Week 7- To Lake Tanganyika

We make it to by bus to Sumbawanga (great name isn’t it) in the early afternoon, a large town, where we explore the hustling streets and find a late lunch of typical Tanzanian fare- ugali, rice and chicken.  We eat heartily, then stop by the outdoor market to stock up on mangos, bread rolls, and a fresh avocado for tomorrows breakfast on the early morning bus heading north to Katavi National Park, our destination. 

We sleep well that night and step out of our comfortable Hotel Holland into the main bus station at 6:30am.  This Mbeya Express bus lacks the luster of yesterdays bus: it is banged up, old pleather seats, chipping paint, and the mechanic is already underneath working on the engine. Hmmm.  We only have a 3 hour bus ride on a dirt road, but another kind gentleman we talk to assures us that is could be an all day bus ride given the bus’s condition. Hmmm again. Well, no other options but to roll with it for the day.  

Everything is uneventful and the bus takes it slowly until mid-morning when we pull into a dusty village and the driver and attendants begin hammering on the underside of the bus again.  All passengers sit tight or mill around outside. Not so bad, in fact kinda fun for a bit. We meet some very smiley Tanzanians, some of which speak a bit of English, others which do not.  And again we become the spectacle of the primary (elementary) school kids across the road.  About 2 hours later, a motorcycle pulls up with a huge metal object, obviously a replacement part to the engine, and they begin hammering, again! 

We take this opportunity to change our course of action.  Another bus stops briefly to let off a few passengers. It is heading to a waterfront town near Kipili on Lake Tanganyika. Let’s do it! We jump on board and are treated to front row cushions next to the driver since the rest of the bus is full.

Another few hours and we pull into the village of Katangoro, still 8 km from the village of Kipili and a lodge we have heard about called the LakeShore Lodge.  This village street is even more sleepy, and the only folks around ask if we need to get to Lakeshore Lodge- obviously we match the stereo-type of its clientele.  They have motor-bikes ready and waiting for us (we had read in the lonely planet that one can walk or motor-bike the last bit of distance to the lodge).  Now parents/grandparents may want to skip this part: we put on one backpack each, the motorbike drivers puts on one of our bags on their front and we sandwich a kid each in the middle.  Two motorbikes, 6 people and 4 bags and we head down the last bumpy road of our week. 20,000 Tz shillings (10 USD) later and we have arrived at a paradise of villa-style bandas on the sandy shores of Lake Tanganyika.

Our South African host and lodge owner Louise, kindly orders us a large, cold water and gives us a tour of the grounds and shows us to our banda. The zen-landscape is simple but elegant, white walls, thatched roofs, open doors, bamboo window coverings and beach rock floors.  Everything invites your barefeet outside to the sandy beach and the gentle off shore breeze. The water is tropical turquoise blue and the beach sand loaded with freshwater shells to scavenge.  We can see

the Democratic Republic of Congo mountains across the lake in the distance, and islands in the foreground harboring other local villages.  We arrive just in time for watching the sunset while enjoying a Stoney Tangowizy, our new favorite ginger soda. As the stars emerge, dinner is served on tables next to the waters edge, decorated with solar-lit canning jar vases of pink bougainvillea flowers.

The next mornings we head out on kayaks to explore the islands with snorkel gear on deck. We have heard about Lake Tanganyika, its fishing communities, and its famous tagline, the 2^nd largest lake by water volume in the world due to its depths and length. It also supports some of the worlds only cichlid fish, the assorted colorful ones we know from freshwater aquariums. We see them in all shapes and sizes, big lips and bulging eyes, blue polka dots and yellow zebra stripes. Amelia masters the art of diving about 10 feet underwater to see them up close.  We are already excited about the reality of her SCUBA diving with us in the near future!

By day three, we were setting to head back on the bus northward, but a stomach bug that resembles travelers diarrhea sets in for both Kim and Steve, and we end up spending a few more days convalescing on the waters edge.  Kids are joyous at this turn of events!  Good food, games and books, wonderful people, Tanzanian fisherman, 3 dogs, 2 cats, bunnies, chickens, ducks, and great birding. We spend many hours watching the resident black kites, pied kingfishers, little bee-eaters, a pair of African pied wagtails, hatchling bulbuls, scarlet chested sunbirds, and Paradise flycatchers, just to name a few. Plus the added magic of the beach with ocean-like waters- we may never leave!

Note: we still have not left Lakeshore Lodge and it is day 9!  We became addicted to sand, freshwater waves, great food, friendly hosts/staff, and our cabana on the shore.  We have healed our minds, bodies, and souls and set ourselves up for a 2nd half of our African adventure.  We even reveled in all the hysteria of Game 7 of the World Series- Go Cubbies Go!!- thanks to MLB.com phone app.  Steve was up at 4am local time and, headphones on, joined around inning 3.  He whooped a bit and woke the family at 7am when the game hit extra innings, and we all listened and cheered as the sun rose over the lake and the Cubbies were crowned champions!  Apologies, Indians fans...

Tomorrow we depart by bus, heading towards Kitavi National Park and a safari for Emmet's #9 birthday on Saturday!!!

More next week, love to all!

Kim, Steve, Amelia, Emmett