I definitely cannot bear the thought of a weekend in Morogoro and so I tolerate the five hour journey on a Friday and Monday. Last week I arrived at Morogoro bus station to find a bus about to leave and jumped on it. I couldn’t work out why the man took my ticket, swapped it with another ticket and gave me 2,000Tsh back. I hopped on the bus and then the man pointed to my seat – a cushion on the floor!
So that’s why I got a discount! I had a great view of the on-coming traffic which is not really a benefit as this is the main road form the port to neighbouring countries Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and DRC. This means it is a super busy road and choked with heavy trucks in long lines.
The driver, often with a phone stuck to his ear, overtakes these trucks at speed in a white-knuckle ride. These guys must have x-ray vision because they seem to know that there are no trucks coming around the corner and overtake without being able to see the road.
At the weighbridge the coach stopped and us you were on the floor had to get out and walk past the weighbridge and get back on the bus later. We did this again just before a police road check. I realised then that the driver was getting calls from others and warning him of police checks. I guess he doesn’t want to get into trouble for overloading the bus. This is why I got my 2,000Tsh (less than £1) discount – for all the on-off activity.
The bus terminates at the new Magufuli Bus Station within four hours. But the station is so far out of Dar that it takes another hour and another 20,000Tsh to get to Masaki and home. So the whole journey is around 5 hours and it is quite normal to see crashes en-route – scary when you’re sitting on the floor.
The journey is not great but I am prepared to do it every week because Morogoro has nothing to offer a foreigner and Dar is the big bright cosmopolitan city with beaches and croissant. Perfect.