DAY 74
Since there's so much you can do remotely, we keep our good habit of spending the first few days organizing the practicalities of our visit of Tanzania. We were thinking of taking the 2-3 days train to Kigoma but of course it's not possible to book train tickets online and we understand better why when we see the railway station. It probably hasn't change since the British kicked the Germans out. They have no phone and everything is done with a pen and a giant book. We were fools to even think about online booking, etc... Sadly for us, the train leaving tomorrow is full :/ The backup plan is to do it by bus. After lots of discussions and research, we end up opting for a layover in Mwanza. We expect to arrive there around 8-9pm and arranged our ticket for the next leg of the journey (to Kigoma) through the super professional and helpful concierge. It's a bit sad to say but it's actually the 1st one of his kind we meet in Africa. South America is warned! Let's see if we get more than 1 helpful concierge there ;) Hotels in Mwanza and Kigoma are booked, bus tickets are ready... it just took us all day but no surprise there. While walking in Dar, one thing that surprised us is the kissing sound the street vendors make. We though it was a distasteful way to attract Mar's attention but it's just the widespread way of attracting any potential customer's attention.
DAY 75
When we leave the hotel, the souk is empty but the road blocks are still there. The road looks finished but maybe they built a brand new road to use it as an extension of the souk... It's always interesting to me to see a city by night, without the chaos of the day. And travel time is predictable which is a huge advantage. The bus station is far less hectic than in Addis. It's bigger and better organized, it looks like we should even be departing on time. That would be great because we have more than 1000km to cover after all. The bus itself is not great and is not what they call a 2 by 2 contrary to what we were told yesterday. It's a 3 by 2, a bit smelly and very crowded. We are on the 2 seats side of the bus but there's very little leg room. Our hope for a swift departure are dashed as soon as we start moving. Unsurprisingly, all the buses are trying to get out first and it takes of course much longer that way... We get to see lots of buses and are entertained by the names and paintings on them. Among the many creative name, we had lots of religious ones - Power of God, God is great, Jesus is medicine; Football teams are of course represented - Man U, Chelsea; and some of them are more random - Don't panic, The lion king, Falcon, Super Sami, The lemon.
The first few hours are worrisome, we don't even over 200km in 4 hours... and that's because all buses and trucks have to be weighted every 50km (what for????) and each time there's only one weighting station for both sides of the traffic. I don't have the feeling it was necessary but the Tanzanian government found a very efficient way to make travel even slower. When we don't stop at a weighting station we stop in one of the bus station on the way. The purpose is clearly not to drop off or pick up people but to get a chance to buy the exact same food or goodies... frustrating. The only thing keeping us for going nuts is the wonderful “maps.me” application. We know we're not going fast but at least we know where we are and how much remains. It'll take us 20h in total to cover the 1070km (yes, 5h more than advertised...) and we'll only have 3 pee stops along the way! Seeing that we were doomed to arrive in the middle of the night we changed our plans and rescheduled our bus ticket for the following day thanks again to the super-concierge at the Addis hotel.
DAY 76
We should have planned a rest day in between from the get go. It's pure madness to want to do two 15+ hours ride in 2 consecutive days. On top of that, we now have the day in Mwanza to try to organize a safari for when we come back. It would replace a bus ride to Moshi by a multi-day expedition through Serengeti and Ngorongoro. We meet two girls in our hotel coming from Uganda and looking for the same thing. Sadly for all of us, they want to do their safari right away. We nevertheless shop together and leave our coordinates at a handful of safari companies. Hopefully they'll have some tourists stopping by to form a group. The expensive part of safari is the car and the fees that needs to be payed for it in some parks. Obviously that's why we're trying to assemble a 4 to 6 person group.
Mwanza is by the immense lake Victoria and we found a fancy hotel that has its restaurant with a great view of the lake. As expected in a fancy place they have WiFi :D So we spend the rest of the afternoon there watching the lake and its many birds. We're on the 1st floor of the restaurant, in an ideal position to see the fishing birds fly by a few meters away from us. With its hill, the landscape in that part of the lake looks a bit Mediterranean, except that the houses are gray or brown. The other thing giving it away are the big rocks that seem to have been dropped by a giants; the town is famous for it.
On our way back, we stop by the supermarket to prepare our lunch box for the bus. It's a big disappointment... far from Malagasy standards :( the choice is limited and nothing looks appealing. Our hotel is close to the bus station which is practical for late night arrivals and early morning departure but we have to take a “dala dala” (read super crowded minibus) to get back there. We ask 3 policewomen for help. They are in their fifties probably and look peculiar in their “schoolgirl” uniform. The knee-high blue shirt, high white socks and white blouse give is complemented by a black stick ;) The display of authority is however very impressive when they stop the “dala dala” to ask them where they go and if they have space for us. When we finally find one, they make sure we know the price and they also make sure the “dala dala” guys know that we know the price... super sweet, we felt like young kids for a brief moment :D All in all, we liked Mwanza much more than Dar. People are chilled and respectful and not trying to sell you things insistently all the time.
DAY 77
Up early for yet another long day in a bus... yeah!!! We prepare our lunch box (tuna-tomatoes sandwich) and walk (that's so much nicer than having to cross town in a taxi) to the bus station. It's the same overexcited atmosphere as in Dar but we leave on time surprisingly. We don't know it yet but we just do a big mistake by refusing that they wrap our luggage in garbage bags. Unexpectedly the bus takes the direction of Mwanza. We are not kept wondering for long as it becomes clear to us when we arrive at the ferry. It's a short 30min crossing with the sun rising behind us over Mwanza (superb timing!). Not a bad way to start a long bus ride after all. We pass Hippo island without seeing one and arrive in Kamanga.
The road at the beginning alternates between dust and asphalt but inexplicably some of the asphalt roads are closed to us. The bus has to drive in the dust road next to it even though it looks finished. As we progress towards Kigoma it becomes dust road only. At some point we come across a stranded minibus and we rescue the passengers to drop them off some time later at a bus station. In the middle of nowhere, after hours on a dust road, it's an incredible sight to see a blackboard with 2 premiers leagues games and the broadcast time...unreal. There is so much of that red dust that we're covered in it inside the bus, we start to wonder what our luggage will look like at the end of this. We arrive in Kigoma at 8pm (decent enough considering our last arrival). It took us 14h30 to do the 606km... a dreadful 42km/h average but we made it safe and sound to the other side of the Tanzania. Our eyes pop when we retrieve our luggage from the belly of the beast. They are red... not their original color of course. Since we'll take the same bus in the other direction we won't bother to clean them thoroughly but they badly need it. Additional bad suprise but for my bag only. Some of the dust got inside. Thankfully, we have small bags to store stuff in our luggage so the damage are limited but I'll have to do something about it.
DAY 78
What a better way to start the day than cleaning invasive red dust.. It takes some time but it had to be done. Today we'll try to find people to share a boat ride to Gombe. The hotel tells us a german girl is looking for the exact same thing and we leave a note at her door, to stumble upon her literally 2 minutes later at the reception. The hotel has a boat and since she speaks Swahili (1 year volunteering in Arusha) she negotiate directly with the boat owner. We get a decent price ($150). Up to us to find a few more people to make it cheaper per person. We then all run our respective chore in town (ATM hunting mainly, and bus tickets) and meet up for lunch in a local shack. It's meh... after Madagascar and Mozambique our standard for food is still high even though we get a feeling it'll have to be revised for Tanzania. We pay a visit to the park office in a desperate attempt to find more people but to no avail. It'll be the 3 of us only. At least we're all set for an early departure tomorrow. We enjoy a nice sunset over lake Tanganyika and go to bed early.