Mwansa

Today we drove from a little chaos town called Kahoma to Mwansa on Lake Victoria. For once we only drove for about 4 hours and it was ALL on tar, a welcome change. Although we still had to contend with the CRAZY bus drivers going a hundred miles an hour down the road and cyclists and pedestrians with death wishes. This is doing my head in. It seems the more north you move that faster they drive with no regard for anything or anyone else. Tanzania definitely has the worst drivers on this trip so far.
Getting to Mwansa we had thoughts of staying here to chill for a few days to recover from all the driving we have done in the last week only find it is the most chaotic town we have been in so far. We managed to find a place to stay for the night and are heading out tomorrow to the Serengeti Stopover Camp where we will stay till Sat morning. We actually planned to head there straight today when we arrived, but went to a lodge for lunch and decided to stay the night and head out tomorrow. We can only take so much of the drivers in one day. The first people we saw today where South Africans, a guy who works on the mines out here, and the girl who managers the lodge. Not a bad place. It is right on the lake and we had the best food for lunch than we have had for a long time. Not being able to camp really puts you at the mercy of the kitchen in these little places. Usually the food is cheap and not that bad....but not something you want to have too much of. Last night, neither Rohan nor I could actually cut the meat off the bones of our chicken so settled for rice and sauce...
Saturday we are planning to get to Nairobi to catch the rugby, we have been told it is tar all the way up, so we hope it all works out. From there we not too sure yet. We still plan to head to Hells Gate National Park; we will then see what else we can afford in Kenya before heading back in Tanzania.
We are finding that we need to outrun the rain a little. It rained for most of yesterday and last night and tonight is looking to be the same. We are starting to worry a little about Northern Mozambique and if we will make it through in time...so might actually have to shorten the trip a little or come through another route. Hoping to get a feel for it by the end of the month and see what is happening. On the one hand the rain is the nice change from the heat, but it means wet roads and mozzies (malaria) so makes us a little nervous. Problem is that everyone who sees our cruiser tells us we are worrying for nothing and it will get through anything....but we are still would like to stay on the safe side as much as we can.
While I was writing this Rohan headed out for a walk and just to prove how small the world really is, he ran into an old family friend of his dads who is staying in the room right next to us. They have not seen each other in about 15 years, so it a surprise that they even recognised each other. We landed up having dinner with Andy and will be meeting him later in Dar. Was really good to spend some time with a friendly face. Although Rohan had a few too many beers and was feeling quite sorry for himself the whole of the next day.....