Quick fix - tyre repairs!

One of the constant things we have to deal with here in Tanzania is bad roads and damage to tyres (sorry, tires for my U.S. readers). There simply is no maintenance at all done on the roads and they become a dumping ground for all sorts of things. On top of that people cart loads of scrap metal in hand carts that are not covered and things often fall off. I while back I put a four inch tear in the side wall of one tyre that could not be repaired.

While I could do nothing with that tyre, there have been many punctures that I have fixed and I am getting pretty good at it.

Tomorrow I am heading out to Singida for a couple of days and as I was checking the truck I noticed that one front tyre was down some. Time for some repairs!

Fortunately this puncture was in a nice position and was easy to find.  It was just a case of digging out the offending object (in this case a screw) with a pair of needle nose pliers.

Then you have to ream the the hole with a special tool so it is ready for the plug.

Putting the plug in is the next part. This is the hardest because it is obviously a tight fit. The plug has this "goo" on it to make it stick.

All that's then left to do is cut off the excess of the plug and check for leaks.

Then inflate the tyre to the required pressure and you are good to go - until next time!

Home at last

Well, we finally made it home safe and sound!

It was a wonderful trip that we had - great company with Anne coming with me! And the work in Mbeya went very well. We had a great Gospel Meeting and then the three baptisms on Sunday were encouraging.

Thank you all for you kind comments and your prayers - they have really helped!

Anne and I are rather tired, driving here in Tanzania is tough, there are so many potential dangers on the road, it takes a lot of concentration.

It sure is nice to be home!

On the Road Home

We got into the very nice Tan-Swiss Lodge in Mikumi about an hour ago. Anne was brilliant! She insisted that the first thing we do is have a "cuppa!" There is nothing more refreshing after a hard day that a nice cup of tea (that's if you're Australian, of course). We are now sitting on the verandah of our room as the sun goes down. The geese are out and having a lovely time - who needs guard dogs!

We started off from Mbeya this morning after breakfast. Just about everywhere here is "bed and breakfast" and the breakfasts are ALWAYS the same: tea, eggs and bread. The Karibuni Centre toasts the bread, but that is unusual. They always serve it with BlueBand® and Jam (Jelly). BlueBand® is a sort of margarine, but one that does not need refrigeration! Who knows WHAT they put in it. I never have Marge, or Butter so that's OK. You always get a choice of eggs, but if you want anything other than omelette, you take have to trust your luck. Karibuni Centre is much better than the normal places where I stop at when I am working. They did a great job with the eggs and their Spanish omelette was very nice.

We left around 7.30am and had a good trip. The weather was beautiful - the sun was out all the way and the scenery was breath taking. We made it down from the Southern Highlands via a very steep pass. It is a narrow two lane road - quite dangerous in places. But we made it just fine.

There are no places like MacDonalds to stop for lunch, but we found a little cafe attached to a service station. We were going in just for a cold Coke, but saw they had some food too, so we got a Chapati  each and I go a Mandazi (like a doughnut). They were heated up in a microwave and quite tasty!

Just before we got to Mikumi we were stopped by a police officer and told to pull over. I thought this was a standard licence check, but he did not come over to the truck. In stead he had stopped us due to a truck accident.  An Army Semi-trailer  had crashed and they were using a huge crane to get it back on the road. Anne and I lost count today of the number of truck accident we saw today (another reason never to drive after dark!). These drivers are crazy.

Anyway after nine hours of driving we made it into a really nice lodge - we feel we deserve it. Tomorrow we are planning on driving six hours. Another six hours on the road the next day should get us home to Arusha, Lord willing.

Worship at Mbeya

We have had a wonderful last two days.

Yesterday afternoon Samuel Mwakasungula had organised “follow up” studies. We had 5 studies in the area close to the church building and studied with 11 people. Some of them had been studied with before, but for 5 this was the first time they had been studied with. Of course, after each study we asked them all to join us the next day for Lord’s day worship.

The worship in Mbeya town was very nice indeed. The singing was terrific. The harmonies that the brethren here use was just beautiful. While most of the songs were brand new to Anne and myself we enjoyed just listening to the praises to God.

I taught on the Conversion of Saul. Three of the people we had studied with were present and my lesson had a very good reception.  All things in the worship service was orderly and scriptural. After services were over, they have a habit of leaving the building all singing a song. As each person files out they form a line and as you go down the line to join the end you shake hands with everyone – it is really nice.

