Last updated 2007.11.21
It was our plan to go to the central part of Tanzania from Njombe, to visit the city Iringa, the Ruaha National Park and the capital Dodoma, anticipating the capital to be a must. But we have decided to do that part later, after Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, as the logistics becomes a bit more straight forward. According to the original plan we would have to go the 250 km from Njombe to Iringa and later go back the same road. Though that piece of road is in good condition it is no fun. Doing it the other way around we cut off some 200 km of the total distance.
We didn't stay over at Njombe. Instead, right after breakfast we went on, 250 km of good tarmac road to Songea, the regional capital of the Ruvuma Region in the south-western corner of the country. We have decided to stay over for two nights, because the next days will probably be long days of poor roads.
After having checked a number of hotels we decided for a fairly new one, rather costly but very nice, called "Heritage Cottage Hotel". We can even get a hot bath here, provided we only use small amounts of water.
Besides a few practical errands, today we visited a small museum in memory of the so-called Majimaji-rebellion. Not very interesting. The major attraction is the tomb of Chief Songea, who led the Majimaji-rebellion and gave name to the city.
We made an attempt to upload diaries and pictures, but it didn't work out. But nice to read mails from back home.
The rest of the time we just relaxed and prepared ourselves for the coming ordeals.