Tanzania: Lushoto

We got a local bus from Moshi to Lushoto in the mountains. It is a coach, so not too bad. It went right up next to the Kenyan border.

Of course it broke down, or the gears stopped working but nothing a bit of elbow grease couldn’t fix!

There were lots of kids on the bus. Toddlers. They didn’t make a peep in the 6 hours. There is no way a Western child would stay quiet. Why is that?

An older lady got on and basically sat on Hs lap! When a toddler got on, they were just shoved onto the lap of a random lady. It must be the norm here.

And a sales guy got on a talked at everyone for literally an hour, non stop. Selling toothpaste, soap, toger balm etc. So random. People did buy off him though, maybe to stop him wanging on at everyone!

Last night we all felt a bit discombobulated. Our hotel was a bit meh. We paid 5 dollars each for the night, so what do you expect! It was def a sleep sheet night and no bags near the beds (bed bug fear!). It was nice, we all acknowledged it and talked about some self care we can do. Maybe a movie night, games night etc. And the kids did some rough housing together which helped too.

We arrived in Lushoto which is a small town in the mountains. Not Nepal mountains, but high ground. We definitely stick out here, no tourists at all. But lots of buses come through here.

Our homestay (on Airbnb here) is a simple set up. H is on a sofa (he loves it!) And we have our own separate bedroom. Woo hoo! I can’t tell you how good some privacy is! It is a really simple room, which is fine, but I’m getting tired of slightly manky places to stay. Now we are on the final stretch. But we can’t spend a fortune on hotels because 6 months!

Got pizza from the local ‘western’ place. It was actually really good pizza!

Wednesday 9th August
Last night, poor C had croup badly again. So she was in our bed and I slept in her bed.

We did a 12km walk today which we enjoyed. We were of two minds after C had croup, but decided to crack on anyway. I’m sure exercise is good for us all. We walked to Irente viewpoint which was stunning, stunning!

We got a little lost and asked a woman the directions. She said oh its 5000 shillings each for the view point. We were like, no way. She was just trying her luck. Everyone does that here. The bus guy tried to charge us for our bags in the hold. We told him where to stick it. Haha! We are too wise and cynical now!

Lunch was nice buuuut took 2 hours. True Tanzania timings. So we had to bust it back home at 3pm so we were back for Ts work call. Lovely day though, we are all nicely tired.

Thursday 10th August
Woke up to rain rain rain. Its the first time on gap year its rained off us going outside. So we went for lunch when it stopped. A local spot which was really good. T had fish and ‘ugale’ which is what everyone eats here. Ground cassava with water in a large dumpling format. No flavour at all. It’s as nice as you can imagine! Like everywhere here, it was meant to be quick but took 1.5 hours!

Then we went to Kisasa waterfall. Only 6kms in total. It was down a massive steep steps. Ugh. Then we got down there and they were going to rip us off. Kids were free so we told them to go and take some pics for us, haha! You could see enough of the waterfall on the way down.

Got home, got takeaway pizza, crashed to bed!

Friday 11th August
Did a 13km guided walk today up to a viewpoint. Very long walk, lots of uphill. Kids did brilliantly (with some sweet bribes!). Guide was okay, not amazing.

Had to scramble down this hill!

Everyone in these tiny villages would come out and say welcome (Karibou)! I love Tanzania. One family had some kid goats, only 1 month old, that the kids got to hold. Cute!

Got back, dinner in our homestay and bed.

Saturday 12th August

Got the bus from Lushoto to Dar es Salaam. We are stopping there for a night before we catch our flight to Mafia island.

I was the one that put a spanner in the works on the island choice! We had booked Zanzibar but it’s really really touristy there so I wanted to find somewhere a bit more remote. Once you are on a flight too, you may as well as go fairly far. I spotted Mafia island on a map, turns out it has a Marine Park and has some of the best snorkelling in the world. Sold! It has been a total pain in the ass to organise because we are flying back to the UK from Zanzibar. But we’ve made it work with what appears to be a charter flight on a teeny tiny plane (sounds terrifying!).

Bus ride was around 8 hours all in. I wanted to vom within the first half hour so it was a veery interesting journey. Luckily just me and not the kids! We have our airplane sick bags we have picked up along the way so I had back up (didn’t need it, just!).

Our Airbnb in Dar is very nice, quite Western but in a random part of town where the lady said don’t go out at night. Oh lovely! Actually everyone says to us Dar is dodgy. Ah well. We got a takeaway and are just heading to the airport tomorrow.