Times in Tanzania: Road trip in Tanzania: Moshi to Kagera to Iringa

Map of our trip, starting in Moshi and ending in Iringa.

We lucked out with timing between our new jobs and ended up having two full weeks off. We had to drive all of our things crammed in (and on) our car from Moshi to Iringa, which would take about 15 hours or so if driving straight. We decided to try to break the trip up and initially we thought we would only have a week or so to work with. But as the time neared and we realized we'd have more like two weeks off, I began to get excited about the possibility of a road trip.

We've done several long drives and trips while here in Tanzania but the idea of having everything we own in our car for two weeks and being able to explore any part of the country seemed like the kind of adventure that would be a unique experience. With three and a half years in the country we felt equipped with enough knowledge of the culture and language skills to take us anywhere. We both love rural and seldom visited places and recognize the massive size of Tanzania.

However, a road trip in Tanzania is far different than a road trip in the USA or Europe. First of all, the GPS doesn't work and your smart phone won't be able to tell you where the nearest gas station is. In fact, you're more likely to have GoogleMaps mislabel a location and compound your sense of confusion. Second, the road conditions, though improving, are still overall quite poor with large stretches of unpaved, heavily potholed, or lurking with corrupt police looking to shake you down. Third, there isn't much formal tourism developed and information on seldom visited locations are either non-existent or sparse. We laughed wondering if it was more of a challenging/rewarding type of experience than it was an actual enjoyable experience. It's not necessarily comfortable but it is exciting and thought-provoking.

We had a general plan but agreed that the whole thing could change depending on how much we enjoyed somewhere, the weather, recommendations of others, our car breaking down, or anything else that might come our way. We decided to drive first to Singida and leave a big part of our luggage with friends there. This was critical because full of our possessions, our car was loaded to the brim and moved at a noticeably slower speed. From Moshi to Singida is 430km (270 miles), and we'd be able to drive 800km (500 miles) before coming back to Singida to pick up our load and finish the drive to Iringa, which was an additional 500km (333 miles).

Car loaded.

We decided to drive up to the northwestern most region of Tanzania, called Kagera Region. Then we'd drive down the side of Lake Victoria stopping at Rubondo Island National Park and the second largest city in Tanzania, Mwanza. From there we'd make our way back to Singida and then onwards to Iringa. We had a couple of places we wanted to visit like a forest reserve, the national park, a wetland, but we weren't sure on driving times and conditions of the road since the rainy season had just ended there. In the end we just had to go for it and agree to make adjustments depending on anything that might come up.

I was really struck by the size and diversity of landscapes in Tanzania. We started the trip in Moshi which is in the midst of the rainy season. Roads are muddy and the landscape is lush and green everywhere you look. We then drove up to central highlands of Tanzania and would spend the rest of our trip around 1,100m (3,600 ft). As we drove up through the hilly landscape we passed Mt. Hanag (3417m/11,200 ft) and the air got noticeably chillier. As we headed west the landscape dried up as the rainy season occurred months earlier. The acacias and baobabs were also replaced by a miombo forests and mixed woodland. And then as we moved north again, the landscape raised up and we drove along a high escarpment overlooking Lake Victoria surrounded by lush green trees and landscapes closer resembling the eastern forests of Uganda and the Congo than Tanzania. The rainy season had ended only weeks before and the regions many swamps and wetlands were full. Heading down the escarpment south to Mwanza the landscape again dried out with a weak rainy season having passed months ago. As we headed south from Mwanza the acacias and baobabs reappeared and the landscape looked more familiar. From Singida to Dodoma we passed through another unique and fascinating habitat, the Itigi-Sumbu thicket. Dense and short shrub like trees stretched across the flat landscape, an abrupt change from the miombo and acacia surrounding it. The final bit from Dodoma to Iringa saw us driving through a sparsely inhabited area with stunning views of the mountains to the east. The final climb up the plateau to Iringa was beautiful and the road was cut out through undisturbed miombo forest. The cool air hit us at the top and we knew we had finally arrived at our new home.

We had a healthy mix of successful excursions to beautiful spots balanced with days we pushed too much and either met dead ends or underwhelming locations. We stayed at disgusting guesthouses infested with ants to having beachside rooms with hippos grazing 5m (15 ft) away. Amazing freshly caught fish roasted to perfection to spoiled diarrhea inducing fish disguised in spices. It's cliche but certainly there were highs and there were lows for sure. We had moments where we wondered why we don't stick to the guide books or spend a week at the beach but then we'd have moments where that question was answered. Freedom and exploration opened us up to so many interesting people and places.

At a time in our lives when we're making a big transition, the trip was a thought provoking and reflective experience. We don't have a radio or air conditioning, so it was windows down and conversation to keep ourselves busy. We noted the changes in landscape, the variance in products sold by different villagers on the roadside, and speculated about the different lives of the people that we passed. We were both reading conservation books about Tanzania so our minds were particularly keyed in on human/wildlife conflict, land use in Tanzania, agriculture, and economic development. After living in Moshi for 3 1/2 years, it was fitting that we took a very Tanzanian trip to enter into our next chapter of life here.

Ferrying across a river. The motor on the boat had an issue and luckily I had a wrench set I could lend the operator or I'm not sure how he would have fixed the issue.