The Japan Road...

When we left Tarangire, we were soon back on the A104 highway, backtracking our way towards Arusha on a paved but poorly tended road. Soon, though, we reached the junction with highway B144 at Makayuni which runs north into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). By all accounts this road was a nightmare as late as the 1990's all the way from Makayuni, through the NCA and on to the Serengeti. About 2002, however, the portion from the junction to the NCA gate was paved by the Japanese government as part of foreign aid to Tanzania (apparently completed just in advance of a visit by Japan's crown prince) and is probably the best highway in the country. However, the road is dirt beyond the NCA gate, and once the descent towards Oldupai begins on the western side of the crater it fully retains its nightmare status.

B144 (the "Japan Road") could be a typical modern tarmac highway anywhere in the world. After leaving Makayuni, it runs northwest around the north end of Lake Manyara and then rapidly climbs an escarpment to a plateau, gaining about 750 feet in less than two miles. The road then proceeds to Karatu and Oldeani (location of the Rift Valley Children's Village) and then onto the main gate of the NCA.

It is at the NCA gate that we finally ran out of pavement. It was nice while it lasted, but once we got to the gate we would not see another paved road until we arrived in Zanzibar (unless you count the runway in Arusha).