Sat 22nd & Sun 23rd July
Travel day. 9 hour flight from Denpasar to Doha, then 6 hours to Kilimanjaro airport. The guy who checked in our bags had never even heard of the airport and we were certainly the first to fly the route on his watch! Miraculously our bags actually made it, and we weren’t delayed at all.
Doha airport was PACKED at 1am. I mean flights leaving every 10 mins. People picking up god, luxury handbags etc. Crazy! There was this spot where the kids could burn off some energy.
After we landed we got a taxi for an hour to Arusha. Jump off point for safaris. We are all so freaking tired and jet lagged. Barely got a bean of sleep overnight! Grabbed an hour’s zzs got some lunch in our hotel. Its v sweet here, bit of greenery and a small pool.
We booked a walking tour of Arusha in the afternoon. It is a tiny place with nothing really of note. But our tour guide Scott, was great for introducing us to the culture, answering questions about what’s what.
It’s basically a jump off point for safaris so noone really does much here.
The town was cool though, we had a wander. Picked up some street food. Some deep fried donuts and rice flour donuts. And a chip omelette. My new hangover food go to! And some mangoes and apples, our stalwarts.
First impressions, it’s cooold! Gawd I left my leggings back in Java. More fool me! We are at 1400m and it is their cool season. Like Egypt, we’ll be wearing the same clothes for a while! I think it’s much hotter in some of the national parks. Really lovely to have the cool weather again 😎
Monday 24th July
Oof proper raining today. So weird. Not sure how to handle this. Haha. T and I have nothing to wear. Kids have their jackets so as long as they are okay then it’s good.
Today we did a jewellery making class which we looooved. The kids get so much joy from making things!
I made some beaded earrings, T some keyrings, H a leather and stone necklace, and C some stone earrings. We ate delish food of beans and chapati. It was a joy to have a meal without rice, first time in 4 months!
It has been set up as an NGO, by his mum, to help people in their community. So they make items to sell. I bought a nice blanket for our living room at home.
It was interesting chatting to our guide. He was so laissez faire about malaria! He was like oh yeah the malaria I had at Lake Victoria was the worst. Everyone treats it like the flu!
Did some home school in the afternoon. Even 5 months in, its a wriggle and a squirm. C simply hates it, esp as she has more to do than H. Meaning she still has 1 maths topic to go, but H finished his curriculum ages ago so he’s working on a year 3 workbook. Which is hard for her.
For dinner we went to a street food place called Khan’s BBQ. We got there and it was run by an Indian family. We saw the jalebi and the kids were so happy to see food they recognised (and love!). Jalebi is a deep fried, orange coloured, sugar syrup infused sweet treat. Lovely meal, salads, meat, chapati. Delish. Really expensive though, definitely paid the tourist price of nearlt 25 quid! For a meal that was eaten street side, we were shocked. We don’t spend that anywhere! But Tanzania is a tourist destination so they charge the tourist price. Also, we are aware that Asia is the cheapest place in the world to travel. So we don’t resent it, we are just getting used to it!
Tuesday 25th July
Today we did a day trip to Arusha National Park. To do a walking safari (no lions, so you are safe to do so!) And a canoe trip. Again, a v expensive day at around 400 dollars. The national parks are super expensive to go into though which is a lot of the cost.
The park is around an hour away from Arusha. Drove to the walking bit where we had a great guide, Johanna. He has a gun for our walk. He said he doesn’t use it, its to scare the animals rather than kill them. I asked him when he last used it and he said 2 weeks ago (wish I hadn’t asked!).
We are surprised at how cold it is here in Arusha. The park was rainy, cloudy and cold. Lovely! Went to see a waterfall. And the highlight was seeing giraffes really close up. Like really close. Because there are no predators, they are used to humans and not scared of them. Amazing.
What’s interesting about the water here is it’s really high in fluoride so the locals have to drink it BUT it makes your bones weak and your teeth brown. So you can clearly see people who grew up in this area. They don’t have a choice so it’s tragic. It lowers life expectancy because of your brittle bones.
Ts spirit animal, the pumba
Cs face when she saw flamingos for the first time was brilliant- she was like wow, this is on my bucket list!
Then went to the canoe which was no great shakes, but good to get out and about, fresh air. And we had a race at the end which the kids enjoyed.
All in all a lovely day but a long one! Had dinner at a local place which our canoe guy goes to. The food was good. Veggie curry and chapati.
Team Mossy on the move 