Road Hazards

Travelling by road in Tanzania is a pretty risky affair. We were even informed that road accidents account for the highest number of lost lives amongst foreign aid workers living in Tanzania, over and above illness and disease. Some of the hazards we face on our raod journeys here include:

*potholes and bumps, even on the tarred roads, which can throw you off course or cause oncoming traffic to veer towards you at frightening speeds

*reduced visibility from the dust on untarred surfaces- like this example when we were driving near Mafinga 2 weeks ago: cars and lorries from the other direction kept appearing on the far side in front of us without any warning

* traffic accidents and breakdowns on the road ahead- since most roads here out of the major cities are one lane in either direction, an unexpected road blockage can be extrememely unnerving. I have actually lost count of the amount of broken-down, smashed-up or overturned lorries we have seen on our journeys, like this one which had tumbled off the road on the way to Dar es Salaam

*pedestrians, cattle, bikes, ox or donkey carts and hand-pulled carts on the road can be dangerous obstructions, particularly in a country where it seems to me that drivers like to drive everywhere at top speed and overtake at alarming rates- and the larger the vehicle, the faster they seem to travel! We had this laden cyclist ahead of us near Dar es Salaam:

* untarred roads, with the concerns of breaking down or maybe having a dreaded leak of oil or fuel miles and miles from the nearest garage, or worse, running out of water in places where it is so dry, the local villagers you see have to walk miles to find and fetch water in this dry season. In several villages that we passed on our long drive to Dodoma from the Highlands last week, I saw villagers busy digging up dry river beds in the search for water under the ground. A hard task indeed and I would not like to find ourselves stranded in this heat without water.

*the rather scary road death toll in Tanzania, especially on buses. We hear tales of drivers buying, instead of earning, their licences, or hear that some bus drivers drive 8+hour shifts, then turn the bus round and return to their original destination without adequate rest time. There are sometimes some frightening incidences involving other vehicles we meet along the way.

*There is no regular "health check up" for cars, like the MOT, meaning that road- worthiness of the vehicles we may meet can be erratic.

We are consequently always conscious of road safety issues and try to plan ahead carefully, as well making sure we say a prayer before each long road trip- and remaining thankful when we arrive safely at our destinations!

On our recent holiday, we had some very long road journeys, with an 11+ hour trip on the tarred road to our Highlands destination. On the way home, we opted for the shorter, 8-hour trip, which meant taking the untarred road, a kind of short-cut route. This was a fairly wearing 7-hours off-tar, rather bumpy and noisy, but certainly more of an adventure! Here is a short video clip of our experience, if you have the time to download it!