Floating Mass of Humanity, Kibirizi, Tanzania

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Count 'em up - We counted about 170

We had a wonderful, relaxing time at Gombe Stream park and great success in finding the chimps, even with the rain.  We had a surprise visit from four chimps right into the camp and on our beach.  The rest of the time, we relaxed on the shores of crystal clear Lake Tanganyika, a lake that holds about 15% of the world's fresh water!  We chilled out on the beach, reading and watching lovely sunsets over Congo.
We had a 7AM journey to look forward to, returning to Kibirizi by lake taxi.  We awoke to clear skies, and a calm lake, which bodes well for the boat - less things to go wrong we hope.  The boat arrived about 45 minutes late (not bad at all), and there was a friendly face aboard - Nzara, whom I sat next to on the ride up-lake.  Along with Nzara, there were again, well over a hundred other faces, including one other mzungu like us!!
It was a beautiful journey, except for the comfort factor.  This time, we did not have a choice of where we were sitting, and basically squeezed in the only hole we could find around the outside rim of the boat, near the back.  We had about 8 stops on the way back, and at each, the boat got fuller and fuller with goods (fresh fish, empty soda bottles, empty fuel containers), and of course, more people.  This boat was JAM-PACKED - you couldn't even see any wood or sign of the boat underneath the mass of humanity. Over all, about 170 people are aboard (Phil - what do you think of that??).

Clear Waters of Lake Tanganyika

  These boats are the lifeline of the villages.  Speaking of lifeline, with 170 people aboard, there are no signs of any life jackets, even though there are lots of kids and babies.  I know for a fact that many African's cannot swim, so if this archaic boat goes down, it would be disastrous.  Michelle and I would be able to swim to shore, but there would be 168 African's trying to grab at us and pull us down with them.  Our strategy would be to dive deep. I also have our important possessions with me, so making an escape plan is not so easy, considering we'd like to keep them.  This is always something we have to think about when traveling on dodgy transportation such as this.  Our valuables are in a dry-bag, which we hope floats, but luckily haven't had to test yet!!
But, once again, we do not need to put our escape plans into action: the boat arrives safely at Kibirizi.  It was a beautiful morning journey, one we were not looking forward to, but thoroughly enjoyed - even if our bums were a little sore from the wooden slats.  Only one more trial for the boat - getting off.  In Africa, it seems like everyone is always in a hurry to exit any transportation in the quickest manner possible - no poley-poley (slowly-slowly) here!  I don't know if they think the boat will take off again with them still aboard or what, but everyone seems panicked to get out.  On board the boat, we were anticipating this, and our planned exit strategy worked well. We were able to watch the madness unfold after our exit.   *Stub

Local Village Stop on the Lake Taxi

Lake Taxi Passengers, and the Scenery