Day 6 – East Coast to Dar es Salaam: Not Tomorrow

The news came on Instagram. On the morning we were meant to make our way back to Dar and catch the Tazara the following day, I checked the train’s page and found that it would not be leaving on Friday after all. One day late, before it had even started. The Tazara had managed to delay us before we even boarded, and had told us so itself on Instagram over breakfast.

There was a strange relief in it. With nowhere we urgently had to be, we pushed the ferry back from early afternoon to a late-afternoon crossing and gave the morning back to Bwejuu: a long breakfast, a last few swims, a final walk along the beach that becomes a road, while the tide was still out and the scooters were still crossing it.

Simba was waiting in front of the bungalow again, as he had been the evening before. This time he won. After all his persistence, I finally bought a single beaded bracelet from him, one I would lose weeks later, kayaking on Lake Malawi. He packed up his cloth of anklets and carvings and moved along the sand, satisfied, or at least done with us.

For the return, we took a private transfer across the island rather than the dala-dala. The road ran backwards through everything we had come in past, town, then plantation, then forest, then market.

The ferry to Dar was a harder crossing than the one over. The sea was up, the boat was full, and a lot of people were unwell. The crew went up and down the aisles at something close to a run, handing out sick bags to anyone who needed one, and the air inside the cabin was not good. What redeemed it was the arrival. Dar announces itself from a long way off, the towers along the harbour rising out of the haze, and we came in at sunset with the whole skyline lit against the water.

Coming back to Luther House felt like coming home, which is a peculiar thing to feel about a place you have stayed once. We knew the desk, the terrace, the view over the port, and we knew, now, about the choir. They had put us in the same suite but higher up this time, with a wider view and, we hoped, a little more distance from the church next door. We already suspected the hope was misplaced.

The delay meant the train bag could wait. Instead of packing water and snacks and toilet paper for a departure that was no longer happening, we made a different plan: to spend the unexpected extra day seeing the city properly, the Dar we had so far only crossed in taxis and passed through on the way to somewhere else.

For dinner we went to Level 8, the rooftop bar of the Hyatt Regency, a short walk from the hostel, up above the city with the harbour spread out in the dark below. It is a glossy room. A number of very beautiful young women were there in the company of much older men. Lorena had theories. I had a Kilimanjaro. The burger was medium and the Kilimanjaro beer was cold, and the view did most of the work.

Tomorrow, instead of a train, there would be a city.

Practical Notes

Where I stayed

Back at Luther House Hostel, Edward Sokoine Drive, central Dar (full details in Day 2). Same suite as before, a floor higher, with a wider view over the port.

Where I ate

Level 8, rooftop bar and restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam, a short walk from Luther House.
What I ate: a burger (medium) and a cold Kilimanjaro beer.
What I paid: around $20 for the burger and beer. Five-star-hotel prices, but really you are paying for the view.
My take: go for the view rather than the food. The night panorama over the city and harbour is the reason to be up there.

Getting there

Bwejuu to Stone Town: private transfer across the island, $70.
Stone Town to Dar es Salaam by ferry: fare $77. Scheduled 13:30 to 14:50; we moved ours to a 16:00 to 17:45 crossing. The compulsory $44 Zanzibar insurance paid on the way out also covered the return, with nothing more to pay. The sea was rough and many passengers were seasick; our outward crossing, spent on the outside deck, was far more comfortable than this return one inside the cabin.
Useful: follow the Tazara on Instagram. That is where we learned, the morning before, that our departure had slipped by a day. For a train with a reputation for delays, it is worth checking before you commit to getting to the station.