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Mtwara (pop:approx.100,000) is the nearest town to Mikindani, in South
eastern Tanzania. It is the administrative centre of the region, was the
southern ‘capital’ in Colonial times and serves as the springboard
for travel south into Mozambique. It can be reached by air from Dar es Salaam
to Mtwara’s own airport, by sea from Dar es Salaam on the MV Santorini or
by road from north, south and west. The approach to Mtwara from Mikindani
undulates along a stretch of rural country that eventually goes up a long
gradual hill. Along the metalled road are the saltpans, and behind them on the
right hand side is a large coconut plantation. Just before the hill begins is
the turning off to the right, which takes you to the airport, and the road to
the Ruvuma River & Mozambique border.

As the road goes up the hill towards Mtwara it runs along an escarpment
– great view over the countryside from there – and comes to a
roundabout with a monument to the Mwenge or National Torch. If you turn left
you approach Ligula Hospital, built with British money in the early 1960s
– turn right and it takes you to the market area (more of that later).
Straight on and on the right you pass a large open area called the Showground,
which seems to be both the local militia training ground and the HGV driving
school site. Both activities have been seen there – the militia several
times per week. A rag taggle lot of men, women and some no more that children
but given a panga each, they would probably not be good to meet! I think that
basic training started at about two months ago and they have progressed to the
slow march - they seem to spend a lot of time on that activity. The whole
platoon was seen setting off to jog down the main road towards Mikindani
– some had dropped out by the time they reached the roundabout! At
this point the road goes down a long straight dusty hill with acacia trees
either side plus an occasional mango tree, and occasional office buildings such
as the Tanzanian Revenue Authority, the local government departments, the Air
Tanzania local office and Tanesco offices. 2 storeys seems to be the maximum
here so nothing too big.

If you continue to the end you come to a T-junction. Opposite is the
Catholic church we went to for Joyce’s wedding, turn right and it takes
you to the Port from where the MV Santorini departs to Dar es Salaam –
turn left and you get to Shangani – the up market part of the town where
the wealthy residents live and many of the NGO’s have their offices there
too. Shangani also boasts a good swimming beach. But before you get that far
there are several streets on either side – none of which have good
surfaces. Immediately any expected notion of being in a regional capital is
dashed. One is supposed to be a metal road but the surface is dreadful, and
there are 3 of the most vicious ‘sleeping policemen’ you could ever
imagine. The rest are just mud/sand/dust road surfaces (depending on the
season). Driving along the main shopping street feels more like being at sea it
is so undulating both backwards and forwards and side to side! Nothing at all
is spent on roads. Mtwara is in 2 parts really – the older part being
around the tiny Aga Khan Park, mostly built in the 1950’s &
60’s.

The main shopping street in the Aga Khan Park area is mostly Indian shops
– with strings of (very old and dry) mango leaves strung across the door
for good luck. There is the ‘off licence’, the shop where all the
Landrover spares come from that also sells hardware and bottled gas, there is
another shop that sells all sorts of imported food Cornflakes, Alpen, Heinz
tomato ketchup etc.

A little further on, in the Chiko Ngola area, is the market and the Bus
station. Just before you turn into the main street that leads to the
market there is a crossroads. On one corner there is a huge Coca Cola bottle,
which marks a drinks kiosk! On the opposite corner there is a patch of open
ground in front of the Mtwara football ground. On this patch of ground the
cashew nut co-operative hangs out – waiting for buyers to approach them.
The nuts are sold in 1 kg or ½ kg packs. It is worth pulling up the
Landrover on the corner just to see the sight of the most competitive
co-operative saleswomen – they are really aggressive and rush over
thrusting packs of nuts into the window of the vehicle and pushing each other
out of the way! So much for being a co-operative!

Another feature of Mtwara, in common with many towns and villages throughout
Tanzania, is the imaginative use of old shipping containers. These are
converted into shops, offices, hairdressing salons and bars. They are fitted
out with electricity and some are painted with a brick effect design on the
front. Mtwara reminds me a little of an American West town, sort of
neglected, dusty and rather chaotic. The fuel station that we use is on one of
the worst roads – and each time I have been there I have to wait for
herds of cattle to be driven along the road before I can leave! It looks just
like an American cattle drive! On one occasion there was also a flock of Guinea
fowl wandering along the road. You are likely to find very free ranging
chickens, goats and cattle wandering around all the streets – with no
apparent ownership. It has been known to meet any of these in the Bank car
park.

