Iringa and Dar es Salaam, The Final Leg (2 Aug - 7 Aug, 2006)

The pack dwindled down to me, Georg and Sevvie. Georg and I were waiting at Iringa for the Scandinavia bus to take us to Mbeya to reach Lake Nyasa/Malawi. But then, we realized it takes 3 days to get to the northernmost shores of Nyasa (1 day to Mbeya, 1d to Tikuyu, and 1d if you were lucky to catch the bumpy ride on a pickup to Matema Beach) and then 3 days back and I would either miss my flight or have half a day to spend in L. Nyasa. We got our tickets changed to Dar and came back to find Sevvie in what appears to the lone Wazungu haunt in Iringa: the Hasty Tasty (true to its name or were we too hungry to notice?) unaware what had transpired to poor old Sev. Severine had braved a daylight robbery and there she was at the cafe contemplating the day. We left for Dar together the next day and spent a day idling in Dar and checked out Bungoyo island halfway between Dar and Zanzi, before we parted ways.


I was quite taken aback to see a primate evolution poster say that there are "5 human races", without any disclaimer that this is a colonial era poster and that they do not endorse this view - or maybe they do?


Hermit Crab



A marine crab



How could it escape my attention? Al-Jazeera on a Coke banner!! Our bus stopped here from Iringa en route to Dar.


We hiked to Jiwe rock on the advice of a friendly American peace core guy we had met at Hasty Tasty. Apparently the place has some rare flowers, but this one, it turns out, is pretty common.


Sunset atop Jiwe



View from my room MR hotel in Iringa

Oh, btw: here's an interesting BBC article on China's ambitions in Africa, esp. Tanzania