The Joys of Public Transport in Africa

On this African adventure my companions and I have vowed to use public transport almost entirely; buses (long distance and local), minibuses, ferry boats and trucks.

The advantages of public transport are of course the cheap price but also the experience of rubbing elbows with locals (although this can be both enjoyable and unpleasant..)  Some of the disadvantages of pub trans include long waiting periods, infrequent bathroom stops and losing all of the feeling in your ass.

The Bus

The majority of our progress thus far has been made using the long distance bus.  I will have to check with Nora to be sure about the travel times but here they are roughly:

Jo-burg (SA) – Gaborone (Bots) : 5 hrs

Gabs – Palapye : 3 hrs 

Palapye – Maun : 4 hrs

Maun – Nata : 3 hrs

Livingstone (Zam) – Lusaka : 6 hrs

Lusaka (Zam) – Lilongwe (Malawi) : 14 hrs

Lilongwe – Mzuzu : 6 hrs (it was supposed to be 4 but the bus got a flat tire)

Mbeya (Tanzania) – Dar es Salaam : 12 hrs

That’s alot of time on a bus.  Mostly bus rides aren’t that interesting, but once in a while something notable will happen.  In Malawi a volunteer typically leads the passengers in prayer before setting off.  I don’t know if this occurs because of the devout religious faith of Malawians or because of their fear that the bus won’t reach its destination…

In Botswana if you arrive late or get on the bus when its already full you’re left standing in the aisle until a seat opens up – if a seat opens up. 

The only bus ride so far that has featured live animals was in Tanzania (unless you consider cockaroaches to be live animals, in which case we also encountered some on a Zambian bus), and it was what I believe to be a single chicken discreetly concealed in a small cardboard box.   I wouldn’t have even noticed it except for the box’s makeshift airholes and the soft clucking noise that emanated from within, which definitely indicated the presence of a fowl.  Also in Tanzania we saw two goats tied to the top of a tanker truck.

Then there are hawkers selling everything from airtime to to bananas to cheap fashion jewlerly and shoes.  They swarm the bus stations and ranks – and in TZ even the places where the bus even slows down for more than 10 seconds.  The hawkers in Botswana are the most aggressive while those in TZ have the widest variety of goods, offering their wares up to the high bus windows on spiked sticks or boxes balanced on their heads.

Minibuses

Knowns as “taxis” in South Africa – they can be some of the most cramped and uncomfortable means of long distance transportation – however I would still prefer them over riding in the back of a truck.

Maun – Bush Camp (Bots) : 1 hour

Mzuzu – Nkhata Bay and back (malw): 4 hrs

Mzuzu – Chitimba: 2 hrs

Chitimba Malawi – Tanzanian border: 2 hrs

After crossing the TZ border and walking about 1 km, we got on a vehicle of Chinese origin that I do not feel can be correctly classified as either bus or minibus – but somewhere in between.  We took this what-what from the border post to Mbeya and the trip was about 2 hours.

Our first minibus experience with all our crap was in Botswana – and it was pretty comical since we all have about as much stuff as we can carry.   The minibuses there don’t have any space for luggage in the back so you have to hold everything on your lap – and the laps of whatever people happen to be unlucky enough to be sitting beside you in the front row.

The minibuses we rode in later had room in the back for our packs.  Not that this meant they were any more comfortable….

Add : Space for luggage

Subtract : leg room between rows, all seat padding and consequently all feeling in one’s ass after about 30 minutes.

Trucks

Don’t worry Mom, it isn’t exactly the same as hitch-hiking…not all the time anyway

Nata (Bots) – Livingstone (Zam) : 8 hrs

Chitimba – Livingstonia (Malawi) : 30 mins

Following a 3-4 hour bus ride from Maun via Nata, Botswana we arrived at a petrol station in no-man’s-land only to find there was no connecting bus to the Zambian border…

Meghan, our intrepid little negotiator arranged a lift for us in the back of a man’s pick-up truck all the way to our final destination in Livingstone, Zambia.  Our fellow traveler in the truck was a lone Japanese man who appeared out of  seemed somewhat out of place without the usual gaggle of sun-protected, picture-snapping countrymen.

Sun protection was something my friends and I all could have used a bit more of on this leg of the trip.  Pigmently-challenged Nora covered herself with every article of clothing she could manage to grab out of her backpack at high speed, while I arrived partially sunburnt (failing to re-apply Block appropriately).  Meghan, who generally laughs in the face of sunblock was burnt to a crisp and subsequently peeled in a bizarre pattern which gave her the appearance of suffering from a rare skin disease for several weeks.

Ferry Boats

We haven’t had to take very many of these so far.  The first trip was pretty short and uneventful by itself

Bots – Zam border crossing, Zambezi river : 10 mins

The second trip from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar Island (4 hours) was a bit more interesting due to high waves and barfing children.  There was no barfing Amber though – Thank God for seasickness pills!

We head back to mainland TZ today from Zanzibar…so we’ll be able to add a few more hours to the ferry total!

Hello Africa!

On October 6th I set out from Johannesburg for my much anticipated trip North through Africa with fellow travel companions and South African RPCVs Meghan, Mayerlin and Nora.

The original plan was to end in Kenya – but there may be some additions to the itinerary including possibly Ethiopia and/or Madagascar – although this is still uncertain.  In any case the trip so far has been action packed!

I’ve recently acquired a journal to write in so that I can still post on my blog…writing beforehand helps since internet access thus far has been spotty and sometimes expensive.  There’s so much that I want to write down before I forget!