Fri 9th. Bus left the Mbamba stand at 6:00. Pretty drive to Mbinga where we only stopped for 10 mins, so the journey to Songea was only 3.5 hours. Checked into the Ugabe Hotel and bought my ticket to Masasi for the next day. Had plenty of time so I walked around parts of Songea I’d never seen before. Relaxed, showered then after 4 went to Jordan for an excellent kiti moto served with superb ugali as there were no bananas. Jordan River wasn’t showing the early football and my hotel wasn’t either. Ended up at La Chalz sports bar just before half time and watched with about 1000 people; what a great atmosphere.
Sat 10th. A different out of town bus stand for Masasi. 8 hours journey…that’s why I broke the journey to Dar there. Imagine arriving in Dar after 15 hours minimum and it being 9pm and having to get into the city and to a hotel…no thanks.
En route were the amazing rock formations….huge rocks seemingly dumped in the middle of nowhere. I looked it up and there is a good geological explanation…. I knew which hotel to aim for as I stayed there in March…right across from the bus stand. I went looking for the pub from last time but found a new, huge Kibo Pub instead. Had one beer. Watched Argentina highlights then watched Morocco vs Portugal. Was too tired to stay up for the England vs France game. Went to bed. Comfortable lodging. 20,000 I think.
Sun 11th. 6:15 departure: stand is only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. More rock formations. The route is relatively flat and the roads relatively straight so time went by quite quickly. Until, that is, we had a major front wheel problem. I knew it wasn’t simple when someone climbed on a boda boda clutching a big piece of metal. They did well to fix it in an hour. In the meantime I watched as a lady wondered around with a tray of fish, squid and mandazi. I was hot, I was hungry so I bought the larger squid for 1000..equiv 40pence. Absolutely delicious, and was rather annoyed when I dropped the very last piece into the dirt and ash. On the bus when a lady came selling octopus tentacles….I couldn’t resist. Another 1000 for three tentacles. Equally delicious.
After the wheel was fixed there were no further technical hitches. Just annoying to have to drop people off all the time !! Then, 1 or 2 miles from the Temeke stand the driver inexplicably took a detour of about 45 minutes. We must’ve arrived a few hours later than scheduled. I still had to catch a dala dala to Kariakoo but it was Sunday so there weren’t that many. Managed with someone’s help to get a dala towards Gerezani which was fairly close to where I was going. I think I got there around 7:30. As I was walking passed my favourite pub, I stopped off for a couple before going those few minutes to check into the Riki hotel. A good trip apart from that diversion at the end. Interestingly I was in seat no 49 towards the back. From Songea to Masasi I was also in seat 49. I didn’t have any choice as the buses were almost full. So I arrived in Dar safely.