Adventures of Tom Sako and Damien Waterford

into the interior

Stretching about 1500 kilometres across the entire country of Tanzania is an old trekking route that Arab slave traders would bring slaves from the interior in neck chains to Zanzibar Island, where they then get traded and shipped off. The early missionaries and British explorers also sometimes used this path to go inland for their quests. The missionaries to push their faith and build missions which wasn't always successful. The explorers to survey and map out the land for their country. One thing that had a lot of media interest in Britain was finding out the source of the Nile river. This trekking path led the explorers near to where they thought the source would be.

There is now a road that follows this trekking path some of the way, so we thought it would be good to follow this path. Of course there's a bit of difference between driving and walking it, but it could give us a good picture of what they were seeing and with a bit of imagination, maybe even what they were thinking. Our part of the trip started from the Bosnia hotel, where the owner said he liked the name from the war.

Now that's pretty wacky to name a place from a war 10000 kilometres away even though that's where my dad came from. Anyway the first 400 kms or so is slight rolling hills and was pretty uneventful. Our trip really starts from the political capital Dodoma where the bitumen ends and the wild west begins. In our first attempt to leave Dodoma , a piece of the exhaust falls off. So back into town to weld it up. Second attempt and we're on the wrong track. Third time around we travel our distance of 110 kilometres in 5 hours. Slow hard going. We saw Masia warriors wearing red robes with dangling earlobes carrying spears. One thing the slave traders and the British had to do in their time, was pay a "toll" to the tribal leaders to pass their land. This toll attitude is still around with, sometimes drunk police at barrier points demanding the same.

One of those early explorers and part time Christian missionary was David Livingston. He frequently used this route to access the interior and he spent many years coming back to survey the land, push his faith and have a little look for the source of the Nile river as well. Other British explorers were Burton and Speke. Their main objective was to find the source of the Nile and they used this path as well.And finally Stanley used this route in his famous search and rescue mission of David Livingston who had not been heard of for years and feared dead.

We reached Manyoni on that third attempt out of Dodoma . Our map showed the road from there being a minor one which made us think of how bad could it be after only averaging just over 20kms per hour on a majo r road but we had heard buses had made it through. We woke in the dark the next morning expecting a big day and we weren't disappointed. Driving rain fell in the hours before we left just to raise the anxiety level but it cleared not long after.

Our first stop was Itigi, 40 kms along which took about an hour and a half, for breakfast. Walked into the only place available, a small dingy little shack with many people inside eating the same type of meal. A soup with large chucks of boneless meat. Needless to say but there was nothing else to eat. Trying to eat this meat was difficult to say the least. It was so tough, the toughest meat ever. We felt like primates gouging into it. Tooth picks are supplied with every meal in Tanzania but what was really needed after this meal was a trip to the dentist. We left there with sore teeth but with something in our stomachs and headed for the next town. There were knee deep water puddles that we had to walk through first and large rocks to negotiate.

Making slow progress we find out were on the wrong track and have to go about 2 hours back. It was a bit deflating as we weren't sure if we were going to make our destination of Tabora. But we decided to press on. We made up some time on a good stretch of road. The land is relatively flat but pretty green with many trees and exposed rocks similar to the Olga's in central Australia . We saw droppings the size of volleyballs and think of elephants but didn't see any around. Pressing on we come across huge piles of dirt covering the track and then out of the side comes a massive bulldozer and spreads it out along the track. A bus pulls up while we're waiting and the driver tells me its 3 hours to Tabora. I said great as it was just after 3pm and darkness falls at about 6.30pm .

The bus overtook us and not far down the track we came across a muddy section a got stuck. The van had slid to the edge of an embankment and on the verge of slipping into a pool of water on the side of the road. Damien and I got stuck into it, on hands and knees digging out the mud from under the van and making a track to get it going. We asked some locals to give us a push but they demanded money and suggested we try and go backwards in fear of sliding into the pool of water.

