Up before dawn to get a taxi to our bus. We got to the station to find that they'd only reserved one seat for us! Luckily there were two seats extra, but unluckily it was the back row - right over the wheels. Our seats made the first hour out of Dar very uncomfortable (it's a very rough road) - I think my back is going to have some problems tomorrow. The trip made for a very long day on the bus - nearly twelve hours! On the bus we met an English couple, Ian and Claire who are also heading for Malawi.
In Mbeya the four of us checked out the bus situation for tomorrow - there are no buses going through the border so we'll have to catch a bus and walk across and then hopefully catch another bus on the Malawi side. There were some touts who really wanted to sell us a ticket for their 6:30 bus going all the way to the border. We tentatively agreed to come back in the morning. We caught a taxi to the mission that sounded like our best bet for accommodation. At the guest house we looked at the rooms - cute enough and reasonably priced - so we agreed to take them. We then asked about the toilets and were told they were in the rooms - looked again and sure enough each room had it's own bathroom - with hot water! Amy was so surprised she was convinced I was joking and kept asking if we really had hot water. Later when I sat down on the bed I got another surprise - the beds had incredibly soft feather beds on them!
It being Sunday there was no food available at the center so the four of us set off on a quest for dinner. Ended up at the Esso gas station a twenty minute walk down the road - it was the only thing open. It was also packed and turned out to be quite good.
