The things you see when you haven’t got a car in the UK can be mind blowing enough but walking around in Tanzania is something else.

The house that we are staying at the moment is about a 20 minute, uphill walk to the main road. We have done it many times now and, quite honestly, we enjoy it! Except when I’m carrying 3 bags for a road trip! – More on that later!

Our walk takes us through villages where women have set up their stalls hoping to sell a few bananas to anyone passing – we’ve bought some – there are kids playing and shouting ‘wazungu’ (White man) to us as we pass by. What a funny thing to shout! ‘White man!’ I wonder what would happen if we did that walking around our home towns?!? Here, it is the norm. If we had a car, we wouldn’t hear them, we wouldn’t have bought bananas from that little, ramshackle stall.

Once we get to the main road, we can walk into town which takes about 45 minutes and is, potentially, safer or we can get on the local transport – matatu or daladala which could be seen, by some, as insane and unthinkable (15 years ago, I would have been part of that ‘some!’) but it gets you to town much quicker (hopefully) and it costs about 10 pence!! Perhaps that’s why people think it’s insane!!

Getting on bus in the UK is a very civilised affair. You wait in a queue, pay your fair and take a seat. Daladala – not so much! The ‘conductor’ – he doesn’t have a uniform or a ticket machine  – hangs out of the window and bangs on the side to tell the driver to stop! He stops whether the people want to get on or not. We have seen them persuading reluctant travellers to get on board! There are about 15 seats but that doesn’t stop them piling people on – 10 pence is 10 pence!

Even though there are many wazungu in this part of Africa, we have been the only ones of each of our journeys and we get comical looks, and smiles that seem to suggest ‘crazy wazungu!’ But we also get to smile back, ‘dance’ to the ‘inflight’ entertainment and meet new people. If we had a car, we wouldn’t have seen or heard the Tanzanians who travel on daladalas every day.

We’ve also travelled on the back of a motorbike – piki piki (off road I hasten to add! I’m not that insane!) It all adds to the adventure.

Once in town, we can get on with our ‘chores’ – paying for the TV so we can watch the premiership! (And other stuff!) Paying for our internet usage (only took us 5 times before we figured out how to pay it via mobile phone! How things have changed), then sorting out how to pay on a mobile phone in another office, being told to sit and wait and not having a clue what’s happening – if you know Africa, you know what I mean! Going to the ATM and hoping it’s got money in it, waiting for the whirring sound announcing the arrival of you cash is music to your ears.  Food shopping and lunch are always part of the deal on ‘chores Day!’ You just reconcile yourself to the fact that you’ll be out all day.

Beggars hoping you’ll drop a coin in, street hawkers hoping you’ll buy a bracelet or a map, vegetable stalls, cows, chickens and goats all attack our senses as we trundle through town. If we had a car, we would miss so much of this.

By the time we’ve done our chores, we’re ready for home. How shall we get home? Walk – definitely not, daladala? Nah, been there, done that today, piki piki – got too much to carry! (Phew!)   Taxi it is, door to door, service with a smile, costing much more than 10p but worth it every time!

Getting back to the ‘three bag’ comment. Recently we had to go to a conference in a place called Babati. We were going to be away for a few days. Carrying a suitcase from the house to the main road was a ‘no no’ – it’s not a nice smooth road that we could pull the case along on and trying to explain to the driver who would pick us up, where we lived, wasn’t going to happen so, on one of our other wanders through the villages, we passed a man who had a load of holdalls on a bicycle. We made his day – quite possibly, literally – and bought one for £8. ‘We’ll get all our stuff in there! John said confidently – I’m a girl and knew we never would. I was right, of course and this was the reason I was carrying 3 bags and John, drawing the short straw, carrying the over jammed £8 bag plus his man bag.

I have tried over the years to travel light but have accepted, by now, that neither can I nor do I want to. A girl needs her stuff! (Especially in Babati!) So, we left the house looking like two over-loaded donkeys.  We’d been going for about 10 minutes when this man stopped us, he was going in the opposite direction but he told us to wait and he would help us. He gave John his Bible and took the £8 bag off John. ‘Good swap’ I said! I quickly off loaded one of my 3 onto John and we were all better off! We shared the load. If we’d had a car, we wouldn’t have had that man’s help.

Do I want to live without a car in Africa or anywhere for that matter? No I don’t but, for a season, it’s an adventure. You see things you wouldn’t normally see, have conversations you wouldn’t normally have and everything takes a little longer. Plus, if we weren’t car-less at the moment, I wouldn’t have had this blog to write!

Try it sometime, change your perspective. Oh and next time you get on a UK bus, say a prayer for us!!