2011 – Mikumi: Tan-Swiss

The nights here are not peaceful. Firstly there are the trucks barrelling past and they seem to have the need to hoot right outside. Then there is the music from the town, piped through a 1950’s sound system, so it sounds all tinny and static and the dogs then feel they have to compete, so they bark and howl at the music. The party shuts down and the dogs go to sleep around two in the morning. At five, the sound system is taken over for a Muslim prayer service, complete with music and prayer, naturally this wakes up the hens and we now have a constipated cock competing with the prayer service. We got up early, decided to stay another day and go into the park again.

I had decided that I had harped on enough about the roads we were travelling and the truck drivers, so forgive me. It is only a 10km drive into the park; 3km down the road was an overturned truck, this had just happened as the flickers were still going, the drivers were out and fine. Then another 5km on, right in front of us we saw this oil tanker swerve over a speed bump, lose control, the tanker section rolled taking the cab with it. It looked like the whole incident had taken place in slow motion. The drivers climbed out the cab and some Tanzanians had stopped, so there was not much we could do to help and we were not that happy to stick around a smoking oil tanker. We checked on statistics and road deaths account for one of the highest causes deaths in Tanzania.

We were pretty relieved to be amongst the herds of animals in the park. It was particularly beautiful this morning as there were dark rain clouds over the mountains and the sun had broken through to cast the most striking lighting over the savannah. We decided to travel further into the park – bad decision. This was another of the marshy, long grassed areas and with it came the dreaded tsetse fly. About 10 of them zoomed into the car, trying to swot these little buggers off is better than any gym class. If we introduced tsetse to Sandton, all the Planet Fitness’s would close down. We closed our windows, turned around and headed back to the grasslands. Gray looks beautiful, he has this big welt on his forehead and another under his arm and on his legs, clearly my gym skills are better than his and I came out fairly unscathed (to be fair he was trying to drive and swot at the same time).

We crossed the main road onto the other side of the park to check out Vuma Hills and the Selous Road. There is a lodge at Vuma Hills and we stopped in to see if we could gather more information on the road down south. The Parks board officials had warned us that the one route was impassable and didn’t have much info on the other. The lodge manager had no further info but showed us around the lodge and the spectacular views of bush from the hill.

This afternoon while I tackled a particularly difficult ‘killer Sudoku, Graeme went into planning mode. I have given up; he changes his mind more than his jocks – not a good analogy – as he goes commando on holiday. After hours of web surfing, I was informed of his latest plan. We were no longer going south; we were heading up to do the Northern circuit of parks. The initial plan was to take the kids up there after Zanzibar but the costs are exorbitant and the park roads are reported to be very badly rutted. His idea is to do a reccie to see if it is worth schlepping them up there. This is this evening’s decision; we will see what tomorrow holds.

The oil tanker accident

Sun on the savannah

Some chilled game

Day 50: 3/06/2011 – Mikumi: Tan-Swiss

This morning we did, what we call, camp admin – it’s really like house cleaning; washing, checking on the fridge to see what might have gone vrot and cleaning it, checking nothing has leaked or crawled into the food boxes, giving the car a tidy up and so on. It also includes real admin like checking e-mails, confirming bookings for the Dar/Zanzibar part of the trip and blogging.

After an early lunch we headed into the Mikumi National Park. The park is in the northern section of the vast Selous ecosystem and is easily accessible from the main road. The vast, flat grassland savannah areas of this section of the park are enclosed in a horse shoe of mountain ranges. The grasslands are host to huge herds of game. This, at last, is what I pictured the African bush to look like. The herds of impala and buffalo run well into the hundreds. There are herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, giraffe and elephant. As we travelled further into the bush, the aim to visit a dam with an unpronounceable name, we encountered this tall grass that literally enveloped the car. The only way we could see anything would be if it dropped out of the sky in front of the car. The dam after all, proved a little disappointing and as the alternate road was closed we had to fight our way back through the fountains of grass.

