Our final night in Tanzania (that’s Tan-zaney-ah with a short a) is spent in the courtyard of a 1902 German fort in the town of Bilharagara. Another funky campsite on a long list of funky places we have stayed. Signage (pieces of copy paper stuck to the walls) notes that the fort was built on the backs of slaves from the local area. What a surprise. There are three interesting photos of tribal chiefs visiting the fort, nothing said about why they were visiting. Not much to do here, but the birds keep us entertained especially this delightful waxbill.  We will miss this huge country. It took some getting used to, being not as warm as Zambia, but its treasures are many. English is second to Swahili, so to learn a few (or more) Swahili words was very helpful. Several people we met mentioned they thought self-drivers weren’t allowed in Tanzania but we had no problem. There weren’t many of us though we did bump into a self-drive couple we’d met back at Kapishya Hot Springs and had a nice visit with them. We noticed a heap of big overland tour trucks, the kind that hold 15-30 people. How in hell do they maneuver those beasts on the Tanzanian roads? Many campsites are set up for these types of tours, we camped among them at Kipepeo Beach in Dar es Salem and at Snake Park Camp outside Ngorongoro. The Tanzanian parks do draw the crowds. The days of us being the only ones in camp are long gone.

Apparently enough tourists and tour operators complained about the poor to awful facilities at park campsites that Tanzania cleaned up most of them. NGOs provided funding for building new ablutions in some camps. Ngorongoro gets the prize for the worst ablutions ever. Considering the price and the number of people camping there, you’d think that particular place would be modernized. Too bad the elephant didn’t walk right through the toilets, it would have been an improvement. Staff was minimal in all the camps, with the Serengeti providing the most efficient and knowledgeable help. You are on your own most of the time. We don’t expect to find parks like these in any other countries on the drift, at least for rest of the northern route. With any luck we will swing through on our way south, whenever that will be, and maybe pay a second visit to one or two of our favorite Tanzanian parks. Until then, so long.