I have been coming to Africa for 20 years but never experienced the adventures I have this time. Most of the adventures centred around African buses.
We left for the bus station in Dar es Salaam at 5.00am. Apart from the fact that Nathan temporarily lost his bag with the camera and all his documents, money, passport etc, all went well up to Manyoni. Nathan can tell his story when he returns. John who was seated near the front had to stop looking at the road. Fast drivers, bad roads and close calls don’t make for a relaxing journey.
From Manyoni to Sanjaranda we entered another world of bus travel. With standing room only, being squashed against dozens of sweaty bodies, being defeaned by the calls of several roosters (who were not enjoying the trip) and bumping along an even worse road, this we thought was as bad as it gets. We were wrong!
On the way home we boarded a bus called “Arafat”. Arafat, the man, died a few years ago. Arafat the bus was about to become deceased. We boarded Arafat at 5.00am. it was dark and the bus’s lights were struggling to work. An old VW would boast of glaring search lights compared to Arafat.
It wasn’t long before we broke down. A broken fan-belt I believe. With a push start we were off again. Soon another problem emerged. After this was fixed we made it to Mayoni and finished the first section of our journey with Arafat crashing into a pile of wood, a bike and a truck on the other side of the road. Thankfully the cyclist had jumped to safety and no-one was seriously hurt. If the crash had taken anywhere else it could have been far more serious. The driver fled from the scene pursued by an angry truck driver.
Pastor Komba suggested we catch another bus. We opted to pay the extra for a taxi with bald tyres. Sure, we suffered a puncture, but did arrive in Dodoma in relative comfort.
In Dodoma we caught another bus and apart for crammed conditions arrived in Dar es Salaam 15 hours after we had left Sajaranda.
I have run out of internet time and shall continue the story in an other posting.
See you soon.
Richard