Introduction
For every kind growing up we hear stories of where our parents grow up and what they did during their growing up years. For most part they come in and out of our imagination. To re-live these days we too our father back to where he was born and grew up a place he left during his teenage years and never returned.
While the journey reignited his memories its primarily written here are a chronicle of our journey and as information for those wishing to visit this part of the work which is a little undiscovered
Dar Es Salaam to Lindi
The main town where my father grew up is called Lindi and its in Southern Tanzania. Access to Lindi is primarily via a long flight flowed by a, a journey likely to have been 4 hours in total. We opted to drive from Dar Es Salaam to Lindi, a drive mooted at about 6-8 hours. We went during the rainy season in East Africa and it took best part of 9 hours primarily because we stopped at various different places.
The drive to Lindi is a long drive with good roads and access, the halfway point is the Rufigi river. A massive river especially in the rainy season with an even wider flood plain.
The river was probably around half a mile wide during flood and the flood plain around the river was probably another half a mile either side. From the last picture you can see that a number of village building were flooded or at the point of being washed away. A lot of villages in the region are still wooden/mud huts.
What was endearing to see on the road was village life with kids walking many miles to and from school.
Lindi
Lindi is a small town you can drive across it in about 10 mins and walk across it about 30-40 mins. The town is centred on Lindi back a curving coast line with shallow calm waters.
The centre of town is a classic old style colonial town still bearing the hall marks of western civilisations. Its strange how these old building have stood the test of time through out the ages.
The coastline is undoubtedly the centre piece of the town, its postcard perfect with little or no crowds during the day. The coast has not been developed and this added to the attraction of Lindi. Its largely a local beach for the local residents. The beach come alive in the evening with kids playing football, people walking, socialising and inevitably swimming the the sea.
The natural beauty of the area is still present to this day, during the day you have a phenomenal natural bay and in the evening the sky is usually lit up as the sun sets.
Mikindani
Mikindani is two hours further south of Lindi and is the place of my father's birth. Our only clue was that he was born around the "Old Boma". Lindi is also a natural bay and harbour. The bay is not as welcoming as Lindi beach but is a quaint small town with oodles of character and history.
Mikindani is primarily a port where African slaves were taken to the middle east and is the port where David Livingston started his last expedition into Africa before his death. His house we just near the Old Boma. The Old Boma is large building that's now been converted into a hotel. It provides a fantastic stopping point in South Tanzania.
Our trip to Lindi and Mikindani was a short trip of two nights with a day either side for travelling. Other interesting parts of the trip with a traditional breakfast
Composed of Matoke (raw banana), normal banana and bread. All pretty flavourless to someone used to spice.
Its also worth stopping off on the way and trying traditional foods such as "ugali" and "mandazi". We're always asked about safety and we felt generally safe through out our journey. With that said there were numerous traffic stops on the way with attention to the drive and the car looking for any signs of violation. The violation usually meant paying a "fine" of some sort to hosts.
The highlight of the trip was definitely Lindi Bay it would be great to make it accessible to the work but equally sad too!
