Day 22 - Saturday 12th July

Had a really nice sleep in this morning with 10 or so hours sleep - this is what holidays are meant to be!! Got ourselves organized and packed up our tents as we are on the road by 8am. We are heading south east towards the Kilimanjaro region today. Our first stop is around an hour after leaving, back in Arusha, where I managed to get some wifi and a chat with Mum, and received some lovely and exciting text messages.

From here, it was a decent 4 hour drive this morning - made quite boring by my lack of reading material, so I attempted to snooze a little, however it's very hard with the hot sun pounding in on you through the window. I am positive every big travel day we cop the sun - however I probably just don't notice when I get the shade. We stop for lunch in a carpark of a new shopping complex where we make use of the new huge supermarket a go a little sugar crazy. Our continued drive is long and the outside landscapes re very dry and baron. Jade and I pass the time by playing Eye-Spy (which she thinks I such at), and by eating said sugar.

Upon entering civilization in the town of Moshi, we make a 45 minute stop at a Street Kids Orphange called Amani. You could imagine our excitement I am sure.
An hour or so later our truck journey concludes in the lush green town of Marangu, at the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro. Jacob advises us to pack a small overnight bag as we head further up a mountain and into the Chaga Tribe area. Our transport up to our home stay is either by sedan, or open pick up truck - I excitedly bags the pick up truck, much to Jades concern! So we cram 12 of us into the back of this ute, with 6 on either side and all our backpacks and sleeping bags jammed in the middle, and head up the mountain. We make a left hand turn and realize we are in this vehicle because our original truck could not get up to our destination - the roads are wet, muddy and on the side of a valley. At one stage, the driver had to get a 'run up' to attempt a certain part of the climb, and then floored it! With the wheels spinning, our hands tightly clenching the metal frame and the exhaust fumes flooding our lungs - It quickly became the hairiest, scariest but funniest trip so far ... How we didn't fall out or slip down the mountain is beyond me. Looking forward to Mitch's GoPro Video of that one.

The joyride was made worthwhile when we arrived at a gorgeous little home/farm stay perched within the green rainforest - equipped with goats and a bar! The homestay had permanent tents and mattresses already set up so we take that for a win and mark it off our 'tent prep' countdown.

We all sat in the bar and played cards until our dinner was served - more local grub. Jade and I retreated to bed fairly early as it was quite cold and well, we are old and loving the early nights!

Day 23 - Sunday 13th July

We had a nice sleep in this morning. I was so toasty in my sleeping bag as I had tightened it like a cocoon because it was quite cold last night. We are served a basic but tasty breakfast of Crepes and Bananas, and toast.

Around 8am we head off on a walk led by a young local guy called Nelson, and his mate Kevin. After a brisk 15 minute up gill walk we come to a view point and manage to see Mt Kilimanjaro with he snow on her peak. My Kili is the highest mountain in Africa, around 5800m high (and we were currently standing around 1400m above sea level). We continue on to our first destination, a visit to another Intrepid Foundation Cause called the Kilimanjaro Village Education Product, where we are met by Barb, an Australian math teacher of 30 odd years, who grew up in Lorne and hAs family in Geelong. You can never escape home!! I found this project quite interesting as their aim is to work with local school, the ministry of education and the teacher training colleges to improve the level of education, mainly at a Primary Level. In Tanzania, if the kids don't pass an exam at the end of Form 7 (grade 6), they are not allowed to apply for Secondary School, and the current pass rate in the Kilimanjaro Area is on around 50% - with nothing offered to those kids who don't pass. I guess this struck a chord with me as the foundation is future planning and seem to really have their hands on the right type of long term fixes, to better the pass rate and hopefully provide the children better teaching, and a chance to have a higher level of education.

After this, we went to their sister project - the Vocational School (similar to a Tafe) which has been set up to offer children/teenagers a 2 year course covering skills in woodwork, building and sewing. The skills in these classes however are allowing the students to make relevant and required products - such as furniture, building windows and door frames, mud bricklaying and making clothes - so essentially all the skills can be used to start their own business upon leaving. Everything made by the students whilst at the school however is recycled and self sufficient - so any clothes made, are school uniform colours and provided to new students, any tables and chairs made are used in the classrooms, or sold cheaper within the neighborhood to repurchase more wood. All the buildings are made to model sizes in class, and then the students have the opportunity to go out and assist at local building sites and work to scale. The school has managed to be self sufficient in it's set up - with no monetary assistance, and donations alone. The sad thing about the school is that the Tanzanian Government has advised that to go their, students must have ATLEAST a secondary education first, again limiting the number of children offered opportunities to gain an education or a life skill. Due to the lack of government funding, the secondary schools only take around 1200 students a year anyway - so the amount of children missing out all together is ridiculously high.

From here we head to a lovely ladies house where she has out in a yummy Local lunch - all the foods we are used to, but it's so tasty. After here we return back down to the mountain where our Truck is waiting with all of our belongings, ready to make the next 5 hour journey South East to the Usambara mountains.

We drove about a hour in and around the winding mountains, and eventually came to our destination at the Lawns Hoteli. A cute lodge where decided to finally upgrade for 2 nights at $20 per person. The upgrade was well worth it as we had wifi in our room, a private bathroom and 2 massive king single beds with feather doonas!
We spent the afternoon going through our bags chucking out clothes we didn't want (to give to Jacob to to give to a children's home) and also did some extra hand washing. I was on cooking duty but was not needed so after dinner we just chilled out for the night - but most people stayed up in the bar and watched the World Cup Final.

Day 24 - Monday 14th July

Slept in again this morning in a comfy oversized bed - oh the luxuries! Apparently a few of the group had a fairly big night last night, and the owners of the lodge bar started partying after the game - I didn't hear a thing, sound asleep.

Leaving at 9am, we had a really lovely day today, with a 6 hour walk through the countryside and villages of the Usambara Mountains, and the town, Lushoto. The Usambara Mountains are known as the 'Galapagos of Africa', as they are a known Bio diverse Reserve, with lots of different species, flora and fauna only found here.

We managed to find a few cool Chameleons, one of which was happy to chill on my arm, and because I had a black long sleeve on, he turned from right apple green to brown really quickly. We then gave him to another girl on tour called Jess, and he got angry and bit her! So funny. (They don't have teeth so it was like a suction).

Our walk took us up to around 1800m to this amazing look out in the middle of the clouds - where we sat on the cliffs edge. It was nice and clear for around 10 minutes and then all of a sudden the clouds rose from below us and created a thick white curtain over the view. It lasted only around 5 minutes and then faded back to a view again.

After the look out we walked to a village farm and were treated to another tasty local lunch - all the same cuisine and dishes, but still very yummy!

The walk back took around an hour, and returned back to camp at about 330pm. Just chilled out on wifi and had a little snooze until dinner. Juma cooked us this really nice dish - beef stew, cabbage, cinnamon rice and for me, vege patties in coconut milk!