Tues 18th
Got a tuk tuk to the Ukunda post office which was near the stage for the Tahmeed bus. Got there before 06:00…plenty of time, but you never know. Bus arrived after 06:30. Very comfortable large seats; I was directly behind the driver so good views. A rainy morning, but a good drive to the border…about an hour and a quarter. On showing our Yellow fever vax certs we were told to see a lady in a separate room. She immediately said the certs were invalid without an Exemption cert. and that the exemption cert cost 20usd. A nice shiny copy if an Exemption cert was on the desk. At first I said I didn’t have any Usd, then I started arguing that what she said was nonsense and I had crossed the border many times without any problems. I think she was a bit surprised that my whole argument was conducted in Swahili. I think we were only in the office for a few minutes, after which she said.. “you can go now “. So, an obvious scam, although I didn’t recognise it in that moment…but she gave up so quickly . Saved money, and I was quite proud of myself. Queued at immigration for 45 mins, but that was ok as it is a much busier border than Holili.
Mark and I waited in the bus whereas we could have just had refreshments a few metres away on the other side of the gate; they wouldn’t have gone without us. 2 hours at the border unfortunately before we left. Good journey. Stopped briefly on the outskirts of Tanga. Passed turn off to Kibaranga where we lived for a couple of years. Some rain. Crossed a brand new bridge, built to replace the dangerous single track one nearby. A brief stop before Bagamoyo. All going well before the Dar heavy traffic. Whole trip was about 12 hours. Fortunately the bus stopped on Lumumba St and we had only a 10 minute walk to Riki Hill htl. Checked in. My room 30,000 and Mark’s 40,000 because he chose AC. Chips mayai dinner for 3,000 just around the corner, then on to the ‘Congolese’ bar. It’s frequented by a lot of Congolese and plays good music. It was only 5 minutes away but we had to walk carefully as the roads were very wet and muddy. The bar is better in daylight. Then the short walk back to the hotel.
Wed 19th. After breakfast we walked to the port to book our ferry tickets to Zanzibar for the next day. Same price as in Dec…35usd or 85,000tsh. I sorted something out on my Tz Airtel sim card and then we walked up to the A T Room. From there it was back to the hotel to relax…although, I went walkabout to check Lumumba Bar and Grill as a possible dinner venue. At about 16:00 we we went to the “Congolese” pub. After a couple of beers we wandered over to the Bbq place. Very tasty food; I had chicken tikka with chips. From there it was over to 24/7 opposite our hotel where we shared a Konyagi and tonic water, and then the few meters to the hotel.
An enjoyable short stay in Dar. Lots of puddles to avoid. The room was comfortable. It had a balcony but I wasn’t there long enough to take advantage of it.