At 3.20am the alarm went off ..... no, we're not joking. Today is all about driving & reaching our last stop in Tanzania. We had 600km's to cover on Tanzanian roads. The ridiculous wake up was in anticipation for all the traffic, weigh bridges, low speed limits, speed bumps & police stops. I was not particularly thrilled when I woke up, some street dogs fighting woke me up during the night & a vicious black ant made it's way into our tent to bite me on the neck. The pain was phenomenal & continued to throb for about an hour after the initial bite.
We both dosed throughout the early morning & missed the sunrise. We were making great time & just before our first toilet stop at 9.30am we had covered 250 kilometers. At 10.30am we were pulled over by the police & our driver Steven was issued with a speeding fine. There was no proof, the police could just "see" he was speeding. He was in a 50 kilometre zone & felt like he was doing that or below. There was no talking our way out of it & he was given a 100,000 Tanzanian Shilling fine which we were told was quite excessive & normally it's only 30,000. He was also told to handover his license to the police and drive to the nearest town, pay the fine at the bank & then drive back and pick his license up with the proof of the bank receipt. This ridiculous and entirely corrupt inconvenience cost us 90 minutes.
ATC dont pay for the drivers fines, so this comes out of Stevens pocket. We all felt terrible about this & we all chipped in a few US dollars each & covered the cost of the fine except for $8 which Steven can pay. He was very happy & grateful when we gave him the money & explained we knew he wasn't speeding & that the police are corrupt & unreasonable.
We had then been driving for 30 minutes when we were pulled over again by police for speeding. The same situation as last time, they had no equipment & no proof, they just "saw" him speeding. It is so incredibly corrupt & frustrating. The truck was driving so bloody slow that it was physically impossible to be caught speeding. Steven had our support & we piled off the truck to stand behind him & make loud comments about how corrupt & ridiculous it is.
The police officers were not backing down. He argued and eventually they relented on making him drive 100km's to the next town to pay his fine & 100km's back to the truck. We were allowed to keep driving, but Steven will still have to pay the fine in the next few days. We are now way behind schedule & will be getting to the next campsite very late. After 2pm we enter & drive through the middle of a national park. Along the road we see baboons, wart hogs, impala & giraffe. We also drive through baobab valley, famous for the baobab trees. A positive that we were very grateful for, was that todays journey is made more comfortable by the fact we are now sitting in the front with the longer, sideways seats & table. It provides a nice view of the road, the top of the cab & the road.
We arrived at the campsite just after 8pm & set up our tent & started dinner. It's cold here from the altitude & we both have to dig out pants & jumpers. While waiting for dinner we went to the bar & ordered hot chocolate. We also snuck in a shower before dinner. It was boiling hot & one of the nicest most functional showers we've used in Africa. Even the toilets & the cooking areas were functional & nice with thatch roofs. I wish we could have seen it in the light. After dinner & cleaning up, we climbed into our sleeping bags & embraced the 5hr & 20 minute sleep. Our last sleep in Tanzania! Yep, you guessed it! Tomorrow is another 3.20am alarm & another big day of driving
-Alli
We both dosed throughout the early morning & missed the sunrise. We were making great time & just before our first toilet stop at 9.30am we had covered 250 kilometers. At 10.30am we were pulled over by the police & our driver Steven was issued with a speeding fine. There was no proof, the police could just "see" he was speeding. He was in a 50 kilometre zone & felt like he was doing that or below. There was no talking our way out of it & he was given a 100,000 Tanzanian Shilling fine which we were told was quite excessive & normally it's only 30,000. He was also told to handover his license to the police and drive to the nearest town, pay the fine at the bank & then drive back and pick his license up with the proof of the bank receipt. This ridiculous and entirely corrupt inconvenience cost us 90 minutes.
ATC dont pay for the drivers fines, so this comes out of Stevens pocket. We all felt terrible about this & we all chipped in a few US dollars each & covered the cost of the fine except for $8 which Steven can pay. He was very happy & grateful when we gave him the money & explained we knew he wasn't speeding & that the police are corrupt & unreasonable.
We had then been driving for 30 minutes when we were pulled over again by police for speeding. The same situation as last time, they had no equipment & no proof, they just "saw" him speeding. It is so incredibly corrupt & frustrating. The truck was driving so bloody slow that it was physically impossible to be caught speeding. Steven had our support & we piled off the truck to stand behind him & make loud comments about how corrupt & ridiculous it is.
The police officers were not backing down. He argued and eventually they relented on making him drive 100km's to the next town to pay his fine & 100km's back to the truck. We were allowed to keep driving, but Steven will still have to pay the fine in the next few days. We are now way behind schedule & will be getting to the next campsite very late. After 2pm we enter & drive through the middle of a national park. Along the road we see baboons, wart hogs, impala & giraffe. We also drive through baobab valley, famous for the baobab trees. A positive that we were very grateful for, was that todays journey is made more comfortable by the fact we are now sitting in the front with the longer, sideways seats & table. It provides a nice view of the road, the top of the cab & the road.
We arrived at the campsite just after 8pm & set up our tent & started dinner. It's cold here from the altitude & we both have to dig out pants & jumpers. While waiting for dinner we went to the bar & ordered hot chocolate. We also snuck in a shower before dinner. It was boiling hot & one of the nicest most functional showers we've used in Africa. Even the toilets & the cooking areas were functional & nice with thatch roofs. I wish we could have seen it in the light. After dinner & cleaning up, we climbed into our sleeping bags & embraced the 5hr & 20 minute sleep. Our last sleep in Tanzania! Yep, you guessed it! Tomorrow is another 3.20am alarm & another big day of driving
-Alli
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