One of the guide books refers to an ‘endearingly time-warped
atmosphere’. This Mtwara certainly has despite it trying to portray an
air of activity and modern commercialism. There is something very appealing
about it!

For more information on the work carried out by Trade Aid in Tanzania, see
their website "http://www.mikindani.com/">www.mikindani.com

Travel with a Challenge Web Magazine is richly illustrated travel
information website showcasing feature articles and fast-breaking travel news
on ecological, educational, cultural and volunteer vacations around the
world.

Visit "http://www.travelwithachallenge.com">http://www.travelwithachallenge.com
to find out more.

The UK Government think-tank Commission for Integrated Transport is
currently considering a plan to impose a congestion charge on flights. It
warns that the number of flights is growing by five per cent annually from the
present figure of 162 million a year. Ten years ago, planes caused 3.5
per cent of man-made greenhouse gases in the world. By 2050, this figure
is estimated to rise to 15 per cent.

The toll, to be introduced on flights leaving at the most popular times,
could double the amount travellers pay in the UK on departure tax, which
currently stands at between £5 and £40. The charge is being
considered to raise an extra £600 million to offset the damage aircraft
is causing to the environment.

Airlines in Britain already pay £800 million to offset the damage they
cause. The commission says they should be paying £1.4 billion for
congestion charges on mid-morning or early evening flights. UK airlines
have dismissed the proposal, saying passengers were already taxed enough.
British Airways said: 'The way to relieve congestion is to meet demand and
that means extra runways.' Holiday operator Thomas Cook added:
'Passengers are already being taxed enough.'

Sally is British and has lived in the UK all her life. International
travel as part of her work took her to many countries, including
Portugal. She fell in love with the place and decided to sell her
beautiful cottage in Malmsbury, Wiltshire, and relocate to Lisbon. In
this article, she tells us of getting her first job.

I have started work (about time most of you are probably saying!) this
month. I am teaching at a local international school (20 minutes by car)
which is great fun. The headmistress has decided that the playground
assistants, gardener, porter, cleaners and security staff should all learn
English so that they can communicate better with the kids and parents. I
have two classes each Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. The age
range is between mid twenties to late fifties. Two cannot read or
write! I have one Romanian (who doesn’t read or write), and three
Ukrainians (one is a qualified engineer working as the gardener, and one is an
Economist working as a cleaner). It is great fun and very challenging as
I don’t use a text book because I have to verbalise and visualise
everything due to the non reading and writing element. On Monday I took
them all around the grounds of the school identifying objects – they love
“small wheelie bin” and “shed”.

Pronunciation is tricky and the word “fork” does tend to sound
like something else! Tomorrow they have asked for phrases to use in the
playground i.e. “shut up”, “sit down”, “what have
you got there?” etc etc and the cleaners want their cleaning equipment
identified. They can now introduce each other, say who they are, where
they live and what they live in, whether they are married or single, how many
children they have and how many pets – not bad in three weeks.

I have also just had an interview with a language school in Sintra and hope
something might come from that and have another one scheduled for Thursday
afternoon with a school about 15 minutes from here – so things might be
looking up. I am also going to advertise English conversation classes to
see what comes from that.

I have joined the IWP – the International Women of Portugal. I
though it might be a good way of meeting new people. I duly trotted along
to one of their coffee mornings and wondered whether it had been worth
bothering. Most of the ladies grabbed a coffee and bun and headed off in
groups - not quite what I had been expecting.

One lady did come over and talk and it turned out that her husband worked in
the power industry over here, which was a coincidence as it turns out I spoke
to him about two years ago when I was headhunting with my friend Cathy!
What a small world! Anyway, she invited me over to her house for coffee a
few weeks later which was rather nice.

Still not too convinced it’s the right thing to belong to, but I will
persevere a bit longer. I have also, via an advert in their magazine,
found a brilliant library. It is run by a lady who has converted what
were maids quarters at the back of her villa into this gem of a place.
There are three sections, large print, hardback and paperback – over
1,000 in total! And it’s all free. She will not take any
money for anything. It’s brilliant for getting rid of unwanted
paperbacks, tapes, videos etc. She has also got a very good selection of
audio tapes. Just listened to second Harry Potter spoken by Stephen Fry
which was fabulous and the Alan Bennett “Talking Heads”. I
met two very interesting ladies there and have lunch with them at
weekends. One of them has lived here for 40 years – she was married
to a Portuguese artist and lives in a wonderful old villa with three rescued
cats and three dippy dogs. The other lady is fascinating. She used
to answer the problem letters in various teenage magazines in the sixties,
typed scripts for someone who made blue movies and is quite a character –
very strong minded and incredibly opinionated which is a bit difficult at
times!

