TANZANIA

We've been and gone, spending more time in Tanzania than we have in any other country so far. After almost a month in the country we picked up a smattering of KiSwahili - enough to buy bread, count to ten, say thank you, how are you doing and goodbye.
We didn't find a way to tell the persistent tourist-shite vendors to get lost in a way that gets through to them but we did learn to more or less ignore them until the collapsed from exhaustion and went off to find easier prey.
The people were really great and we began looking for locally-owned campsites rather than those owned by Western travellers who decided to stay. While the local places might not have the polish and amenities, they had an enormous lead in the warmth and hospitality stakes.
Tanzania has loads to see and depending on what you are interested in will decide how much you get to see if you have limited time. If you have the money, Zanzibar and the "northern safari circuit" are good options but they do eat into your funds and we found that these could be better spent seeing many more aspects of the country.

The coast is hot and muggy, anything off the main road is a nightmare for your vehicle (if you're using backpackers guides like Footprint, Bradt or Lonely Planet, a good guage of any road's condition is how long local transport takes to get to anywhere along it - when they start talking about 12 hours for 300 km, you know it's going to be rough. And when they don't talk about it, you should think about not travelling that road.), I hated Dar es Salaam but Lisa loved it and the people are great once you get past the touts and vendors.
Get used to the idea of hole in the floor toilets or toilets that don't have seats (cold porcelain is a definite wake up call!) and adapt to the idea of a different shop for each item on your shopping list - it may not be for every item but you will have to shop around as they tend to specialise and diversify.

DAR ES SALAAM
A while since we've written, but tough luck - we were having fun and learning the rudiments of Swahili and motor mechanics.

BAGAMOYO
Okay, so the last article was shite but this one is much better - mangrove swamps and slave pens, German boma's and the hunt for good books.

LUSHOTO
A distillation of what we've learned, written in an Alpine village!

ARUSHA
What we'd put inside the vehicle and some news about the ants.

NGORONGORO
To go or not to go? The road to the crater makes us wonder if the spectacle is worth it.

BUKOBA
A hole (sic) lot of shaking going on during a slow wallow through Western Tanzania.