The 1000 Day Holiday

Note: this is not a moan/whinge, Just for my recollection of details, and some of it was enjoyable!

• 5:30am Check in. Somethings up. My bus is the only one without internal lights on
• 5:45am Departure time. They are attempting to push start the bus. (unsealed, uneven, rocky bus park)
• 6:20am. Success, congratulations the 60seater bus has an engine!
• 6:22am. Realise there is a 1 of 2 windows missing from the frame beside me. And its cold & dusty
• 6:30am. Success, using my pack clipped to the curtain, and wedging myself against the remainder of the curtain. its stopping most of the wind.
• 6.38am. Eveyone in the back of the bus is moved to the front 1/2 in the aisle. The conductor says this is the way its done in Tanzania. We are at the weighbridge
• 6:44am. Bus doesnt sound ok. loud clanking. Bus stops on the road
• 6.50am. Theres guys underneath, striking metal no metal.
• 7:15am. look out my window, and the bus driveshaft is being loaded into a matatu. along with all the bus staff. It drives away. Is this included in the Travel time allowance of 6 hours?
• 7:40am. Wish I’d charged my ipod. battery is low.
• 10:04am. D Joints for driveshaft arrive on a matatu. Still need the actual driveshaft
• 10:40am. RIP ipod
• 11:15 Salvation, a guy with sugar cane is cycling past, and someone stops him (yes someone had to stop him. This is not india!).
• 12:20. 10c well spent for 1hrs entertainment trying to eat raw sugar cane + juicy goodness
• 12:25. Apparently the drive shaft has been made. Just waiting for it to arrive.
• 12:45. Twende! (lets go). The bus is push started in 4 attempts.
• 1pm We leave the tarmac.
• 1:01pm. I realise the reason why there is only 1 window in the frame. All parts of the frame vibrate independently to each other and the wall of the bus. The other  window has obviously previously imploded.
• I didn’t know glass could withstand such violent vibration. If i had a decibel meter, i would have verified. but my guess the glass was creating ~90 to ~110db banging when vibrating. At a max distance of 40cm to my ear.
• Concerned that the glass is going to shatter, and slice my arm to bits, when in the middle of dusty nowhere!
• Thinking of how I packed my earplugs in my pack (under the bus)
• The ‘road’ is made of dust. like sand, but finer and easily airborne. Everything is covered in red dust.
• 5:45pm. We arrive in Tabora
• later on realizing my travel pack (earplugs) was in the bottom of my day bag all along.DOH! Priceless