Sat and Sun. An unusually short blog just to keep on top of my recollections otherwise I’ll forget what I’ve done. Used my Bolt app and was given a choice of taxi..7,000 of boda at 4000…so I went for the boda who was outside within minutes. 10 mins or so up the road. The bus left early…at 5:30…what a surprise ! 3 hours 20 mins to Morogoro. The Uluguru mts on the approach were quite spectacular. After that we went through the Mikumi gamepark and I managed some very blurry pics of giraffes.

The hilly route to Iringa was beautiful, esp as we followed a river…the Rivumi I think. Had decided not to stop off at Iringa but go straight through to Songea. …a further 490 kms. Iringa was another example of the new bus stand being a long way from the town centre. We left Iringa around 14:00. Passed 2 Greek Orthodox churches….apparently a big Greek community here pre independence.

So far so good. But the only seat I could get on the bus was right at the back, and I felt all the speed bumps. The next leg was very scenic but certainly once it got dark the last couple of hours were rather tedious. We were dropped off virtually in the centre of Songea but it had been a gruelling 15 hour journey. I checked into the Ugabe hotel where I stayed last time and rushed over to Jordan River bar for kiti moto. Unfortunately, being 9:30, all the kiti moto was finished. Had rice and beans from a street vendor next to the dala dala stand.

Because we arrived so late and I was rather tired, I decided to stay another day in Songea. So on Sunday I gathered information on Mbamba Bay and Dar travel alternatives. I sat on the roof of the hotel. Had a couple of beers at Jordan River. Went to buy some phone credit. Went back to Jordan…ordered kiti moto. They didn’t disappoint….very very tasty. I watched some football there, then back to the hotel and they kindly found the TV channel showing the 10 pm football. In the meantime that day I had bought my 10,000 ticket to Mbamba Bay for the next day. I kept busy and enjoyed Songea. And I got breakfast with the price of the room. Couldn’t wait to get to Mbamba Bay.