A YEAR SINCE I LEFT HOME!
Woke to a cold morning and drove on past women wrapped in fabulous arrays of bright reds, greens, yellows and pinks, a dramatic contrast to the more traditional coloured and patterned cottons we have been used to and glowing like beacons in the dull morning light. On turning a corner we came to a panoramic fabric market hung with lengths of these vibrant materials, a barrage of colours against the stormy sky.
Stopped at a market, where we bought bread and more avocadoes, lunched in a gravel pit, and stopped again late afternoon to buy beers with our last Burundi francs.
Incredible border crossing. There were a couple of ramshackle buildings and a wasp swarm warning from Kelvin on the Burundi side, where we had to fill in a form to leave, although we hadn't filled in any paperwork to enter the country. Then we drove 7km to the Tanzania encampment, where a tattered flag hung at half-mast beside a barred police building from which came a strange wailing sound. We had to hand write our currency declarations on blank pieces of paper. The immigration office was at the end of an elongated house whose front yard was packed with chickens, corn and people - including shitting children. A police officer wearing a casual suit and red stripped runners stood in the doorway. He handed us official blue forms with strict, repeated instructions not to fold them because they wouldn’t go through the computer, although which computer and the likelihood of it being operational amused us.
And then we were into a land of English language and left-hand drive.
We stopped for the night on two pathways leading off the road and were setting up when a bishop driving past stopped for a chat. The local cow herd ambled into camp too but fortunately decided to detour around us rather than stampede through our tents.
Per and my first dinner as team a success.
Fierce mosquitoes drove us to bed early.
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