After the morning service we went to the Children’s prison. The brethren here go each week to encourage these children and I was very pleased to be asked along (I have been two time before on my previous visit.) When we arrived they were all outside playing a game organised for them and soon they had finished that and orderly moved into the classroom.  When we went in, we were welcomed in the most respectful manner – it was clear that they really like this visit. We sang some songs – one of the boys lead a couple of them, and then they had me teach. I taught on “The Day the Church was Built”. I had them answer questions and they showed really good concentration. When I had finished I asked them if they had any questions. The only question they had was, “Could you pray for us, so that God could take us out of this place”. I tell you it nearly broke my heart. We prayed there and then.

The brethren meet for evening services here at 4.00 pm and we had another good service. I preached on “Speaking in Tongues” The Pentecostal church is very big here. The three visitors from the morning service were in attendance too and afterwards they let it be know that they wanted to be baptised.

We all got into the truck and headed down to the river and Samuel Mwakasungual baptised them. It was such a wonderful end to a wonderful day!

Mirrors and "The Body"

I wrote about how I had a motor bike hit the truck yesterday and the driver’s side mirror was broken. While driving to the study yesterday I realised how much I use my mirrors. Without it there it seemed like a black hole on my right and I felt decidedly unsafe. As a result I gave myself the task of getting the mirror fixed today.

I had some wonderful help by one of the workers here at the Karibuni Centre, Joel. He took me to several places, all of which were not able to help. We eventually found a second hand mirror with the all the fixtures. The price they were asking was ridiculous - especially when all I wanted was the mirror, everything else was fine.  We ended up going to a glass place and having a mirror cut and glued into place. Maybe not the best practice, but hey... it works. Driving this afternoon was much nicer!

We headed out to our study again this afternoon. It is the end of the rainy season here and both days we had a lot of rain as we drove. We go over some steep sections of roads, so CAREFUL is the way!

It was another excellent study today. The crowd was much bigger - a lot of children with many sitting on the floor. I taught on The Body what what we can learn about the church through studying the body. I also looked at the Lord's Supper and how we partake of one bread because we are one body.  I was very pleased with the response of the brethren.

Tomorrow we go back again for another study. I am really looking forward to it.

The great crowd we had yesterday

Outside the building

Hitting the road and Motor Bikes

Well, I have not kept up like I had planned, but I am back on the job now.

Let me catch you up with the rest of the trip to Mbeya.

We left Mikumi in good time and immediately started to climb. The region we were driving through is called the Southern Highlands and the scenery is outstanding. It was hard to appreciate though as the road was quite rough - the tar dug out into rivets by the large trucks heading to Zambia. Also the truck drivers are MAD. We lost count of the number of truck wreaks we saw that day - most of them VERY bad. I think there are a lot of fatalities on that section of road.

We went though a section called the Valley of Baobabs. There are literally thousands of these majestic trees - probably hundreds of thousands. The valley is very steep with a raging river at the bottom, but the sides of the valley look very dry - thus these baobabs.

We also went up a very steep section as the road climbs the western side of the Great Rift Valley. Once again the scenery was fantastic, and the trucks driving was atrocious!

We made it into Mbeya about 5 o'clock and were able to get booked into the Karibuni Centre (Karibuni means "Welcome" in Swahili). Both of us were exhausted, but thanked the Lord for the safe journey.

Yesterday morning I had to go the the ATM and the supermarket and as I was just turning off the highway to the Karibuni Centre and piki-piki crashed into the side of the truck. Even though I had stopped, had my indicator on, this man still did not see me. I think he was going very fast. After he hit me he skidded off the other side of the road into the ditch, as I rushed up to him, I was thankful that he seemed not too badly hurt. It turned out to be just bruises and cuts - he was VERY lucky! The truck gained another battle scar on the driver's door and we lost the driver's mirror. Small things when you think about the alternative.

Yesterday - Wednesday, was the first day of our gospel meeting out of town. Brother Samuel Mwakasungula and brother Felix came to the Centre to head off to the village at about 2 pm, so I was able to have a relaxing morning.  It took nearly 2 hours to drive there, about half the way on the highway to Zambia, the rest of the way on dirt roads.

The brethren were waiting for us when we arrived and after 2 songs we went straight into the meeting. I taught on the identifying marks of the Lord's church, focusing on entrance into the church and worship. All the brethren were very attentive to the teaching and told me they were looking forward to me coming back. The plan is to go back today and Friday. This is a little congregation that has recently come out of digression - it is in Felix's home village. He told me that most of the members are related to him!

