Iringa Town

Last Update:28/11/02

 

The best town in Tanzania?  Maybe the best in Africa?  Who knows but I like it and I haven't found anywhere in Africa quite like it, well, so far....{map}

 

Iringa is in the Southern Highlands region of Tanzania.  Approximately 500km WSW of Dar es Salaam.  It takes about 8 hours on the bus from Dar, even at the standard break neck speed.  The town is at an altitude of 5,300ft so any mole hill automatically qualifies as a mountain.
Iringa town is really made up of a lot of smaller villages, my postal address is actually in Kihesa, one of these villages
Iringa weather follows the Tanzania norm except that being in the mountains it can get really cold at night.  Tz has three seasons
The Dry Season: From April to August it's very dry, very windy and a bit chilly at night.
The Hot Season: From August to December can be very hot, slight chance of rain.
The Wet Season: From December to April it rains.  A lot.
 

A street
This is in Iringa.  You can just make a the sign for Hasty Tasty Too on the left.

Another street
In Iringa again.  This is the main tarmac road through town

Pasty white boy ahoy!
This is at a campsite very close to Iringa.  This is the little Ruaha river and me before my suntan kicked in.

{Bijou and Sabena}

Down by the river
Big rocks. Brooke and Dale contemplate whether there are crocs in the river.  Well, I wouldn't swim in it....
Sally and Kihesa
Iringa town runs along the bottom of a valley that is set up in some hills, if that makes any sense.  There is a tarmac road that runs along the centre of this valley and all of the villages extend out along this road

The valley runs almost exactly North to South and this is a view to the North East from the top of the West side of the valley.  There are several villages in view but they're indistinguishable from each other.  The line of green trees you can see is the main road.

Jerry and Gangilonga
This is the view the other way, South East.  This area is Gangilonga and it's the main part of Iringa town.  My school and house are all in this photo but you would need an FBI lab to pick them out.
Me messing about
These are some of the rocks on the western lip of the valley.  Arguments about how such huge rocks got up there are fairly common.  No-one has been able to give a satisfactory answer so far, if it's glaciation surely all the rocks would be in the bottom of the valley......

 
Top Internet Cafe

Where I spend my days online.

The Guv

Shaffin, boss of Hasty Tasty and Top, immortalized in the lonely planet!  In the background some of the delicious treats from South Africa, which I cannot afford.
 

Scene of boredom in Hasty Tasty

Sally, Shosh and I

"What a tart!"

Sally mocks my stylee but I painted the doors well
 

Anything for a Dulux colour card

"What colour are we painting and which is worse?"

The "African" Decorators

Me and Shoshanna's ex, during the painting of Sally's house!  I had no painting clothes!
 

Just taking my locust for a walk

There isn't much in the way of toys round here so these kids have got a locust on a lead/leash!

Much more organised

Obviously not content playing with the local wildlife these guys obviously got some donor agency funding and made a swing!
 

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