MAGAZETI LEO JUMAPILI

MAGAZETI LEO JUMAMOSI

A PIONEERING OF THE REMOTE RUVUMA RIVER

Like any worthwhile destination, the Ruvuma River does not give up her secrets easily. The journey from Arusha in Tanzania is a three-and-a-half day commitment by Land Rover, made marginally easier by the stretches of blacktop which are gradually being added to the national road network. First to Iringa via Singida, Manyoni and Dodoma, then to Songea over the Southern Highlands and through the Makambako Gap, where you geographically enter southern Africa. The stretches of Miombo woodland and riverine vegetation in Ruvuma Region are more akin to the mopane woodlands of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the further south one drives in Tanzania, the more you feel that this is a different country altogether.

The road between Lukumbule and Makande passes through the “Sea of Miombo”. ©G. Schachenmann & A. Soresina