Figuring out Tanzania

Posted by Jayne McElwee on 18 December 2012

This year surprised me. At the start of it we were planning a camping trip through Baviaanskloof in the December holidays and by the end of it – now – we are busy preparing for a marathon three-month road trip from Cape Town to Tanzania and back.

This has been a thrilling time for me because I am admittedly an obsessive compulsive travel planner. It’s not that I suffer from acute nervousness or chronic fear when I think of doing new, venturesome things. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I get so excited at the prospect of exploring new places, I simply can’t help finding out as much information as I can. This includes everything from the best campsites and stop-over options to activities to safety information.

This ‘accommodation options’ map I constructed is an example:


View Africa Trip in a larger map

 

That brings me to a slight dilemma. For the Tanzanian leg of the road trip, I’m battling to fill in some details.

To give you some context, we intend entering Tanzania from Zambia at Tunduma and driving north-west to Kigoma (we heard that Jakobsen Beach and Guesthouse is a must-see and wanted to visit Gombe Stream National Park where Jane Goodall worked). From there, we’d like to drive to the northwestern part of the Serengeti National Park and spend the next two days driving through it.

What is frustrating me is how hard it is to find information on the roads between Kigoma and Mwanza/northwest Serengeti; the better towns to stop at along the way; and how to arrange a permit to visit the Serengeti National Park (we aim to enter the park at the Ndabaka Gate).

I’d be grateful to any readers who may have some suggestions. In return, here is the key to my somewhat crude map in case it could be helpful in any at any time.

Green Tents = campsites
Green houses with flags = slightly nicer-looking campsites
Yellow monopoly houses = non-camping accommodation
Yellow suns = must-stay-here’s
Cloudy yellow suns = in between slightly nicer-looking campsites and must-stay-here’s

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