The View from the The Gold Crest Hotel

I promised you some pictures from the top of The Gold Crest hotel.  This is probably the newest and nicest place in Mwanza proper - from the little I know about it.  It has an excellent roof-top patio where lots of ex-pats go to hang out and have a refreshing beverage. Food is average and they have karaoke here every other Wednesday...it's quite the experience!

From a previous post.  Megan, myself and Susan enjoying said refreshing beverages. 

From what I can piece together, these views are from the west side of the building and look south west.  I've included the Google Maps link.  This is supposed to be a panorama but I don't have any stitching software yet to do so plus I'm not sure of the correct order of the pictures anymore!:-(

The middle building there is Tanesco - The Tanzanian Electric Supply Company.  More like the 'we supply it whenever we want to company! ARRGGHH!

Bismarck Rock in the distance

One of the ports in Mwanza.  It is situated on Lake Victoria. 

This is Nyamagana Stadium.
Some sort of religious event was happening that day. 

This is a close up of Bismarck Rock.  Not been there yet.

 The landscape of Mwanza and area is quite interesting.  It is a port city yet has lots of rural areas in the vicinity.  Roads are paved in town - the MAIN ones - but the side 'streets' are dirt as are the rural roads.  When it rains, they change shape...sometimes daily and sometimes by the minute.  Their solution to fix the road is to send a road grater down and flatten it out. Which succeeds for a day or so but also makes the road NARROWER which makes it even more harrowing!  More on driving later.

Mwanza is know as The Rock City due to all the random rock formations.  I'm not sure if you can see from the photos - Bismarck Rock is an example - of the rock piles that just jut out of everywhere - it just happens to be in the water.  The 'hills' you see are just giant piles of rock (from what I can see) with vegetation growing and covering what it can.  Houses sit in, on and amongst the rocks.  It's quite amazing.  I'll try and get some more photos later but most of the real cool formations I see from the road while traveling to clinic.  

More views from other areas later!

Baadaye!