Tanzania – reaching the goal

The Zambian border crossing was again a bit of a pain but it was nice once we finally managed to enter Tanzania and it felt a bit like coming home. We stopped for a late lunch at Stockholm hotel in Mbeya before continuing to Iringa. Halfways to Iringa the sun already started to set and it was getting dark. We had managed to avoid driving during night throughout the trip and had hoped to keep it that way but at least I am familiar to the road so I thought we could proceed. An hour before Iringa a lorry had turned over and completely blocked the road and there were kilometers of trucks queuing. We managed to bypass the trucks and get in front to see the scene of the accident. We prepared ourselves for a night in the car as this would obviously take time. Two hours later they had however managed to move the truck enough so that we could proceed to Iringa where we spent the night at Sai Villa hotel. Before continuing to Dar we had the jerricans and the extra spare wheel on the roof offloaded, I also took the car to the garage as there were some minor things to sort out. We stopped for a lunch in Mikumi and reached Dar just before sun set. We had decided to continue to a beach south of Dar. Due to the heavy rains in Dar one of the roads had been washed away and we ended up spending more than 3 hours in terrible queues just to pass the 500m of damaged road. Eventually however we made it to the beach and could celebrate a successful trip through Africa. We had a nice morning on the beach before it was time to take Heidi to the airport. Except for some minor challenges such as an exploding tire, painful border crossings, fuel shortages and potholes (Zambia) it has been an amazing and extremely memorable trip. Thanks Matti for giving us the chance to drive your car back to Tanzania and thanks Heidi for joining me on this adventure and for being the best possible travel companion!