Mwanza

Last weekend we spent two days in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, located on the shore of Lake Victoria. It’s about two and a half hours drive north of Shinyanga with plenty to look at on the way. Being the main city on this side of the country, it has a fairly major airport and a decent road between the two has made Shinyanaga much more accessible in recent years.

The trip was a bit of a holiday and also a chance to visit Tearfund Tanzania’s main office. Tearfund moved from Dar to Mwanza over the summer and now share a compound with AICT’s country headquarters and a few other organisations. Much of Tearfund’s involvement in Tanzania is focused on areas within the ‘Lake Zone’ (regions near Lake Victoria) which includes Mwanza and Shinyanga so the relocation allows them to be closer to more of their projects.

Mwanza has a wide range of shops, restaurants and things to see. There are also more Mzungus wandering the streets so we’re not quite the novelty we are in Shinyanga! We got to see some huge snakes at disconcertingly close quarters – click here for photographic proof. Rumours of a pizzeria didn’t quite materialise but we did manage to find a chicken curry. On Friday night we went to see some live African music; a heady, enjoyable mix of Congolese and Tanzanian beats which will be high on the agenda for any potential visitors.

The area is famous for its striking rocky outcrops so on the way home we stopped by Mwanza’s best known landmark – Bismarck Rock. Not quite sure how it stays like that, particularly with the storms that hit pretty regularly. Must be stuck on or picked up and replaced an awful lot...