We left Maasai Mara in the morning, but we couldn’t manage to arrive at the border before 6 PM. We recalled that on our previous visit, we couldn’t find suitable overnight parking on this stretch of the road. But just around sunset, we drove through Sare and found an old Texas Energy gasoline station. We were pleased that the station manager allowed us to park there overnight. And we will remember that place for a long time, particularly for its dirtiest and smelliest toilet in Kenya.
The next day, we drove to the border. For some reason, we were asked to stamp our CDP at the customs building on the Kenyan side of the border. Then we drove to the Tanzanian side of the border, where we got our exit stamp for Kenya. Then we obtained a stamp for Tanzania, and the last window collected the application form and money for the visa (90 days / 50.75 USD), paid by card.
The absolute nightmare was registering the truck in a new system to pay the road tax (52 USD / paid in cash at the bank). A friendly agent assisted us with this, and we then received our CDP stamp, making us ready to go. At the exit, they checked our paperwork and let us go. Nobody controlled the truck or asked for anything; we spent around 4 hours following all procedures.
Just two kilometres away, we stopped next to the Vodacom shop to get our new SIM cards (24 GB / 50000 TZS / 30 days + 1000 TZS for the SIM card). We did not have any local currency, but they accepted USD at a rate of 2500 TZS / USD.
Parking location – Sare: 0.915091S 34.528027E (🚻,🅿️500 KES)