The holiday is over. Back to reality. 4.30am reality!

Today was a long driving day, heading South towards Malawi, stopping off overnight in Iringa. We left at 5am, after putting down the tents and drove back through a deserted Dar!

After 3 hours on the road we stopped off for breakfast at a petrol station stop. I usually have a travelling rule of not eating any fruit or vegetables that have either not been cooked, or can’t be peeled. But I had to break this rule today – there were children selling plum pyramids – they looked so good! But would only sell them in 20’s – so I now have 20 plums, but cost under £1! Breakfast, lunch and dinner sorted! Our whole truck probably bought over 100 plums.

Enroute, we passed through Mikumi National Park, the fourth largest National Park in Tanzania. Unfortunately we were unable to stop – you get fined, but the driver did slow down so we could take photos. Saw the usual – reticulated and Masai giraffes, elephant, zebra, warthog and impala.

The scenery has changed – we are now driving through mountainous areas. Lots of fruit and vegetable road selling – red onions, corn, mango, pineapple, potatoes – all arranged into cute pyramids. At some point, we were stopped for speeding, after paying a fine of 30k TZS (about £12), we were back on our speedy way!

We ate lunch on plastic chairs at a colourful road side cafe – the local recommendation being chip omelette (chips myayi) – exactly as it sounds!

At 6pm, after 13 hours on the road, we arrived at our Iringa campsite. Iringa is a small town in the mountains of the Tanzanian Southern highlands, 1,600m above sea level – another cold night to look forward to! The campsite was cute – each area had a thatched roof tee-pee shaped hut and they sold chocolate brownies! More like chocolate cake, but all the same, the first time we’ve had anything so good!