You do a lot of traveling on the WR! Every travel day seems epic and crazy…you either laugh or cry. I try my best to choose laughter! Here is a post that my friend Alissa wrote…but because i seem to have writers block and she captures the experience so well I will simply borrow her blog of our latest travel experience.
Here is a play by play of our crazy ride from Uganda to Tanzania. It was an adventure.
Tuesday
7:30: AM: Wake up and shower (always shower when you have a shower you never know what tomorrow holds)
9AM: breakfast (greasy egg , butter bread and banana)
9-10 AM: Finish packing (doesn’t really take too long because I don’t really have that much stuff)
10-12PM: Wait for bus to arrive to head from Kampala to Dar es Salam
12-2PM: Keep waiting for bus (bus was to arrive between 12-2)
2-4PM: Trying to make connection with contacts in Kenya so we can see them at the border but service not very good so give up and continue waiting for bus.
4-5PM: Begin hearts game with people
5:30PM: Bus arrives then hurry and load everyone on
6 PM: Arrive at bus station for some reason
6:30PM: Leave bus station
7:30 PM: Finally get out of Kampala after being stuck in traffic
8PM: Make first potty break (not a big deal except we told our friends to meet us at the border which is two hours away at 8)
8:30 PM: Friends call from boarder I inform them we wont be there for two hours
8-11pm: Play Sudoku to try and pass time
11PM: Arrive at border. Get to visit with our contacts a little and bum money off of them to use the dirty squatty
11:30: Leave from border
Wednesday
12-8 AM: Try to get some shut eye which turns out to be very difficult as we hit a pot hole every few minutes and in the wee hours of the morning the temperature seems to drop dramatically.
8 AM: Arrive in Nairobi make quick bathroom break while some men are seen under our bus most likely repairing the damage done by pot holes.
8-12: Watch a movie as we drive through Masai country looked for lions but didn’t see any.
12 or so cant really remember: Arrive at Kenya/Tanzania border
1-2PM: Board bus but can’t leave Kenya because we don’t pass weigh station. Back row of bus made to stand in isle. Bus backs up and we reposition 2-3 times. In the mean time, Ashley and I almost pay 2 USD for a cold Coke but our bus driver gets mad at the vendor that he charged to much. So we leave coke behind.
2-6:30PM: Ashley takes a million pictures of what we thought was Mount Kilimanjaro but turned out to be a hill. So we eventually pass Kilimanjaro take some pictures and eat some popcorn which would have been good with a coke.
6:30 PM: First weigh station, back row stands in the Isle and we make it through not really sure if we cheated the system or not.
6:30-9:30PM: Watch another movie and avoid head on collision with Semi
9:30-11:30PM: fall asleep wake up to another weigh station, back row stand in isle but are now a little irritated so give them lots of praises.
11:30-1:30AM: Pray a lot as we speed on windy roads
Thursday
1:30 AM: Arrive at another weigh station, back row stands in isle again and look pissed off so I don’t say anything.
1:45 AM: get pulled over by police and are told we are not supposed to be on the roads at this hour and that we will have to pull over and wait till 7 am to drive. Bus erupts in laughter. Then we realize they might be serious and we get very quiet. A few tears may have been shed.
2 AM: Bus begins to drive (not sure if a bribe was paid or not)
2:30AM: Arrive at hostel (three other teams had another 20 hour bus ride ahead of them) Secretly, thank God I am not one of them.
3 AM: Shower a layer of dirt off and go to bed
