Saturday 3 July - Mbeya to Mpika

After a wonderful night's sleep we set out for the border with Tanzania. The minute we pulled into the queue the hustling started. Mark managed to find a reliable guy to show him through the ropes. As I've said before every border is different. This time one had to move from one area to another in a haphazard fashion. After we'd cleared immigration and customs I sat in the car whilst Mark went to pay Third Party, road tax, carbon tax and various other amounts. When he  went to pay the road tax the guy asked for $30. After Mark received his receipt he saw it was for $20! Another rip off.


Whilst I was waiting in the car I was approached by a guy who asked what part of the Eastern Cape we are from. He is a Kenyan running his own business in Umtata for the last 10 years. He was a passenger on a bus waiting to be cleared through customs. We stood at the side of the road and had a wonderful discussion about the state of the continent. We were joined by a mother and son from Dar who were also catching the bus. We had fun speaking Zulu and Xhosa and generally chatting.

After 2 hours Mark finally returned and we were able to get going. We really didn't know what to expect and in fact we had to travel over 500km before we came to a town where we could draw some money and start looking for accommodation. The road was a total nightmare - worse than anything we've seen before. The potholes were craters!!! We saw at least two overturned trucks. Well, the 3 ATM's didn't accept Master Card and we couldn't find anyone to change our dollars. Pray! It was getting late when Mark opened the Bradt guide again and read about a compound just 2km down a side road. It used to be a village for people working on the TanZam highway but now it is used to house government officials and NGO's. We went over there and found a comfortable rondavel for $30.  Whew! Thank you again Lord. We met some great people there and had a good rest.