Mkushi -> Mbeya

What a day!!! By 5:45 as the sun was rising we were packed and ready for yet another long day in the car. I was able to hold myself back this time and only ate my sandwhiches after eight am. Its been so frustrating because as soon as we get into the car and I know there are these tasty sandwhiches waiting for me I dig right in and Chris is able to contain himself and by the time hes wanting to eat his I have to sit watching him. This morning was rewarding haha.

The drive to Mpika was a breeze. The road is in excellent condition and there was hardly any traffic so we made it in good time. From Mpika we only had 344 km to Nakonde, the border crossing into Tanzania. When we got to 280 km to go, we hit the worst road ever experienced. There were potholes after potholes so deep and widespread across the road. Chris described the potholes as "volcanoes". There were trucks making it impossible to over take, as we thought it was pulling over for us we realized it was only dodging a massive donga. For the first half hour we were laughing with amazement that this is a national road. When we left the Stones this morning our eta was 14:45 and as we continued up the T2 we watched the time of arrival slowly go up. As soon as you think its over and try get momentum another pothole comes up. We were now starting to lose our sense of humour and the trip got longer and longer with nothing but the occasional settlement hiding in the tall grass.

The only petrol station we stopped at only took cash so there went all our kwacha. As the sun started setting and we'd now been in the car for 12 hours and nothing in sight, the border post seemed unreachable. The night settled in as we neared the town of Nakonde. There were trucks everywhere! Two km to the border post the truck queue started and there were vehicles coming and going from all directions, it was chaotic, there was no order, no traffic lights what-so-ever. It was quite intimidating entering with a trailer and these large trucks caving in. Despite it being 19:30 and we still had another 100 km to go on the otherside of the border, I remained calm and patient and was enjoying the whole African experience. We were just on an adventure. Chris on the other hand as the driver began losing patience and grew anxious. Luckily the border is 24 hours, its clearly for the trucking world though.

Chris found a Runner desperate to help us and we followed him past the traffic. As we entered the gates, it was quiet and this large developed building stood tall in front of us. Inside were waiting area benches, and lots of spotless, new-looking counters that stood empty. One counter on the Zambia side and one on the Tanzanian side were open and besides a security guard at the door, we were the only people. John, who Chris had now befriended, organized our third-party insurance for 150$ and got his friend to organize our TIP for another 150$. Our carnet-de-passage did not come in handy and apparently wasnt necessary in Tanzania. I'm pretty sure we got ripped off, but I was not going to argue at this time of the night. An hour and a half later we were out of there, very hungry and exhausted.

We punched in Mbeya into the GPS and off we went. Tunduma, the town you enter as you cross the border into Tanzania was even more chaotic. There were even more trucks, cars and now there were motorbikes and tuk-tuks literally everywhere. As we drove on, there were shacks along the road with bright lights and local food stalls for kms. It looked really festive, however, it was not the time to explore the Tunduma nightlife. In total darkness, no idea where we were going or even where we were sleeping we soldiered on. Our eta is 22:50 and were thinking "oh no, we have more bad roads ahead of us". We quickly realized theres a time difference and it was 22:00 already. We used the GPS to search for accommodation and after some seriously broken conversation with locals in Mbeya, we found Hotel Desradia where they welcomed us in, despite the late hour. With no food in our tummies and the hotel restaurant closed already, we tucked in to the rest of the delcious banana muffins Carls made for our padkos last night and fell asleep immediately.