Mikumi

As I promised you yesterday, I plan to keep up to date with my blog on this trip.

We did not have a very good night last night. We thought we had hit the jackpot with our hotel but alas, this is Tanzania. The room had a really nifty mosquito net that went up and down on a string (a bit like a holland blind). It also had a bar fridge AND and air conditioner.

The problems started when we turned out the light. The hall light shone right through the gap under the curtain over the window above the door. Nothing we could do would stop that light. But hey! We could live with that. Next, in the middle of the night a bearing in the air-con went out - sounded like it was killing it self. Then it got REALLY hot! So not a lot of sleep.

The alarm went off at 7.00 am - just when it had got cooler and Anne and I found we could not move. So... we left at 9, rather that the 8 o'clock start we had planned.

The drive went well, but I was really glad that Anne was with me 'cause I was getting really tired, so her driving some was a big help.

We drove through Morogoro, where we stayed on previous trips and were making for Iringa.

The road took us though Mikumi National Park and there were several signs along the way telling us it was illegal to "game view" without paying park fees. (the park head quarters where you pay is in the middle of the park). So Anne and I tried our best to overt our eyes when there were animals around. Unfortunately we were not quick enough and saw some zebra, some gazelles and some monkeys - fortunately there were no park rangers around at the time!

We got through the park and stopped at the Tan-Swiss Lodge for a late lunch (about 3.00 pm) and by the time we were finished we both thought it might be a good idea to stop here rather than go onto a place we knew nothing about in Iringa.

So, we are staying here tonight. It will mean a longer day tomorrow, but we were both really tired out and are looking forward to a good night's sleep.

So, hopefully more tomorrow.

Keith

Heading off to Mbeya

I was supposed to be there by now, but last week when I was going to be leaving for Mbeya I suddenly came over with dizziness. Here in Tanzania they call that "kizunguzungu". Interestingly enough they call westerners in Swahili "Mzungus". I'll leave that for you to work out.

Anyway, Anne and I are now on the road to Mbeya. We left right after worship this morning and made it as far as Korogwe 350km (215 miles) and 6 hours of hard driving later. We are staying overnight in a motel in town and then plan to head off for another hard days drive tomorrow.

I plan to keep you up to date with this trip.

Keith


-- Post From My iPhone

Island Study - Video blog

Kenya - From the Camunya Hotel

I am writing this from the Camunya hotel in Ugunja, Kenya. I traveled here over the last couple of days to assist brother George Odhiambo in his work here in Western Kenya. We plan to meet with and study with numerous people over the next 2 weeks or so.

Kenya and Tanzania are both part of the East African Union (a grouping of 5 nations that is modeled on the European Union). However the unity has not yet come, so the border crossing as I moved north into Kenya was still bothersome and slow.They are moving to improve things, but like other places in Africa, this process can cause absolute confusion. They have knocked down the border post on the Tanzanian side and without any signage it was very difficult to find the temporary building. I also had to get a temporary import permit for the truck, which was not difficult, but slow.

I made it through ok though and made it into the capital city of Nairobi just before peak traffic. The pre-jam was bad enough and I know how bad it can get. I stayed overnight in the Mennonite Guest House. One of many such guest houses that are over here to accommodate missionaries. I met a pentecostal group from Pensilvania who were over for a conference. There was also a large Canadian group staying too.

I left early in the morning and made it our of the city without any problems. I didn't have to go through the city center again, so the traffic wasn't too bad. The rainy season is in Kenya so I had rain most of the way. While it was a long trip and there were a lot of bad road, road works and "deviations" to overcome. With all that I still made it to Ugunja before dark.

The hotel I normally stay in is fully booked so Bro. George booked me into this hotel. Not quite as nice, but comfortable enough for me. I am sitting in the dinning "tent" writing this awaiting the arrival of George so we can plan this visit more.

Teaching, teachers and babies

I have just returned from Morogoro where I delivered 2 babies! But more about that latter.

Just outside of the town of Morogoro there is a teacher's college. I was taken there in August and was introduced to a group of Christians who are studying there. I was really taken by these young people, they gather together and they are trying to do the right thing by God. They have not had a lot of teaching and they long for more.

