It seems that road construction in Tanzania only happens before some big event- the road up to our volunteer house was being built last time we were here due to the impending visit if none other than George Bush. He was coming to visit a nearby hospital - smashing looking road now though! Not sure what the latest local event is but they are in what seems like the early stages of a highway development between Nairobi and Arusha - there's a long way to go. Honestly, not sure if I've ever been on such a bad road- even in the a**hole of Ireland. Anyway, after the six hour journey through the middle of nowhere, both on dirt tracks and occasional tarmac, made it to Arusha and to the volunteer house where Dee had already arrived. Spending the next month and a bit traveling with one of my best friends. Spent the evening catching upon what had happened over past month while I was away and chatting to the new volunteers. Eventually ended up moving out of volunteer house - a lot more expensive than it used be although our fault for not checking it out properly beforehand.
The move into Arusha proper is great actually. Stayed at an alright-ish hotel in the center and spend a week or so hanging out, visiting Nkoranga orphanage where we volunteered three years ago and sleeping (lots)!
The orphanage is much the same as ever - all the hard work painting and repairing which we carried out last time is now seriously dilapidated but is to be expected after such a long time, I suppose. The mamas (ladies who work at the orphanage) recognised us which was nice as I'm sure they have numerous people through their doors each year. Some of our babies have now moved on to school including my favourite Emmanuel! Dee's pet Steven is still there and has calmed down a lot- hard work but still adorable! We brought photos of the children from our last trip and that created such excitement. They really enjoyed a photo of chubby little Andrew who is now a gorgeous three year old with the sweetest personality. It was great to find out that some of the children are now living with family members. The orphanage tries to keep in contact with some family in the hope that they will take them back at some stage.
For some reason the poverty in Tanzania does not seem to be as conspicuous as in Kenya - maybe it's just around the north and an unfair comparison but Tanzania is definitely cleaner and more tranquil. The remoteness, poverty and drought in Kenya was particularly harsh, not that Tanzania isn't without it's own problems.

While in Arusha we really experienced things we hadn't had the opportunity to before. We haggled our little hearts out in the city market- so much so that I think we even undercut the 'local' price for a pineapple( you can go too far it seems!), took in the local tailoring services which are hauled up in rows along nearly every street and found Khan's barbecue, the coolest restaurant ever. This place is an auto repair shop by day and transformed in to a BBQ by night - simple and amazing food! Leaving our hotel in Arusha one night to head for food, these guys start making small talk and following us - we just keep repeating 'Kwaheri' which is Swahili for goodbye to which we get a 'F**k You Kwaheri' in reply in an Tanzania accent - hilarious in retrospect but maybe you had to be there, sorry!

Spent a bit of time with Cynthia, a fellow volunteer who worked with us on our last trip and who now makes annual visits back to the area to work on her own projects. Was lovely to catch up with her. Decided to take a trip to Arusha National Park one of the days. Not at all what we were expecting and had one of the most uninformative guides ever but it was still pretty beautiful.

Eventually the relaxing and niceties had to come to an end and we headed for Moshi to begin the Kilimanjaro climb. After going through the usual turmoil of trying to get there without being ripped off, we arrive in Moshi which is actually a really nice town- actually a lot quieter and more hassle free than Arusha. Meet up with the rest of the group the night before for the pre-departure meeting. Lovely gang made up of a range of age-groups and nationalities including Finnish, French, Canadian, New Zealander, English and us! Turns out to be a lovely bunch and we have great fun on the climb and in the celebrations afterwards! The hike/climb itself is actually lovely every day with the exception of the last. We did the Machame route which is 5 nights and 6 days on the mountain. We walk 'pole pole' - Swahili for slowly slowly through lots of different vegetation and landscapes from scrubland to rainforest to cactus filled escarpments! It gets to the stage where you cannot walk much faster than 'pole, pole' anyway! The porters carry out tents and food stuffs s up - its a pretty hard job but they are all pretty jovial and friendly on the way up - and even moreso on the way down! Jane, one of the girls on the climb even heard one of them listening to a Self Help tape on the way up!
The climbs are very scenic and quite manageable, even the Barranco wall was pretty fun with the rock-climbing element! The food was amazing - we ate like kings every day and it was amazing to see what they could make so high up on the mountain (I think you'll be hearing about food for a bit on this blog, well it is a holiday after all). The tents were perfect and only one night did we wake up cold- actually Dee had meet pinned to my rucksack which was in turn jammed in to the side of the tent - hilarious!
The toughest by far was the summit day. We effectively stopped hiking on day 4 at about 5pm and had dinner before going to bed for three hours. We rose at midnight for the summit climb! Needless to say nobody got much sleep. I wake up feeling nauseous despite going to bed perfectly fine. Probably a bit of altitude sickness along with nerves so after a quick vomit (sorry) and some forced breakfast we hit the road for the top. Our guide admitted that they start this climb while it's dark as many are put off by the steep slope that faces them. The wind that morning was stronger than anything the guide had seen in about two years which, coupled with our porter turned trainee guide showing myself, Dee and Outi the way, made the climb pretty difficult. Our guide's torch didn't work and he was relying on Dee's torch behind him - only problem was she kept turning around when we started to give out about him 'as Gaeilge' that this threw him off course all over again. Not sure he knew what he was at anyway to be honest which was a bit of a problem! Anyway.... eventually made it to Stella point after many stops for catching breath, trying to defrost our camelbacks of water and to swap gloves to make ourselves warm. There were some serious emotions in the air for everyone that morning and later we all shared our weird things which helped us make it to the top - some prayed, some chanted and some just talked rubbish.
The final slog to Uhuru Point (summit) was tough as you are pretty tired after the morning's activities. After being advised about the fake summit (another summit you think ( and really hope) is Uhuru but which has a view of Uhuru when you get to the top of it!) we finally reach the summit - the highest point in Africa. We donned our Achill half marathon t-shirts which say 'Thainig me, chonaic me, bhuaigh me' - 'I came, I saw, I conquered' in Irish. I could barely lift my legs at that point and Dee was losing feeling in her fingers! I actually began not to be able to see properly near the summit. I thought it was just a mixture of fog and dust but the hazy blindness turned out to be part of a reaction to the altitude and calmed down after a day or two.Still, it may for an interesting stumble down Kili with the guide telling me to hurry up - sure I couldn't bloody see! Six out if eight of us summited (5895m above sea level) which wasn't bad going considering many other groups had huge numbers turning back from early stages. We all made it to above 5000m which is some achievement.
On our last night on the mountain we have local wine and meat but we couldn't propertly celebrate because we were exhausted. Make up for it the day we arrive back at our hotel though and had the shower to end all showers after six shower-less days! A swim in the outdoor pool, a beer or two and a yummy dinner finished off the trip perfectly! Had such a fun night trading stories, drinking whiskey and talking rubbish with Steve (an American in another climbing group) about the merits of a rucksack!
What an achievement to have made it although once is enough. Think I'll leave Everest Base Camp for another time (although it's actually lower so I'm not really bothered as much anymore :-) ). Amazing trip and amazing people! If anyone is thinking about it I would highly recommend it - it's about 10% fitness and 90% pure stubbornness and determination!
I likes Tanzania, I do :-)