Tanzania - Kigoma

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In town the first "hotel" in the guidebook had stopped doing rooms – the alternative across the street had a room for US$2 with no running water. I asked to leave my rucsac there and went for a wander. As I was buying the previous day’s newspaper (Kigoma’s a long way from Dar es Salaam) I saw some wazungu and asked where they were staying. The answer was somewhere expensive and you needed a car to get to it. Not much help, but they were kind enough later to give me a lift to a hotel on the edge of town. They worked for the International Red Cross who were insisting that Burundi was still a "no go area". Apparently the peace agreement that I had heard about had fallen through.

The hotel had a self-contained room and its own beachfront. What more could I want? I agreed to take it and walked back to town. I admired the railway station which won the "Best Kept Station" award in 1965 and still looked quaint and found an internet café; Burundi still a bad idea, so that was that decided then.

I soon discovered there was a big football game on as most places had the TV on with an attentive crowd gathered around. It was the African Championship Cup and Tanzania’s Simba were playing a Nigerian team desperately needing points to get through to the next round. I took lunch at the "New Stanley" restaurant and enjoyed the game (Simba won 2-1).

Walked back to the hotel with the rucsac, sun still quite warm at 1630, so went for a swim and had a lazy evening.

Mon 6 Oct
You need a bus to catch a bus! The long distance bus station and their booking offices were 2km out of town up a very long hill. I found there were three firms, two of which were going the next day and one of those offering a third off discount "to promote business". I chose my seat although there were not many remaining; at least I’d have a window to look out of.


Tanzania - Kigoma

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