Since that first meeting (I was only able to study with them one time) I have been trying to get back to see them. That opportunity offered itself just recently so Allen Mkita and I drove down there.

Allen and I with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background

It is a long, full days drive to get there and we got into town in the evening. We were planning on seeing the students the next day, but knew we had to contact the administration before hand. I had phone them up before I left Arusha, but they were not very clear with their instruction.

We went anyway and after we had arrived, signed in two books at road blocks, we were finally able to study with the young christians there. It was so encouraging teaching and looking out at those eager and interested faces. When we had finished the study we had questions.It was clear they were not used to asking the teacher many questions, but after a while they got warmed up, they had some great questions. We arranged to meet again the next day at 4.00 p.m.

After our study

When Allen and I got there we could see none of the Christians. There were plenty of other students about - there were exams starting on Monday, but the people we were looking for were nowhere to be seen. After about 1/2 an hour they started to arrive and we began our study.

That is when I delivered my first baby. While I say delivered, I guess I need to explain myself. Just after we had started a young woman came to the classroom saying someone needed to go the the hospital and there was no way to get there but by my car. It turned out that a woman was having a baby! Of course I said I would take her and left Allen to continue with the lesson.

So... I delivered mother (and her baby) to the hospital. I was told the next day she had a little girl and the young people were joking that they were going to call her Keith!

The little hospital (clinic) where I delivered mother (and baby) to.

The next day was Sunday and Allen and I stayed there had worshipped with the brethren. It was clear that they had not been taught about true worship, but they were keen to learn, so Allen and I took the whole service, explaining carefully each step.

Worship was early - at 8.00 a.m., so we were finished by 10.00, so Allen and I hit the road to make it back to Arusha that night.

After worship services

That was how I came to deliver my second baby - we were driving down the road and a policeman waved me down and asked me to take a woman to hospital to deliver her baby. Of course I said yes, I was happy too. I ended up wondering if the white Toyota looked like an ambulance. We got her to the next town and I think it was going to be OK, though it was a close thing.

All in all we had a great trip. Please pray for those young Christians at the teacher's college

A very new and VERY nice food stop over on the way back

Back at Dakawa Teacher's College

The reason Allen and I traveled all the way to Morogoro was to visit the Christians studying at a Teacher's college about an hour to the north of the town.  I had first visited them in August and since then I had wanted to come and encourage them once again.
To see the students we first have to get permission from the staff at the college. While they are nice people, it has been a trial getting through to them and  working this trip out. But we managed it and this morning Allen and I have a good visit with our brethren.
After signing in at the first gate, signing in at the second gate we were then directed to the Admin. block where Mr. Milton was waiting for us. He was in a meeting so he asked us to wait - in the mean time some of the students came up and greeted us.  We managed to get through everything the faculty asked us to do and we were able to visit with our dear brethren.
We had a very good study that was followed but questions and then general discussion. I taught on how the church is the original - all others that have come after it are copies. While copies might look good, they will not be as good as the original. They made us feel very welcome and asked us to come again.  We agreed and plan to go back tomorrow and then again meet with them on Sunday.
Please pray for these young Christians.

On the way home from Singida

Video Blog - road to Singida

This is a little diffeent, a video blog. Let me know what you think.

Serengeti Safari Part 2

On of the aspects of traveling in Africa is that you are never alone. Not matter where you stop, even in the middle of a very dry flat plain, someone will come up to you and this time we were not to be disappointed. 

While we were stopped in the middle of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to fix the radiator, a little Maasia boy came up and kept asking me for some water. To be honest, I was not sure that I had enough water for us and the truck, so I put him off while I worked. But once the radiator was full and not leaking I gave him a small bottle of water. As soon as he got this he started asking for food (he did not drink the water, so he couldn't have been too thirsty). I am sure that if we had given him food he would have had more demands. 

  So on we went. I was a bit worried, we had a long way to go still, but it should have been ok. However, when I checked again under the bonnet, we then had a BAD leak. I was able to stem the flow with a pair of pliers, and I guess we still had enough "stop Leak" in the radiator to do its job and we once again the radiator was holding water.

I had to make a tough decision though, and I decided that it was best to turn back. Things were going wrong with the truck and I was not comfortable carrying on. We had a LONG way to go still and we then had to return on the same road. So we turned around, feeling a bit defeated.

Everything behaved itself on the way back to the gate. We stopped at a few of the view points and enjoyed the wonderful views. We made it back to Arusha without any further mishaps, which was great.

