Bujumbura

Following a number of days rest in Kigoma dad and I then change course from heading due west, to heading north. Our next trip would take us out of tanzania for the first time and into Burundi. Our last stop before reaching Kigali. This was always going to be the most dangerous and nerve wracking part of the trip as we did not know how we would get to burundi nor what the security was like there. However we borded a taxi at 7:30, having woken up at 5:30 (3:30 UK time), and heading off towards the border. Unfortunately, almost immedeatly after leaving the taxi started to judder and after travelling about 10 km we turned back and jumped in a new taxi. This one, an 18 seater managed to hold 26 people (not very comfortably) including 2 outside on the bumper. And to be honest it was a death trap. Metal bars had been put over the windows to give people a handhold, but also meant that in case of an accident there was only one way out of the taxi and that was through the door, through all the other passengers.
The road was more of a track which snaked its way across northern tanzania up into the mountains and away from the lake. Our driver drove too fast and we almost toppled onto our side several times. we could also feel the back fishtaling with every turn. However the nearest miss was when we were heading down a hill and skidded to avoid a bike. The driver managed to keep control and we skidded to a halt. At which point two men on the back jumped off and started to hit the man on the bike. they then jumped back on and off we went.
The trip to the border was all on a dirt track and took about 3 hours to get there. We arrived at the border town and had to put all our stuff on bikes so that we could be taken the last two kilometers.
There were no problems at the border and we jumped back onto the bikes for another ride dow to a taxi stop. There we borded a taxi to a town 20 km into Burundi, where our passports were stamped. We then got into another taxi which took us to Bujumbura. We stayed there for 1 night with some friends. When asking about security we were told that that district had been shelled 3 weeks before and that if we heard gunfire it was most likely thieves shooting and being shot at.

Since I have so much to write I will post my trip from Bujumbura to Kigali tomorrow night.