We wake up
later than usual, around 7.00, some of the riders have a swim in Tanganyka
Lake, where the water is calm and almost transparent, it is possible to look
clearly under water. We meet Jakobssen, the manager of the camp, and he brings
us to the town, where the Toyota Garage in Kigoma is. They ask us to bring the
car to the garage but we cannot move it, so Jakobssen decides to introduce us
John, one of his local friends who appears to be a mechanic. The wonderful
thing of driving a 1987 Land Cruiser is that all mechanics know about it in
this country. Once arrived to the camp again, John discovers the problem: we
will be able to restart our trip within today!! We thought we were going to
loose one day, but we may only loose half day, those are great news!! The
cylinder of the clutch must be changed. John uses one of our bikes to go to the
town and bring a new cylinder and another guy who can help him. We have to be
grateful to John and Jakobssen, we are able to restart around 12.30, and the
cost is better than the garage for sure.
We have to
remark that during the reparation of the vehicle, African Pirate gives free
yoga lessons to Captain Muzungu and Pilipili Lover.
Due to the
late hour we are starting today, we cannot afford to visit Ujiji, where the
memorial of Livingstone & Stanley meeting place. Well, we will leave it for
another day… in words of Jakobssen, …“it is worth to be able to say you have
been there, but there is not much to see”…
As planned,
we reach Uvinza, on our way to south Tanzania, with no major road problems. We
buy our MTN Tanzanian Simcard and proceed to the roughest road we believe we
have been through in all the trip, 190 km between Uvinza and Mpanda, the
entrance to Katavi National Park. The sand and the stones cause multiple falls
to African Pirate & Mohammed, while the rest change their positions in and
above the motor of the Land Cruiser. After 80 km, we reach the junction to go
to Mishamo or to continue to Mpanda. The sunset is approaching, and we decide
to try Mishamo instead of camping next to the electrical station of the
junction. Good decision, although we still did not know it.
After reaching
Mishamo village, some local women explain us in a Swahili dialect that rooms
and dinner are available if we continue forward. Just right when we stop decide
what to do, after 15 km, Lucas appears in his motorbike. He explains us he is
the guard of the Mishamo Headquarters and if we pay him with a liter of petrol,
he will guide us to the VIP rooms of the Headquarters. This headquarters seem
to be some “ex”-military camp surrounded by a little village where the families
of the military staff share their life with the military. It is already dark
when we find the village and Lucas brings us to a place where there are no
rooms, so he decides to give us, as said by him, the VIP rooms. For an amazing
rate of 20.000 TzSh, we get a full house with three rooms and a bathroom.
Better than whatever we could have expected. Indian Photographer and Pilipili
Lover go to grab some hot beers and firewood to the village. The beers are easy
to find but the firewood very difficult. We finally get some wood after a long “sign”
discussion with an old man who is making a big fire. At the end, we see that
next to the house we can collect some firewood in the same floor. Our expert on
fires, Indian Photographer spends around 15 minutes to start it using and old
tool similar to the two stones system. We have been all day watching the
regeneration fires local people do to avoid the grass to get very tall, and now
we need a lot of time to start the fire. However, we are learning a lot!
The
official dinner of the riders is cooked,
caccio e peppe pasta, and the riders start to fall asleep around the
fire.
Good night
guys!! Tomorrow we have a hard road to Mpanda and Katavi National Park!
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