Arusha wilderness...

MEMORABLOG: 27.11.1998

We came late night back to Arusha... so, we have some for planning our future trip. Let's climb Kilimanjaro... :) Cool, lets do it... And it hit us... well, guys... basically, you cannot afford it... it costs 500US$+ for just a few days, and you already spent almost half of your budget in the first week... damn... what a disappointment, no Kilimanjaro... Mount Meru is cheaper and lower, but the weather isn't favorable, and we are a bit not interested to stay in Arusha for a few more days...

What about trip to the west, towards central Tanzania and Lake Victoria... not a bad idea, but we were put of by reports of extremely bad roads and 24 hours trip on a bus... We were even thinking about going to Usumbara mountains, but at the end we reached no decision... So, it was a time for another Kilimanjaro beer and a strange, but tasty pizza in the restaurant just across the road...

At least we had a chance of a tour around Arusha... we weren't staying in the best part, its kinda doggy, there near the stadium. But we liked it. And the guesthouse was quite lively, lots of foreigners, though encounters with them were brief. Honestly said, Arusha isn't the place to go sightseeing for a week. Streets are in terrible disrepair and some potholes are bigger than cars... and after rainy day, Arusha transfers from dusty to muddy... At least they had a nice market, where we got loads of fresh fruit and some souvenirs...

Then, we decided to do some trekking around Arusha, towards Mount Meru... We desperately wanted to see Tammy falls (as recommended to us by a friend from airport), but locals weren't too anxious to take us there... they were mentioning military, ransom, danger, ... so, still don't know what is so special by these falls and why it was dangerous to go there... So, we agreed a day trekking with a local guy, to some native villages, waterfalls...

I was surprised. Just a few minutes from the guesthouse, we were in completely different environment... small houses, african cows and smiling children and fabulous landscape... What a contrast to Arusha, now i could imagine how people can stay in Arusha for more days... We started venturing into the forest, and so close to the town you could already observe columbus monkey in the trees... Great landscape, passing different villages, house and people doing the ordinary business (i guess they weren't used on seeing mzungu there, as that day trip wasn't on itinerary of big agencies...). After a few hours we came approached some men, who were, deep in the forest, cooking their own "fire water" - i guess that was a bit on a illegal side. Funny guys, i guess that was for their entertainment and of course profit. Well, drink really tasted like fire... and probably it burned away my liver... they were drinking it pure in large quantities, but i would prefer mixing it with a lot of water or juice... Adi was more daring tasting it, and he almost regretted it :)

After a few hours we arrived to a small village... interesting stuff... apparently our young guide will marry a girl from this village... but unfortunately he doesn't have enough money, yet, to buy a few cows to get her... From there we hitch a ride on a pickup... well, the pickup was so full, that it eventually broke up... sooooo... we had to push it... hehehe... fortunately after a couple hundred meters the road went downhill, so we all jumped on... just... I didn't even think whether the brakes work???!!! Apparently brakes worked...