6 March - Banana

6 March

Chitimba – Tanzania Bush Camp

282 Miles

Steph:

Again, it rained all night. We crossed into Tanzania and it was pretty straight forward. I noticed a difference in the people right away. On average, people are much heavier here. There are men with big bellies sitting around eating more. I don't recall seeing that in Malawi. People are still waving and smiling at us though. Maybe a little less. Ok, yeah, less, but it's better than just the stares we got in Botswana. There are also a ton of motorcycles! They're everywhere and used as taxis here. We stopped at a market for lunch and the street was full of women with baskets filled with bananas on their heads. Malawi had their corn, Tanzania has bananas. Three guys approached us immediatly yelling, "my friend, my friend, this way". I know they're just trying to earn a buck but they're kind of annoying. They'll point you in the general direction of something they think you need and then expect you to pay them for their service. This one in particular became very rude and started yelling when we refused to give him money for nothing. The market was cool though. We bought veggies to cook dinner with and some fried potatoes for lunch.

The scenery was really pretty. ALL MOUNTAINS covered in banana trees and Tea... plants? Tea leaf bush (i don't know what to call them), which were really cool. After a ridiculous down pour, we arrived in a forest platation. That was really weird. I never really expected to see a cold, wet pine forest in africa. We ended up taking a dirt road into the woods and camped under the stars. Ishi made a delicious lentil stew thing and I made mashed potatoes. Awesome. Then it got cold enough for our sleeping bags! Woo!

Erik:

The border was very professional. No one tried to rip us off which was nice. The roads in Tanzania are perilous though. They're way too narrow and trucks and Matatus (combis converted into mini buses) drive like idiots here. We saw at least 4 serious accidents where semi's had rolled off the highway. I'm glad we didn't cycle. Don't think we would've made it far. Life's different from the back of the truck. We got flipped off a few times, which has never happened before. We also drove through Mbeya, where we were going to hop on the train to Dar es Salaam. It was bad. Again, glad we didn't have to ride through there.  

All mountains

Tea leaves

Asante Sana Squash BANANA!!!

Pines?