I gave my classes homework for the first time on Wednesday and apart from
about two small spelling errors, they got everything right! I am so
thrilled. I have also been told by the headmistress that they love the
classes – makes me feel quite proud. Our final topic of the day
today (25 September) was “what are you doing at the weekend?”
We had the usual things like going to the supermarket, sleeping, watching
Benfica on TV, celebrating 3^rd wedding anniversary (he got a round
of applause) and then with a bit of giggling and translating we had the
classic: “On Saturday I am going to the supermarket to do the
shopping. I am going to make love on Saturday night”. This
got cheers! They really are a great bunch of ladies and gents!

That’s fine. You could also add that I am now working for Big Ben in
Cacem teaching three children aged from 6-8 and two adults in their late
twenties. The biggest problem with the adults is that they hate the text books
they have been given because they are aimed at children. I am trying to devise
something of more interest and relevance to them.

Oh and there has been a recount at the library - Jennie reckons there are
now over 5,000 books!

If you’d like to contact Sally, she can be reached by e-mail on: href="mailto:pethybs@hotmail.com">pethybs@hotmail.com

Mac has been reading and researching again! The following travel tips
are a culmination of his recent reading.

Luggage tags: these can easily be lost. One potential solution
is to put your address inside your suitcase or to put some distinctive marking
with a permanent marking pen on the side of the suitcase, such as a circle, or
triangle. On that advice, I have put a big cross on each area of my
baggage. I hope someone will think maybe there is religious stuff inside, that
I am a missionary or something and won’t steal my naughty magazines
inside. (Only kidding!)

Getting lost - directions: one person suggested when you go to theme
parks or such like, he goes to the right, then to the left and so on and return
in reverse. Now why didn’t I think of that! (Globetrotters
membership Secretary Kevin takes his compass with him on his trips to Japan to
ensure that he exits subways in the right direction.)

Showers: if you don’t have shower clogs, one person suggests
putting a hand towel on the bottom of shower tray and standing on it .
Another person suggests that when you enter your hotel room you should turn on
the shower for a few minutes which will get rid of the build up of spores that
cause Legionnaires disease.

Taxis: one person suggested on leaving a taxi, to leave the door open
while you are getting your bags out of the boot/trunk., this way the taxi
can’t drive off before you have had a chance to make sure you
haven’t left anything behind.

Travel on Sundays: I often travel on Sunday but one person recommends
not travelling on Sundays as most train and bus times are infrequent or
destinations are limited and many stores and businesses close early or are not
open, such as money changers.

If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer e-mails: "mailto:macsan400@yahoo.com">macsan400@yahoo.com

Trevor from the UK writes to tell us of his experience booking flights
through the internet based travel company lastminute.com. He says:

Be very careful before booking flights through lastminute.com. I
recently booked two flights a week or two in advance of travelling and elected
to collect my tickets via the e-ticket mechanism. My account was duly
debited for two tickets and I received confirmation to the effect that the
e-tickets had been issued. So far so good. We then arrived at the airline
check-in desk on the morning we were due to fly only to be told by the airline
that they only had one e-ticket on the system and had no record of a second
e-ticket ever being issued.

We were unable to contact lastminute.com (the only obvious way of contacting
anyone at lastminute.com seems to be via an online web form) and we were faced
with the choice of either;

A] Abandon our holiday

B] Pay the airline to issue the other e-ticket

C] Go by myself and leave my wife in England [ just kidding... ]

We took option [B] and I contacted lastminute.com to obtain an explanation
and a refund for the second e-ticket that we were charged for but never
received. I received an email informing me that my wife’s name was
too long (longer than a piece of string, presumably) and so they hadn't
issued the second e-ticket. No explanation as to why I hadn't been informed
of a problem prior to turning up at the airport, or even an apology. The best
they could offer was to “request a refund via the airline on [our]
behalf”.

We're still waiting for our money, and I'm now considering legal
action.

