When in Tanzania …

Places to stay along the route:

·         The Old Farm House, 60 km west of Iringa (S08°08’46.0”  E35°24’45.9”) – The most organised campsite we have come across to-date.  It’s the first decent campsite heading east from Malawi / Zambia.  Fresh farm produce (meat, bread, eggs, dairy and vegetables) are cheaper and of better quality here than anywhere else in Tanzania, so stock up if you can.  You might experience difficulties leaving this place.  TSh2,000.- pppn.  The farm stall is open 24 hours a day, which is particularly nice if you arrive after 20:00 in the dark.  There is a well stocked bar and beers are always cold.  A country hotel and bandas are also available, run by the same owner.

·         Baobab campsite, approx 120 km east of Iringa (S07°31’21.8”  E36°35’59.6”) – On the Great Ruaha River in a baobab forest.  TSh2,000.- pppn.  Pool comes in handy in this hot valley.  Also have ice-cold beers and cold drinks when the owner hasn’t run out of cash.

·         Melela Nzuri campsite, east of Mkumi National Park (S06°56’31.6”  E37°16’06.0”) – Just outside the Mkumi National Park this site is very dry and has few facilities but is definitely cheaper than staying inside Mkumi at US$40.00 pppn for camping with no facilities! There was a shower and a thunder box – but this may improve in the future as an American benefactor is rumoured to have promised money for upgrading the place.  Bring your own beer and drinking water.  TSh2,000.-pppn.

·         Kipepeo campsite, 7 km south of Dar es Salaam (S06°51’06.8”  E39°21’42.2”) – Take the ferry across the Dar es Salaam harbour (S06°49’17.3”  E39°17’56.8”) at TSh 1,000 per light vehicle and TSh100 per person (except the driver).  Nice white beaches and a good place to stay if you have errands to run while in Dar.  Reasonable food and a well stocked bar.  Gets very crowded with day visitors on Sundays.  Bandas are also available.  No large trees to park a Landy under, so bring your own shade.

·         Silver Sands Hotel and campsite, 27 km north of Dar es Salaam on the old Bagamoyo road (S06°39’19.1”  E39°12’44.8”) – State-owned and run as a sidekick to the hotel this overrated camp site offers poor facilities and is rumoured to have security problems (the only place we’ve come across so far with an armed security guard.)  Not recommended by us, although highly recommended by many travel guides – perhaps facilities have deteriorated since publication.  Only campsite to-date to have charged us for the vehicle.  Very heavy traffic en route from Dar.  US$3.- pppn., $2.- per vehicle (only campsite to charge vehicle entry)

·         Peponi campsite, 30 km south of Tanga (S05°17’12.8”  E39°03’59.5”) – Another superb campsite, aptly named “paradise”.  Plenty of coconut palms to park near – not under!  Stunning white beaches free of local hawkers.  Excellent seafood meals & cold beers.  Bandas are available.  Great place to spend several days.  US$4.- pppn.  Good fish market nearby.

·         Pangani river campsite (S04°37’00.6”  E38°00’20.4”) – One of the nicer sites on a river.  Lots of birds and make sure you’re in your tent by sunset as the mozzies will tear you apart.  The owner ran out of money before the site was completed so no restaurant or bar facilities (yet). US$3.- pppn.

·         Snake park, Arusha (S03°24’37.5”  E36°29’02.4”) – this appears to be one of the few campsites around Arusha.  Didn’t stay there, so no details.

·         Safari Junction (S3°20’47.6”  E35°40’14.6”) – only 15 km (45 min – 1 hour’s drive) from the Ngorongoro entrance.  Save yourself $36.- pppn to stay here the night before and the night after your stay in Ngorongoro.  Warm water only by prior notice but beers are kept cool most of the time.

·         Other campsites located within Nature Reserves or National Parks– see below.

National Parks

A special introduction is required for Tanzanian National Parks.  The prices charged here are daylight robbery, unbridled tourist exploitation in its wildest form (from a South African perspective anyway).  It is the Ministry of Tourism’s policy of keeping low budget travellers out and focussing on the US$400.- pppn lodge hopper tourist – supposedly low impact on the environment.  You will pay a minimum of US$25.- pppd entrance (up to US$100.-), US$30.- per day for a foreign registered vehicle, US$20.- pppn (up to US$40.-) for camping on facilities that require you to bring your own water and, if you wish a guide – which is the only acceptable way to set foot outside the campsite in some places – this will cost you another US$15.- to US$25.-

Thus the minimum charge for two adults bringing in their own vehicle for any 24-hour period (or part thereof) will be US$120.-.  For the country with the third lowest GDP (after Mozambique and Vietnam) that’s laying it on a bit thick and it’s not hard to imagine what actually happens with the funds.  Some information books actually state that a “large part” of revenue earned from national parks is not used to maintain/run/upgrade the park but used instead as a source of foreign income to run the central government.  Tanzanian parks are a bit of a bittersweet experience so you need to choose them well.

