This button here. You see? The red one, ” points Alan Msuya, our rental car handover guy. “This is the panicky button. ” I’m just outside Moshi at the Mountain Inn, home to 4x4 Safari Rentals and, as the lodge’s name implies, a cracking view of Kilimanjaro. It’s comfortable accommodation, with excellent food — particularly the curry — and ideal for the budget-style, self-drive safari on which I’m about to embark. As well as the big red button, which is linked directly to the rental company’s HQ, our 4WD Tata Xenon is equipped with a GPS tracker and a phone, enabling the staff to keep track of our whereabouts should we run into difficulty. Self-driving in Tanzania is a relatively new venture, but with a good road network and excellent ground support, it is, in my opinion, the best way to experience the country. It’s backpacking for the more mature traveller. Someone, like myself, who wants the experiences that getting off the main track brings, but without having to sleep in a shop doorway or travel on a train sandwiched between a basket of rotting tomatoes and six chickens.
Walking the plains of Mkomazi,
JUTTA LEMKE
where we encountered our anxious elephants; driving into Saadani National Park