Moshi - Our Last Few Days in Tanzania and Some Final Thoughts
We are staying in one of the garden rooms again and this time I remember to take some photos. This visit we have the room on the right. It costs $72 (£58) per night for room and breakfast. We are back in a tourist area so prices are higher but we are happy to pay as the money goes to support a really good project, as mentioned earlier in the blog.
For the first time this trip we have no plans for the day. We have a leisurely breakfast on the terrace and then catch up on emails, blog etc. enjoy the great view of Kilimanjaro.
Later on we walk down to Keys Hotel where we get a soda and some lunch. For the first time for a while we have some “Western” food when we order a pizza, its very nice and a change from wali, ndizi and kuku (rice, bananas and chicken).
The following day is Tuesday and is the ACTT Moshi staff day out. They have chosen to go to the Hot Springs which is great as we have never been there.
We are ready to leave at about 11.30. The drive takes about an hour and a half though we do stop on the way to pick up snacks and drinks and also to check out a restaurant for later. The road is pretty rough once you turn off the main road at Boma Ng’ombe.
The place is fairly low key on the outside with a few people selling souvenirs, food and drink. There is also a place where you can hire swimwear which is great for the staff. We pay our entrance fee and a fee for 2 guides. There are some very basic changing rooms and toilet facilities.
The place is amazing. The water is so clear and is a lovely temperature, warm without being hot. Everyone is given a large rubber ring (inner tube) which is great as apart form Bakari none of the guys can swim. The place is beautiful and it is wonderful just floating around and admiring it.
This is the first time most of the ACTT staff have been swimming so it is great fun helping them learn how to move around in the water. Everyone swims apart from Robert and Mama Irene who cannot be persuaded to join us. The guides come in the water with us and are also great at helping them. They also have Domi and Sia’s phones so take lots of photos for us. They are obviously very used to doing this and there doesn’t seem to be any risk of them dropping the phones.
There is actually quite a current in places which makes it quite hard work to move around at times, especially if you are not used to swimming and we have to rescue the guys a few times. I guess this constant flow of water flow is why the water stays so clear. In places there are also groups of little fish who nibble you feet.
At one end of there is also a swing where some of the locals demonstrate some pretty amazing tricks. However no one is brave enough to have a go apart from Bakari.
We stay swimming for a couple of hours. Once everyone is dry and changed we return to the cars for our snacks - we were not allowed to take these into the Hot Springs.
We then drive back to a restaurant called Tembo Garden. Tembo means elephant in swahili so it’s slightly confusing that they have a zebra in the garden!!
Robert and Bruno then get everyone involved in their “review” of the year, highlighting each other’s strengths within the business and encouraging everyone to do even better next year.
There are also some small bonuses for everyone and a gift for us.
Bruno also has a small gift for everyone but he has wrapped them up so well no one can open them!!
Wednesday was our last full day in Moshi so we were really just tying up loose ends. We walked down to ACTT after breakfast when it wasn’t too hot. We sorted out some paperwork with Robert and also some support for one member of staff. By late morning we had done everything we could so we got Boniface to drop us at Keys Hotel going via the bank. We had lunch and a swim before walking back to More Than A Drop.
This evening we took Robert and Mama Diana and a couple of their friends out for dinner at Kili Home to thank them for everything they had done for us over the last month. It was a lovely evening.
Thursday was our last day in Tanzania. We had a leisurely breakfast, chatting with an American couple. Later we went down to ACTT to print off our boarding passes and say goodbye to the staff. We then went to the Dawn Cafe Lounge for lunch (formerly the Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge).
When we returned to More Than A Drop we met Neema who was about to teach the girls how to make cocktails. Pete joked that if she needed anyone to taste them we were available. So I suppose we shouldn’t have been surprised when an hour later Happiness, one of the students turned up outside our room with 2 cocktails….and very nice they were too.
Robert picked us up at 5pm to drive us to the airport for our evening flight with KLM. On the way we encountered a strange dust storm, something Robert said he had never experienced before. At times it was very difficult to see anything.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and our journey back to the UK was straightforward.
A Few Final Thoughts.
Over our 4 weeks in Tanzania our road trip covered over 1500 miles. This was just between our overnight stops and doesn’t take into account any of our game drives, day trips or drives to visit schools so I imagine the actual total a will have been well over 2000 miles.
This trip we have supported 9 Government Primary Schools (4 of which were new for us), adding 15 Computers, 4 Printers, 2 Laptops, 2 Projectors and 20 Surge Protection Extension Leads.
We spent at least 1 night in 10 different locations - Moshi (twice), Ndutu, Central Serengeti, Lamadai, Mwanza, Geita (twice), Chato, Kahama, Tabora and Singida, the last 3 of which we had never visited before.
We saw our first “kill” on safari and over 50 lions, 12 cheetahs and 2 leopards along with huge numbers of other animals and birds making this one of the best we have ever done. Well done to Alladin our safari guide and eTrip Africa.
Over the 4 weeks our cheapest nights accommodation cost TSH 70,000 (about £24) for a double room and breakfast for 2 and our cheapest meal was nyama, mboga na wali (meat, vegetables and rice) for TSH 2,000 (70p).
To give an idea of local salaries we paid Tim our driver TSH 15,000 per day (just over £5) which he was happy with and is similar to what the staff at ACTT get paid.
If Diana (Robert’s daughter) had travelled from Dar es Salaam to Chato on the bus it would have taken 17 hours which is why she was so happy when we and Robert said we would pay for her to fly. Her bus journey from Bwanga to Mwanza took around 6 hours and cost around TSH10,000 (around £3.50).
Our weather varied from extremely hot and sunny (day time temperature over 35C) in Moshi to wet (rain and hail!!), windy and cool (daytime temperature around 15C) in Biharamulo.
All in all it was another fantastic trip. Tanzania and its people are fantastic and we hope to be back again next year. We have to thank Robert and all his staff and agents at ACTT for all their hard work and support, helping us to make this trip and help all the schools - without them this would not have been possible and we feel incredibly lucky to know such a wonderful group of people.
And to everyone in the U.K. (and beyond) who help us with our fundraising and donations (you know who you are 😀) a huge thank you from us, ACTT and the students and staff at the schools, none of this would be possible without you.
If you are still reading the blog and have made it to the end I hope you have found it entertaining and informative. Thanks so much for reading.