Back in the savannah areas we were again in awe of the wonderful herds of animals. We came across a watering hole and were fortunate enough to see a breeding herd of ellie come down to drink. We must have sat for an hour watching the herd, from the old matriarch to the tiniest little one come down to drink. Some of the younger ellie took to chasing the ducks round the dam and bokking some zebra that also came down to drink. The amazing thing about the game in Tanzania is how relaxed they all are, compared to the skitsie animals in Kafue in Zambia. Besides the great game viewing, the birding here is spectacular; we saw a flock of ground hornbill, superb starlings (endemic to this area), white browed coucal and numerous others.

This evening we decided to try out the swiss section of the menu, it’s kind of weird eating rosti and schnitzel in Africa. The evening was again dedicated to trying to decide on the route ahead, this is the first time we have been this undecided. Our first prize on choosing our route and accommodation is based on people we meet or lodge owners/managers who know the area ahead. We also do research in books, use maps and the internet is a big help; we use blogs of people travelling the area and 4×4 sites. However, the trip we are trying to get info on seems an unknown and untravelled area.

Part of buffalo herd

Eland

Ellies

Day 49: 2/06/2011 – Riverside Camp to Mikumi

Whatever decision we make regarding the route, we still have to a few days to make up our minds as we have to travel east to Morogoro and then either take the rough road south through Selous Game Reserve or the long road east to Dar and then down south to Kilwa.

Today our trip was a 200km stretch north east to Mikumi. It took us 4 hours along the scenic Udzungwa Mountains. The descent down the pass was absolutely beautiful, unfortunately, again, we were hounded by trucks and busses. It is absolutely mind blowing the way these vehicles are driven. Monster trucks and busses, filled with passengers, overtake slower trucks on blind bends and rises on these narrow mountain passes. This is in between avoiding the accidents and broken down ones. Today, in one of the towns, a truck overtook us on a pedestrian crossing, over a solid white line, in front of the cops and this is all totally acceptable. I will never moan about S.A. taxi drivers ever again.

As the pass descends, the scenery changes from these amazing green forest areas into baobab forests. We passed through the town of Mikumi and headed to the reserve gate. The main road stretches through 50km of park land and we saw herds of ellie from the main road. We had thought of camping in the reserve but for no facilities, we have to pay US$80 entrance fee and US$60 for camping for 1 day. We travelled back 10km to the town and booked into Tan-Swiss for US$10. Tan-Swiss is a lodge and camp site owned by a Swiss guy and his Tanzanian wife (wonder how they came up with the name???). It is a busy place, with tourists stopping off overnight to break the long journey along the main Dar-Mbeya road. To the huge trucks and tourists that travel through to Zambia, the road is known as the TanZam Road. The camping facilities here are good and the open restaurant area is a mixture of kitch, but fun murals of the Swiss Alps and the African bushveld. The restaurant menu caters for all nationalities and is extremely reasonable, so guess where we had dinner.

Education in Tanzania:

In Iringa I chatted to some of the local people as well as a white teacher who teaches in a rural area outside Iringa. There is less evidence of school buildings along the roads than there is in Zambia and Malawi. However, there seem to be many schools in the towns and most children we see are dressed in school uniform. There are also a number of private schools in the towns. Apparently, due to some debt relief a few years ago, a number of new schools have been built throughout the country. Again the main problem is lack of qualified teachers and the size of the classes. Children are ultimately expected to learn 3 languages; their local tribal language is taught and spoken at home, Swahili is taught at primary school level and all high school tuition is in English. The problem being that the standard of English of a lot of the teachers is poor. The second problem is the cost, not only of the education itself but also the hidden costs of uniforms, books and stationary. The people of Tanzania can either speak English or not, there is no in between and this is because those that can have attended secondary school, there is also a stigma attached to those that have not.

