Bus trip to Mbeya

After a delightful Sunday evening we packed and prepared for an early start - the bus to Mbeya departed at 6.15 am. We made it with ease (the bus station was only about five minutes away) and so began a day's journey into new territory - for us at least.

We eased our way past the streets of Dar before a few stops on the way out of the suburbs to collect additional passengers. From our exalted vantage point we could see that the morning traffic in Dar replicates that of many other cities - streams of cars and buses lined up at intersections and traffic lights.

The terrain changed as we moved through the foothills and up to the plains. Along the way the various towns and their 'retail areas' could be seen lining the road.

One of the highlights of the trip was Mikumi National Park. The road to Mbeya is the main highway to Zambia and Malawi. The port of Dar Es Salaam is important to them, and the highway is busy with many trucks going east and west. And the highway goes through the national park - BONUS!On one occasion the driver stopped and backed up a few hundred meters so we could catch a glimpse of a couple of lions about 50 metres from the road. There was another stop for some giraffes near the road, but the elephant and impala did not warrant a break in our journey.

There were a few more stops along the way. We could either get off the bus and make our purchases, or buy choose from the range of goods offered to us. Phone vouchers, pears, eggs (hardboiled), bread, biscuits, sodas, cooked maize were all available.

It was close to 8pm when we arrived at Mbeya - and our stop was Soweto. My Swahili is negligible, and we were not sure whether we had communicated correctly to those in charge. I though we had, and when I saw a mzungu (white person) waiting at the side of the road I knew we were at the right place.

A few minutes later we were at Shukrani College, and had settled our gear into Karibuni House, our home for the next two months.