Caveat emptor, as they say.

If you want to contact Trevor, he can be e-mailed on: "mailto:trev_gs@blueyonder.co.uk">trev_gs@blueyonder.co.uk

Rank Country (GDP per capita)

1. "http://www.aneki.com/Luxembourg.html">Luxembourg
   ($36,400)
2. United States
   ($36,200)
3. "http://www.aneki.com/bd.html">Bermuda
   ($33,000)
4. San
   Marino ($32,000)
5. "http://www.aneki.com/Switzerland.html">Switzerland
   ($28,600)
6. "http://www.aneki.com/Aruba.html">Aruba
   ($28,000)
7. "http://www.aneki.com/Norway.html">Norway
   ($27,700)
8. "http://www.aneki.com/Monaco.html">Monaco
   ($27,000)
9. "http://www.aneki.com/Singapore.html">Singapore
   ($26,500)
10. "http://www.aneki.com/Denmark.html">Denmark
    ($25,500)

Plenty of news about our friends Ryanair.

Despite their difficulties with court cases with the European Union about
state aid, (whether Ryanair received unfair state subsidies at its Belgian hub
of Charleroi) Ryanair has announced two new European bases in Rome and
Barcelona. The new bases would start from January 28 and February 5 2004
respectively, adding 12 routes to its rapidly expanding network.

And the bad news: Ryanair is to close all its recently-opened intra-Nordic
routes due to weak demand and switch capacity to destinations outside the
region. They plan to end flights from Sweden’s Skavsta to Oslo in
Norway, Tampere in Finland and Arhus in Denmark from January 14 2004.
Ryanair added in a statement it was also shutting its flights from London
to Ostend in Belgium, Maastricht in the Netherlands and to the French
destinations of Reims and Clermont.

The good news: new routes will be from London Stansted to Linz in Austria,
Bari in Italy, Erfurt in Germany, Jerez in Spain, and from France’s
Charleroi to Calladolid in Spain.

You really wanted to know this, didn’t you: you can now buy Ryanair
gift vouchers: for more info, see: "http://www.ryanairvouchers.com/">http://www.ryanairvouchers.com/They say
you can choose from 135 routes across 16 different countries (does that include
flying into the wrong country – Beetle?) and that for every voucher
bought Ryanair will make a £1/€1 donation to charity

After her memorable barbecue in Itaunas, Brazil, Iris and her overland group
make their way to Caravelas.

We moved on to a place called Caravelas which was right by the sea, a nice
little Pousada (hotel) as they call them in Brazil, with a little dip pool and
nice little rooms, with the sea just seconds away. It was here that I decided
to get rid of a load of outstanding postcards and so took a trip into the
little town to find a post office and send them off. I do hope they all arrived
safely because I was advised it might be better to wait until Salvador as rural
post offices are notoriously sleepy places, but when I got to the post office,
I found it very efficient and the staff of two extremely helpful, and I was
able to get directions to a stationery shop so that I could buy more envelopes
to post off the rest of my postcards at a later date.

I dare say recipients who receive the postcards initially noticed that the
envelopes were stuck down with sellotape in a very haphazard fashion! Well, it
was only after I had bought the envelopes and came to stick them down that I
realized there was no sticky on them! Apparently this is the norm in Brazil and
one has to either buy a glue stick to stick them down or use the facilities at
the post office! We have decided that this is probably because it is so humid
in Brazil that any sticky on the envelopes would soon deteriorate and stick
themselves down before they were used, if you see what I mean.

We stayed in Caravelas for just two nights and then moved on to Caraiva,
which is a small island just the most incredibly small boat journey from the
shore, it took the boatsmen all of two minutes, I would think to row us across.
And this again was an unspoilt place with no built up roads, and the island
itself was on a coast line which was reached only by a very basic mud track
road which sent us all lurching and bumping around inside the truck as it
negotiated potholes, ruts and ridges in the road and at times had difficulty
getting through narrow openings and sharp bends and some bridges that looked as
if they wouldn't take a horse and cart, let alone an enormous truck!