I have several recommendations if you want to visit a Tanzanian National Park a little less painfully.

1.             Get a better job, preferably one that pays in US dollars.

2.             Become a Tanzanian citizen (thus paying about 10% of foreigner prices).

3.             Wait another decade or two until the Tanzanian Ministry of Tourism has adopted a more reasonable management system.

4.             Go to Kruger National Park or the Kalahari and take a calculator to work out how much money you are saving per day.  This amount may change from day to day as the Rand bombs out.

·         Amani Nature Reserve (East Usambara mountains) – This spectacular rainforest with plenty tree ferns, oil palms and African violets is alive with birdcalls, butterflies, frogs, snakes, pied colobus & blue monkeys and many other creepy creatures.  The Usambara Mountains are particularly rich in endemic fauna and flora.

Camping is permitted at both Zigi (S05°06’01.9”  E38°39’08.1”) and Amani forestry stations.  Both have adequate facilities including cold drinks, colder showers and a restaurant.  Cost TSh2,500.- pppn plus TSh2,000.- entrance pppd and TSh1,000.- for the vehicle (Nature reserves do not fall into the same cost category as National Parks so even we could afford this).  Guided walks are available for a fee of US$10.- per person – well worth it as the guides are well trained and speak English fluently.

·         Western Usambara Mountains – this is the other side of the mountains and is as spectacular, but more populated.  The town of Lushoto has some interesting farm stalls that sell staple foods such as cheese and jam which are not otherwise obtainable in Tanzania.  From Irente there is a lookout point over the escarpment and the Masai Plains.  There are several places to camp – we stayed at Müllers lodge (S04°45’38.8”  E38°20’03.8”) for TSh3,500.- pppn.  Bring your own beers though – warm ones if possible as it gets very cold.  Waterfalls appear to be the main attraction and several hikes of one or more days can be arranged.

·         Kilimanjaro NP – climbing Kilimanjaro is a very special experience and I’ll not describe it here.  We organised the climb from Arusha and spent US$650.- pp (guides, porters, park fees - see below, food and equipment hire) which is way less than half of what you’ll pay if you organise it from SA through one of the “adventure companies”.  Of course the flight tickets fell away in our case.  One of the tricky bits is that you pay US$375.- pp for six days entry into the National Park.  If you want to extend your stay by one day you pay for another six-day block.  So it gets quite expensive to tailor your own route by adding extra days for acclimatisation.  The mountain has been significantly cleaned up in the last few years (not by park fees but by porters and guides who do their own fundraising for an annual two-week intensive cleanup operation).  I am living proof that you can climb the mountain with exactly zero training (except hiking in the Mulanje massif) and after having just recovered from a week of flu and spent three months sitting on my butt in a Landy.  Luckily porters leave you free to carry almost nothing, but make sure you have the right kit – do not underestimate how wet and cold it gets above 4,000m.  We had snow, sleet, rain and hail four days out of six.  But seeing the sunrise from the edge of Kibo crater is an unforgettable moment.

·         Serengeti NP and Ngorongoro Conservation Area.  Both of these areas are unique wildlife areas and will provide some memorable game drives.  The Ngorongoro crater is 9 km in diameter and has the highest concentration of wildlife anywhere outside of a zoo.  In the Serengeti we were fortunate enough to see big parts of the huge wildebeest migration on two of the three days that we were there.  The bird life is more abundant than any other place we’ve been to and the campsites are completely open so there’s plenty of nighttime activity (hippo, lion, buffalo etc.) within spitting distance of the tent.  (Lobo campsite: S2°00’00.6”  E35°10’09.6”, Seronera campsite: S2°25’15.9”  E34°51’56.7”, Simba campsite (Ngorongoro): S3°13’41.2”  E35°29’26.6”)  But there’s a sting in the tale: the 4-day three-night trip cost us US$500.- (expect to pay +US$600.- pp for an organised, catered camping safari and three times that if you want to stay in lodges for the same duration);  the roads are shattering because trucks us them as a through route to Lake Victoria (800 km of corrugations cost us – apart from the US$30.- per day – one broken rear leaf spring, a damaged front leaf spring and a fuel pump and brake cylinder damaged by dust); one of the campsites was so disgusting we had to ask for a transfer and, unless you drive through to Kenya or out towards Lake Victoria, you need to cross the Ngorongoro area twice and you pay the full fees both times, even if you are just in transit to or from the Serengeti.  And be prepared to accept Masaai herdsmen with goats and cattle as part of the wildlife scenery – if it wasn’t for them, neither of the two parks might be in existence today.