The Mountain Pass

Tan-Swiss Restaurant

Day 48: 1/06/2011 – Chogela Camp to Riverside Camp – Iringa

Sitting around the fire last night- more for ‘atmosfire’ than the need for heat, as even the nights here are extremely warm – we commented on how peaceful it was. We are less than a stone’s throw away from the local village; there are no fences, no big dogs and no security. Probably our only slight concern might have been the ellie that wonders down to the river to drink. In S.A. we would probably think twice before camping in our own back yard – that’s an exaggeration but I wouldn’t camp in the park area outside our back fence.

The 100km drive down to the Riverside Camp was short and pleasant, barring the badly rutted road. The Riverside is extremely pleasant, with green lawns, shady trees and nice ablutions. Although we are the only campers, there are a number of tented bandas (thatched tented chalets) that are occupied. The place is fairly busy and most of the thatched boma areas are occupied by students. The main attraction of the camp is that they offer Swahili language courses. Students can take anything from 1 week to a 4 month course in the language. Most of the students are from the USA, Britain and Germany. They seem fairly taken by our rooftop tent and we have had comments like, “look at that cute little camper” and “neat house”.

After sorting out our accommodation, we headed 14km back up the ‘dreaded taxi’ hill into Iringa – thank heavens, this time, without incident. We did a bit of shopping and headed into the tourist – Art and Craft centre for lunch, this must rate as our worst meal in Africa so far.

We returned to Riverside and worked out our route for the next 2 weeks. We are seriously ahead of schedule and would press on North if we didn’t have the whole meet up in Dar / Zanzibar with the kids thing planned. Killing two weeks is certainly worth it, if it means having them with us. The last thing we want is to have to spend it in Dar, we have not heard great reports about having to stay there as a tourist for any length of time.

Our rough planning is to head off to Kilwa Masoko, a beach resort on the coast, south of Dar. It is roughly about a 600km trip but we have set aside 4 days to get there, with some pretty rough out of the way accommodation through some pretty remote parks. I sure hope it is worth it!!!!

We went to the dining hut for a buffet dinner and met most of the Swahili learning students. All except one were missionaries, here to study the language and then go into the country to save the local people. It is amazing how many missionaries we have met in Malawi and Tanzania, there are apparently some 700 missionaries in the Iringa area alone. They all drive around in fancy new vehicles advertising their specific cause. The cost of the 4 month course comes to around R35 000, all funded by the church organisations. There is a lot of church money floating around, forgive me for being cynical and I know there are some good projects out there but I wonder how much money is wasted. A missionary couple arrives, is given a new 4×4, spends R70 000 learning the local language, goes out into the community and sets up a school or a church, feed some starving people and 2 years later they are back in the US telling their mates how they saved the people of Africa – but what happens to the schools, churches and starving people who have come to rely on their support once they leave? For the third time in the last 10 days Gray has landed up sitting next to a very vocal US missionary and on 2 other occasions, vegetarians – he says all he wants is to have a couple of beers and a chunk of meat, with his mates, and not feel guilty.

We also managed to chat to the owners of the camp, they say Kilwa is definitely worth a visit but they don’t recommend we take the route that we had planned. Our alternative is to take the road up to Dar and then south, adding about 700km onto the journey. I guess it’s back to the map and drawing board.

Our ‘cute little camper’ at Chogela

Our ‘neat house’ at Riverside

Day 47: 31/05/2011 – Ruaha National Park and Chogela Camp

An elephant had wondered into the camp during the night and we hadn’t even woken up.

We had a fairly early start, made a picnic lunch and headed into the park. We travelled along the eastern section of the Ruaha River. I can see why the park is considered by some critics to be amongst the best in the world. The scenery is truly spectacular; the landscape is littered with baobabs of every age, size and shape – heaven. Travelling along the river road you see vast landscapes of African savannah. There is a wide variety of game and bird life; again we saw vast herds of ellie, a leopard and some bird species which we are still trying to identify. The river is teaming with hippo, we sat and watched around 30 popping up to see us at one point (you would have loved it Nicks).The park is so unspoilt and not at all commercialised, we came across only 2 parks board vehicles the whole morning.

