Is She Seaworthy?

There’s a good size ferry that leaves Kigoma daily for the three hour ride to Gombe (Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee park).  It costs only 2000Tsh or about $1.75. However, once you’re in Gombe you can’t leave until the boat comes back the next day. The guidebooks say that the cheap accomodation choice includes fending off baboons all night. And the high end accommodation costs $500 a night.

So my fearless friend and I met a taxi driver who has a brother who is a fisherman who agreed to take us to Kigoma for the negotiated cost of $120. A chartered boat just for us, what a bargain right?

That’s our boat above. She carried me, Siwan, Captain George and his first mate Jospeh plus our expensive cameras and other valuables. We left before the dukas (shops) opened so we didn’t have any food. But as I so keenly pointed out, we were all in the same boat.

Morning has broken like the first morning…

 

A village along the way. They live completely off Lake Tanganika as there are no roads from where they live to get into town.

Captain George and first mate Joseph