Tanzania: Morogoro to Dar Es Salaam

Wednesday 11th March (Tanzania)

Morogoro to Dar Es Salaam:  

Up and away by 9.15 am. The hotel was comfortable and breakfast was good; fruit, tea & toast. The journey to Dar Es Salaam was on a good tarred road. The only downside was the number of police check points. Sometimes we got waved through but on a few occasions we were stopped. The first one wanted to see our fire extinguisher and red triangles. We had both of them although I was surprised at the extinguisher request. 

Perhaps it is a law that cars carry them in Tanzania. It might be better though if they had a roadworthy test because most would surely fail it. I had requests at two police checks for gifts from South Africa. Having explained we didn’t have anything, we were waved on our way. We have regularly given cold drinks and snacks to various people in remote posts but please don't ask! When we got to Dar, just after 3.5 hours, we headed for the Peninsula Hotel in Oyster Bay.

Thanks to the GPS, it took us right to the door. We had hoped to stay there but as we hadn’t made a definite booking, we happened on one of the busiest small hotels so far. It was full. Also, we had hoped to meet Justin, a friend of MP &  Kevin’s in Marbella. He used to own O’Willies Pub in Marbella & has now moved to Tanzania and opened a pub of the same name there. It seems very popular. 

We headed for Movenpick but it was also full so off we went, armed with our GPS and found the Heritage Hotel, a short distance away. We got our secure parking and two nice rooms and went out to explore. We went to the ferry terminal to enquire about tickets to Zanzibar. We were mobbed by hustlers trying to sell tickets for the various sailing and by the time we found the official ticket box, we were pretty hot. I saw the fare was $40 each way per person, but suddenly he wants a large amount extra because we want to pay in Shillings. 

Very unacceptable, so we wandered away for a while. Another hustler was ofering us a good Dollar rate if we wanted his dollars. Definitely not wise to buy $100 dollar bills from a street hustler in Africa. End result, on good advice from John Coleman in the UK, was that it was not worth doing the trip for such a short time. So, we’ve shelved that little side trip and probably saved ourselves huge amounts of hassle at both ends. We’ll put it to good use somehow, tomorrow. Thank you for that sound advice John, especially as you’ve recently visited there.

We went back to O’Willies for dinner & had delicious fish & chips. We waited until Justin came in at 1015pm and said hi to him. As it was Karaoke night, it was going to be very busy, as was he, so we said our goodbyes soon after and headed for the hotel. Almost back at the hotel, a slight error was made at the last roundabout and we took the wrong exit, entering a one way street the wrong way. I wonder how many do that because suddenly there are 3 very excitable cops running out to stop us. 

The street was empty and the signs so bad, you couldn’t see it anyway. I was told that it was a Ts60,000 ($50) fine for this but we could settle it for 50,000 and avoid going to the police station. I explained that as we were strangers in town and it really was a very minor offense, they should just forget it, as it was an easy mistake to make. Well, maybe we could come down to 40,000, I was told. No, was my answer again. They kept telling me we’d have to go to the police station so I just kept saying, 'lets do it then', because I don’t do street dealing. 

One of my real hates in life, from all my travel, is any form of corruption. Not the best holiday to choose then, I'm sure some people are saying! 

End result was that they settled for 3 cold cans of coke out of our fridge & then told me to continue the wrong way up the street, and turn left. No way, I turned around and found the right way back to the hotel. By now, I’d really had my fill of corrupt cops.

Back to the hotel in time to watch Manchester United beat AC Milan, live on TV. Then to sleep.