I think the reason why this gem of Tanzania is so rarely visited is because it is so difficult to get to and so few people know about it. It is a pity about this, like so many of the other parks in these poor countries, so much money could be generated through tourism. If only people like Madonna and Angelina would plough some money into making the parks more accessible and then marketing them. Next time Madonna arrives in Africa to adopt little Simba and Nala, possibly someone should let her know that for the cost of educating and clothing the two she could finance 100km of road and send all her A-list celeb friends on a stunning safari. The revenue generated through tourism could provide education for thousands of orphans and not just 2, not to mention the jobs it would provide. To be fair, I guess the publicity generated from adopting orphans, long term, is more profitable than a couple of kilometres of tar.

After a wonderful morning of game viewing we returned to make Panda’s potjie. This is how it works; I source and buy the ingredients, chop up the meat, peel and prepare the vegetables and potatoes, sort out the herbs and spices and other ingredients. All this is then laid out in order for Gray. He then sticks a potjie on the fire, browns the meat and throws the rest of the ingredients in, with a bottle (in this case a box) of red wine and leaves it to simmer for a few hours. Of course everyone, including himself, thinks HIS Panda potjies are delicious and wonderful.

Gray was the most stressed I have seen him in a long time this afternoon – during the potjie making – he discovered that his new 5L box of red wine (yep, we have resorted to ‘doos wyn’ and it’s pretty good) was leaking. He spent more time locating 2 tiny puncture holes in the aluminium sack and repairing them and then the box, than he had spent repairing a puncture the other day.

Lula, the camp assistant, is amazing; he keeps the camp and gardens clean and in order, he sorts our hot water (by heating it over a fire, climbing up a ladder and with buckets of hot water and filling up a tank), he brings us fruit off the trees and he bakes us bread and rolls and best of all, he has a permanent smile on his face – I want to take him back to S.A. with us.

Sitting under Acacia trees and a star filled sky, eating a delicious potjie (made by Panda) on Lula’s freshly baked bread, with our box of red wine – what more could we wish for.

Great Ruaha River

Giant Baobab, one of millions.

Curious hippo

Day 46: 30/05/2011 – Kisolanza Farm to Ruaha National Park

I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a bus but much better than the night before and I felt better as the day progressed. We were in no rush to pack up as we only had about 100km to travel to Chogela Camp Site, about 25km outside Ruaha National Park. As Gray bent down to pick up a box, he coughed and oops, that was a mistake, off he waddled to the long drop.

25km from Kisolanza we came into the outskirts of Iringa, in order to get up to the main section of the town, we had to negotiate a steep hill which was tarred to first world standards with a pedestrian walk way and all. Just as we were marvelling at the road, the taxi in front of us started rolling backwards and it kept coming, when we realised that it was not going to stop, Gray swerved sharply out, luckily there were no oncoming cars. We landed up half suspended over a concrete block and half in the ditch below – stuck and blocking up the oncoming traffic with our car and trailer. The poor taxi driver was so upset. Before long the traffic had been stopped and 6 strong guys came to help lift the car out the ditch. The brakes clunked a bit but soon got back into their groove and we were on our way. No tow trucks, again just lots of good Samaritans willing to help.

Iringa came as a huge surprise. There are only buildings; lots are 2 or 3 stories high, housing shops and offices, no huts or make-shift shelters. It is clean and very orderly; a likeable town and worth a visit, if you just happen to be in the area. In the town we saw the first influences of the Muslim culture which is so prevalent in East Africa. There are also numerous churches of different denominations. We filled up with diesel, bought some coldrinks and a map of the park.

Along the first section of the potholed road to the Ruaha Park are many mud hut villages. Every 10km or so there is a big white church, complete with steeple and blue trimmings. According to the sign posts, these are Orthodox churches of different Parishes – they look like something one might see on the Greek hillsides and seems so out of context here in Africa. These villages became sparser as we travelled further along the road and we then saw the first Masai people on our travels.

