From Ruaha Park we drove to Mbeya, and then, via the Zambian border, to the southern town of Sumbawanga. Again we found a mission guest house which had good basic accommodation, and we were able to meet up with some of our past college students. They are working for the church there under extremely difficult and isolated conditions, and they thought that the arrival of their tutor to visit them was a 'miracle of God'!From there our journey became more challenging as the roads gradually deteriorated. We drove through Katavi National Park, keeping the windows well shut because of the fierce testse flies! Our last night was in the market town of Mpanda, where we stayed in the poshest 'hotel' in town for £8-00 for a double room (including breakfast!)
The last day home was memorable - it took 11 hours to drive 180 miles owing to the terrible state of the dirt road. We knocked the tyre off the rim on a large rock within the first half hour, but from then on, owing to Alastair's amazing driving skills, only had one episode in the ditch. It has to be the most isolated area of Tanzania, passing only two small villages in 100 miles. We saw 8 other vehicles the whole day, and 4 were in the ditch!Suddenly in a particularly lonely stretch of road we saw a white man beside the road! Dave was motor biking from S.Africa to Ruanda, but his bike had packed up. He had no phone reception or knowledge of Swahili, so he was pretty thrilled to see us. He came back to Kasulu with us (to cut a longish story short) - stayed overnight, enjoyed shepherd's pie and a shower, and managed to reunite with his bike and get it fixed. He's in the picture above sharing a roadside picnic with us - though the picnic was cut short by the arrival of some rather aggressive looking baboons.
It's good to be home, and hold all our wonderful memories.
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