·         Mikumi NP – the only park that you will see without being charged since the main road from Iringa to Dar es Salaam runs through it.  You become very unpopular if you stop to watch game and you’ll definitely get charged if you venture off the main road onto one of the dirt roads.

·         Arusha National Park – this is another park with a public road running through it, so by claiming you are lost or going to the next town you may escape the US$80.- fee for the day.  The blown-apart crater of Mt Meru makes a spectacular backdrop to this park that comprises mainly thick forest and giraffe.

Other:

·         Fuel costs – the costs of petrol increase with increasing distance from Dar es Salaam, but the difference is not very big, nor very predictable.  Expect to pay between TSh550 and 620 per litre of petrol and approximately TSh50 less for diesel.  Beware when buying oil in plastic containers.  Many of the bottles, particularly those sold by “Total” look less than new and have broken seals.  The attendants will assure you that this is due to damage sustained n transit but I have a suspicion that such containers might hold some shady – possibly already used – oil.

·         Commercial vehicles, including anything that resembles a pick up or panel van, require red and white reflective chevrons at the back of the vehicle.  By the time you get to Kenya you will also require a round red reflector to be mounted in these chevrons.  With each new country requiring a new reflector of some sort to be added, your Landy will soon resemble a Christmas tree.

·         Tanzania operates on a dual currency.  All official payments such as visas, road taxes, National Park costs, etc. are only payable in hard currency.  In some cases dollar notes are scanned and rejected if dirty or crumpled.  Be sure to have crisp bank notes or TCs.  Further change is only given in local currency, naturally at a poor rate.  Preferably have the exact amount required.

·         The exchange rates for traveller cheques are almost the same as for cash so for once TCs are proving to be useful.  Commissions are low – 0.5% is the best I found.  Sometimes there is a restriction on the amount you can change per day (US$200.-), which makes it awkward when you get caught out by two unsuspected public holidays to celebrate the end of Ramadan.  Proof of TCs purchases is sometimes required.

·         Most tar roads in Tanzania are in pretty good shape.  The same cannot be said for the Tanzanian drivers’ ability to adhere to the law.  Because of the aggressive and reckless (particularly high-speed) driving and complete disregard for even the most basic traffic signs such as white lines and speed limits, the only way to regulate Tanzanians’ driving is by vicious speed bumps that are effective even on buses and trucks.  The speed bumps and “rumble strips” are so numerous and so effective that lesser vehicles will be rendered airborne and/or rattled apart if they are hit at high speed.  So continuous travel at a reasonable speed is not possible.  Africa is clearly doomed to shit roads.

·         The dirt roads fall into an altogether new category.  The Ministry of Works has adopted zero-maintenance approach to dirt roads, finding it much cheaper and more stimulating for the economy to have drivers replacing tyres, wheels, suspension components and miscellaneous damage at their own costs, or to wait for foreign governments to upgrade or tar the really bad roads (Denmark is fixing the Iringa/Dar es Salaam road; Japan is tarring the road to Ngorongoro).  I’ve even heard that foreign tourists expect bad roads in Africa and that they would be turned off by the idea of game viewing along a smooth tar road.  Take that!  As if the dirt roads were not bad enough some of them also have concrete speed bumps in them to slow you from 10 km/h to 5 km/h.  Any first world country with public roads like this would call a state of emergency.

·         Tanzania is the most corrupt – and overtly so – country we have come across so far.  Everyone is out to rip off easy-looking targets.  Expect to have a skin tax added to everything: most prices are automatically doubled for tourists/foreigners/M’zungus and it takes a little time and determination to bargain down to real prices.  Skin taxes imposed by the government (such as park fees) are completely inflexible and only payable in US$, so grin and bear it or go home.

·         You can buy Tanzanian visas (US$50.- for 3 months) at the Songwe (Malawi) border post – something that, apparently, has not been possible until recently.  I’ve heard that this does not apply if you are travelling across the border from Zambia - perhaps this just depends on how awake the duty official is.

·         Food is wildly expensive.  Try R60.- per kilo for chicken (unless you buy a live chicken), R65.- for a small jar of Nescafe, R5.- for a loaf of bread and R24.- for a can of tuna.  Even fresh produce is very expensive, probably because of skin tax.  Expect to pay a dollar a beer.  Fresh meat is almost unattainable unless you are prepared to buy from roadside butcheries whose only implements are a panga – safety glasses are a must if you want to see the cow being “filleted”.  So it is recommended that fresh meat should be bought early in the morning, boiled for hours and eaten before nightfall – un-hung meat smells off very soon.

 Yours in Africa,

Riff-raff