We went to the restaurant for a drink last night and a Cape Town Defender asked if we were the Gauteng Discovery. They were the only other campers in the ‘car park’ and had arrived late so we hadn’t seen them earlier. These are the first South Africans travellers we have seen in weeks and spent the evening swopping war stories.
Today was a short drive to Arusha. Along the drive, we kept an eye out in the hopes of viewing Mt Killi but the area was shrouded in mist and clouds. We stopped at the Shoprite, in Arusha to do some shopping and have a bite to eat. Arusha is a big, bustling and developed town; it is the gateway to the Northern circuit of parks, including Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. The area is diversified, ranging from a bustling and somewhat dirty market area to high rise 5 Star hotels. We saw a lot more Mazungus in Arusha; in Swahili all white people are referred to as Mazungus (us, and all other whities, thinking it meant white person) but we checked on the literal translation and it really means ‘confused person wandering about’.
Mercifully, the type of traffic changed from huge trucks, busses and tankers to 4x4’s, game drive vehicles, cars, bikes, wheelbarrows, carts and taxis (taxis in Tanzania include passengers being lifted on motor bikes and bicycles). Oh my gosh, negotiating this traffic was something else, there are no observed rules of the road, no robots and no stop streets – the only rule is go and overtake. Gray is finding the driving extremely stressful and being a passenger is no fun either.
The traffic cops in Tanzania are dressed in white; hat, shirt and pants – this seems like a very non-practical colour (especially for the poor wives who have to do the washing) but I’m sure it’s the only way they stay alive because they are so visible. I’m not sure what their purpose is besides, like the rest of African cops, to be polite (except in SA of course). The only request we have had from a cop is to see our fire extinguisher (we have 2 on board, so he was happy). Certainly they don’t appear to ticket anybody because there are clearly no rules to ticket them for.
We made it through Arusha and carried on for another 30km to the Meserani Snake Park (yes, there is a snake park and crocs) to camp. It is an overlander camp site but good for picking up information on the plans ahead and the facilities are adequate. The road out of Arusha starts with coffee plantations, followed by maize plantations and eventually the terrain becomes barren and eroded due to overgrazing by the Masai’s livestock.
We sat down to book a trip into the Serengeti area and sort out an extra flight for my return home. My plans were to fly out of Dar but we have been warned the traffic in Arusha is like a walk in the park compared to Dar and we would have to travel around 1000km back down there. The easy solution, fly to Dar from Kilimanjaro Airport and link up with my flight back to Jhb. Two tasks that in S.A. would have been sorted via internet or phone in 10 minutes, took us about 3 hours, only to discover we had to return to Arusha to pay for my flight.
Afternoon traffic is worse than morning traffic and Gray won’t even do a morning school Hurlingham/Saints lift as he will hit traffic on the 5km trip home. He is such a girl (self admitted), just as well we are bypassing Dar. On the way back I looked to the right, the clouds had dropped and we got the most magnificent view of Mt Meru, at 4566m, it is the second highest mountain in Tanzania. So the trip back had all been worth it.
This evening we had burgers at the snake park – 2 burgers and 2 G & T’s came to R34 for a pretty decent burger. Camping fees came to R35; all in all pretty good value for money.
Mt Meru
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