I left the hotel at 8-00am and was surprised to find very little traffic on the roads. I had 390km to travel to Pangani of which the last 60km was on dust roads and also included a ferry crossing over the Pangani River. The people I had spoken to suggested the trip should take about 5 hours.
The main road was in fairly good condition, and had very little traffic, and as such I was able to travel quite easily. You must remember one thing about travelling in Tanzania (and most other African countries for that matter) is that there are towns and villages along the road and at each of these there are 2 or 3 strategically hidden speed bumps, which if you don’t slow down will do you some serious damage to your vehicle. Towing a trailer means that I have to slow down to about 10 or 15kmh, and then speed up again, and this happens about every 10km which really stuffs up average speed. Anyhow, good progress was made through Mwanga, Same, Mombo, Korogwe and Segera, from where I turned off towards Tanga. The road was excellent and I soon arrived in Muheza, where the turnoff to Pangani was. I also think that things went smoother because I didn’t have my normal co-pilot telling me to watch out for the pothole, bicycle, pedestrian, goat, wheelbarrow, bump, taxi, motorbike, cow, dog, chicken etc.
This is where the fun started, and even though it was only 40km to Pangani, found that I could hardly get to 30kmh as the roads were terrible. I eventually arrived in Pangani and found there was a queue for the ferry. With no-one speaking or understanding English I had no clue as to what was going on. The ferry arrived and cars and trucks were directed and squeezed onto it, I don’t know how I managed to squeeze in-between a truck and a bakkie and then have about 100 locals all clambering over everything.
The offloading was a lot easier and with only 15km to travel to the Lodge, and the road being slightly better, I arrived at Emayani Beach Lodge soon after 3-00pm. The place is stunning and will be my base until Friday, when I will take a ferry across to Zanzibar and hopefully meet up with the family on Saturday.
The ferry loading point
The beach
Well done Gra! You did it! Looks like you are really battling at the moment!!! It's been such fun catching up with Mel! We watched the girls play Brescia this afternoon - 1-1 - but no goalie (half the team is in Bush School)! Luke came along to watch his first hockey match - he wasn't too impressed though... snoozed through most of it! Have fun! Hope to see you in August! xoxo
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