After a painfully early start, breaking camp on the edge of the Masai Mara, we made for the Tanzanian border.

Once across, we skirted the Serengeti, hugging the bottom of Lake Victoria, making for a town called Mwanza.

To my horror, and everyone else’s delight, we quickly discovered that Tanzania was the first country on our journey with stringent speed limits…

… and speedguns.

A cheerful start to the day…

I was promptly pulled over at a road block, about half an hour into Tanzania, and given a fine for ‘Overspeeding’. It turns out that, unlike in the UK where they have big signs telling you that there’s a speed-camera, in Tanzania the police forces import speed guns and then hide in the bushes beside the road on long straight, or downhill, stretches!

(Understandably I was caught as I gleefully seized the opportunity to get above 50mph on a long downhill).

A few hours later we decided that our early start warranted a brief stop for coffee and elevenses. (Mainly we wanted to use the cafetiere that Jamie had brought out). As with everywhere we visited, our stop quickly attracted some attention and we ended up playing rugby for half an hour!

After that brief delay, we quickly (but cautiously) made our way to the idyllic Mwanza. John, from extraordinarygeriatrips recommended that we stop off at the Mwanza Yacht Club.

This turned out to be a cracking suggestion, and we enjoyed ourselves so much that a one night stopover en route to Rwanda became a 5 night holiday!

The members of the yacht club were lovely, and incredibly generous – taking us out on Lake Victoria to go fishing for Nile Perch (to Jamie’s delight) and to visit some of the many Islands which litter the lake near Mwanza. The restaurant and bar were not only delicious, but very reasonable so we ate like kings for the week!

The photo above shows Major, and his son, who took us out fishing on Lake Vic not once, but twice.

The chefs at the restaurant filleted, prepared, and cooked to two Nile Perch that Jamie and Bertie caught, producing a delicious feast. It was also fantastic to finally catch up with Brian and John, also in a Land Rover Defender, who had been just ahead of us up until this point.

I would thoroughly recommend a stop at the Mwanza Yacht Club to anyone over landing through Tanzania, we were made incredibly welcome and being able to camp 5 meters from the lake was fantastic.

James