Dar to Arusha

From Dar to Arusha

According to the guidebook and bus office, the ride from Dar es Salaam to Arusha is about 10 hours, so e left Sunday mornng at 8:30, expecting to arrive around 7pm in Arusha here we ould someho fnd a taxi to take us to our hotel- Sakina Camp. Then, our safari guide ould pick us up at our hotel. Sounds easy enough, right?

ell, about two hours outside of Dar the bus broke don. Somethiing as up ith the gears and the bus driver sad t ould be at least 2 hours for the part to get there from town and another half hour to fx it. At least he managed to limp into a gas station that was next to a restaurant and toilets! Froody and had drnks and food at the restaurant, used the toilets a couple of tmes, and had no choice but to ait patiently as the 2 hours turned nto 3 hours turned into 5 hours before the bus as fixed! So, it was about midnight when e arrived in Arusha (arrgh! Don't walk around town after dark!!) and not only us but every tourist as a bit concerned about gettng taxs and places to sleep. Fortunaqtely a oman from Maryland as returnng to Arusha to visitr some famly and she and her brothers (some big men!) got Froody and I and a couple of Brits a taxi to take us to a hotel. Sadly, not our cheap hostel/campsite but a really nice hotel here one of the Brits had a reservation and he had managed to call ahead and tell them about hs late arrival (something we tred to do but failed, as the phone numbers we had ddn't ork). So, e got a private double but paid about 3x more money than e had planned, but didn't care b/c no we could sleep! And, breakfast was included!

Only problem was that now we had to alert the safar company that e eren't at Sakina CAmp but at the Arusha Cron! Man, this trip, especially now, has made it clear that we could really use a cell phone. :-( Luckly, Monday morning, the receptionst let us use his phone, after e alked don a block to buy a phone card, to call the emergency number to our safari company and let them kno where we were.

*sorry for bad typing, but still on same compy. Also, no pix as Froody is still uploading them. Try checking his site for a ton of pix!