BootsnAll Travel Blogs

so,

Ken and I were gonna try and get on the train from Kapiri (Zambia) to Da es salaam (Tanzania) which is a 46 hour trip, more or less…depending on how many times the train breaks down, I think! ..but at the ticket office, the nice lady told us that all 1st class accommodation was taken …and that I was fat.

so STUPIDLY, we decided to get the bus …..that afternoon. Which meant a return to the hostel, grab my still wet laundry and then head back to the bus station for the 24 hour trip

…our bus came with TV and free soft drinks, which was nice …nobody mentioned that the ONLY TV was at the front of the bus, was maybe a 10″ screen and would only show one music video (so bad it DID actually hurt) and 2 movies …both Nigerian ……..and painful does not  BEGIN to describe the hurt they did to all my senses! The free drinks turned out to be a can of orange pop and a bottle of water thrown at us a few minutes after we left Lusaka!

The bus itself was circa 1976 complete with flock wallpaper, leaking windows and lumps of soap thrown/stuck to the windscreen to clean the glass as we drove.

we got started 2 hours late for no apparent reason and then stopped – still in Lusaka – to pick up a spare wheel at someone’s house (!) Amazingly, we drove thru the first night and successfully made it to the border wth Tanzania, where we duly had our passports stamped and bags checked. after re-sitting on the bus for another 10 minutes or so, we discovered a note stuck to the windscreen: NOTICE OF SEIZURE. We eventually discovered that someone on the bus was smuggling womens clothing into the country and one of our drivers or his apparent horde of helpers has secreted the stuff n the engine room and thats why they impounded the bus. A couple or 3 hours later and after most of the passengers harassed the border guards enoug they let us – and the bus – thru (tho the driver had to drive with the notice of Seizure still stuck to the window, directly in front of him!)

Eventually, the driver pulled over at 11pm on the 2nd night …when we asked another passenger why, they advised that they always stop here for dinner <!>

so out we got, they opened up the kitchen anad we ate rice and meat or chicken

back on the bus and we find out that the driver has to stop at 12 midnight anyway, as he cant drive between then and 3am!!! so we found ourselves pulled over in the middle of nowhere to sleep for 3 hours…which I did, whilst Ken went off and drank beer in a bar somewhere!

3am and we bizarrely got stuck in a traffic jam with all the other bus and lorry drivers and then eventually headed off

Ken left the bus just outside Dar, so he could get a connection to Arusha…I stayed on for the rest of the trip – which tallied up at an epic 42 hours by the time I arrived at the bus station.

At Dar, I jumped into a taxi for the drive straight to the airport, to fly back to Heathrow ….the taxi driver knew someone at the airport who started the process of getting me a ticket. Sadly none of the airlines from Dar accept Visa …so I tried to get cash from an ATM…….but they would only give me 300 of the $800 I needed! ..so I got another taxi to Dar and found a room at the YWCA. that night a friendly taxi driver took me to Coco beach and had a word with the staff of the bar to make sure I was comfortable …so I sat and watched the sunset under coconut palms with copious amounts of Kilimanjaro and Safari beer …eventually getting joined by Valencio (the taximan) …a VERY nice way of ending a HECTIC 48 hours.

NExt day and I booked a flight on Emirates – only to find that the webshite wouldnt allow me to pay – and I must collect the tickets and pay for them at the Emirates offices! …I couldnt believe my luck when the girl in the net cafe told me that the offices were actually upstairs!!!!! – at last!!!! …something went right!!!

3pm and I’m on the flight, sitting next to an Indian guy in mourning for his mother …I think he’s also suffering from Swine Flu judging by the coughing, wheezing, spluttering and sneezing he was doing! ….but that was nothing to the drunken state he got into ..so bad the stewardess wouldnt serve him any more (he even asked me to get him more drinks!!!) he eventually fell asleep …with his head on my lap…and didnt even wake up when I picked his head up by his hair and shoved him back onto his seat!!!

oh joy

in Dubai (transfer) I sat with an Islamic Imam from London who was a very nice guy offering me crisps and teaching me a little about Islam …which was nice. Shame I never got his name.

Finally I’m in London! ……-2 degrees, no flight, no train and no bus…and struggling to get a car hire too. trapesing around the carparks to each of the hire companies was no joke in ony a T shirt and wearing open sandals in 3 inches of snow!!!

Welcome back to the UK, eh? 🙂

My Visited Countries

So, back in the Tuli Block of Botswana! I flew from Newcastle to Dubai, then after a short layover, I flew down to Joburg where I was met by Martin of ACE. Unfortunately I then had to fly to Polokwane, which ... [Continue reading this entry]