Tanzania – Mwanza

Tanzania, Mwanza
Day 265.

Kobero a small town, the border of Burundi - Tanzania. By far one can see the red and white barrier. There is no queue, no large or small cars. And this time no "action", because all around this afternoon is somehow a sleepy and dizzy. I parked the car next to the barrier, only slowly comes a local moneychanger. Jambo, Change Money?? I will let him know that with him and with the money I will deal when all the other formalities are completed and begin to look for the necessary persons. I find the Immigration and they are surprised to see a white person entering the room. But after the exchange of greetings I am directed to a back room to the next officer, who , without having a closer look at the passport shortly announces - "$ 40".

'I am astonished and I declare that I am still trying to leave Burundi, and it should be free. The officer checks the passport, finds Burundi transit visa and says that all is ok, and I can get the stamp of departure from the previous room. And so it was, without further ado.

Next – the formalization of the car for leaving the country. It took only a few minutes. As usual, some questions about the whereabouts of Estonia are required. But if you point upwards and explain, that in Europe, between Sweden and Russia, then they get it . That`s all, no messing with personal things, or checking the engine number of the car. No thoughtless wasting of time. It was just nice, courteous and accurate service.

Return to the car, and already five or six money changers have gathered around. After briefly trading over the swap rate, I change the remaining Burundi money into Tanzanian money.



View back to Burundi.

Burundi Summary

Back in Burundi, Bujumbura

The plane landed half an hour after midnight. The flight was half-empty, there were four white people of us who arrived at the state. The new visa was a transit one and it was given to me at the border at midnight. Three days should be enough to travel to Tanzania. Compared to Estonia - Burundi is a smaller country and all the border stations are within 6-8 hours drive from the capital.

In the dark everything seems the same as before leaving , only the weather is warmer and more humid. After all the rainy season has begun.



The car was in the same place I had left it – the parking place of the hotel Du Source – and untouched. This secure parking place for two weeks was found in the last moment, when less than two hours were left until the departure of the plane.

Briefly in Estonia

Day 262
28 108 km since the beginning of the journey

In fact this post is written in Tanzania, Mwansa, by the lake of Victoria. As there was a two-week break of the adventures in Africa and first it included the flight : Bujumbura – Kigali – Nairobi - Amsterdam – Tallinn.



It meant sitting on an airplane for 18 hours . First – Kenyan Airways.

Burundi Drummers

Burundi, Gishora

If you visit this small African country and can visit only one place or one event , then as to my experience – I will recommend to watch the show of Burundi Drummers in Gishora.

While arriving at Burundi in the evening the first place that the ethnic drums were heard, was the beach of Saga and it lasted probably less than 10 minutes. As I reached there by the time that most of the show was over already. And as the reason I was at that beach was looking for an overnight place so , of course , the cameras were in the car and no pictures.

The next day, having spoken about drummers in BurundiTour tourist company, their suggestion was to visit the drum-players in Gishora, those drummers were said to be the most original and the most true ones. And having the best show. The local players and imitators were said to be met at every town.

Burundi, Source of Nile

Historic sites in Burundi - first - Livingstone-Stanley Monument, located in Mugere, 12 km south from the capital. It is a large stone with these two names and the date 25-XI-1871.

But this is not that place where the historic phrase was said „Dr. Livingstone, I presume?“ The first meeting of the two great explorers was actually two weeks earlier in Tanzania, Ujiji, in November 10, 1871. Here in Mugere they spent together two days and then moved on to the northen tip of Lake Taganjika.

As they were the first Europeans around here their arrival was such a memorable event that this place was considered to be their first meeting point.

Burundi, Bujumbura

Burundi is left behind. A few hundred meters further is a next African small state. This time it is Burundi. Burundi is situated southwards from Rwanda. The area of Burundi is 27.834.km2, ( the area is the 145-th in the world), the estimated number of population - 10 million. The neighbouring countries are Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania. Burundi has also been called the „Switzerland of Africa „ because of its mountainous nature.

Burundi is like a small dot in the map of Africa. Located in the heart of Africa and shaped like a heart.



For clearity – here is the map of Burundi.