Westward

Yesterday I was told to be ready at 5.30am for the long drive westward to Songea, the main city of Tanzania’s Ruvuma Region. We departed at around 5.45am which was remarkable timekeeping.

The drivers always have a soundtrack of cheesy pop and ballads. Today we had Candle In The Wind (original version - most excellent) and I’m Alive by Celine Dion (don’t lie by pretending you wouldn’t sing along).

We stopped on the way in a few places. This is a viewpoint in the middle of the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor, one of the cornerstones of our work. I can be seen as a speck, milling around on the rocks jutting into the vast expanse of miombo woodland. The signs of human habitation in this spot are very minimal, and the landscape stretches out to the horizon, punctuated by occasional rocky outcrops and hills. Around one hundred kilometres into the distance is the Mozambican border.

In Songea, the full force of human habitation hit us in the only available cheap rooms at the front of a guesthouse. Some egregious honking by buses and lorries on the main road lasted into the night, and I had to de-cockroach the bed before sleeping. I’d like to say I dreamt of the green forested corridor but I probably dreamt of cockroaches and bus horns.