Meet fellow travellers. There are 32 of us. Mix of South African, Australian, Canadian, American, British, Portuguese, Brasilian, Dutch and ze Germans. It’s like a meeting of the United Nations.
Day trip to Bagamayo. It’s only 70km away so won’t take long. Ho ho ho. It takes 2.5-3hrs. Most of the time is spent sitting in the gridlock that is Dar Es Salam. Stationary in Salam. Travel through the city centre and out the other side along the coast road stopping for the Presidential car to pass. Once out of the city it’s open country roads and speed along good quality metalled roads.
Arriving at Bagamayo old fort after all that time we’re all dying for the loo.
Glad I’m a bloke as the toilets are a hole in the floor and disgusting. There’s a hose pipe dripping water into a blue plastic drum like the sort you find on building sites next to cement mixers. That’s for washing your hands. There’s lots of cries from the women along the lines of “has anyone got any tissues or wet wipes?”.
Walk through the German cemetery and along the beach. The locals looking bemused at a group of white people in varying types of dress ambling through their manor.
The fish market further up the coast is a real native affair. An auction is under way for the catch of the day. A boat is a few yards out from the beach chucking yellow plastic containers into the sea. These are then collected by locals who race up the beach and deposit them at a lorry for onward distribution. It’s cooking oil from Zanzibar.
Lunch at a beach resort and told it will be two minutes for the buffet to be laid out.
It takes 1hr. And then it’s stone cold. Ridiculous. It’s one redeeming feature being that it has clean toilets – even if a door is missing from one cubicle.
Just over 3hrs to drive back to Dar Es Salam. 2hrs of which is stuck in traffic where we only manage 5km. We’re sitting ducks for the street sellers who offer the usual snacks and drinks. One seller is trying to flog vehicle related stuff like warning triangles, car mats, wipers etc. We have no need for a warning triangle but do indulge in packs of cashew nuts.
Our bus is the Commonwealth bus full of Canadians, Brits and Australians and we’re having a bit of fun. Pull up alongside ze German bus and zey are very serious looking.
Fed up of sitting in traffic a few of us jump out to stretch our legs and walk with the intention that the bus will pick us up when it reaches us. Walked about 20m when the traffic clears and the bus drives off into the distance. It’s another kilometre before we meet the bus the other side of the intersection. Seemed like a good idea at the time but it’s too hot to be doing anything strenuous. Arrive at the station and have to do the same as last night – cross in front of the stationary oncoming traffic. Which takes another age.
Train pulls out from Dar Es Salam station during dinner. We’ll be rocking and a rolling all the way to Victoria Falls.