We didn't like that idea so we went along with our plan. It was a one and only shot at it and we got enough momentum going to get it through. We were pumped. Down an hour and a half but glad to be on the track again. As the sun was beginning to set we stopped at a bridge over a slow moving river to look at all the birdlife and water lilies with locals bathing themselves and playing.

Moving on and going through a deep section of mud, the van cuts out. The fuel line under the van got ripped off and took about another hour or so to repair. C'mon Tabora we say. I had read that David Livingston got really excited about reaching his place in Tabora and we're looking forward to getting there as well. Thinking about our dinner orders on this last stretch which turned out to be 10kilometres further down the track, we made it to the Tabora hotel. It was paradise with people having dinner and drinks in a great setting. We were covered in mud and ready for a quick shower and dinner. But it was full. Talk about highs and lows. It was well after 9pm now and found some accom mod ation at the third place, fitting in dinner between some cold safari lagers.

Tabora is located in the central west of Tanzania . It is here that the Arab slave traders would bring their slaves from the north, south and west and send them on to Zanzibar on the coast. It is now mainly accessed by a railway line and a few dirt roads to the north, east and south. David Livingston built a house here which we went to see. It rained so heavily the day we went there, the 8km track to the house was like driving upstream in a river. In one of his diaries he said the weather in late 1857 was rain, rain, rain.

One and a half centuries later, its the same. Luckily we had a local guys 4 wheel drive. It had photocopies of his diaries, photos and many other artifacts. Around the house is very green with many trees and isolated palms. It was at this house that Stanley , when coming to look for Livingston found out that a white man was at Ujiji, at the very western point of the trekking path 400kms away. Stanley expected it to be Livingston and it was. That's where he said the famous words "Dr Livingston, I presume" when he found

him. Livingston had been stuck in Ujiji for years after his supplies got stolen by the Arab traders. Then the Arab traders intercepted his mail, cutting communication with England . Nobody had heard from him in years and feared him dead. But Stanley who was working in the Middle East as a journalist, convinced his boss in New York to fund a search mission which he did and turned out to be successful. Stanley later became a great explorer in his own right, exploring the whole Congo river to the west coast. Stanley admired Livingston and they came back together to Tabora from Ujiji.

Stanley couldn't convince Livingston to come back with him so he went to Zanzibar on his own and Livingston went south to explore a lake in the now Zambia . Livingston died near the lake of diarrhea and malaria. He died in the praying position next to his bed. His porters and helpers respected him so much, they took his heart out of his body and buried it where he died and then wrapped and carried his body back to Tabora and on to Zanzibar and then back to Scotland . It took his porters 9 long, hard months to carry his body back to Zanzibar .

Burton and Speke's story is, they came through in 1857 and went all the way to Ujiji on the shore of Lake Tanganyika on a funded mission from London to explore the lake as a possible source of the Nile . On the way back, malaria struck Burton at Tabora and Speke decided to go north to Lake Victoria to see if it could be the source against the orders they had from London . He went to the southern part of the lake and claimed he had checked the whole lake and he had found the source of the Nile . Both he and Burton came back two years later and went right to the top of the lake but still disagreed on the source. This became very public and a debate was arranged a few years later which was called the Nile Duel. Speke had turned up the day before and found out Livingston was going to be there as a guest but would have supported Burton 's views more. Speke shot himself in what was said to be a hunting accident but looked more likely to have been a suicide.

I was saying to Damien, imagine telling these guys that the source of the Nile river would not be found for over a hundred years and be detected by a thing called a satellite that floats around the earth in space. From Tabora we followed Speke's route north as there is no road west.

The birdlife is amazing with one type having a brilliant red chest and back with black wing with others being fluro orange with black wings and others being bright yellow with black wings and another, an all black bird whose tails are twice as long as their bodies. I bet the explorers studied and appreciated them. We all put our hearts into what we enjoy doing the most and Livingston 's was into Africa . Now it is here to stay.