We sadly had our last cups of Rift Valley coffee with our breakfast. We will always treasure fond memories of our stay at Utengule. Our destination today is ‘The Old Farmhouse’ on Kisolanza Farm, 50km south west of Iringa (another large town) on the road to Dar. The distance is around 300km and according to Doris we should be there by 12:15 – we are not sure if she is working on S.A. time or Tanzanian time, she is also not that reliable when it comes her E.T.A’s. in Africa. Anyway, we will arrive when we arrive.
Kirst is the only one not taking a road trip today. Gareth is returning from Cape Town, with his Polo laden with goods from 6 months of living in Cape Town. Robs is returning from her 3 week stint at bush school, Juls and Adie will be there to meet her. According to her letters, she is craving a freezochino, so Juls says their first stop will be the local Italian restaurant, where they have her favourite freezos. Poor Kirst is in the middle of mid-year exams. Oh, I miss them so much, in just over two weeks and I will see them all, I am sooooo excited.
We travelled back through Mbeya on our way East. I just love the feel of this third largest town in Tanzania; it is busy and has a nice vibe. We hit a serious traffic jam just before the main road but everybody just goes and somehow we arrived at the main road without delay. The shopping stalls/huts are divided into areas of what they sell, for eg. all the hardware stalls are clumped together, all the furniture stalls are together etc, these are interspersed with double story hotel/motels. Competitive advertising is the order of the day, Coke and Pepsi emblazon their ads, side by side, on the bridges.
The scenery along today’s trip was spectacular. We travelled through the valley of Great Rift Valley Mountains. Autumn has arrived here and there were views of yellow, orange and gold trees all around. We then moved through forestry areas of blue gums and pines and finally into a shrub type bush.
The road east is tarred and generally in good condition but travelling along these main truck hauling routes in Africa is not for sissies. The roads are just wide enough for 2 vehicles, with no lines and no shoulder. We are one of the few cars on the road amongst thousands of trucks and bicycles around the towns. We have got so used to seeing the tell tale signs of branches laid across the road, indicating hopefully, only a broken down truck but often it’s a mangled piece of metal on the side of the road.
We arrived at ‘The Old Farmhouse’ around 2:00, so Doris was out again. I guess I was expecting a colonial or typical old farmhouse – it may be around but we haven’t seen it. The camp sites and few available rooms are all in the middle of the bush. We are the only campers, so we were fortunate to get the rondavel type shelter; it is so cool inside, sheltering us from the hot sun. The showers are spotless and have a trickle of hot water but horror of horrors, the loos are long drops.
The restaurant area, where we will be dining tonight, is a mud building with a thatch roof. It looks like our restaurant eating days are coming to an end for now, as we are able to buy fresh produce and meat from the farm.
We went for a nice long walk this afternoon, down to the dam on the farm. As we were walking through the forest area to reach the dam, I happened to glance down and 2 feet in front of me was a big puff adder. I was fortunate to look down, as I usually have the camera in my face, otherwise I would have stood on him. He was chilled and I was chilled, I took some pics and we moved on. On the way back he had moved off into the bush but as we were looking around for him, Panda took a branch and threw it into the bush behind me. Obviously he found this hilarious; I think I might get him to do my underwear washing this evening.
Our dinner was WOW – inside the restaurant made of mud, are little rooms, giving it a very intimate feel. The whole place is lit up with candles and fresh farm flowers adorn the tables. The French Chef, Florian, has a standard 3 course menu for each night – the food, freshly picked off the farm and cooked in a bush kitchen, would rival any top restaurant in Johannesburg. We walked out and booked for tomorrow night.
The mud restaurant
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