We've had an amazing holiday in Tanzania last summer. We travelled many kilometers through the country in between the places we stayed. We always say; the journey is also part of the holiday. And especially in Africa, travelling turns out to be an experience by itself.

If you come from Europe like us, a lot of things are very well organized (maybe too organized). When we arrived in Arusha, we've experienced very busy roads and chaotic situations. At least, for us, because the locals don't seem to feel it that way. There were a lot of motorbikes, some carrying the most unexpected loads, which seemingly didn't have any rules that applied to them. Also alongside the roads a lot is happening. There are a lot of people alongside the streets as well as road side shops selling all sorts of things. Everywhere is the smell small fires for cooking food. In this blog I will try to give you an impression of the everyday life on and alongside the roads in Tanzania with some of the pictures we took during traveling.

Big loads

Agriculture is one of the main incomes of Tanzania. Everywhere you see people riding around with crops. When we were picked up from Arusha airport, we noticed a motorcycle coming towards us. At first we didn't notice it was a motorcycle because it was quite big. But when it came closer we saw it was carrying a huge pile of dried maize stalks. The load must have been three or four meters wide. You can see the driver isn't even able to sit. For us this was such a funny sight. We also wondered how it is legal to drive around like that. But our driver said it was quite normal in Tanzania. And we found out it is, because we saw a lot of other people driving around with huge loads later on.

You could find almost anything being transported on a motorcycle. This driver travelled around with a huge pile of bananas on the back. I do wonder how these guys even get on and off their motorcycles with these loads.

Women carrying goods

One thing that also caught our attention were women carrying things on their heads. For us as Europeans this is quite a remarkable sight. It is something we associate with Africa (at least, I do). Buckets, bags or other goods, are all caried on top of their heads. It looks extremely hard to balance, but a lot of women do it with ease, so it seems.

It seems quite useful to have your hands free while carrying stuff. Sometimes the women even carried a child too. It's very interesting to see.

Food stands

Tanzania has very fertile soil. Due to the surrounding volcanoes, the water pours down from them and the many hours of sun, they can grow almost anything. I was told Tanzania even has two growing seasons a year. Vegetables, fruits and coffee are the things they grow and export a lot. But they also sell fruit and other food along the roads. They add a bit of color to the dusty sides of the road. They mostly sell their goods to locals.

They also sell popcorn, sugarcane and meat products. When you drive past these little markets there is a constant smell of fire.
They also sell a lot of bananas. I heard there are quite a few species of bananas they sell. Some for cooking, some for soup and they even make beer from it (tried it, not my cup of tea 😂). It's interesting to see all these improvised stands alongside the road where you can buy fruits that are coming fresh from the trees.

Public transport

Another thing that is completely different than we are used to in Europe is the public transport. We've seen a lot of public buses on the roads. These are a bit smaller than the ones we have over here in Europe. The buses we've seen in Tanzania were mostly very crowded. Many locals are packed in a relatively small bus. We even saw people standing on the back of the bus a couple of times. And often the roof of the bus was packed with stuff too. Furniture, matrasses, we've literally seen anything on top of the buses. It was quite an interesting sight. You definitely won't see that in Europe.

Some more shots

Here are a few more photographs I took while travelling by car through Tanzania. They show some of the everyday scenes we came across along the way.

Travelling through Tanzania was an amazing experience. It's such a different culture and I'm very happy we could experience this ourselves. The busy roads, interpretation of the rules, the way of transporting goods, the roadside food stalls and people doing their things gave us a small glimpse into the life in Tanzania.

Thanks for reading my blog! Feel free to share your own experiences or ask any questions in the comments.

# Friendlymoose