We left beautiful Rwanda and enter for the second time Tanzania through Rusumu falls post. The first part of the road in Tanzania was the same we had gone through. No big deal. We had a slight miscalculation and since we left a bit late form Kigali, we were able to make it only to Kibondo. After a few tries, we found a decent place to spend the night and had a chiapati with egg for dinner and a few beers. Next morning we headed to Kigoma. A place famous for being close to Ujiji, where Stanley phrased the most famous phrase in the 19th century ‘Dr. Livingstone I presume’. Both these men are giants in their own way, and achieved trips hard to imagine in the present day. These men keep inspiring people today to ‘do stuff’. But lets go back to Kigoma. Here we had to set up camp in order to get ready for the next Mexico math. There was no TV in the place we stayed, however that was a small drawback given the perfection of this place. Jackobsen’s beach. Two small private beaches for 2 campsites in the lakeshore. To sum up, Lake Tanganyika’s Clear water, completely calm at dusk and always clear was an important centerpiece of our trip and will keep beautiful records in our minds. The second night here, we met a german student and her father. We had dinner together and had long conversations about Africa, and Mexico, and Germany.
The next morning we left Kigoma on our way to a tiny place which seems to appear in many different maps despite its reduced size. We were able to make it only to the half of the trip though, as we came across very bad gravel roads, similar to those in Selous but with more sand at times and more corrugated as well in other sections. Around 4.30 pm, having achieved a mediocre progress though to a flat earlier on, we managed to break 3 of the 4 roof tent supports. Our usual micro stress was followed by a calm troubleshooting and 40 minutes later we had secured the tent to the roof and continued to Mpanda. Once there we started first a search for a place to crash for the night. This took us a while, and once we located a new guesthouse, we commissioned the production of 4 new brackets. Afterwards I wen to fix the 2 flat tires we had and came back to do some prep on the truck to leave it ready for the next morning delivery time which was set to be at 10 AM. After some adjusting we finished the re-assembly of the roof gear, we left behind a bunch of clothes for the kids and continued our way to Kipili through the park whcih resembles Jurassic Park: Katavi. We arrived at Kipili before sunset and went through a fast upgrade form campsite to banda. We were amazed about the combination of the beauty of the place and the lodge itself. We had a few drinks by the shore and waited for the owners to come back from a sunset boat trip. We then met Lou and Chris and their guests and had our firts dinner under the stars by the shore. We rode mountain bikes, ran, walked to the abandoned mission church, swam in transparent water, kayak over transparent water and even scuba in the Tanganyika! Our plan was to stay here for 2 or max 3 nights, but the food was too good, the place too beautiful and the people we shared that time with were something else. We spent time in the o’ring watching worl dcup games and time speaking sense and non sense during long dinners. We realized first hand that people that love what they do have such a great chance to be successful. We left to our next stop, Sumbawanga, and met with Chris and Andy for dinner. We also met the dutch doctor and the doctor from Arizona. We had more than a few laughs and realized the commitment that people like these doctors have for a far away place from their homeland, in order to simply give., help, make a difference. We continued and shared some more drinks courtesy of Chris. Wow. The story of Chris and lou is nice. Cool. Like a dream that with time and effort keeps getting together. Next morning we departed towards Mbea with Andy as an additional passenger. We talked a lot and had a few laughs, however we had to part ways the next day. We did have a nice dinner in the hotel we stayed. A bit of deja vu as during dinner we were discussing how ridiculous are the soap operas, and this hotel appeared in a Tanzanian one! Our next step was to leave Tanzania for the second and final time on this trip.
