2019-07-25

Thu 25. July: Down to Dar

14 hours on the road! This is crazy. We left Iringa and watched the sunrise driving east towards the steep drop at Kitonga, where we left the highlands and drove down into the pitoresque “Baobab-Valley” along the Udzungwa National Park. Beautiful landscape. Then soup and chappatti in Mikumi and on through the Mikumi National Park (saw Giraffe, Zebra, Gazelles and Monkeys) to Morogoro and on to Dar. The traffic got worse and worse the nearer we came to Dar. The amount of traffic is amazing, compared to a few years ago, with these huge trucks travelling on these highways. This is a sign that the economy really is picking up, no matter the present liquidity problems in the economy due to the government cutting down on foreign-aided projects, which in fact may be a good approach in the long run. And sure enough, approaching Dar we end up in two lanes, one out another in. And all the trucks and busses and cars squeezed into one lane in one direction. The reason is that they are building a 6-lane highway out of Dar. Obviously it will be needed. But today it is a huge mess of very dusty construction site, rumbling huge trucks and small cars and tricycles attemping to squeeze through. We must admire the Bajaj drivers (tricycles) with their very agile vehicles that can fast speed up and brake and almost turn on the spot. They can wiggle through anywhere almost as well as the motorbikes.
So, Daressalaam. Lots of work left to do, but we have some days to do it.