After two nights on the incredible Plantation Lodge it was time to drive on. We headed towards Lake Babati and decided to take the more direct way which wasn’t a paved road but a dirt road through beautiful sceneries. It took almost 6 hours for roughly 120 km to get to the Royal Beach Hotel in Babati, which wasn’t actually a running hotel anymore but we were told that it was possible to camp there directly at the lake. We arrived just in time before it got dark, and two locals welcomed us as soon as we parked the car and showed us where we could camp fo the night. The spot directly at the water was beautiful, but unfortunately, the mosquitos liked it, too. We quickly cooked something simple and easy, watched the beautiful sunset and ate dinner inside the car, hiding from all the insects that were flying around. The next day, our two hosts came early in the morning to greet us and offering us some tours. We told them that we didn’t want a tour but were looking for a car wash and they were able to help us too :) They brought us to the car wash place of their friends and our Defender received a well deserved shower after the offroad action. After hanging out with half of the village while waiting we still decided to go with the two guys on a short little tour on the lake in their canoe to maybe see some hippos - the tour was only a few dollars and we were lucky, we spotted a hippo-mom with her baby in the water.
Our next destination was Katesh, from where we intended to climb Mount Hanang. After Kilimanjaro, we were keen on some more hiking, but unfortunately, most hikes in Tanzania cost a fortune due to the national park fees that usually come with them. Luckily, there was another nice mountain on our route which did not lay in a national park. After some research, we found Thomas, a local tour guide who was also able to rent us a tent and sleeping bag, so we could do the hike including spending a night on top of the mountain. Thomas lives in Katesh at the foot of Mount Hanang, and he invited us to camp at his house the night before and after the climb.
He met us at the Summit Hotel, the place where tourists usually stay before they climb the mountain. We had a drink and then drove to Thomas’ house, which was an adventurous route which definitely required a 4x4. As soon as we arrived at the house, we were warmly welcomed by Lucy, Thomas’ wife as well as their 3 children and even the neighbor’s kids came to say hi. While everyone was amazed by our Defender (the kids couldn’t get enough climbing in and out and in and out) Tom and I were stunned by the hospitality we were experiencing, seeing how little they had. We couldn’t believe how well behaved the kids were, they never argued or fighted with each other nor with their parents, they were never complaining, even though they didn’t have a sinlge toy - nothing! The house was built of mud, it had three small rooms, one was for cooking/eating/chilling and one bedroom for the parents and one for the three kids (they shared one bed!). There was no running water and no electricity, for washing, they took a bucket and went to the backyard, the same for using the toilet (for number two, they shared a pit toilet together with the neighbours). Our Defender with a 130 litre water tank was pure luxury, we emptied our whole tank into bukets for them and offered to drive down to fill it and up again but Thomas and Lucy refused, they said they had enough water. Lucy cooked an amazing dinner for everyone and we were playing with the kids while the dog and the little cat and the chickens were running in and out of the house. An older man stopped by, asking for some food, and Thomas invited him to stay for dinner. He explained to us that he knew him back from school and that his wife had left him and now he didn’t have a real home, so he would come by every now and then and they would invite him to eat with them. Also the neighbor’s daughter (she was maybe 3 or 4 years old) stayed for most meals. Her parents had a little baby to take care of, so Lucy and Thomas took care of the older one who was about the same age as their kids -simple as that. It was so nice of Thomas and Lucy to open their home to us, so we would actually get a chance and see into their life, something we definitely wouldn’t experience at any camping site or nice fancy tourist lodge. From the Plantation Lodge to Thomas’ house, the difference couldn’t have been any bigger but it was probably exactly what made it so powerfull and impressive.
We started the hike up Mount Hanang the next day after Lucy made sure we had a big breakfast and enough energy to climb the mountain. Besides the two of us and our guide Thomas, there was also a porter joining, who helped us carrying the tent and sleeping bags. The hike only took around 8 hours in total but it was a very steep climb, we started from 2,000 meters up to 3,423 meters in only 7 kilometers. After three hours, we reached the camp at 3,100 meters where we set up the tents. After a small lunch, we continued to the summit, which took another hour and a half but it was do-able after the break. We walked back down again to the camp, the last bit we had to use our head torches because it was already getting dark. The night was quite windy, we ate our pre-cooked dinner in the tent and went to bed, tired but happy. We woke up the next morning just in time to watch the sunrise above the clouds. The hike back down was an easy one after the previous day but we were still happy when we finally reached the gate again.
