Yesterday wasn’t different from most Sundays except it appeared that the plagues of Egypt had visited ACC’s members: less than half were present. One long-time member marked that she had never seen the church so empty, and no one I spoke with had any idea where everyone had gone. However, the service went on as usual; the flowers were lovely; and we invited Terry Morton to go to Picasso’s with us for lunch. I had another salad similar to last Sunday’s, and Terry and John also ordered salads. After lunch, we returned to Kundayo to prepare for our big trip to Iringa.
The alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. and we were quickly up and preparing for Ray to pick us up at 5:15 for the drive to the bus area. Ray was on time, and it didn’t take long for us to be inside a zone of total chaos. Since it was still dark, I don’t know how many buses were packed together and loading passengers. I can’t imagine how we would have found our bus if Ray hadn’t been there to push through the crowd and get us to the right place. There were no signs or timetables posted for any destinations, and John is far too polite to shove people aside in order to get anywhere. It was rather weird to notice that we were absolutely the only white people among hundreds of Africans.
Once Ray shoved us up into the right bus, we sat until 6:30, when the bus finally took off. John had bought our tickets early, so we had the first two seats behind the driver, which gave us a great view the whole way. I don’t really remember much until we got to Babati around 10:00. The driver announced “tea time” and everyone except me poured out of the bus and raced toward the restrooms around back of a cafe-type place. I know enough to believe that there were only squat toilets, which I would fall into if I actually tried to use one. (That actually happened to me once in Korea, and that toilet cubicle was pristine, the polar opposite to any public toilet I have found along the roads of Africa.) John was soon back and bought us mandazi. I had frozen bottles of water for us and as they thawed, we had nice, cold water to drink.
We were back on the road within a half hour. The bus had little video screens, and for our enjoyment, the attendant put on the movie “Kong.” From the little I saw, it should have been voted the worst movie of the year in which it was released. It was all the more bizarre that it was subtitled in Korean.
Fortunately, the landscape was much more interesting than the movie. We passed many farms with large fields of corn and occasionally rice. There were large, healthy herds of cattle and goats, indicating that, unlike up near the Kenyan border at Longido, this region had gotten plenty of rain. However, the most surprising thing for me was that there were hundreds of baobab trees in all directions. The guides at Tarangire had made it sound as if the baobab there were a special remnant. Not so. At times I felt as if we were in a big baobab forest. They went on and on and on, which made me super happy, as they are my favorite tree in the whole world.
From Babati to Dodoma there is a brand new double carriage road, which makes the trip between the two places much more direct and safer than it used to be. However, the rate at which we made progress was hampered by numerous big speed bumps (John thought they were as frequent as one every 10 kilometers, though they were much closer together in urban areas.) and frequent police stops, some with barriers and others with two or three policemen standing by the road and waving us down. John noticed that at each stop, the bus attendant walked in front of the bus to meet the policeman and hand him something. Then, the policeman would walk to the bus door, lean in, and just wave us on. This happened at least 15 times—perhaps 20—during the trip. It’s a different type of toll road, I guess.
Because our bus windows were tinted and we didn’t have control of opening ours, I couldn’t take any photos along the way. That was really frustrating for me since there were so many interesting sights to note. At first we were traveling parallel to the Great Rift escarpment, and then we began climbing up into mountains which had a variety of rock formations. If only we had had a geologist with us to explain what we were seeing.
John had made some ham and cheese sandwiches for us, so about 11:00 we each had one of those. Soon after, we pulled into the town of Kondoa and drove to another huge bus area right in the middle of a big market. Passengers got off and new ones got on, but none of us continuing were allowed to step out. By then we had been on the bus long enough that the acrid aroma of bodies untamed by modern deodorant became almost overwhelming.
As we continued on to Dodoma, the real capitol of Tanzania, the baobabs continued, but more and more large rock formations appeared, too. Near Dodoma, there were high piles of enormous boulders, which looked very similar to the kopje in Serengeti. I was so sad not to get photos of them. (http://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/09/the-kopjes-of-serengeti.html)
By 2:00 p.m. we were in Dodoma, where once again we went to a big field of buses. We tried to see what we could of the city, but I don’t think we were ever near the center, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t see the parliament building though John kept looking. Almost all the passengers from Arusha and Kondoa got off here, so there was a longer time to get other passengers on to refill the bus. We were kept on the bus since now there were no seat reservations and we might have lost our front seats had we vacated them. I grimly noted that I had now gone 9 hours without a restroom break.
As we left the city of Dodoma, I was really excited to see vineyards, some of them very large. One can buy Dodoma wine in Arusha, and I have found the red to be acceptable though not exceptional. Except in South Africa, I had never seen vineyards in Africa before. There didn’t seem to be any wineries or tasting rooms along the highway, but I have heard that there are already wine safaris.
We climbed up into mountains again and eventually came to the Mtera reservoir and dam, the big hydroelectric producer in Tanzania. Although we could see the dam in the distance, there was no way we could judge how large it actually was. Ray had spoken of it as though it were one of the great wonders of the world, but I don’t think it would match Grand Coulee or Hoover. Since only one vehicle at a time was allowed to cross the bridge over the river, there was time for a woman with a basket of fresh fish to board and sell her catch as we continued on our way. Now the stink of fish was added to the sensory stew. There was no air conditioning on the bus, and at times the interior temperature registered as high as 36 (double that and add 32 for an approximate ºF), and for reasons I don’t understand the Tanzanians did not open windows. If we hadn’t been directly behind the driver, who had a fan above his head and did keep his window cracked open, we would have likely suffered heat stroke.
About 2 hours out of Dodoma, the bus pulled over to the side of the road, and everyone except John and me went out into the bushes for a toilet break. I have nothing against peeing in the brush, but I knew I could not safely navigate my way up the slight incline into a secluded place and successfully handle business, so I was trapped in the bus again. John and I found solace in eating our second sandwiches and drinking the last of our water.
Finally, near 6:00 p.m. we could see that we were getting close to Iringa, and at 6:30 we pulled into our last bus stop. Things got totally crazy again with people pushing and shoving both to get off and on the bus at the same time. John pushed out to be sure he got our suitcase when it was unloaded, and when I finally could follow him, I stumbled on the bus steps and was caught by about 10 men, all reaching out to save me. After many asantes, I got over to John and in a minute or two we had our suitcase, which was grabbed by a taxi driver. We followed him and by 7:00 p.m. were at our hotel, Sunset Hotel. It’s up on a hill a bit outside town. Once checked in, we showered, had dinner, and turned in for the night.
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