We had heard horror news about the road condition to Katavi and so we started very early in the morning from Kigoma. The first 100 km were pleasant and the scenery improved by the hour.
Strange termite mounds in dense Miombo forests were accompanied by trillions of leafless blue flowers.
As we progressed the roads got worse with wash aways. Quite a number of axle twisters demanded that we go pole pole (slow). But the base of the road was sand and Konstantin loves this. We enjoyed overcast weather plus two heavy downpours which formed rivers and huge puddles.
Katavi National Game reserve is Tanzania’s third largest Game Park. Strangely there is no entrance gate and entrance permits must be bought ca.100km away from the park. So we entered illegally.. The only active camp, the Fox camp, was full with camera teams. They told us that the rains had started early which has resulted in the dispersing of the game with no concentration at the only river, which is normally the case at this time of the year. A game drive of over 4 hours resulted in us sighting a couple of impalas, 1 giraffe and some warthogs and not the huge herds of game that everyone raves about.
Our decision was easy and we carried on south, looking for a suitable wild camping spot which we found just as the sun was setting.
The next day we hit clay roads which were in slightly better condition but would be another story in the rain.
We encountered this truck which was blocking the road totally. We had been warned by fellow drivers that there was no way to go round this obstacle, due to the black cotton mud. Luckily a road engineer gave us the advice to turn back and do a detour of 50 km, as there were three more bad patches ahead were the trucks slide off with their trailers and block all traffic. Gladly we did so and could do the next 400km on bad gravel at 20 - 30 km/h watching the dark rain clouds gathering in front of us and holding thumps that we will be spared soggy clay roads. Village children were running in circles with branches to catch the swarming termites, a local delicacy. Just as we hit the tar the rain started.
The hills on the way to Mbeya were showing the Miombo woodlands in all their early spring splendour – all shades of red, orange, browns and yellows.
The next day in Mbeya, Konstantin got the attention of the whole team of Allan’s Mwaji, Toyota workshop. An oil change and new break pads were due. He got his first thorough wash as well, - taking away layers of dust and mud collected in four countries in the last 40 days.
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