We arrived at Chogela Camp and were met by Chogela, the owner; he is a really cool dude, with short dreadlocks. The camp is basic, clean and very well kept (and has hot water and a flusher). We are shaded by these huge Acacia trees and it is very pretty here but very hot (wish they had a pool).

After setting up camp, we headed up to the reserve. At the gate we had to fill in the regulation forms and pay US$90 for a 24 hour permit = around R650 for a couple of hours this afternoon and tomorrow morning (obviously we needed to be out by sunset). We travelled along the western section of the Ruaha River, it was fairly mountainous and rocky; we saw breeding herds of ele, with lots of young and 5 cheetah.

Returning to camp around 5:30, it was still 35 degrees. I made supper and we sat around the camp fire and chatted to the only other campers; 2 American students assisting with a study on educating the locals about the park, it’s benefits and the animals.

The accident prone taxi

Iringa

Giraffe in Ruaha

Ele in Ruaha

Day 45: 29/05/2011 – Kisolanza Farm

It has become the norm, on our non-travelling days, to lie in a little later. Gray then makes coffee, either over a braai fire or on his little petrol stove. I did some washing and sorting out of the food boxes. As we are getting fresh farm produce today, I donated our, past its sell buy date, veg stuff to the farm pig and her 6 little piglets.

We spent the rest of the morning planning the route ahead. We feel we have to be more prepared when the kids are with us and avoid these totally out of way places on bad roads. With three of them crammed into the back seat, we need to look at less car time and more beach and bush time. Needless to say, this means all our initial plans, of touring eastern Tanzania and Rwanda, have flown out the window and I’m sure they will change many more times. The main issue is making sure we are near a major city around mid July so we can get Kirst on a flight back to UCT, via Jhb.

Around lunch time, having given breakfast a miss, we felt a little peckish and decided to see if we could get a salad or a sandwich at the restaurant. Florian said “I vil vip you up zee salad and a leetle meat” – 6 different salads, homemade loaves of bread, stuffed eggs, rare roast beef and a veg arrived, followed by pudding. I don’t feel like ever eating again and we still have his 3 course dinner later.

Back at camp Gray’s stomach started making some very colourful noises, he was the lucky one. About ½ hour later, without warning, the dreaded African tummy bug hit me. So much for being so healthy, I knew that statement a few days ago was tempting fate. So there I was with the squirts and 50m from the nearest long drop, the only thing worse would have been the same ailment with a portaloo on a construction site.

As the afternoon progressed I felt worse and by dinner I wasn’t even vaguely tempted by Florien’s cuisine and sipped on a coke as Gray ate a portion that could have fed us both. What is it with men’s constitutions, obviously we have both caught something but his stomach just growled like a pissed off lion and well, mine needs no description. By the time I crawled into bed I was aching, freezing cold and the thought that I may have malaria crossed my mind.

Our camp site

Inside the restaurant

Zee leetle salad for lunch

Day 44: 28/05/2011 – Mbeya to Kisolanza Farm

We sadly had our last cups of Rift Valley coffee with our breakfast. We will always treasure fond memories of our stay at Utengule. Our destination today is ‘The Old Farmhouse’ on Kisolanza Farm, 50km south west of Iringa (another large town) on the road to Dar. The distance is around 300km and according to Doris we should be there by 12:15 – we are not sure if she is working on S.A. time or Tanzanian time, she is also not that reliable when it comes her E.T.A’s. in Africa. Anyway, we will arrive when we arrive.

Kirst is the only one not taking a road trip today. Gareth is returning from Cape Town, with his Polo laden with goods from 6 months of living in Cape Town. Robs is returning from her 3 week stint at bush school, Juls and Adie will be there to meet her. According to her letters, she is craving a freezochino, so Juls says their first stop will be the local Italian restaurant, where they have her favourite freezos. Poor Kirst is in the middle of mid-year exams. Oh, I miss them so much, in just over two weeks and I will see them all, I am sooooo excited.