Ngorongoro Crater

We did stop to get some fresh bananas from Charles' children and to get him some charcoal.

While we did not achieve what we set out to do, it still was a good trip and we are planning on doing it another time soon and this time getting there.

Serengeti Safari Part 1

On Tuesday we had another adventure that reminds us we are in Africa. 

I was heading out of town for a few days to study with some people in the Serengeti area. I had taken the truck into the mechanic to fix some problems, including a leaking radiator. So, I got it back Sunday afternoon all nicely services and noticed that the radiator was leaking. I took it back on Monday (delaying our departure till Tuesday) and it was a small fix and all seemed good.

Looking down the Great Rift Valley at Lake Manyara

So I let home at 6.00am and picked up my traveling companion for this trip, Charles and we headed out of town. I was really looking forward to this trip as we were passing Lake Manyara National Park and rising out of the Great Rift Valley.

Charles and myself with Lake Manyara behind

We then had to travel through the Ngorongoro Crater and then into Serengeti National Park. I had been through this area with Don and Barb Davis, but this was the first time I was going to be driving it myself.

The road to Ngorongoro is a good sealed road and we made it to the gate in good time. I knew that we had to pay to go through the park, so Charles and I got out and filled out the paper work needed. In Tanzania you get to know that they LOVE paper - the more paper the better! The price of just driving through was Tsh 95,000! ($60). I knew it would be the same to get through Serengeti and then I would have to pay the same to get back - over $200 in park fees, just to drive through! That is the price of business here in Tanzania and you have to understand that the National parks are a major asset here in Tanzania, with about 1/3 of the country being given over to parks and reserves.

As we drove out of the gate we started to climb the crater. (we were not going down into it - that's another $200!) Here the road was good and VERY scenic. While we were not there to view the sights, we got wonderful glimpses of the crater as we passed through.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is vast and abuts up to Serengeti. As you leave the creator it starts to get very arid and you pass through Maasai villages. The Maasai live in  the Conservation Area along side the wildlife - a unique coexistence.

We started to see some wildlife and the road started to get really rough! About 2 hours from the gate the truck suddenly stopped! I got out and found that the corrugations had shaken the battery terminal off (although that should not stop a diesel) but the big worry was the coolant leaking out of the radiator! 

Fortunately I had some radiator "stop leak". I poured that it, added some water and that seemed to do the job.

Continued in Part 2

Sunday at Ugunja

Things have been very busy here over the last few weeks and as a result I have not written as much as I have wanted about how we are getting on. Let me now go back to our time in Kenya.

I was really looking forward to worshipping with brother George and the brethren at Ugunja. While I had been in that area in June, I had not been able to see many of the brethren.

The congregation there meets at 7.00 am. George told us the reason for this was that the brethren did not want to wait to worship, they wanted to worship God as soon as they could on Sunday morning.

It took us a hour to drive to the church, maybe due to my slow driving, or may be due to the rough roads. But it meant that we were a bit later than we had planned.

This did not seem to be a problem, however. While they were waiting, the brethren were singing songs and praying to the Lord. When we had got there, very quickly they organised themselves and the worship service started.

Even though they only had one song book, the song service went very well - everyone singing from memory. Delmer was then invited to teach us. We were taught very well from James chapter one. The brethren were very interested in the lesson, showing great interest.

Mike was then asked to teach a lesson on the Lord's Supper before officiating over it. I then was asked to teach on the collection. So the brethren got 3 lessons that day - and the looked very happy with it.

Before we left, the brethren wanted to give us some refreshments. So someone went and got some sodas for us. They are some very hospitable people there.

Afterwards brother George invited us to his house where his wife Jacqueline had made some lunch for us. We were able to get to talk to each other more and Jacqueline and Anne became fast friends.

Mbeya video

Here is a video of our recent trip to Mbeya.

Brother Mwakasungula and the brethren there treated us so good and there was a lot of wonderful work done there.

I hope you enjoy this video - the singing is wonderful

Dakawa Teacher's Training College

Yesterday we headed out of Mbeya. I has been a very busy 10 days we spent there, but very good. We had so many studies I can’t count them, and we were well received wherever we went. Two brothers were added to the Lord’s church and after their baptisms they attended every service, which encourages me greatly for their future in the church (the church here meets twice on Sundays and on Wednesdays and Friday evenings).

