Mahale Mountains National Park

On 5th January, Chris, Tom and Al went up to Mahale Mountains National Park by boat. The National Park is roughly 170 km north of Lupita and is famous for its wild chimpanzee populations. The journey took them 13 hours, but as you can see from the photographs below, it was well worth the trip. The northern part of Lake Tanganyika is every bit as beautiful as the area around Kipili.

The mountains here appear to fall straight into the lake, with almost no shoreline. It reminded Chris of the Dalmatia coastline in Croatia.

A view of one of the beaches at Mahale Mountains National Park.

Not only was the scenery breathtaking, but the sunsets were just as lovely.

Chris and I plan to go up to Mahale National Park on the Liemba at the end of the month for our 10 year wedding anniversary. We will spend 4 nights in the luxurious "Greystoke" tented camp, hopefully hiking up into the mountains during the day to get close to the chimps. I really can hardly wait!

Room number 1

Room number 1 is almost finished. Below are some photographs showing the interiors of the bedroom and bathroom with the view.

Alastair arrives

A very good friend of ours, Alastair, arrived at the beginning of December to start up our dive business. We will be the first PADI dive operation on Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania which is very exciting. We plan to offer diving to the guests that visit Lupita and the areas around Kipili. Sadly, with all the rain that we have had, we have not been able to do much diving, but as you can see, we have made the most of every bit of sunshine kayaking, fishing, snorkelling and enjoying the lake.

From left to right are: Daniel, Dolf, Cath, Steve, Chris and Al.

Al, Dolf, Daniel, Cath, Steve and Chris having fun on the life raft.

Chris and Steve trying their hand at fishing.

Steve jumping off the boat.

Flooding in and around Kipili

The short rains started in earnest in the Kipili area at the beginning of November and they simply have not stopped. Gradually the road from Sumbawanga and Nyamanyere to Kipili has been deteriorating. When Dave and Cath (my brother and his girlfriend), drove to Kipili at the beginning of December, their laden Landcruiser was sucked down into the clay soil so that their whole diff was covered in mud. Unfortunately we were not able to get their winch working and so it took us 2 and a half hours to dig their vehicle out of the mud.

Dave and Cath's car was well and truly stuck! 

Four days later, Tom, Belinda and the children drove to Kipili and met with the same fate. This time Dave’s winch worked perfectly and pulled out both Tom and Belinda’s vehicle as well as the canter truck for Lupita island that was on its way to Sumbawanga to buy provsions.

Still the rain came down. Each day we would send a team of guys out to the road to rebuild the bridge that was constantly washed away or fill the ever growing holes in the road with large stones.

This is what the road looked like on 24th December 2006.

As you can see, the "road" is a river, which has spilled out onto the low lying area around it forming a marsh. Even the cyclists have to wade through the deep areas (where the water comes up to their chests in some parts), holding their bicycles over their heads.

Here are some photos of Steve's vehicle driving through the river.

There she goes.........

Ooooooops...........

Oh dear.........

And up she comes.............

And finally they are through. Don't try this in your BMW!

As of today, the road is completely impassable. No vehicles are able to drive to Kipili or leave Kipili. We are completely stranded here. Luckily we are able to go by boat to Kirando and Karungu to get basic supplies, but once these run out we will have to find another way of getting food and other essentials (like beer and konyagi - the Tanzanian gin), to Kipili and Lupita. Tanroads have promised to come and fix the road, but until this happens and we are able to repair the road, we are well and truly stuck on this remote island. Never a dull moment.

Below are some photographs of the guest rooms on Lupita taken from the lake. The rains have seriously hampered the work that we hoped to achieve during November and December, but despite this, the lodge is progressing in the right direction. Now if we can just get the rains to stop, we will have a fighting chance of getting 5 rooms ready for the first guests at the end of February. Here's hoping. 

A closer view of rooms 1 to 7 (from right to left). 

Rooms 1, 2 and 3 from right to left.