1 Feb 2011

Internet VERY slow, Pics when better!!!  All ok, colds etc all gone.

31 January 2011

We have now done a total of 5700km!  We left Nkhata Bay and Moyoka Village after having spent three days there trying to get rid of my nasty head cold.  It was a really nice place to stay but we needed to get moving.  Kathryn from Moyoka Village suggested that we stay at Sungilo Sanctuary, one of the furthest northern camping sites on Lake Malawi before entering Tanzania.  This was not the best camping spot that we have found, there was no water in the ablutions and the actual camping site was basically in the garden of the owners home.  But fine for a one night stop.

We left early the following morning with the possibility of a long day ahead of us.  We had heard that there was a camp called Bongo Camp about 50km into Tanzania and then the next stop would mean about a 500km ride with a border post for the day.  The border was a breeze with the Tanzania side really polite and official.  We also a met a Italian gentleman by the name of George, he had  left Italy 50 days ago and had travelled 23000km around the west coast  of Africa and was now heading home again. He was riding a 3 cylinder 750cc BMW with 263000km on the clock and very heavily laden!!  He was obviously working to a very tight schedule as his wife was going to divorce him if he took too long!

We were separated from our Dutch friends when they went on ahead and Larry (who speaks a little Spanish) went back into the border post to try and translate for George, we landed up having to spend about 45mins waiting for further documentation from the Tanzania officials, when we queried that the Dutch people had gone on  without this they told us they may have a problem getting out of Tanzania but the official who does the capturing of the data was out when we originally went to the customs so they did not want to delay us!!

We popped into Bongo Camp and decided that we were not happy with what we saw there and decided to carry onto a place called the Old Farm House which had been recommended to us by a number of people.  We had a long drive through some very scenic areas and lots of very heavy traffic, the buses and big trucks drive extremely badly here.  We arrived at the Old Farm House at about 6pm, just enough time to have a shower and get to dinner.  The dinner was served in a large hut and we had no idea of what to expect and were we surprised, the best dinner that we have had so far on our travels, a starter of pumpkin soup, main was one of the biggest T-bone I have seen and dessert was a chocolate chip muffin all cooked by a French Chef!!  The place is really well run and well worth stopping here on the drive to Dar-e- Salaam.  We are not in a hurry to get to Dar so decided to spend a 2^nd night here, the weather is cool and we need to get some laundry done.  Johan is getting a parcel together for us, my bike needs front and back sprocket and chain and fork seals and that will be sent to us in Dar-es-Salaam so we don’t want to get there too long before the parcel and land up spending time in a big city.

Our Dutch friends should be here later this afternoon and then tomorrow we will move to just outside of a national park, Mikumi National Park, that we can ride through.  This is only one of two parks that we can ride through on motorbikes as the national road goes through the park.  We have been warned not to get too close to lions as they have been known to chase motorbikes and bicycles.

We have meet up with our German overlander friends again and they were telling us about a national park to the north of Dar where the elephants come down to the beach.  So we have lots to do here in Tanzania, Zanzibar, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti.

We are not sure of our route because of the political troubles in Egypt so we are looking at the possibilities of crossing with a ferry from Sudan into Saudi Arabia where I believe you can get a three day transit visa to cover 3000km, will keep you updated on what happens regarding this.

S

1 February 2011

The Old Farm House has become a meeting place for the bikers, we met a German couple on two motorbikes (him on a Dakar 650 and she was on a 650 Suzuki), the Dutchies arrived and then Rob Mullholland arrived, a young guy from Cape Town who has spent 6 months coming down the West Coast of Africa, he is riding a KTM 990 and took a serious tumble a few days ago and needs to spend a few days in camp repairing his bike, also had 30 stitches in his leg.  We have also heard that there is a rather large couple (Italians) on a Vespa 49cc scooter, with luggage touring in the area!!

S