Lucy was already waiting for us with a nice lunch. After we ate, we washed our clothes and gears and Lucy was already starting to prepare dinner again. I asked her to show me how to cook the nice spinach she always prepared and in return we told her we would show her how to prepare some meat balls. Tom therefore went to town together with Thomas to get some minced beef, which was a mission on itself. They went to a butcher, explaining him what kind of meat they needed. However, the butcher did not have a meat grinder, so Thomas called at the summit hotel to ask if they could use theirs. They agreed, but only for beef meat and not pork. In the end we had our minced meat and we were able to prepare some meat balls for everyone and they really loved it :)
After 3 days at Thomas’ and Lucy’s house it was time for us to say goodbye and continue with our trip. We were heading towards Lake Victoria, the biggest lake in Africa and the second largest fresh water lake in the world, its size is 1.5 times the size of Switzerland! Unfortunately, you cannot swim in Lake Victoria, due to the risk of catching bilharzia, an acute and chronic disease caused by parasitic flatworms.
To Mwanza it was still 533 km, so we decided to stop in Shinyanga on the way for one night. Since this is not a very touristy area, we couldn’t find a camping site and therefore got ourselves a room in a hotel for 15 dollars for the two of us including breakfast. The road was a tarmac road, however, it had tons of wholes in it, which made driving quite exhausting. Our first stop at Lake Victoria was at Rocky Bay Resort & Camping, which was a beautiful spot at the lake, unfortunately, the “camping site” was only the parking lot of the resort and they wanted to charge 40 dollars for that, the same price they charged for a bungalow. We were a bit disappointed but decided to sleep in the bungalow anyway, since it also started to rain and there was no other camping site close-by.
The next day, we left and drove into the town of Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania. We both didn’t know what to expect from this city but it was a nice surprise. On iOverlander we read that it was possible to camp at the Yacht Club directly at the lake, so we headed there and were warmly welcomed. We were the only campers (like so often) so we could choose our spot wherever we wanted. There were many restaurants close-by, the peninsula, where the Yacht Club was situated, looked like a very nice neighberhood. We went for a walk through the city and it was very refreshing how it was not touristy at all. No one asked us for money or wanted to sell us a tour, we could jsut stroll around the city and check out the shops. We had an early dinner at the Rooftop Restaurant & Café, which was a great choice. They served amazing Indian food and fancy cocktails without alcohol and the view over the city was nice as well. On the way back to the Yacht Club we decided ot go check out the sunset at the Bismarck Rock, which turned out to be a very beautiful spot as well. We then headed back to the Yacht Club and went for a “Absacker” (last drink) at the Hotel Tilapia right next to the Yacht Club, which was a very nice place, so we decided to come back the next day to hang out and write our blog and edit pictures.
On the second day, we also got company, Christine, a Solo-Overlander from Malta joined us after we told her in the Overlanding Groupchat where we were staying. Christine is enjoying her early retirement by traveling through Africa for six months each year. She therefore bought herself a car with rooftent in South Africa and has already done various trips through Africa from there. However, since Covid, there are not many Overlanders around anymore. I think Chrstine was quite happy to have some company, and we loved hearing all her travel stories and receiving recommendations for where to go. We enjoyed dinner at the restaurant of the Yacht Club all together and had a lovely evening.
The next day, we had to drive a bit further up north, since our visa was running out and we had to cross the border into Kenya soon. We decided to make one last stop at Lake Victoria for two nights, before we would leave Tanzania again. Christine was heading into a different direction, so we had to say bye again. We drove to Tembea Mara at Balili Village, another place we found on i Overlander that looked nice. We were greeted by a friendly lady and after some bargaining about the price, we decided to stay and set up our camp. We enjoyed a day of doing not much and cooked ourselves a nice dinner, before we drove towards the border very early the next morning. The border crossing went very smooth, the border was not busy at all and it only took us 1,5 hours to cross. We already held our E-visas and also the health check procedure was very easy since we were vaccinated and therefore didn’t need to show a PCR test result. Driving on Kenyan roads again did feel a little bit like coming home :) It was a lot more buzy than Tanzania, but also it was not a problem to speak in English to anyone on the street. We headed straight towards Mara West, the camp we chose to spend our first nights back in Kenya again, another great decision of ours :)