Welcome Baby Luke Connor - Congratulations Julie and Adie
Our long awaited nephew arrived today– 3.26kg of bouncing baby boy, Julie, Adie and Luke are all doing well. My sister and I have always been there for each other, so not being around for the birth of her first baby makes me feel like I am missing out and letting her down. However, he came earlier than initially expected and I will be back to see him soon. I have a picture of him and he is the cutest baby ever.
With renewed spirits, after a good night’s sleep, in a big, comfortable bed we had breakfast and set off down the 1900m pass to the main road at Mombo. The trip took us 1 ½ hours to cover 27 km, with a stop off at St Eugene’s Convent to buy cheese – it’s been a while since last had cheese. The convent in Irente, like all huts and buildings is built on a steep hillside and is home to a hospital, school and convent. Cheese making is obviously a by-product, to raise money for the order. There are numerous churches in Irente, despite most of the population wandering around in Muslim clothing.
Our destination today is Honey Badger Lodge in Moshi, about 200km from Mombo. We had a fairly uneventful trip, along a good road, with mercifully less traffic. Pretty much along the whole route are rows upon rows of sisal plantations. Gray has taken over the choosing of accommodation – I am now taking control again. Last night I’m sure we ended up travelling higher than Kilimanjaro base camp and tonight we are supposed to be in a town that sits at the bottom of Mt Kilimanjaro (the mountain is nowhere to be seen) and we are camping in a walled car park, with less than savoury ablutions. To give the place a little credit, they have a very nice garden that we can sit in and I guess this is where ground tents campers set up camp. Much as I felt like a few days on the beach, after the last 2 days, possibly doing a reccie before bringing / or not bringing the kids up here was not one of Graeme’s worst plans.
Along the drive Gray discovered a hole in the car’s fuel line, so Camel Man spent some time under the car locating and fixing it. He emerged, full of diesel, a lot quicker than expected, having fixed the problem (I hope). After a quick shower, we headed into Moshi city centre. Like Iringa, it consists of mainly buildings and lots of churches. We saw a taxi with Soweto painted across the front (guess he was a long way from home) and a Nelson Mandela branch of NMB Bank. It is a busy and bustling town, again with some drivers that would do well on the F1 circuit.
Moshi
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