Road Trip!!!

The first seventy miles out from Arusha were pretty easy. The road was paved, but aside from quite a few potholes and the occasional random speedbump it was largely a straight shot out to near Lake Manyara, where we would enter Tarangire National Park.

We had not seen and would not see any wildlife until we entered the park. The animals know where they are protected, and stay there. There were some interesting things along the road, however.

* Giving people a lift (hitchhiking) is quite common along the roads, and there is a whole system of hand signals between drivers and hitchhikers to indicate need and willingness to provide.

* People walk great distances. It is not unusual to see people walking along the road miles from the nearest building. This is how we saw our first Maasai - walking along the road, spear in hand, with no destination in sight. In reality, there was probably a herd of goats somewhere nearby in a draw, but the lone walker was the only person or creature visible at the time.

*It is also not uncommon to see both the Maasai and others sleeping on the ground alongside the road. It is a little disconcerting at first - at home I would think they were sick or unconcious, but they are just catching a few winks.

* If we were not fortunate enough to have our own vehicle, we would probably need to rely on the local buses, known as dala dalas. These are small, private, multi-passenger vehicles, minivan to short schoolbus in size, that are licensed to carry passengers. They tend to run fixed routes, and the particular route is indicated by the paint job. A green stripe, for example, might indicate the route between the Arusha Airport and the market, while a yellow stripe might mean the Kili airport to the Arusha government buildings (fyi, these routes and colors are just made up). You flag the dala dala down, tell the driver where you are going, and they tell you the fare. The twist is, since the vehicles are private, standards are nonexistent. You might see a minivan with 15 people in it, or 6 people and a goat or two under every seat. There was a part of me that wanted to experience the dala dalas, but in retrospect that may have been a little more Tanzanian culture than I was prepared for.

* Most of the bush vehicles these days seem to be either highly customized Toyota Landcruisers or Land Rovers. The latter are more comfortable, with better suspensions, but apparently tend to leak both dust and water quite badly. The Landcruisers have much stiffer suspensions, and are thus less comfortable, but are incredibly rugged and well sealed against the elements. The Landcruiser seems to have won the competition and is presently the bush vehicle of choice.

Overall, getting around in Tanzania might be a challenge if you don't have your own vehicle. Given the relatively low cost to hire a vehicle, this is definitely the way to go. We were very fortunate to have Julius as our driver - careful and reliable, he quickly earned the nickname "The Best Driver In The World" from Catherine, David, and me.