Kampala-Dar es Salaam

1st January-11th January

After New Year we spent a few days as a group relaxing at Blair and Greggs project and saving some money while we were at it. By the 6th of January we were ready to head off onto the next stage of travelling-Zanzibar via Tanzania.

We set off from Kampala on an Akamba Bus with the intentions of going South of Kampala and into Tanzania to a town called Mwanza. After an hour of heading North Eat of Kampala we finally had to acknowledge the fact that we were going entirely the wrong direction! We asked someone and they told us the way we were heading would take us to Mwanza via Kenya-which meant buying a $20 transit visa! After much discussion on the bus we decided to stay on the bus as even with buying the transit visa it would still work out cheaper than getting off the bus whilst still in Uganda. So, 19 hours later, after 2 border crossings and travelling through the Serengeti, we arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania. Once off the bus, the most stressful time of travelling occurs; with our huge rucksacks and in a new town and in fact new country we have to find accommodation, whilst getting hassled by every private taxi driver in the area because we are white! This time we found a place called Serengeti Lodge, a 10 minutewalk from the Bus Park. Serengeti Lodge was really nice and really cheap as well, even by Ugandan standards at 4 pounds for a double with en suite. After we had settled in we went into town for a bit, booked the next bus and ate. Thedifferences that we noticed between Tanzania and Uganda isthat Tanzania sells 350ml sodas whereas Uganda sells 300 ml. Also instead of matatus they have dala dalas, which are more like camper vans, can fit more people in and are cheaper. Oh, and there are also more rocks-well in Mwanza anyway.

Next morning (8th Jan) we got up at the bright and early time of 4am and started hiking along the road to a different bus park that was really quite far away. We had been walking along in the dark with our ruck sacks for about 10 minutes when a police pick up truck stopped and offered us a lift. So there we were, all 9 of us squashed in the back of a police pick up with 3 police men armed with rifles. The bus was a ridiculously long way away and we wouldn't have made if it weren't for the kindness of the Tanzanian police. By around 6:30 the bus (which had quite possibly the smallest amount of space per seat than any other bus) set off for Dodoma, the official capital of Tanzania. We were told the journey was to take 8 hours but after 6 hours on the bus and still hundreds of kilometers left to go we started to doubt this very much. We were then informed that the bus will take 8 hours if you are going by Swahili time, however by English time it will take nearer12! At least the scenery was nice, so different from that of any we had seen in Uganda. It was much drier with flat plains that stretched as far as you could see and there were huge baobabs dotted across the landscape! The houses are also very different, I might even say they were more basic than most that you would see across Uganda. At one point on the journey we also broke down, so we took the opportunity to take some photos of ourselves against the Tanzanian plains. When we eventually got to Dodoma it was beginning to fall dark. We all got our bags out of the bus and to my horror I discovered mine was covered in chicken poo! It was all over the back and the front and the straps and everybody else's bag seemed to have evaded the rogue chicken in the boot of the bus pooeing all over the place! We then went to find accommodation, so with my chicken poo covered bag we started walking around. Just before nightfall we managed to find accommodation at the YMCA, which was fairly priced and really nice accommodation. That night we went out for food and then went back to the YMCA and enjoyed 2 pineapples. Next day we got yet another bus, this one however was spacious and had a large TV at the front, although we were at the back so it was rather bumpy. 8 hours later we arrived in a very, very, very hot Dar es Salaam. By the time we got off the bus we were smelling particularly unfresh! Then it was accommodation hunting time, from the guide we planned to stay in the YWCA but when we finally managed to find the place it was fully booked until the next night. So then we split in to groups to find cheap accommodation; I stayed sat with the bags-it was far too hot. Dar es Salaam is so much more built up than any other cities that we have been to in East Africa. It has traffic light s and skyscrapers and lots of privately owned cars and properly built roads! It is so much more developed than Kampala that it is difficult to find cheap accommodation. Shaun and Mikey found accommodation and with our rucksacks off we went again hiking through the streets in the dark in 30 degree heat! We got to Juba hotel which was really nice, although more pricey than are usual accommodation. The air con was amazing though and we all had much needed showers-we really did stink! Afterwards we went out to a restaurant called 'Snoopy's', which was so good it became our regular eating out spot. On the 10th of January we headed to 'Wet n Wild' a water park just outside of Dar es Salaam. The water park was surprisingly posh and had load of huge slides and different areas. The changing rooms were also humongous. We basically had the place to ourselves, which was nice. The most fun I had at the park was casually floating around with 2 rubber rings. On the other hand the worst thing was the huge slide that twisted round and round that I dared go on. It was horrific-it was really narrow and so insanely fast and when I did a 360 I genuinely thought I wasn't going to make it out alive! Loads of the others bashed their elbows on that tunnel as well-I don't think the health and safety was quite up to scratch! After that I stuck to floating around aimlessly-much more enjoyable. That night we went back to Snoopy's and the night after that we went again. On the morning of the 12th we headed to the ferry port ready for ZANZIBAR!