Distance: 340km (Cumulative: 18 765km)
Moving time: 6:11
Average speed: 55km/h
Road surface: 40% Tar, 60% Gravel
Accommodation: Camping
River Side Camp - R90 p.p
Poor facilities and next to main road, but lot's of hippos in river
We got up to a cloudy morning and Caro made egg fried rice for breakfast. We packed up slowly and only left by 09:26.
In Kigoma we stopped at a small duka to buy some snacks for the road. We took the plunge and bought an expensive tube of Pringles and some biscuits. We also had to withdraw more money.
We set off towards Sitalike, the town just before Katavi where we are going to overnight. T4A initially wanted to take us back to Kasulu and then to Uvinza, but that is all gravel road. Luckily someone told us that the small white road on Google Maps from Kidahwe to Uvinza is actually a tar road. The first 100km from Kigoma to Uvinza was thus perfect asphalt.
The 190km gravel road from Uvinza to Mpanda was also easy driving. There were some sections of corrugation, but on other sections we could easily do 75km/h. The last 35km from Mpanda to Sitalike the road is tarred again.
We got to the River Side Campsite, a run down place next to the entrance road of Katavi. The main attraction here is the unfenced river full of hippos, but only in the right season. We saw about 40 hippos just lazing around as usual.
The older swiss couple we saw at Jakobsen’s were also camping here and later two backpackers arrived. For dinner we made spaghetti with the last chorizo pieces. The hippos made quite a noise and we were glad about our roof top tent. The backpackers sleeping on the ground probably didn’t get any sleep from imagining hippos surrounding them all night.
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