First journey Westward

One of the things I most wanted to do whilst in Tanzania was meet some of the Chimpanzees who live right on the Western edge of the country. Traveling here is harder than in other places I've been as more often than not there's no information about where to go, how to get there, or what to do, and although people are always happy to help (and always happy if not expectant for payment in return for their help) generally very few people know anything about what you want to know. So unsure of whether I would get to where the chimpanzees lived and if I could, then whether I would be able to afford to go and find them, I decided to just head West!

My initial plan was to get the train which travels from Dar Es Salaam right to the other side of Tanzania. However, it turned out that first and second class no longer existed and third class meant sitting on a crammed train bench for the entire journey, which would at the least take 24 hours but breakdowns of longer than that time were very common along the way. So I chose to get a bus three quarters of the way. This journey turned out to be possibly worse than the train may have been.

I had to set off from my hotel at 5 in the morning. Making my way through the dark streets to where the dalla dallas would hopefully be working to take me to the bus station was interesting. Everyone greeted me along the way including men mid pee. I wasn't really sure how to respond to this and so just muttered a greeting and kept my eyes focused on the road ahead. Fortunately the dalla dallas had started working and by the time we got to the bus station I was buried under a mountain of luggage and people. There were hundreds of buses everywhere but after asking a few people along the way I managed to find the one I had a ticket for.

The bus was very, very, very old and had the hugest step to get up onto it. One guy had told me I needed to take my big rucksack onto the bus with me, but after heaving it up and not know where I could put it I was then instructed by another guy to take it off and put it in the luggage compartment underneath.

The buses here are the same size as English buses but they've managed to cram rows of five seats into the space we have four. As with ever journey I've been on where you prepay for your ticket, before we set off there was a big fuss about who was supposed to be sitting where and who was in a seat they shouldn't be in. It was still dark at this time but was boiling hot and the bus was full of mosquitoes. I sat next to an elderly lady who needed help putting her massive bag up on the overhead racks. It was too big to fit and so we spent a long time trying to put it up, then taking it down and taking things out and trying again.

The first part of the journey was on sealed but bumpy roads. As we bumped along the bus made really unhealthy sounding noises and I very much doubted whether we would actually reach where we were supposed to be going. Amazingly though, despite two temporary break downs we did eventually make it. After six hours into the 12 hour journey (which ended up taking nearly 16) the sealed roads came to an end and the rest of the way we traveled along incredibly bumpy and dusty roads. It was hot and so people kept the windows open and the bus, and your eyes and mouth and nose and clothes, were constantly full of red dust. The guy sat behind me was really tall and kept ramming his knees into the back of my chair. Now my chair was comfy enough normally but when someone's knees were in the back of it, it felt like the back was just one thin piece of material. What made this even more annoying than just the discomfort and pain was that knee guy was a Rastafarian and for the entire journey went on and on to the lady next to him about how he was a rasta and what rastas did and didn't do. Everyone else on the bus was African but I guess knee guy and his neighbour must have come from different countries as knee guy spoke loudly in English and so I could hear and understand every word.

Another terrible thing was that the same video was played over and over again with a theme tune which became as annoying as knee guy. I'd hoped the journey would end before it got dark but it just went on into the night. I was so very happy when we arrived at our destination - Tabora.

I suppose though I should be pleased that we did arrive. And also that a little baby sat right near me only cried once and very briefly on the whole journey!