Day 184… Friday 22nd September
Usual city traffic craziness but heading out of the city was ok. Tuk Tuks (Bajaji in Swahili) is a popular mode of transport. Drove to Lushoto further north. One police stop today with a request to see the driving licence. Apart from the police officer with a dubious claim of speeding, officers in Tanzania have been friendly. Speed limits of 50km/hour (approx. 30mph) through every village really slow the journey time down along with numerous slow moving lorries. Google journey times in Tanzania have been wildly inaccurate. Beautiful drive through mountains and rich agricultural land towards the end of the day. Road was tarred but very windy with narrow lanes in sections and sharp bends. Small kids at the side of the road shouting ‘Mzungu’ at us. According to Wikipedia, this is an east African term for a person of foreign descent and means someone who roams around aimlessly. Camped in The Lawns’s hotel grounds after a long 8 hour drive.
Allen’s perspective…
Beautiful drive up to Lushoto, with some very sharp bends, narrow roads, and little semi isolated communities up in the hills. We were here for one night only, but would certainly be worth a revisit.
On the point of ‘mzungu’… I’ve read somewhere (I think it was Frank McLynn’s Hearts of Darkness) that this actually means ‘sea monster’ as European explorers would arrive in their boats and come up from the below deck, effectively beneath the water, with valuable goods to trade. But on another point, casual and sometimes less so casual racism is a real issue across the continent which people don’t seem to talk about for fear of being called a racist themselves. It is primarily in rural areas where people rarely if ever encounter non Africans, and I’m sure it will change over time. But when children (even sometimes adults) have shouted out ‘whitey’ at us I’ve been tempted to shout back that I’m more ‘Elephants Breath‘ don’t you mind!