We were told to be ready by 10 am on Tuesday the 2nd, and that our bus should arrive between 12 and 2 p.m. Alright, awesome, we figure it would arrive no later than 3. Oh contraire, Tom had to go and get the bus and it eventually arrived around 4:00 I think? Something like that, so after loading up the driver makes a stop at the bus office and we sit for another hour or so…yup, starting off in true African form! I think we finally hit the road around 5:00 and headed on towards the border of Kenya. We’re in the mindset that it’s going to be a 24 hour bus ride…but are quickly informed that is should take between 26 and 28 hours. Ok, we can handle this…it’s only 2-4 hours added on. I imagine you can figure out where this story is going…we leave Kampala, go through Nairobi, on into Tanzania–
34 hours later we arrive in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania!!! It’s about 2:30 in the morning on Thursday the 4th. We were scheduled to stay the night in a hostel and then my team and two others would head out early to catch another bus to Mbeya. However, since it was so late already we unloaded everyone and everything at the hostel, then our 3 teams loaded our stuff back on the bus to go on to the bus station. Thank God, the bus driver decided that we could just hang out on the bus until we got on our next bus at 6 a.m. So from 3:30-5:30 I got the best sleep I had had in 2 days, then woke up and moved everything on to our next bus.
Before getting to that though, it should be mentioned that come midnight, 2 hours away from Dar, we were pulled over and told that it’s illegal to travel at night (and here we just thought it wasn’t safe) Our driver and conductor spoke with the police for a little while and we were eventually given the ok to continue on to Dar.
Alright, so time to get on another bus, it’s 6 a.m. and we’re all dead tired. My team ends up on a bus by ourselves and the other 2 teams end up on another bus. We load our things, get on, realize we’re not sitting together, and buckle down for what we think is another 24 hour bus ride. Good news though, it was really only 12 hours!!! Sporadic sleep, not much else to do since I couldn’t really move, or sit normally. A rooster was riding in a box in the aisle beside me, as were some people. The woman beside me was really nice though, we didn’t really talk until about halfway through the trip. I saw giraffes along the way. The bus got pulled over for speeding, I’m pretty sure we passed every other vehicle we came upon.
Woohoo, made it to Mbeya around 6 p.m. on Thursday the 4th. Get off the bus, meet some of the pastors, get all of our stuff, and hop into a van/taxi/matatu. Go to the bus park, then the hostel, then back to the bus park to get tickets for the final leg of our journey to Sumbawanga.
Stay the night in a hostel, electricity, no water- best night of sleep in a while. Wake up around 6, get to the bus park around 7, get everything loaded again and leave around 8. We’re all sitting beside each other in the back…I get the back corner. There’s little more leg room this time, but not much- we think it’s only 6 hours, so we’re really excited to just get to our new home already!
An hour or two into the trip we hit true African roads…lots of bumps, you catch some air, you can’t stay still if you want to, and eating or drinking anything is hilarious to try. We have a coke chugging contest, Carin wins. The scenery is beautiful…now THIS is AFRICA.
Short recap:
Leave Tuesday November 2nd
34 hours later we arrive in Dar es Salaam
Hang out on the bus for 3 hours
Board another bus from Dar to Mbeya
12 hours later arrive in Mbeya
Take a matatu from the bus stop to the hostel
Stay the night in a hostel
Take another matatu from the hostel to the bus station
Board another bus from Mbeya to Sumbawanga
8 hours later we arrive in Sumbawanga
Board another smaller bus to get to our new home around 4 p.m. on Friday November 5
Welcome to a World Race Travel Day – African Edition