We travelled back through Mbeya on our way East. I just love the feel of this third largest town in Tanzania; it is busy and has a nice vibe. We hit a serious traffic jam just before the main road but everybody just goes and somehow we arrived at the main road without delay. The shopping stalls/huts are divided into areas of what they sell, for eg. all the hardware stalls are clumped together, all the furniture stalls are together etc, these are interspersed with double story hotel/motels. Competitive advertising is the order of the day, Coke and Pepsi emblazon their ads, side by side, on the bridges.

The scenery along today’s trip was spectacular. We travelled through the valley of Great Rift Valley Mountains. Autumn has arrived here and there were views of yellow, orange and gold trees all around. We then moved through forestry areas of blue gums and pines and finally into a shrub type bush.

The road east is tarred and generally in good condition but travelling along these main truck hauling routes in Africa is not for sissies. The roads are just wide enough for 2 vehicles, with no lines and no shoulder. We are one of the few cars on the road amongst thousands of trucks and bicycles around the towns. We have got so used to seeing the tell tale signs of branches laid across the road, indicating hopefully, only a broken down truck but often it’s a mangled piece of metal on the side of the road.

We arrived at ‘The Old Farmhouse’ around 2:00, so Doris was out again. I guess I was expecting a colonial or typical old farmhouse – it may be around but we haven’t seen it. The camp sites and few available rooms are all in the middle of the bush. We are the only campers, so we were fortunate to get the rondavel type shelter; it is so cool inside, sheltering us from the hot sun. The showers are spotless and have a trickle of hot water but horror of horrors, the loos are long drops.

The restaurant area, where we will be dining tonight, is a mud building with a thatch roof. It looks like our restaurant eating days are coming to an end for now, as we are able to buy fresh produce and meat from the farm.

We went for a nice long walk this afternoon, down to the dam on the farm. As we were walking through the forest area to reach the dam, I happened to glance down and 2 feet in front of me was a big puff adder. I was fortunate to look down, as I usually have the camera in my face, otherwise I would have stood on him. He was chilled and I was chilled, I took some pics and we moved on. On the way back he had moved off into the bush but as we were looking around for him, Panda took a branch and threw it into the bush behind me. Obviously he found this hilarious; I think I might get him to do my underwear washing this evening.

Our dinner was WOW – inside the restaurant made of mud, are little rooms, giving it a very intimate feel. The whole place is lit up with candles and fresh farm flowers adorn the tables. The French Chef, Florian, has a standard 3 course menu for each night – the food, freshly picked off the farm and cooked in a bush kitchen, would rival any top restaurant in Johannesburg. We walked out and booked for tomorrow night.

Mbeya traffic jam ahead

The road ahead

The puff adder

The mud restaurant

Day 43: 27/05/2011 – Utengule Coffee Estate

The bird life in the gardens is great and there are numerous species found in the area. Tony has compiled a bird list of those he has seen and he has reached 162 different species to date. The wagtails dip in the pool, the resident owl waits for us to walk to our tent before flying off at night and this morning we watched the swallows swooping around the valley. Gray thought it was a bit late for them to be heading north, I decided that once they arrived here they just didn’t want to leave.

The guy who took us on the coffee tour yesterday explained that not all of Tanzania is this lush, it is restricted to the highland rift valley area and that is why we see so much evidence of farming around here.

After breakfast Gray set off into Mbeya to get the car sorted out. An hour and a ½ later he arrived back and he was like a 5 year old on Christmas morning; not only had the brakes been sorted but the guy had given the car a service and charged him R200. It looks like we will be heading up to Mbeya for the annual service. One service they do not offer, is a valet and the car came back still looking like it has been off road in Africa – Gray is very proud of this look (no Sandton spray on mud here – this is the real deal). We are carrying sand from the Namib, mud from the Caprivi, bugs (hopefully, now dead) from Zambia and leaves and twigs from Malawi.

