Day 4 Dodoma, Kondora rock art, Singida 436 km, 1012 km

In the morning I went back to the Stamic office. It is not much of an office anymore since the main office has moved to Dar es Salaam. There were a few staff members there and a geologist named Alex. I showed them the pictures of the Sekenke project in 1977/78 and they became very interested. They phone up a retired Cartographer who was also with me in Sekenke. He mentioned that Theo Wolf had moved to Greece some 20 years ago. So no luck finding him. I did get Brown’s details and we will meet up on my return trip. I left all my Sekenke pictures behind for them to share around.

The drive north to the Kondora rock art was very enjoyable. The road is smooth and the countryside beautiful with rolling green hills and mountains in the distance. After collecting the guide in Kolo we drove up a small 4×4 track till underneath the top of the hill overlooking the valley some 300 m below us. Some 7000 year ago several Sandawe families lived underneath the overhanging rocks away from the threatening wildlife in the valley. They covered the walls of their shelters with pictures of people and animals. There are over 186 known rock art sites. I only visited 3 of them. Later the tribe moved further south to South Africa. They are now called the San people and still make similar paintings.

We drove further north through the mountains to Babati and then turned south again to reach Singida at 17:00 hrs. It is interesting to note that there is no rubbish along the roads. Tanzania has banned plastic bags and all plastic bottles are collected for recycling. What a difference with the severe plastic roadside pollution I have seen in South America and Nigeria. On the road north (again financed by Turkey, at every small settlement there is a road sign stating 50 km. There are many villages so this trip took several hours. Again we were fined at a police stop, although Erik did his best to slow down at each 50km sign. On the road south, which is in a much poorer condition, there arevno 50 km signs to slow us down. We did reduce speed when passing the many groups of school children dressed in colourful school uniforms on their way home. It looked like the rainy season has started early. We had several downpours in the late afternoon. I hope it does not continue. Some of the sand roads may then become impassable. Erik however is convinced that all the roads we plan to go have been surfaced. Up till now he is right.