Treve & Katrina Travel The World

So here we are with installment 5 of our African adventure.

As a certain Mama Laura Bush descended on Dar es Salaam, so we made a hasty exit ("trusting in God") on the Scandinavian bus to Mbeya in south-western Tanzania. Loo breaks in the so-called "service stations" are an experience not to be missed. Katrina had a close call with a steaming corn-on-the-cob which was thrust through an open window on the end of a long pole and which nearly took both of our eyes out. This seemed to amuse the vendors so much that another 5 were poked through.

The countryside en route was stunning, as we wound our way up through mountain passes towards the hill-side town of Mbeya. 4 hours short of Mbeya, we dropped off some "lucky" passengers in Iringa. One knowing glance to each other confirmed that we had made the right choice not to take young Toby's advice in the Safari Inn (these eager young gappers, eh?!). A stay there might have left us still stranded there now! 10 hours later, we arrived tired & cold (bbrrr!) in Mbeya with the intention of doing plenty of strenuous hiking to burn off all those full English breakfasts.

View of Mbeya Peak from the hotel, which we failed miserably to climb

The hotel, although seemingly grand from the outside, was just about as African as you can get, complete with local businessmen in faded suits, smoking the local cigarettes over a pint of Safari lager. The bar seemed a little grown up for us, so we tried the restaurant instead - we were the only occupants in this 60's style restaurant. We were 2 hours too early - typical Brits! Treve has mastered the art of eating ugali with his fingers, much to the surprise of the waiter and Katrina (it's meant to be eaten this way! TK)

Strangely, we both had the same thing in mind - the place looked like the hotel in Stephen King's "The Shining", with it's long deserted corridors. Spookey!! Woooooooooo!

We made contact with the local branch of the Tanzanian Cultural Tourism Project, aimed at using the proceeds of tourism to help young farmers in the area. Our guide for the afternoon was a really nice local Rasta who took us to his mother's village and showed us the tea and banana plantations of the surrounding area.

Tea plantations near Mbeya

Banana transport

At every opportunity, our friendly guide would get out his knitting (he was making hats to house his copious dreads). We continued through this lush countryside, down a steep bank to a waterfall.

Vic Falls? Smaller than we imagined...

What he'd failed to mention was that all transport for the day was to be taken on dalla-dallas (we have never been so scared in our lives!). 2 hours stuffed into these buses, together with chickens and 100 other people (honest!) forced us to make the decision that probably a road trip to Milawi was not for us. Shame, as it's supposed to be a beautiful for country, but we weren't prepared to risk it on these death-traps.

Treve's wobbly stomach spurred us on to escape Mbeya and jump on the next Scandinavian bus out of town.

These guys trust in Allah

5 hours and 1 breakdown later, we were still waiting at Mbeya bus station. A hasty ride in a taxi to the petrol station outside town saw us on the bus and racing to beat the border closure into Zambia. We sped down the road, scarily knocking a boy off his bike (only minor damage to the bike, but really shocking at the time), to make the border with only 15 minutes to spare. A night at this lawless border crossing would have been a nightmare. As dusk fell, we were bundled into the passport office, after being told not to leave the bus for fear of being mugged by the waiting gangs in "no man's land". This was definitely the scariest experience of our lives (heard that somewhere before? It's true!!) To put the icing on the cake, a 1 hour emergency repair of the timing belt ensued before we could continue into the freezing Zambian darkness.

We finally arrived in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, at 5 the next morning, our driver slumped over the wheel after the 24 hour marathon from Dar es Salaam. We jumped into a battered old cab and were treated to a 100 metre (so it transpired the next day!!) 10$ ride to the Lusaka Hotel and some welcome kip.

An ominous warning in Lusaka

There wasn't a great deal to do or see in Lusaka itself, as it is a genuine African commercial centre - not at all set up for tourism. However, the National Museum and Freedom monument were really interesting. The museum also housed a collection of paintings by Henry Tiyali, Zambia's most celebrated artist.

Zambian freedom monument

After just 3 days, the pull of Victoria Falls proved too much to resist, so we jumped on another trusty bus! We thought we had picked the poshest bus company in the station. However, we found out that the bus we'd seen had left 4 hours earlier and we were left with a battered chugger. Within 1 hour, we'd broken down twice and as the black smoke billowed from the sides of the bus we realised that, not only were we at the back of the bus, but we were also squashed behind 6 children sat down the aisle accompanied by a breast-feeding mother (practically on Treve's knee!)

On the road to Livingstone

6 hours later (it should have taken 4), we crawled into Livingstone - an old haunt of Katrina's Dad in the early 60s. The town is not dissimilar to how Katrina had imagined it from her Dad's stories - a place of wide, leafy avenues & monkeys shaving in trees! We checked into Treve's hell, that is the Jolly Boys Backpackers' Lodge - full to the brim with pretentious gap-year "kids"! We've suddenly gone from being the minority whites to very much the majority in this town. Doesn't bode well for Oz!

Having got over the initial shock - a wander around Livingstone soon fixed this - the town has proved to be really friendly and welcoming. Of course, Livingstone's whole reason-for-being is the spectacular Victoria Falls - 1 of the 7 designated Wonders of the Word and rightly so! The missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone put the Falls of the map in the mid-19th century and named them after our good old Queen Vic. The real name of the Falls is "Mosi-oa-Tunya" (meaning the "smoke that thunders").

We spent 8 hours yesterday, exploring the Vic Falls National Park (only 8kms from Livingstone centre). No bungey jumps for us ("Ooh, my back!" TK) so far. The Falls are spectacular, so here are a few piccies out of the thousands that we took (bet you can't wait for the slide-show!).

You also wanted to see some pictures of us, so don't say we didn't warn you!

Vic Falls from the bungey bridge

Looking towards Zimbabwean side of Falls

Katrina

Looking into the abyss

No, Treve isn't looking skinny!

The raging Zambezi below

Getting a soaking on the footbridge

A local resident enjoying the view

Our intrepid explorers!

This Sunday 25th July, we cross the bridge spanning the mighty Zambezi and enter Zimbabwe, where we will meet the overland group. We'll probably be out of contact until we reach Cape Town in mid-August, so that's all for now folks!!

Lot's of love,
Katrina & Treve