What a journey! (Arusha to Korogwe)

From Arusha we made our way to Milingano.  Never a particularly easy journey without your own car, however, I made the mistake of choosing the WRONG bus company, which made it ten times worse!  At 730am we were at the busy bus station ready to board the Ngorika bus.  As soon as I saw it I realised I'd made a mistake.  Apart from the Christmas decorations and artificial flowers draped all across the windscreen, there was also an enormous crack, which didn't fill me with confidence about safety! We put our baggage in the hold and found our seats - which happened to be right at the front. Plenty of leg room for Mark but unfortunately that also gave  him a really clear view of all the near misses on the road. I'd rather not see!  While sitting waiting, two men with 'ID' told us we had to pay for the security of our baggage.  I refused as the tickets were cheap but not that cheap, and he wanted 15,000 tsh - about 7 quid!  He later brought it down to 12,000, but I could tell we were getting ripped off.  We were slightly worried though that they might take our bags off the bus or just refuse to go anywhere til we paid.  Fortunately Mark spotted two policemen just by the bus. You should've seen how fast one of the blokes ran when Mark went to talk to them! The police said we should have to pay about 6,000 for both bags, so we did, but actually, I think it was all a scam and we shouldn't have paid anything.  You live and learn!

The journey was not as scary as I thought it might be (maybe cos I wasn't looking) but it seemed to take forever.  We were told that these buses drive too fast but we had the opposite with  this driver.  Every few minutes we'd stop to pick up more people and when we were moving, most of the time the bus wasn't even in gear, just coasting along!  Lesson for today - stick with Scandanvian Express! It may be slightly more expensive but at least its safe and reliable.

Lesson for today - stick with Scandanvian Express! It may be slightly more expensive but at least its safe and reliable.