There’s the fifth pair of eagles circling near the road. #toto
18km to Morogoro. Much greener: mountains catch the rain. #toto
First casualty: me. Photographing an abandoned sisal farm. Result: 6cm scratch on arm. Plus a photo. Of sisal. #toto
Drought effects: none of the maize seems to have reached harvest. Passing thru Chalinze. #toto
Piss stop. Sorry, “traditional medicine stop”. Lame advice to watch out lions. Cellphone towers line the road. #toto
Good 2-lane highway. Heavy lorries, plus people walking between villages or on bicycles. #toto
Kibaha region. West, rather than north. Small farms: bananas, coconuts, cassava, cashews, others I don’t know. #toto
En route to Dodoma. Lonely Planet says “There is no reason to go to Dodoma”. We are going to Dodoma regardless. #toto
This will clearly be a long road trip. #toto
Albert complains that we didn’t tell him we had interests other than cloves and cassava. #totn
Lena complains loudly that Albert failed to tell us Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar. #toto
Driving north-east out of Dar es Salaam. Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”. Discussing our SEKRIT investigation. #toto
Oh, and for the police with AK-47s. #toto
Stop at mall for videotape. Same as any other anywhere, ‘cept for the occasional Masai in full tribal garb. #toto
One lane each way. Traffic slow. Fuelling and water-buying stop: four young women to operate the pump for us. Dusty. #toto
Wondering whether to introduce our new Tanzanian bloggers to @TheBloggess. Maybe there IS such a thing as too much culture shock. #toto
@micktleyden I thought IMAP would help resync back to my MacBook Pro when I return, but it’s causing too much grief here. #toto
In hindsight,changing my email from POP3 to IMAP was a mistake. Too much network overhead. Srsly. #toto
Noting that everyone sending their last email all at once is killing at office’s 512k/128k link. #toto
Watching people finish frantic emails before we hit the road for hours… days… to the end of Time itself. #toto
0815. Avoiding the traffic jam by detouring down a very rough back lane. #toto
Should I be concerned that “Born to be Wild” is blasting out as we cruise intn town? Yes, Thomas was waiting for us. #toto
0745. Breakfast done. On safari for 4 days now, Dodoma and Nzega. Updates as we’re rolling. I bet Thomas is already waiting for us. #toto
45 minutes left for breakfast, final re-pack for the road trip, checkout, “urgent” emails. That view looks nice. I’ll try to look. #toto
@mrsnickhodge Every hour there’s four things which could all be 400 words. Ever single hour. #toto
@mrsnickhodge It’s not the 140-char killing me. It’s that a post takes an hour or two. W e never get them. #toto
@SnarkyPlatypus Our shared human creation of bureaucracies is also universal. ;) #toto
@mrsnickhodge Kilimani village on Zanzibar wasn’t distant in space, but certainly in culture. And yet… ah, I’ll write later! #toto
@mrsnickhodge The “culture shock” isn’t about what’s vastly different, but what’s almost-the-same. There’s an essay there! #toto
@archielaw @Mark_Chenery It’s clear that the longer-form writing will come once I return to Sydney and can reflect. #toto
Tue plan (D5): Drive to Dodoma (5 hours), see… something; continue training on blogging. Long day. #toto
Emerges. 0608 in Dar es Salaam. Pre-dawn sky over the ocean. We leave in 90 minutes. #toto
I can’t believe I’ve been in Tanzania for 4 days without knowing “wanaume”. #toto
It’s approaching 7pm. Kili Time has been declared. Dusk falls on a dusty Nyerere St, Dodoma. #toto
They’re still discussing tomorrow’s itinerary. A photographer to be collected from Mwanza before Nyega. How many km? #toto
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the Fair was over. However, we did get a nail in a tyre. Mechanicals proceed. #toto
So, we’re going to talk our way into the NGO Fair at Parliament House without registration. I detect looming Fail. #toto
Eating goat and rice, in company with a concrete antelope while “Falling in Love” croons. #toto
Kidia Vision Hotel, Dodoma, where Jesus Loves You, it says. There are large, prominent Bibles. 3.40pm. Lunch. #toto
In Dodoma. “There is no reason to go to Dodoma”, it said. Except it’s the national capital. And dusty. #toto
Did I mention lots of baobab trees? Oh. Another question. #toto
I don’t know why I’m asking questions. I’m in the middle of Tanzania. #toto
The sunflowers are heartbreaking: drought-tattered. Everything grey, dry. #toto
Semi-desert now. Stunted trees, prickly pear, dusty farm towns, sunflowers, goats, cell towers. Kibaigwa. #toto
Passing thru Gairo, noted for it’s maize markets. 123km short of Dodnma. #toto
Passing Keyangaya mountain in Morogoro region. #toto
The cellphone transmitters live in better huts than 95% of the farmers here. #toto
Local transport is Chinese motorcycle, quarter the price of a Honda. Used heavily, they last 6 months. #toto
We don’t enter Morogoro, we turn north. But we pause to buy the freshest bananas ever. A dozen eagles overhead. #toto