Days 95 & 96: Tanzania

Day 95

The ferry back was due to leave at around 11am, so we checked out after a brief lie-in and went for some breakfast in a small café around the corner from the port. The Catamaran journey back to the mainland was really choppy, and at one stage we were nearly puked on by a little girl at the front of the boat who obviously didn’t like the rough sea that that catamaran was smashing through at pace.

Once back on the mainland, the cheapest way to return to the campground was to get two Matatus from the centre of town. If you can speak the language and can cope with cramped conditions the Hiace is a very cheap and relatively quick method of public transport as the journey back cost us much less than $5 between us.

After getting some money out and changing it to dollars, we retreated once again to the campground to watch DVDs on the beach under the full moon that hovered over the Indian Ocean.

Day 96

With our washing done and the Landrover packed, we started our journey to Malawi, hoping to get somewhere near the border by the time the sun went down. Trying to get the miles under our belt as quickly as possible so that we had more chance of getting to Mbeya, the border town by that evening had one major flaw. On one of the main roads heading through and out of a small town I got caught speeding.

The police had parked on the edge of the town with a radar gun and had clocked me doing 77kph in a 50kph zone, resulting in a £10/€11 on the spot fine. I had wanted to get to Cape Town without any speeding tickets, but when you are travelling 12,500miles/20,000km often at high speed through remote areas, the chances are that sooner or later you will probably get caught out.

We didn’t make it as far as Mbeya, but we found a small town called Matakyoko which wasn’t too much further from the border. We found a hotel called the Mid-town motel with really nice en-suite rooms for £2.50/€2.75 per person per night, and the meals from the restaurant turned out just as cheap. After all the day didn’t prove too costly at all.