Driving to Dar es Salaam

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Wednesday
September 12

Yesterday we crossed into Tanzania and with that, the six month mark. Conversations are starting to change their tune and focus more on what we'll be doing after this trip ends (oh, which looks like it'll be in Tunisia. Yay!). Some have jobs waiting for them, others will need to find work and a lucky few will continue to travel.
For some time now, indeed since Ghana before Ben and Steph left, we have known that Suse was offered a trip through South America, beginning next September. It incorporates every country on the continent and obviously appealed to us for not only that reason, but because eight of us are interested and Suse would be taking us. I figure I'd find work for six months, go home to Oz for my cousin's wedding in August and to meet my niece or nephew and best friend's baby who will have arrived by then and fly to Quito from there. With the World Cup in Brazil at the end of the trip as well as Galapagos within reach, the possibilities are (almost!) endless.

But, I'm way, way ahead of myself.

We've driven some crazy roads today. There's one main road through the country that connects Tanzania to its neighbours and is therefore full of trucks overloaded with goods, bus drivers racing to towns in order to win the bigger bonus and cars whose drivers are unaware of their perimeter (we came so unbelievably close to hitting someone yesterday who overtook then cut back in front of us so soon that I couldn't see half of the car from the front seat).
Through Baobab Valley (guess why it's called that) we drive with mountains on either side. Some are covered in baobabs of various sizes while others look like a balding man's head, the few trees bereft of leaves and haphazardly strewn around the mountainside.
Suse blasts the horn and we look - if we dare - to find a truck hurtling towards us, its wheels on the dividing line. There is no room for us to move and even though we're not even doing the speed limit, they're travelling fast enough for both of us. I choose not to look for too long... After a quick lunch stop we pass through the national park. Trucks and buses ignore the speed bumps, flying over them at an alarming speed, sometimes on the wrong side of the road. We pass adorable pygmy elephants, giraffe, antelope and a dead, bloated hyena on the side of the road. I'm almost surprised that it's the only road kill we see.

Dar es Salaam is chaotic at best. The sun set whilst we sat in the city's notorious traffic and we crawl through the streets lit with a soft orange glow from the overhead lights. Stalls along the road sell everything from clothes to food to household utensils, each one with an oil lamp burning brightly, illuminating the vendor's face seated on the blanket with their wares. Horns blare, dust blows and the rumble of engines from passing trucks, cars and motorcycles adds to the snippets of conversations we hear as we pass. Swahili is widely spoken and the shouts of 'jambo!' (hello) and 'muzungu!' (white man) are no longer foreign to our ears.

We inch forward, maybe two car lengths every few minutes. Sellers carrying their goods on their head approach the sides of the truck, practising their English and offering us cigarettes, drinks, biscuits. I smile and shake my head at their offers but am happy to chat. Placated with a bit of conversation, they relent and ask my name and where I'm from. I've never tired from answering them. They don't know I've been travelling for six months and have been asked the same questions countless times.
At a dark intersection where the lights don't work, I'm surprised to look up and see a clear sky full of stars. I spend a few moments looking for the Southern Cross and conclude it's not on my side of the truck.

Eventually the traffic moves, slowly at first as the cars try to distance themselves from one another and then we pick up speed. The wind is in our faces again and cools our flustered selves. Complaints are minimal and even then said in jest. As Cecilia and I are on cook group, we try to persuade people that they aren't hungry and offer them their breakfast of bread and apples for dinner instead. It's hard to be too bitter when we've spent the day intermittently sleeping, eating, reading, playing cards and generally watching the world go by while Suse has to concentrate. We left five minutes late at 05:50 and we're still going at 20:00. Apart from the usual evening rituals, we need to pack for our four nights on Zanzibar, for which we leave at stupid o'clock tomorrow morning for. I'm already dreading the ferry crossing that will take a couple hours. Telling myself I've crossed the Drake Passage is irrelevant. How quickly the mind forgets.

I doze, trying to block out the chatter on the truck. Still unable to sleep sitting up, I have however perfected the art of sleeping and holding on, my left hand clutching the headrest while I lay on my right side. The respite is short-lived though as the smell of food wafts into the truck. Advertisements from a radio blare loudly from a stall, assaulting my ears. I give up trying to sleep but don't make a move to sit up. The truck lurches forward at the same time Suse hits the horn. People rap their knuckles on the side of the truck as we pass. Someone shouts who-knows-what over a megaphone. I yawn. I want to crawl into my tent and sleep. Not pack, not cook, just sleep. My limbs ache from lack of use.

The noise outside quietens. We on the truck already have. In the dark, silhouettes are all I see of my companions until someone is caught in a vehicle's headlights, the light washing over them before moving on. Bizarrely, I hear a frog croak and I then become aware of other night-time creatures. Crickets, cicadas, a bird, a dog.

It's dark. There's no street lights in this part of town and traffic is thankfully light. My phone screen on which I write glows bright and I'm momentarily blinded when I look away. Hungry, I reflect on what I've eaten today. A hard boiled egg, some caramel popcorn, chips and a couple pieces of plantain. A bottle of Coke. Water with rehydration salts. Tsk, tsk. No wonder I'm hungry.

21:10 and still we bounce along the road. I downloaded the map from an e-mail for Suse earlier but my memory fails me and I don't know where on the hand drawn map we are but feel we can't be far. Perhaps it's wishful thinking. I know it's wishful thinking. Suse must be exhausted.

Nico shouts from the front to say we missed the turn as we pull into a petrol station and back out in the direction we just came. People stir. We're almost there.

Within minutes we arrive. It's 21:46. The path is narrow with potholes full of muddy water and thick growth on either side. But it soon opens up into a large welcoming campsite. We park, the stairs are put down, the engine is turned off.

People decide they're not hungry and settle for an apple. Bags are packed, unpacked and repacked for Zanzibar. Tents are erected and most are in bed within the hour. A few make their way to the bar for one and stay for two. As for me, I crawl into my tent and hope within seconds to be asleep...

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Comments

[Home and Away]

What a trip!
Thanks for all your effort in writing the blogs and psoting the pictures. I look forward to your blogs about Tunesia and then South America.