Tuesday-Thursday 14-16.05:
The next morning we walked to the Mozambique embassy to get our
passports with the stamped visa. Afterwards we picked up our car from the
repair shop and started the trip down south. Unfortunately we didn’t get very
far: at the first petrol station in the outskirts of Dar, the guy at the
petrol station by mistake filled diesel into our petrol tank. No idea how he
managed to pull over the hose with Diesel from the other filling spot, but he
successfully did so. By the time we noticed what happened it was already too
late. It took us (rather the guys) 4 hours to unscrew both of our tanks, empty
the one with diesel, clean it and put it back on. Luckily they apparently did a
good job since the engine is still running. Fingers crossed!
Our places of choice for the nights in Zimbabwe (police stations) –
found their equivalent in Tanzania: churches and missions. Haven’t had so much
contact with nuns and fathers for ages!! But they truly had the best budget (or
even free) sleeping options and were all very nice and welcoming. Especially
the night with “Gaby” from upper Bavaria (in St. Ottilien am Ammersee, about 30
km from my home) and “father” Francis was a night to remember: they had the
best self-made wine (it was already Schnaps though…) I had for ages and we had
a great night chatting along on their veranda, learning about Tanzania, the
mission and their projects. Since we are also always trying to be good guests,
we decided to join them for their morning mass at 6.00 am (so so early…) which
was led by the “youngest” of the boy group who was 62- not really a spring
chicken himself….. After a very German breakfast we hit the road for our long
(3 days) haul to Mozambique.
The paved road stopped about 80 km before the border however the dirt
road was in a good condition. Finally we reached the unity bridge connecting
Tanzania and Mozambique.
It was built by the Chinese probably as a little
present to get a hand on some of the abundant resources in both countries. We
were scared to get in trouble at the border but everything went smoothly also
thanks to Ju’s perfect Spanish which the Portuguese speaking customs officers
seemed to understand perfectly. It was good we got the visa beforehand in Dar
Es Salaam after all because it turned out to be true that no visas are issued
directly at the border at the moment. The Chinese only paved 5 kilometers
before and after the bridge. The next two hundred kilometres of dirt road
through the Mozambique jungle was in a very bad condition. Luckily the dusty
road was dry. When it is raining it takes apparently days to manage to pass
this route. It soon became dark. At a border post in the middle of nowhere we
were allowed to camp for the night next to the border station. At least we did
not have to be afraid with dozens of police officers watching us climb up the
ladder to our roof top tent.
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