Aug 6, 2012 - Day 46 Chintheche to Mbeya, Tanzania

We are headed 489 km through northern Malawi into Mbeya. Utengule Coffee Lodge in Tanzania tomorrow. We have arrived safely after about 7 hours of turns and twists as well as up and downs. By thomas After a hearty breakfast of french toast and pancakes, we leave Chintheche Inn, passing rubber plantations in Northern Malawi and some fairly windy roads. After fuelling at Mzuzi and buying a couple of loaves of bread for our lunch, we get a speeding fine just outside Mzuzi! $25, we did not bother to wait for the receipt as we had a lomg drive...

Apr 15, 2011 - One very quick night in Mbeya

After a 12hr, suprisingly on time, bus trip across Tanzania we arrived in the town of Mbeya which has the most spectacular setting in these incredible hills in the West of Tanzania. I guess looking back I realise why we managed to arrive into Mbeya on timw, the driver (like most other Africans) was completely mad and took us on a rollercoaster of a journey which at times involved being on 2 wheels (this is a big coach by the way not a small minibus) and hairing round these bends at god knows what speed with a 80m drop on one side. A bit...

Jan 1, 2011 - Mbeya

Erster Zwischenstopp auf unserer Reise durch den touristisch eher uneberüherten Westen Tansanias, die Provinzhauptstadt Mbeya. Bis zur Grenze Malawi-Tansania im Bus und ein Teil im Taxi, danach in Tansania mit einem kleinem Bus. Auf dem Weg dahin sind wir durch wunderschöne, grüne, hügelige Landschaften gefahren, in denen unter anderem Tee, Bananen und Ananas angebaut werden. Der Weg nach Mbeya war dann auch schon das beste, und natürlich das erste Mal in einem Land zu sein, dass wir noch nicht kennen - die Stadt an sich bietet aber nicht...

Jan 26, 2010 - Mbeya

In Mbeya a man talks to us and asks us for money. Begging we have of course experienced a thousand times, but we had decided before the trip that we don't give to people on the street. We give a set amount of money to a worthy cause in each country we visit. But when the man tells us he has AIDS and has to feed his starving children at home but he doesn't have enough energy to work, its very hard to feel ok about saying No. Its hard to know where to draw that line between right and wrong but as another traveller says to us later, you have...

Jan 20, 2009 - Train from Dar to Mbeya

The train ride from Dar to Mbeya was definatly one of the cooler experiences we have had on the trip. First, it's nice to break up all that bus transport with a trip on the train. But besides that, it was really cool to see all the activity that occurs along the way. Train is pretty slow but that's ok, because we are in no hurry. We got pretty good treatment from the staff. We were looking forward to getting out of the crazy heat in Dar. Dar is at sea level and Mbeya is like 1700 meters above sea level so it is quite a bit cooler in Mbeya....

Apr 3, 2008 - Mbeya

Apr 3 Up early in the dark to bus which left substation at 7 and 4 km out to main bus station where we headed out of town about 7:45 on a 4 lane blvd. highway, really quite un African from our previous travels. It looks like the city expanded into what were once coconut palm plantations, driving for almost half an hour before we were truly away from them. By 10 we’d reached mtns/valley and small plots, low ground growing rice the rest planted in red onions, corn, cassava, tomatoes etc. passed 2 large pineapple plantations as well. Lots of...

Feb 5, 2007 - Supplementary

I have reproduced my handwritten notes here. I started taking these notes a couple of days after the accident so I could keep all the facts straight along the way. Maybe they will make a boring read for most of you, maybe not. If anything, they'll let you in on the intensity of this part of the experience. I don't know. You tell me. Acacia Accident Notes Started February 8, 2007 On Jan 21, 2007, we joined an Acacia overland trip from Nairobi to Cape Town. On Feb 5th, 2007, at approximately 11:30 am, our overland truck went off the road on...

Feb 5, 2007 - Number's Not Up

Some days, maybe a lot more days now, we are just thankful to be alive. Thankful to be able to see the sunset in the evening, or the rain the next day. Thankful for each other. Thankful to see the hope that exists in a child's eye, when the reality of the world takes you to the edge of human capacity. Some days, we are just thankful. The experience we just lived through here told us that more than ever, and if we didn't realize it before the truck accident, we sure realize now, how fragile life is, and how there is nothing more important in...

Feb 2, 2006 - Dar to Mbeya by Tazara train

Leaving Zanzibar was sad but we did so promising ourselves we'd return...some day. We had planned to head north to Pemba Island, which is also part of the Zanzibar Archipelago. But travellers we met said Pemba wasn't really worth the time, cost and effort unless we had more time. So we spent an extra couple of days on Zanzibar - isn't life tough. We did need to move on, however, or we'd never make that flight from Johannesburg. And the best way to do it, we decided, was by train. The Tazara (www.tazara.com) runs between Dar es Salaam and...

Oct 15, 2005 - Mbeya, Tanzania

With heavy heart (but decidedley light wallet), we headed off at 5.30 on the Friday for Mbeya in Tanzania. We first had to walk about a mile in the already blistering heat to get to the bus station. At almost every bus stop it was all that I could do to prevent myself from taking the first bus back the way we had come! We arrived in Karonga in the North by lunch time and had no trouble crossing the border into Tanzania. We then had another 3 hour journey to Mbeya where we staying for the night. Jambo Guesthouse was in stark relief from...

Oct 13, 2005 - The long day on the road...

It's been so long since we have written anything, but we've been a bit incommunicado... to the extent that we haven't actually had cell access for the best part of the last week, let alone internet access. So there's a lot to catch up on, and we'll try to fill in the last few weeks in a couple of entries so that you can still follow us on the maps!! We've have a good but oten frustrating second section of our trip. We started really well with the visits to the Masai Mara and the crater. It's been a long 2 weeks after that of long (12 hour...

Nov 2, 2004 - Train Journey to Dar - The Tazara Express

Today was one of those epic travel days - let's start calling the journey by it's Swahili name - Safari. We left early for the bus, even after having time to pet Rocky the enormous yellow labrador house dog at the backpackers lodge. We soon realised that we didn't have enough kwatcha to pay for our tickets, so we had to find an illegal money changer to give us some money which the info desk helped us to do. When we went back to buy the ticket to Kapiri Moshi - that bus had already filled up and none were available so we had to wait for the...