On The Road Again

It is the children's long school holidays and 2 weeks ago, it was time for us to use this holiday to get away for  our family's annual leave.
This year's holiday was extra-special as Andrew's sister Claire joined us, at the end of her 2 years teaching work in Dodoma, before her return to the UK.
We had a wonderful holiday- but as with most holidays we take in Tanzania, going away involves LOOOOONG car journeys- and this trip was no exception. With a 2-day drive either side of the actual holiday destination, it seems only fair to treat the road travel as part of the holiday. So here are some pictures  from along the way, on our drives to and from the Highlands and tea-estates of the Mufindi area in southern Tanzania.

Fresh in Dodoma on the Monday morning, our chauffeur gets ready to drive us on the intrepid off-tar route on the first leg to to Iringa, whilst the children peer out of their windows, ready for the adventures ahead of us on The Road:

The Road is Long:

The Road is Stony:

The Road is Dusty- and we added to the clouds of red-earth dust as we sped along!

The Road is Winding (and at times a little scary!):

The Road is Dangerous:

The Road is Under Construction- and literally being built around us! Powerful machines provided fantastic distraction for Ben and even for Joel, who squealed in excitement as we made way for all sorts of wonderful diggers and bulldozers, graders and road-drilling machines! We even spotted a team of road-blasters laden with wires and dynamite, climbing up onto the rocky precipices above us as we drove slowly over the bumps and lumps of a road in the process of being made! Ben particularly enjoyed a little interlude on our outward journey as this digger cleared the cut-down wood off the road for us so that we could actually get through:

The Road is Blocked: this time on the return trip, by a large boulder and a busy bulldozer swinging its arm about as it worked. It seemed to take the driver a long time to notice us! We waited a while to be let past, but the arrival of the bus from the opposite direction brought his work to a standstill, as the bus seemed pretty determined to pass...

 ...despite getting stuck half way through the narrow gap and having to rely on a log stuck behind its back wheels by the bus driver's assistant, to lever the bus wheel off the dust and get the vehicle moving forward. It was all rather dramatic, since there was a nasty drop down the hillside on the left of this photo: one false move could have meant a disastrous outcome for all the passengers, who were idly watching the drama from their open windows. Alls well that ends well though and after this bus drove past, we passed through to the other side...

 The Road was not crowded by other traffic (who would be crazy enough to drive 6 hours each way on an off-tarr road under construction???), but the traffic that we did see was a little heavy at times- in the literal sense!

And finally...on Tuesday afternoon, after one night at a campsite in Iringa, The Road was no longer dry and stony, but was bordered with Green...

 ... which meant that we had arrived at Mufindi and could enjoy the beautiful scenery among the tea-estates:

We then drove the remaining short distance up into the hills and through the gates of "Fox's Farm": our holiday destination!