A photo serie of mobility in three African countries: Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. All pics were taken by me during a journey through these countries in August. Some of these pics were posted earlier in one of the urban photo threads about African cities; sorry 'bout that, but they are also relevant for this theme.

Malawi
I spent most of my journey in Malawi. This is one of Africa's poorest countries; however, the quality of infrastructure is quite good, at least for African standards. Many of its main roads were developed by the former dictator Kamuzu Hastings Banda.

Especially the main roads are of excellent quality and have good signage. You can do 90 - 120 km/h on them easily; however, you have to take good care around villages, because there are a lot of people and animals walking on the roads. Besides pedestrians and cyclists there is not much traffic. Not many people own cars and public transport is mostly restricted to minibuses, except for a couple of regular coach lines between major cities.

Smaller roads are usually dirt roads. Quality varies; some can be easily travelled on by all cars, while other roads are difficult even for 4x4s.

1. The main road between Blantyre and the south of the country, leading through the beautiful tea estates.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG08.jpg

2. Idem.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG02.jpg

3. The same road with the impressive Mulanje Mountains in the background.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG01.jpg

4. Road #1, connecting the capital with Mzuzu (in the north of the country) and the Tanzanian border.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG04.jpg

5. Many roads have temporary bridges, like this one.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG03.jpg

6. The main road between the largest cities in the country: Blantyre and Lilongwe. One of the few connections with regular bus traffic.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG09.jpg

7. A road in the largest city, Blantyre. This city also has the country's only double carriageway (no pic).
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA01.jpg

8. Traffic lights with instructions.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA04.jpg

9. Traffic lights with corporate sponsors. ;)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG07.jpg

10. Minibus station.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA16.jpg

11. Road sign in Blantyre.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/BLA11.jpg

12. Newer roads have extremely good signage, which are also placed on the small roads leading to / from the new main road. This can lead to this situation, where the sign is larger than the road. ;)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG11.jpg

Zambia


13. I only travelled on one road in Zambia, and that one was of a horrible quality. This is the main road between Lundazi and Chipata. We hoped to do this 190 km road in 3 hours, like it is possible in Malawi. No way...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/TOWN04.jpg

14. Dirt road! A relatively good dirt road between Chipata and the South Luangwa wildlife park (90 km). Quite an easy road for a 4x4, but hard to do in our rented minibus (pictured). We became quite crazy on this road, especially when my dad was at the wheel. He lived in Africa for 9 years, and likes speeding on this kind of roads. Quite scary. :shock:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG06.jpg

15. Roads in the town of Chipata. Relatively a lot of private cars in this town, compared to Malawi.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG05.jpg

Tanzania

16. Tanzania's main roads are quite good, almost as good as in Malawi. Not many private cars, though. In contrast to Malawi, there are a lot of coach services though, to cover the huge distances in this countries. Most of the buses seems to have featured in MTV's Pimp My Bus. :cool:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/WEG10.jpg

17. Busy road in the capital Dar es Salaam. A lot of minibuses here, but also quite a lot of private cars, mostly second hand Toyota's from Japan. Dar has the only traffic jams I've seen in Africa. It also has ambitious plans for a Bus Rapid Transit network.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/DAR02.jpg

18. Even in the city centre, not all of the roads are paved.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/DAR16.jpg

19. Also a part of the road infrastructure... ;)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/DAR06.jpg

20. Only Toyota's...
http://www.xs4all.nl/~davidee/Afrika/DAR03.jpg

Thanks alot for that Vertigo.. you took a great set of pictures :cheers:


I've been to Malawi twice (Lilongwe & Mzuzu & some other small towns), and that country has some spectacular scenery viewed by road.

I took these on the road between Lilongwe & Mzuzu:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b281/SE9/011_08A.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b281/SE9/012_09A.jpg

Thise pics of Blantyre are rather surprising. Does all of Blantyre look like that, or is it just a small bit?

I couldn't help but notice that the bus shown in pciture 19 is a Tata. Which makes me wonder something: do these African countries buy them firsthand or secondhand?

@Naga Solidus: Blantyre is actually pretty small indeed. Malawi is a mostly rural country. Check this thread (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=269626) for more pics.

The bus is indeed a Tata. No idea if they're bought new... they all look pretty old, though.

That was cool. I like the look of Dar es Salaam.

Superb thread and superb pictures Vertigo :cheers:

Malawi looks a great place.

I love pic nr 13! since the "real" road is so ful of potholes people actually prefer driving next to the road in the dirt! haha amazing! :)