Ruvuma

The programme we’re working on is the ‘Ruvuma Transboundary Landscape’, involving Tanzania and Mozambique, and confusingly called Rovuma in Mozambique. R(u/o)vuma refers to the river that forms most of the Tanzania-Mozambique international border.

Certain areas of the landscape are very beautiful indeed. I’m stoked that places in northern Mozambique that I used to visit for work are within the Rovuma landscape and catchment, and that I can maintain my links. In fact it was probably these links that got me this job.

We’ve been moving between towns on this orientation visit, and today’s journey was from Tunduru to Songea, with stop-offs for a deeper dive into project activities. A lot of the work revolves around the Niassa-Selous Wildlife Corridor, referring to the two very large conservation areas that frame the landscape across the border, which are connected by forest and wildlife habitat. Here is Richard in the corridor, surveying a wide expanse of rocky, verdant miombo woodland.

As we’re on the move, there is incessant chat about the the food in each place. Without fail, every town over a certain size has a known foodstuff for which it is famous. Each town or region’s specialty food is the Tanzanian equivalent of UK weather chat.

For Songea, the food to seek out is dagaa, the ‘Tanganyika sardine’, netted in huge (rapidly decreasing) numbers in Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi. I am not yet sold on dagaa. I usually can’t be faffed with freshwater fish, and there is a major overfishing issue in these lakes.