Gilbert, the owner of the Royal Garden where we stayed a few days ago, told us that the day before we arrived the temperature rose to 45°C. This is good for the sugar cane that grows there. (When we were there, a light rainfall had brought the temperature to 25° C.) We like it to be warm and nice – my motto in life is: «It’s nicer when it’s nice!», but we don’t need temperatures like that.

We were happy when the road in Tanganda went up and into the Eastern Highlands. The destination for this day was Chimanimani, which is located at 1,470 m above sea level. The narrow tar road wound up in many bends. How refreshing it is up here! The wood industry is at home here and we drove through vast eucalyptus and conifer forests. Old and shabby trucks drove heavily loaded with timber to the sawmill where they were processed. I drove carefully because it wouldn’t be the first time that a chauffeur suddenly had the steering wheel in his hand or the brakes didn’t work…

We stopped at a street stall to do some shopping. As always in Africa, in no time you are surrounded by women carrying their offerings in bowls or buckets on their heads. (Everything is offered in the appropriate quantity for the price of one US$ – regardless of whether it’s tomatoes, bananas or a pack of cigarettes!) Brigitta got out to buy what we wanted. On this day there were avocados – the size of small footballs –, onions and macadamia nuts, which are grown here on a large scale. We bought four packs and enjoyed one of them a short time later with a Hansa beer. Yummy!