Travelling to Singida

 So today we left Arusha and travelled to Singida. This is about half way to Geita which is our final destination for this part of the trip.

Robert has arranged for Aaron to be our driver. We know Aaron from our last visit so are happy to see him again. We say goodbye to Eddie and Joseph and leave Researcher’s Rest about 8.45. We drive down to the main road and pick up Robert.

We make a brief stop on our way out of Arusha to say Hi to Aaron’s sister who lives here now, working as a house girl for a family with 2 young boys.

We continue on down the main road out of Arusha in the direction of Tarangire National Park and after a short while we see a couple of camels by the side of the road. These belong to the Snake Farm and Masai Cultural Centre. We went there a few years ago with the staff from ACTT and had a fun visit.

It takes about 3.5 hours to drive Babati where we stop for lunch. The journey is uneventful apart from a couple of random stops by the traffic police. However apparently they have been instructed by the Government not to hassle tourists so it seems that on seeing Peter and I they just wave us on.

As always Pete takes an interesting selection of photos during the drive.

Lunch is plentiful and arrives quickly. Robert and I have chicken, while Aaron and Peter have liver. All hot and tasty.

And no Robert is not eating on his own, Pete and Aaron have just gone to wash their hands.

After lunch we are back in the car for another 3.5 hour drive to Singida. Whilst the road this afternoon is tarmac it is full of potholes making the journey uncomfortable and slow at times. We are stopped twice more by the traffic police but are again waved on.

Below are Peter’s selection of photos from the drive this afternoon. The last photo shows our view of Singida and the lake as we drive into town.

On arrival in Singida we check out the Aqua Vitae Hotel which Robert knows from a previous visit. We take a good size room for TSh 60,000 (about £20) including breakfast. Robert takes a smaller room and pays less. We both take a shower before dinner and Peter is very happy that there is plenty of hot water (never a guarantee in these hotels!)

We drive back into town this evening. It is Saturday night so everywhere is pretty busy. In the end we decide to sit outside a small bar and then order some food from a restaurant across the road (Robert doesn’t want to sit in the actual restaurant as it is very noisy in there). This works fine and the lady from the bar organises it all. She is very friendly with a lovely baby.

As is typical in Tanzania the food takes a while to come but we order some drinks while we wait and enjoy “people watching” . The food is good when it arrives and we are back at the hotel by about 10.