Thursday, 3 March 2011

Travel TidBits:  Along the road in Northern Tanzania

Emmanuel, our competent guide and driver [www.EmeraldExpedition.com]
Always happy with a smile on his face!


While on the road between the various National Parks, there was lots of opportunity to see the small villages strung along the main road. There were always lots of people going here and there, push carts often piled high with building materials or vegetable or bananas, and even loads of cinder blocks. We saw carts pulled by oxen and bicycles always with a passenger on the ‘backseat’. These images were taken out of the moving car and are not always crisp but they give a flavor of the village environment.




Pushing a water tank home.
We saw lots of water being lugged to the huts without running water – and those are the majority out here in the countryside. Early in the mornings, we see bicycles laden with 3-4 water jugs being already on the road. It is hard to imagine living without electricity and without running water in small mud huts that house whole families.


Pushcart with hay
Donkeys carry the load home or to the market

Approaching Arusha, city with 300,000 inhabitants

Women with their loads on their heads; goats, sheep and cattle feeding along the road.


Road Intersections become make-shift road markets
 
Enjoying a cold drink along the road

 
Stop along the road to Lake Manyara



Young woman carrying a child

Women along the road
On the road to Ndutu (part of Serengeti)
Since entering the Ngorongoro Crater area, we have left the paved road and will not get back on paved roads until our return. As we travel, we stop to help another safari vehicle and his driver. His car had broken down as it turns out due to an electrical wiring problem between the battery and oil pump. The passengers, Swedish grandparents with their 2 grandsons and their luggage parked next to the road. Imma helps the driver, other cars stop, much talk in Swahili of what to do, some cars continue but Imma stays until the problem is fixed with lots of duck tape from Imma’s stock of fix-it solutions. We chat with the Swedish grandmother who tells us that she and her husband had lived in Dar es Salam for 4 years some 35 years ago. Now they are revisiting places that they had traveled to so long ago. With their safari vehicle fixed, we all get back on the dusty road.

Car Trouble along the road to Ndutu (not our safari vehicle!!)

Several safari vehicles stop and
Emmanuel and other drivers try to help until the problem is fixed!