hazards rather than to indicate their intentions (indicating right means ‘Do not overtake’ rather then ‘I am turning right’).

Specific driving conditions
Main arteries are generally very good but roads away from these can be terrible. Most trade in the west is done on Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria so the roads are badly neglected. Out of the 30 days we spent 12 driving.
  • Mwambo to Mtwara – bumpy dust road (1 hr)
  • Mtwara to Masasi – good tar with numerous roadblocks (2 ½ hours)
  • Lindi to Selous Game Reserve – temporary dust roads on the B2 road works (Lindi to Somanga) followed by terrible pot holed, dirt road to Ikwiriri where there is a new bridge and a turning to the park not marked on our map. Patchy 4x4 track to park gate. Too much to do in 1 day (10 hours)
  • Ikwiriri to Dar es Salaam – road building programme, beautiful where complete. A comfortable days drive from Dar to Selous.
  • Dar to Arusha – good (dirt) minor roads to Msata on the A14, via Bagamoyo (2 days drive).

Returning to Tanzania from Uganda, we took four days to drive down the western side from Mutukula to Mbeya, with a side-trip to Kigoma. We chose to visit the lake at Kigoma because we thought it would be the most accessible point, however the road into Kigoma is very bad so maybe investigate other options. Our 4 days driving was broken up as follows:
  • Masaka (Uganda) to Biharamulo – good tar to Muleba, then graded dirt road to Biharamulo, both the B8 (6½ hours)
  • Biharamulo to Kigoma – good surface continued on the B8 to Kasulu. Be warned, there are terrible corrugations to Kigoma (8½ hours)
  • Kigoma to Mpanda – the B8 is good to Uvinza, after which the road through the forest reserve is a very rocky, unmade road (8½ hours)
  • Mpanda to Sumbawanga – dust roads of varying standards. Very bad in Katavi Park (7½ hours)
  • Sumbawanga to Mbeya – the B8 has bad corrugations until Tunduma. The Tanzam Highway is good tar apart from a small section before Mbeya (6½ hours)
  • Mbeya to Chitimba Beach (Malawi) – good tar roads all the way (4½ hours). It’s an easy days drive from Mbeya/Tukuyu to Chitimba/Livingstonia.

Dar es Salaam city and traffic is frenetic and a little crazy but no more than other African cities. There are some confusing one-way systems in the very centre of town and we hit roadworks on the way in from the south.

Accommodation
We stayed in Tanzania for a total of 30 days, 15 camping and 15 in guesthouses and hotels. All rooms came with a bread-and-instant-coffee type breakfast. Some particular notes:
  • Mtwara – the cheaper accommodation was run down and not good value for money. Couldn’t find a campsite. We treated ourselves to a lovely sea-view room in the Southern Cross Hotel!
  • Masasi – a natural staging post on this road so the local guesthouses are numerous and good value
  • Selous Game Reserve – as an alternative to the pricey lodges inside the reserve there are many cheaper riverside camps (20,000 – 25,000TSH) springing up outside Mtemere gate
  • Dar es Salaam – in town, we stayed at the Econo Lodge, which is good value and has OK supervised parking. There are lots of seaside campsites north of the city and south via the Kigamboni ferry, which you can catch at the end of Ocean Road
  • Arusha – excellent campsite with good facilities at Masai camp, 3kms east of town.

On the western side of Tanzania we found hardly any campsites and stayed in local guesthouses and church run institutions, which is an experience in itself.
  • Kigoma - the town was very busy with aid workers and Congolese businessmen and finding a room was hard. The one campsite was the beautiful Jacobson’s Beach Resort. It’s difficult to find (take the road towards the point and look out for a sign) but worth it for its lakeside position and bilharzia-free swimming. Go during the week and you’ll probably have it to yourselves
  • Katavi Park. It’s not really set up for independent tourists has very wild campsites that we didn’t stay at but wished we had. It’s not really set up for independent tourists - speak to the park wardens before going in
  • Mbeya guesthouses are all at overpriced, Tanzam highway rates. The camping at Mbeya Green Inn is acceptable. Instead, try Bongo Camping, 70kms down the road towards Malawi at Tukuyu. Bongo is a local NGO project to promote AIDS awareness, also running English and Adult Education classes. New facilities, great food and good place to find local guides for the mountains and surrounding highlands.

Going to Zanzibar
Kipepeo Beach Resort, south of the Kigamboni ferry, offers camping at 9,600TSH per site and charges 2,400 (£1) per day to park your vehicle whilst in Zanzibar. You can then take a dala-dala back to the Kigamboni ferry and walk from the other side to the port. Zanzibar is fantastic. Allow enough days on the island and bear in mind it takes pretty much a full day to travel from Dar to the island even if you think you’ve booked a fast ferry! For ferry tickets go direct to the choice of ticket booths at the harbour, ignoring the aggressive and unhelpful touts…

Mechanics and other practicalities
Dar has hundreds of garages and parts shops and it is quick and easy to get a drive-in grease-up or express service in any petrol station.

In the west, Mbeya is a practical town and good for getting chores done. Obviously the internet is still painfully slow (and no WiFi) and the mechanics should be regarded with caution (terrible welding job at Highland Motors and a small radiator hose, replaced at MVTC, was split again and spurting coolant within two weeks). MVTC did fix our gearbox though – they are in Mbalizi, west of the town.

Food and water
It’s easy to buy fruit and veg on roadside stalls everywhere (citrus fruit on the coast, cashew nuts in Mtwara). The east coast was all Swahili food, influenced by the Indian Ocean with chapattis and trade wind spices.

There are loads of good places to eat in Dar but we liked Chef’s Pride – really good local pile-up food. Also recommended are Annas homemade meals at Bongo Camping in Tukuyu and, nationwide, chips mayai (chip omelette) for around for 10,000TSH from roadside stalls.

Water supplies became dirtier and less frequent away from towns.

Costs
We spent around £50 a day (two people). This is probably higher than most countries simply because of the expense of Zanzibar and the fact we were travelling quite quickly. We didn’t visit any of the major parks as the prices were very high for foreign-registered vehicle (e.g. $US200 just for the car at Ngorogoro).

Diesel prices were generally 1,400 to 1,550TSH (about 60p/litre).