Tansania: Road Kigoma to Mpanda and onwards south
 

Hi,

has anyone recently taken this road? We are looking for any information regarding the condition of that road. I got some very fragmented information and what I got so far is not very promising.....

Kind Regards,
David

Condition varies, how much fun you will have depends on how much it rains. Overall I found it pretty ok, and a lot better than what I had been told. Maybe I was lucky, maybe folks exaggerate a lot, I don't know. There are some stretches that have recently been paved, but I don't have my map/GPS tracks at hand to tell you which ones. Most of it is unpaved. If it rains, you'll meet two kinds of surfaces: boggy mud (ok ;-) and extremely soapy slippery crap (not ok ;-)

Here's some pics that will give you an idea:

https://twitter.com/TLyagushka/statu...81138696306688

https://twitter.com/TLyagushka/statu...81515189600257

https://twitter.com/TLyagushka/statu...82064085590016

https://twitter.com/TLyagushka/statu...82373126098946

In the end I found it a lot better than I had expected, but that may vary depending on weather, bike setup, etc. I think it must have been end of Jan when I traveled the road. If you go now, I'd think it should be better than in my pics (if you've been nice to the weather god).

Nice upsides are Katavi National Park which you pass through, as well as the river that runs parallel (never seen so many hippos in my life). You don't see much of the lake, unless you leave the road (! see pics above), and start following tracks (not recommended ;-) Best views of the lake are in Burundi imho.

The alternative is of course the boat from Kigoma to Zambia

We did this road last june. The road is not too bad but has some sandy stretches and deep potholes hiding in the shade of trees. If it is dry you wont have big problems. It was quite remote, we passes very few cars. There was fuel in normal fuelstations in Kigoma, Mpanda and Sumbawanga. In Uvinza there was only fuel from dodgy jerrycans.

See our blog for more info and pictures about this route:
http://amsterdamtoanywhere.nl/en/op-...one/#more-2676



www.amsterdamtoanywhere.nl

Ok well this is not helping our agonising over which route to take through TZ from Rwanda to Malawi... We really want to do the western route mentioned above but worried about hitting the rain in our old and heavy defender... But is it a bit too safe to go east to Arusha? Before heading south on nice tarred roads?