Tanzania: Bus to Mozambique

We just arrived in Nampula, Mozambique today after about 5 days of crazy travel. We took a 15 hour bus to Dar es Salem, Tanzania. We passed Mt. Kilimongaro and were very close to the Sarangetti Animal Reserve on the way. The bus was actually very nice. We left Nairobi, Kenya at 7am and we didn't arrive till 10 pm. We didn't get much sleep though because we left the hotel at 4am to get on another bus to the south to get to the boarder town near Mozambique.

This bus was very crazy and we were packed in. Most of the road was dirt because they haven't completed the new road so it was really bumby and really wiped us out.


Coralee had been such a good sport about all the difficult traveling without much sleep I (Jason) actually splurged and we stayed at an amazing resort in the Tanzanian border town of Mtwara. It was litterally the best place I've ever stayed. The rooms were clean and the restruant was nice too but what made it so amazing was it was right on the beach. And this is the kind of beach that you see in the Magazines or on TV Specials. It was so beautiful and it was all natural coastline! So we spent two nights and just relaxed there all day. Even I (Jason) relaxed. We walked on the beach, read our books while listening to the waves, went for a swim and had a great dinner. Oh, the dinner service is hillarious in Tanzania. It took us 2 hours to get our dinner after we ordered! (The above pic was taken from the front porch of our chalet!)

Well Paradise vanashed the next day. We tried to cross the border into Mozambique. After paying $25 for a 1 hour Taxi ride on a dirt road to the boarder we had to pay $20 to take the boat across. The price was $15 but it went up when we got in!


Then we had to get in the back of a 4x4 Truck and hang on for 4 hours in the blazing sun. It was super crowded and we were beat up. But it gets worse. After we arrived at the guest house they changed the price on us here too. It was supposed to be $20 but now they wanted $25 and they seemed like if we didn't pay them they were going to mess with us. So we did... So it was really a frustrating day and we've decided we never want to cross that border again! Oh, the place we stayed was a super dive with stuff in the toilet that stayed even when you flushed. It smelled horrible, was sweaty, and had no water. It was a dive.

Well today finally improved some. Although we had to wake up at 3:30am to catch the bus we got padded seats for today's 11 hour off road bus ride. About 20 people on the bus were standing the whole time so we felt blessed. But I had to hold it the whole time because if you tried to get off to go to the bathroom you lost your seat!

Well we're in Nampula two days early so hopefully our hosts are OK with our early arrival. We're here to see what NTM is doing and are praying about getting involved here.