A continuation from part 1 [here]
Once we got on to the bus, we actually needed to organise the next few days and so we did so on the bus and chatted through the options. We did have some details for a safari company and so we wanted to call them. As it happened, TC's mobile from Malawi was locked out and his British one was playing up and very low on battery so we wanted to use mine – all we needed was a SIM card. I had only recently got this particular phone[1] and I knew it was unlocked so I could simply pop a new SIM in and these were readily available from street sellers. As we were going to stop for toilet breaks and food, we could do that later.
The purchase was very simple, the installation a little less so. Although the phone was unlocked at the hardware level, it was locked by the OS (I had a bit of security software installed, by default) and so as soon as a new, unrecognised SIM was inserted, it then locked up and asked for a passcode...
Obviously, I did not know it so I requested a new passcode and what this does (and I did not know this at the time) is send a text to three people from your contact list and if they respond, it will unlock. So, from TC's mobile (running very low on battery) I sent texts to explain what was needed as otherwise getting a strange text from me just after landing in Tanzania might be a little worrying. After a little while longer than I expected (and with VERY good reason[2]) my friend sent through what we needed and so it was unlocked. This was about 4pm and so we really needed to organise the actual safari that was supposedly starting the next day and so TC got on the phone and the company said that they'd meet us at the bus stop to discuss. This was great customer service (no doubt helped with the fact it was low-season).
With that headache out of the way and only some irritating girls listening to terrible music through their mobile phone speakers left as an issue, normal chat continued. It was nice to catch up and there was plenty of opportunity to as, even though it was getting dark, we were still nowhere near Arusha.
My eyesight is not the best, but as it got dark, I really could not see a thing. The coach had no lights inside and the roads, as mentioned earlier, had no lights on them either. The fact I'm writing this would suggest nothing major happened, and it didn't but I was out of my comfort zone.
We eventually reached the bus station at about 11pm (and so we'd been in the dark for about 3 hours!) and there, we were indeed met by the Safari company. Amazing!
They took us to a lodge which was actually really rather pleasant (for the one night we were there) where we discussed what the plan would be, which places to go to and how much it would cost.
Once that had been sorted, we were pretty hungry (I'd not eaten since breakfast) and it was now midnight. We went over the road to a large hotel and asked if they would do us some food, they did and so we ate. it was weird for me to have to get a cab across the street but this was the way it was done, and it seemed fine. And then to bed to be ready again. It was to be the last night in a bed for a few days.
1. It would be lost in Penang a few years later[link]↩
2. The friend in question was actually in hospital - but for pleasant reasons. A little while later, I received another text from him to say that his wife had given birth to a (particularly cute in my opinion) baby girl.↩
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