Note from the editors:
It’s been lovely to be back in a bit of civilisation in Lilongwe, Malawi for a few days and try to catch up on the blog a bit. With the best-stocked supermarkets since the UK, with proper camping equipment mixed with frozen pizzas, kitchenware and designer clothes, we’ve been able to stock up on many essentials.

However, it’s very different from the Africa we’ve come to know in the past months, so we’re heading off into obscurity for a few days while we wait for our next Surfers to join us. There will be another series of short posts in the next few days for your delectation and delight.

After our slight disappointment with the Serengeti, we remained hopeful that we might see some cats. However, as we paid our entery fee ($20 per person, less than half the cost of the Serengeti/Ngorongoro), we were told that 75% of the roads were impassable due to the amount of rainfall and that the area we could access was tiny in comparison to the size of the park. This didn’t stop us exploring one road that we were told was impassable. It got more and more slippery and we eventually decided that they were right, it was impassable, and that we should turn round. This took us 20 minutes, after that we stuck firmly to the “open” roads.

We had two half days in the National Park and on both days our game sightings were brilliant! We had fantastic views of herds of elephants walking right in front of the car, giraffe grazing along side the car, buffalo, antelope, hippo, thousands of colourful birds and, of course, lions, walking along side the car, virtually brushing the paint work. We almost missed it walking right by us. We stopped the car and in the long grass right on the verge were four more lions lying sleeping.

The next day we went back to the same spot were had seen the lions the previous day and spotted two lions up a tree. Who knew lions could climb trees! They disappeared into the long grass and crossed a river, we followed the road to the other side of the river and found 6 lions lying out in the sun. Andy and Henry thought they would get better views if they opened the doors and stood on the rock sliders and Andy thought the pictures would be even better if he stood on the roof! One lion slowly opened her eyes and didn’t like where they were, jumped up and startled the rest and we made a hasty getaway.

Mikumi National Park is bisected by a main road, the Tanzam highway. We drove along the section through the park 7 times in total. Game sightings from the road are common and we had to stop on our 6th time along the road to let a herd of about 20 elephants cross in front of us.

Our plan, after returning with Henry and Kathie from Zanzibar, was to head South to Mozambique. Kathie could only join us for the school holidays; with a week in Zanzibar, that left only a week to get to Pemba, from where she had a flight booked back to Dar.

These plans did not fit well with the revised philosophy (do nothing as much as possible for a while), so were quickly revised. Instead, we decided to split our time between Dodoma and the Mikumi and Uzungwa National Parks. We would then return to Dar es Salaam to drop Kathie for her flight home.

We reckon it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made on the trip. Our reading indicates that not only are the roads across the coastal Tanzania/Mozambique border on a par with the roads in Northern Kenya (diabolical), but the security situation in northern Mozambique currently leaves something to be desired (namely, security).

On paper, Dodoma is the capital of Tanzania. This fact alone makes it worth a brief visit, but making it much more interesting to us is the fact that I lived there while working for MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) for a year in 2005/2006. Thus what most people would see as a rather plain town felt to us (or me at least) like a homecoming. Further, guidebooks be damned, we could find our way around the city. It’s impossible to underestimate the difference this makes when travelling; the few locations we’ve visited in which we have already spent time (basically Istanbul and a few places in Tanzania) have felt like havens, with a break from “sore-neck-in-New-York” syndrome.

Tanzania is the first country we’ve been in where trying to get by on English alone would be a real struggle. Added to the feeling of homecoming was the feeling of dusting off some rusty Swahili phrases (“Mambo!” “Poa kichizi kama ndizi ndana ya friji”) and managing to navigate markets competently.

We staked out a corner of the MAF car park (much like much like another group), beside the airstrip, for a couple of days. It was great to catch up with old friends again. Within MAF, I’m known by many people I’ve not even met as “the WASP man” – I spent a couple of years working on a bit of software by that name, now used in all their hangers, so it’s fantastic to return to a few programmes and see it in productive daily use.

Tanzania, and Dodoma, have changed significantly in the last 5 years. Poverty is less apparent, with development everywhere. Thatched roofs are being upgraded to tin, battered 1950s Leyland trucks to 1990s Scanias and Volvos, and dirt roads to tarmac. On a deeper level, it has not changed; the welcoming smiles, the greetings, the fantastic mangoes and the awful sliced white bread – I suspect these things will be the same for many generations to come.

We didn’t realise my brother, Russell, had his own plane in Tanzania. Very nice. Mind if we borrow it Russell? Could save some money on suspension repairs.

Although the Masai, and other nomadic tribes, keep massive numbers of cattle, wealth is measured in number, not how healthy or useful they are; the end result is lots of tough beef, and very little dairy. The Irente Biodiversity Reserve, nestled in the hills 5km above the lush green town of Lushoto, have a rare herd of Frisian cattle, producing some of the best dairy products we’ve tasted in months.