Monday 13th February 2012
Our driver had organised to pick us up at 3am to drive to Tanzanian border. We had a wake up call at 2:30am. Set my alarm – just in case, but the call came. Didn’t get a good night’s sleep as heaps of people arriving sometime in the night and doors banging all over the place, and when you know you have to get up at a certain time, you keep waking up. Lesley yelled at me several times to have a drink of water as I was having coughing fits. They got worse as we headed south as the dust on the road was horrendous. It causes an allergic reaction and I break into coughing fits, eyes watering, you name it. I went straight back to sleep laying across 3 seats in the mini bus, great friend I am, Lesley had to sit up. I never woke until about 4 hours into the trip. We stopped at Voi to get money from the bank as neither of us had any!
Neither of us thinking that hey we wouldn’t need any till we got back to Kenya and it could have waited LOL. The trip which is the same distance from Bundaberg to Gold Coast took us 11 hours!!!!! The road was one of the worst I have ever been on – no lie, potholes on the dirt road nearly big enough to fit the car into!!! The potholes on Kenyan ‘bitumen’ roads just don’t stop- they go on for ever and ever. Cars weave over to your side, back to theirs, others passing, you just close your eyes and hope your number isn’t up. Driving along in the dark Lesley said they came up behind in the pitch black a truck with no lights at all, as she didn’t sleep. The driver had such keen eyes he saw it well before she did. Also along the way many, many trucks broken down, just stopped in the middle of the road, or on their side, no flashing lights, just stopped there, no brakes to let you know either. It was a great experience to see the change in landscape, the harshness of the land – so much like Australia it is unbelievable. We could have been travelling in western Qld one minute, then in tropical north Qld as we got closer to Mt. Kilimanjaro. Lesley got to see much wild life, and the awful physical hardships of the Masai and other tribes along the way. How people survive amongst the dust, no water for miles, and in tiny mud huts is incredible, and the relentless heat. I never felt unsafe for 1 minute with our drivers driving skills.
He was fantastic. We got to the border and he waited until our driver on the other side arrived. We told him he could go and we’d wait as the Tanzanian driver had rung and said he wasn’t far away, but he wouldn’t leave us. He then had to turn around and drive the 9 hours back to Ukunda, wash his bus and be ready for safari next day – pickup 5:30am. No health and safety here, penalty rates, or anything else. You do put your life in these wonderful people’s hands. They have to take the work because for 3 months during the low and wet season there is no work for drivers, so no income, what so ever, and of course no government payments in Kenya. How rotten spoilt are we? Our drive to Arusha took about 2 hours (making the 11 hour trip in total). NOT 1 POTHOLE ON THE TANZANIAN ROAD – was like driving on the Bruce Highway – no there are potholes on there from time to time!!. The scenery changed to more tropical and it was very noticeable from the start that Tanzania was in a better state than Kenya. Things had order, and it was much, much cleaner. They obviously have garbage collections and the streets in Arusha have street lights, not like Ukunda or Mombasa. Nice highrise buildings and so much cleaner. Moshi is a lovely town, so green, close to Kilimanjaro and the mountain stands majestically behind it. Arusha has lovely manicured roundabouts were most pleasing to see. After the harshness of Kenya it was most refreshing. Tanzanian people are equally as lovely as Kenyans.
Our driver had a new bus and nothing was too much for him as he took us to find a camera shop as Lesley had left her camera’s battery charger in Australia (don’t say a WORD Gaye and Jan – I can see you two shaking your head right now and saying “typical!!” – they can’t do anything without us two looking after them). We had no Tanzanian money so had to go to a bank to get some. We had to borrow money off the driver (again don’t say a word you two) to buy the camera charger, and to pay for my wireless modem) as safaricom doesn’t have the same size sim cards to fit in the modem here, and it is Vodacom. Typical!!, so had to outlay A$25 to get one and data service. A$25 in Australia is equivalent to $25,000 Tanzanian shillings approximately, so we have a wad of cash each now.
Arriving at the School of St. Jude is lovely. Such a peaceful lovely place of hundreds of children set up by Gemma Sisia from New South Wales in Australia. What an achievement and inspiration to see this place. The visitors guide directed us to our rooms (each have one with toilet and shower), and then sat with us and gave us the run down on here and our ‘itinerary’ for tomorrow. How wonderful not to think. We had our showers and washed off about a kilo of dust off us each. Drinking water I imagined my stomach turning to mud!! Lesley left her reading glass case and glasses in the car, and the driver came running back to give it to her (DON’T SAY A WORD GAYE AND JAN). I’d left my phone credit renewals back in Kenya so no phone credit, so have to get some tomorrow. AGAIN DON’T SAY A WORD. Anyway Lesley got on the net and found a place for us to stay in Zanzibar right in Stone Town over looking the beach, so looking forward to that on Wednesday evening.
We are right next to the kitchen here so good to get coffee whenever.
A huge avocado tree is outside our room, with tons of them, so we had avocado and toast when here. Heaven! We then asked the security guard where the nearest waterhole was, and was right outside the gate. When we got there we saw tons of the volunteers from here there already. Must be the local after school drinks place. Reminded me of the bar in “Red Dog”, dirt floor with cracker dust on it, dart board, pool table, and old outdated posters, with bullock heads scattered amongst the room, and reggae music playing. Could have been sitting in a bar in the territory. We tried the local beer ‘Kilimanjaro’ and it is very, very nice and was exquisitely cold. I actually like it much better than Tusker, and it is not as strong. We were late back for dinner (BAD GIRLS). The cook had cooked us up a lovely chicken stew and it was plated up in the fridge for us….. There is around 50 volunteers here at the moment – most from Australia, from people working in the office, computer techhies, teacher mentors, business etc., etc., They come for 12 months to mentor the locals. The volunteer’s accommodation is separate to ours – we are short term visitors. The place seems to run like a smooth machine, with 1500 students going to school here and getting picked up and dropped off every day by the school buses – all donated and all sponsored. What an achievement! 1 Australian woman did all this – melts your heart. The school feels like, looks like, and sounds like a typical Australian school.
All the flora is the same as Australia – where we live – Bundaberg and north of there. Recognising and seeing it felt like I was at a school at home or in the tropics. The flora is the same in Kenya in Mombasa and Ukunda as well. Same climate as where we live only HOTTER. Of course there are differences. Lesley got to see monkeys, gazelles, squirrels, camels, deer, strange lizards, buffaloes, colobus monkeys along the way so she is thrilled. It is lovely to see how excited she gets, just as I did the first time I saw them, and I still get excited. She is in for a feast when we do safari next week. Anyway we met some lovely volunteers here so far and some that ignored us totally, but that is OK. Akuna matata – no worries, doesn’t matter. The people who matter are being drawn to us.