So, we headed out, but out but our work in this area was not done yet.  Samuel Mwakasugula had asked me if I would be willing to visit and study with some students at a college near to Morogoro. Of course I said I would be very happy to do that. Arrangements were made and we planned to visit them last night when we arrived from Mbeya. We were also taking Felix, who had graduated from the college last year and knew these students very well.

We arrived in Morogoro at about 6.30 p.m., after a long and adventuraous drive. It took us 11 hours to get here and we were not short of entertainment, what with road works and rolled over trucks.

Because of the lack of time we headed straight out to the college here. I have learnt that distances are rather flexible here, so I was not at all surprised to find a college “near Morogoro” was in fact 1 hour’s drive away. We got there at 7.30 and could hear them gathered together singing. Felix was in almost constant phone contact with one or the other of them. Unfortunately, the administration would not let us see the student, so we had to go back to town. We arrived at the hotel very tired and were happy to be able to lie down.

Today we headed back to the college, this time were were going to see the Principal and get permission from him. We first met the Vice Principal, a very nice man called Mr. Msange. He then took us through to the principal’s office where we met Mr. Elasto Nyagwe, who made us feel very welcome and even apologised for last night.

We were finally ready to meet the students.  It seems that while Felix was at the college he baptised 18 students. Some, like Felix, have graduated and moved to other areas, but there still remains 9 students who regularly meet for worship on Sunday. They tell me that many of the other students visit as well.

The study was in one of the class rooms, and when we got there they were all ready to meet us. We were made to feel very welcome and showed a great deal of respect. I was very please with how they all listened to to the  gospel preached.

I taught on how Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. How He built the church - His church and He only build one church. And I also taught how to obey the gospel.  There followed some questions, but not as many as I expected. College students here are very much different from what I am used to. They are expected to just sit and listen to the teacher and not interact with him.

Samuel had some tracks and booklet he wanted to hand out and then we had a song and finished our study with a prayer. It was after that the they all started to relax. We were taking some photos and they started gathering around me and asking many things. I even got an invitation to come the their graduation next year.

I am really looking forward to meeting with these wonderful young people once again. Until today I did not know that there was a congregation meeting here.  I will try to come and worship with them one Lord's day, if I get the chance.

On the road to Mbeya Part 2

We had a good rest over night and awoke refreshed and ready to tackle another day on the road. Mama Pierina (Dimitra) gave us a good breakfast and we were away.

Again it was a long drive from Morogogoro to Mbeya, but the country we were passing through was breathtaking. We passed through open plains, National Parks, mountains and step gorges. There certainly was no tome to get board!

We passed through the Mikumi National Park and we were really not sure what to expect. Having been in Serengeti and all the major parks in the north of the country we were used to paying steep fees to enter. Here at Mikumi there were no fees, just slow down signs.  We really didn't want to drive fast at all because we were seeing a lot of game. Thomson's gazelles, Cape Buffalos, Giraffes and lot of monkey.  It was a really nice drive.

Another highlight of the trip was passing through the Scenic Valley of the Baobab Trees. All over the country we have see these strange yet majestic tress. But for about 20 kms these wonderful trees lined the road and covered the hills.  We were following the river up through the valley and all around us were these up-side-down trees.

After leaving the town of Iringa we hit the road works. We cant really complain because we LOVE the new roads they are putting in all over the country, but it is hard to be patient when you have a long way to travel and you are stopped in a long line of traffic for nearly an hour.

While we were stopped a couple of French people came up to the truck and asked us for a lift. They were heading for a prehistoric site just out of Iringa and asked is if we would like to join them. It sounded wonderful, but we had no time. A couple of days ago I received an email from them thanking us for the lift and highly recommending visiting the site.

We knew we were running out of time to get to Mbeya before dark - I have already stated why I don't like driving at night in Africa. So we drove hard the rest of the way. Lunch was a quick pit spot. The F1 mechanics would have been pleased with the way Anne leapt out of the truck and quickly made the sandwiches. She then drove while I ate mine and as soon as I had finished we had another driver's change and Anne was able to eat her lunch.

We finally arrived in Mbeya just as it was getting dark. The Karibuni Centre, were we are staying was on my GPS (I have an African GPS map that users add too, including me). The road however that it was telling us to go down, was not there. After a while we found a goat track hidden behind about 20 large semis. It was good to stop and rest for a while - even if the restaurant was not open. We were both so tired we were happy with a little water and a scone to share that was left over from lunch.