Mwanza, Tanzania

Our research, on the Lonely Planet Forum, with others we met, and with staff at our hotel told us to take the Jordan Bus from Arusha to Mwanza. When we went to the bus station we were swamped by touts and later, after checking with our hotel manager, we were able to find the booking office for Jordan as all the other people were agents and would charge us more than if we went 25 paces further to the booking office. It is such a confusing system for non residents. The booking office gives the 3 or 4 agents nearby him the master copy of the bus seating plan and it just goes round and round the bus station depending on whether the customer asks agent 1 or 2 or the booking office. A runner listens to where you want to go and then scoots off to get the seating plan while all the other touts shout and point you to their agency. It's bedlam! Most of the buses had 3 seats on one side of the bus and 2 on the other but they were full so we took the 'luxury' bus that had only two seats each side.

We had to wake the receptionist up as we headed off for our bus even before the morning prayer. The luxury bus had half of its persplex sliding windows covered in a very dark tinted film that was scratched and torn so it was difficult to slide them to get air and even more difficult to see out. In no time we were jam packed with bags and sacks and children in the aisles. The seat behind us had a lady and 3 children trying to jam into a space for one so we were glad not to be stuck with her in a bus with 3 seats across.

We could have taken another shorter bus route from Arusha to Mwanza by going north to the Kenyan border via Nairobi but would have had to pay for a transit visa. The bus would also have cut across the Ngorongoro Conservation area and we would have had to pay park fees. It would then have crossed through the Serengeti National Park and we would also have had to pay fees for that and all up it would have cost us $240 US.

We passed through the Masai Plains and John remarked how it looked exactly like he remembered it from geography at school. The men were wrapped in their red shawls and carrying their knobbed sticks looking after the cattle. The corrals near the house were made of tree branches standing up and rammed into the ground next to the round mud houses covered with thatch.

Some of the land was being cultivated for corn or maize while other plots already had corn with flower heads. All cultivation was done by hand and we saw a lot of children hoeing. On the paths to the fields we would pass women with a cloth on their head and their hoe balanced on that as they headed off to work or home.

The bus only stopped once for the toilet and something to eat and then only for 20 minutes in Singida. Most of the towns we picked up people were pretty run down dusty places. It rained in the afternoon and water came in from the top of the windows and through the ill fitting sliding windows. I managed to redirect the rain from soaking my seat by sticking plastic bags in the cracks. We passed through Nzega and Shinyanga before finally arriving 15 hours later at Mwanza at 9pm.

We checked into a room at the St Dominics Pastoral Centre. John had found the place on the Lonely Planet Forum and it was very nice, quiet (no call to prayers waking us) and a short walk from Lake Victoria and the city centre. Our room was in the three storey wing and we looked down on a lovely grassed area. The room was huge and we spread out and caught up on some maintenance to our gear and gave everything a good scrub after the dusty roads.



We enjoyed Mwanza very much. There was not much to see for tourists but we walked around the lake and watched the locals swimming, washing themselves and their clothes, checked out the port where they loaded dried fish and bananas.

These enormous storks flew over the dried fish on racks ever hopeful that they would be able to grab a takeaway. It is incredible that such a huge bird can glide on the thermals and they are everywhere flying over the city accompanied by the cawing black crows.

The lake has bilharzia but it doesn't deter the locals from drinking the water or going in it to fish or paddle their boats.

These colourful lizards were sunning themselves on the rocks around the lake.

The Pastoral centre was busy everyday with seminars on pediatric care for HIV patients, counselling care workshops and other courses. Some were attended by locals while others stayed in the guest rooms with us.

We met Gothard, a 70 year old German man, who was working as a volunteer at a Dutch orphanage in Ghana. He developed an interest in the country when his daughter went as an exchange student from school. He goes every year for several months at a time and helps with building things the orphanage needs. His last project was a tank stand. We were happy to get information on travel in the country as we plan to go there next year. It was also good to meet someone closer to our ages as there are not many oldies like us backpacking, although Godhard was flying to Moshi.

After a restful time and no touts we were ready to head off to Rwanda. We had to get up at 3.30am and a driver from St Dominics took us to the bus station to catch our 5am bus ride. However we beat the bus there and it finally arrived at 5.30am . Our first stop was to drive onto a ferry that took us across the lake and then onto the Rwanda border.

The ferry

There were two Frenchmen on the bus with us and we shared a taxi from the end of the bus run to the border. The bus headed off towards the Burundi border. At the border we were able to get a visa but the Frenchmen were refused entry to Rwanda as there are some problems between the two governments. The guys were supposed to have used the online visa service to get their visas. We had to pay $60 US for a two week visa but were told that in January the visas will be free for Kiwis.