My job for the day was to sort out the tent. Our down duvet that has served us faithfully, each winter, for the last 20 odd years and is now our cosy camping comforter has burst a seam. Our bedroom looks like we ritually slaughtered the horny gay turkey in there. I took out all the mattresses and bedding, not as easy as it sounds, as all the bedding is king size and has to be carried down a 1 ½ m ladder. Then came the fun of trying to get all little white feathers out the roof top tent – they stick like poo to a woolly blanket. The next problem, my compact camping sewing kit as well as my lack of needle skills were no match for the job of repairing the duvet. As always, in Africa, plan B came into action – encase the duvet into 2 duvet covers and hope for the best. This job was done in the heat of day and left me glowing like a pig. With jobs well done Gray and I felt we deserved a restful afternoon chilling at the pool.

For those interested in our health; I have never been healthier; I think not having 165, five year snotting all over me this winter may have something to do with it. Gray, however, has had a return of the putsy foot worm, now making road maps on both feet. He has googled his ailment and it appears to be sand worm, the cure is a pill, obviously it is the only pill that I don’t possess in my travelling dispensary. He seems happy enough to host the little squirmies till we get to Dar to find the medication. We are pleased to report that Vicks vapour rub does appear to be limiting their movement.

During dinner we chatted to a Scotsman, Derrick, who has been given the dubious task of building a runway and roads for a new airport in Mbeya. He kept us entertained all night about the trials and tribulations of working in Africa. The job should have been completed in January and the end is still nowhere in sight. Needless to say his wife, who lives in the Caribbean, is not impressed with him.

African Pied Wagtail about to take a dip

Variable sunbird

Mbeya Taxi

Day 42: 26/05/2011 – Utengule Coffee Estate

Due to the fact that we have to wait for the car parts, we will be spending an extra day at Utengule. This is by no means a hardship; the longer we stay here the less chance there is that we want to leave. It is so beautiful and relaxing, I feel like I’m having a ‘real’ holiday.

This morning we sorted out the usual admin around the pool. I hear the weather in Jhb is so cold, around 13 degrees today and here we are in our costumes, dipping into the pool to cool off when we get too hot.

This afternoon we organised to go on a tour of the coffee plantation. To get there, it’s about a ½ hour hike through the mountains. The two lodge dogs, Red and Chico, were to be our guides; they ran on ahead and waited for us to catch up every so often, especially if we came to an area where paths crossed. The walk was through stunning forest vegetation and we crossed the odd little stream along the way. We were marvelling at our guides, until the end of the trip, when obviously enjoying their walk, they took us on an extended walk around a section of plantation.

Eventually, we arrived at the offices and the assistant manager took us on a guided tour of the plantation bushes and showed us the harvesting process. It is a lot more scientific than one would think; I had pictured a couple of beans being picked, dried out and ‘hey presto’ we have Nescafe, or if they have a crappy harvest, we get Ricoffy. Not so, there are different bushes, the main one here being Arabica but they are experimenting with hybrids. Picking has to be done at exactly the right time, when the berries turn a blood red, this is done by the local ladies and they are paid per bucket full. Then there is a whole process of depulping, cleaning and drying out. The roasting is done at their factory in Dar or the green coffee beans are transported overseas. Gray loves his coffee and now knows what goes into getting his morning cup.

Then it was time to set off on our walk back, I was mindful that a good deal of the walk there was downhill. I never realised how much of a downhill till the return trip, which was now an uphill. It was still enjoyable and at least we felt like we had earned our evening drinks.

I know we have bragged about some spectacular sun sets along the way but one could never get tired of the beauty of nature here; the pink skies spread over the distant highland mountains with the red sun sliding down behind them.

We had dinner with the managers of Utengule, Tony and Sharon, a stunning couple who obviously love living here but then who wouldn’t. I ordered prawns, sometimes a dodgy thing to do when you are 860km from the nearest coast line; I got 3 prawns on my plate, they were the biggest prawns I have ever seen and absolutely delicious, I struggled to finish them. We ended off another kak evening in Africa with our new nightcap – Utengule coffee.

P.S. Gray tried another local brew today, Ndovu and it looks like he has made a decision for his brew of choice in Tanzania – Tusker.