Anyway, we spent an enjoyable three nights there. I wasn't prepared to
enjoy it to begin with because we had such a trek round the island to find our
accommodation only to find the place we were supposed to stay at was
inexplicably closed, and so it was a race to find the best accommodation
available and as usual, Judith and I got left behind in the crush and rush by
the younger members of the group to get themselves sorted (there’s no
concession on this trip for the aged among them) and so in the end it meant
that we were housed in a small Pousada across the road from the rest of the
group, but we did pay Reais 5 less than they did per night and got a really
nice two-bedded (one double bed and one single bed) room and it took us quite
some time to assure our landlord that Martin, who had come to act as
interpreter for us, didn't want to share the double bed with one or both of
us!)

We also found our landlord had donkeys who came by to spend the night just
outside the grounds of the Pousada in a square area formed between two
buildings. During the evening, we went to the landlord’s restaurant for a
meal and noticed the gate to the Pousada and its grounds had been shut, so we
carefully closed it behind us. We met a Brazilian lady at the restaurant, who
seeing our difficulty with the menu, came to assist us. It turned out she had
spent time in USA and spoke really good English and she turned out to be an
artist of sorts, her speciality being designing patterns for materials, and her
husband’s speciality was making jewellery and they travelled around on
public transport selling their wares. We spent a pleasant evening with them
before going back to bed, and then as I looked out over the grounds, once we
had got to our room, I noticed we had inadvertently left the gate open and the
donkeys, who had arrived to spend the night in the lee of the buildings, had
entered the garden and were about to feed off the plants! Well, some of my
friends and family know I am not too happy dealing with large animals, but
without thinking I went straight down and shooed these three big animals out of
the garden and they obeyed me so willingly, I felt quite proud of myself as I
closed the gate behind them. (I didn't want to have to pay for all the
plants they might have eaten and that spurred me on, I think)

We spent a pleasant couple of days in Caraiva, exploring the beaches and
finding everyone so friendly and helpful. Most of the group descended on a
particular restaurant for breakfast and to spend the day there while they
frolicked on the beach and in the sea, and I just wandered from place to place,
studying my Spanish and just contemplating the ocean. There were plenty of
places to eat in the evening, mostly serving fish, and we met our Brazilian
friends each evening and spent some pleasant times with them. They were in
Caraiva to display their wares, and weren't too hopeful of selling much as
they were relatively expensive compared to the normal tourist junk, but the
lady was just pleased to practice her English and we were relieved because we
weren't too keen to learn Portuguese. I had studied it a year or so ago,
but I had then decided to concentrate on Spanish and so forgot most of what I
had tried to learn!

We then went on to a place called Porto Seguro, which is in the middle of
the mining area of Brazil where many precious stones and metals are found and
whilst there visited their museum with exhibits from all over the world
depicting stones in their raw state and in their polished state, and showing
all the various minerals and metals extracted in the region together with the
machinery etc to do it with and it truly was a very fascinating exhibition and
I spent a couple of hours there. Porto Seguro is an unspoilt town with narrow
streets and colonial buildings, unfortunately many of them in bad need of
renovation, but it also made a pleasant stopping point for us on the way to
Salvador.

What is it: rabies is an acute, and occasionally fatal virus almost always
transmitted by dogs, jackals, foxes, skunks, cats, bats, mongooses, and farm
animals. Rabies is found on all continents, except Antarctica and
Australasia. Doctors have estimated that 2% of dogs in Bangkok are rabid
– no, the Beetle did not know that either.

How do I get it: the rabies virus is transmitted in the saliva of an
infected animal by biting or licking an open wound. The virus is usually
carried by Half of all people bitten by an infected animal will develop
rabies.

What happens if I get it: it can take weeks, months and sometimes years to
develop, although the usual incubation time is 2 to 8 weeks. Symptoms can
include loss of appetite, muscle aches, sore throat, headache, paralysis,
spasms of swallowing muscles, delirium, convulsion, and, in worse cases, coma
and death. Sometimes, odd behaviours manifest themselves in the form of
aggression, agitation or anxiety

Diagnose and treatment: samples of saliva and blood will determine
rabies. A course of rabies vaccinations will cure you. A
pre-exposure vaccine is available for travelers visiting high risk
countries. Seek medical help as soon as you have been bitten. The
earlier you can receive rabies injections, the better, even if you have
received a pre-exposure course of injections.

How can I avoid contracting rabies: if you are visiting a high risk area,
arrange to have rabies vaccinations. In any case, avoid contact with all
animals, whether domestic or wild. If you are bitten, wash the bite with
soap and water and then with alcohol or iodine to reduce the chances of
becoming infected.