Day 50, 51 and 52

 Day 50

Today we enjoyed a quiet day at the lodge. We had breakfast and then spent some time chatting with a Swiss lady on the terrace just outside the dining room. Below are a few of photos of the dining room and the terrace.

When we walked back to our room a bit later Kilimanjaro was just visible, though because of the distance it doesn’t really come out well in our photos.

Mid morning we did a short circular walk around the lodge grounds which take you down to a view point. It was a nice walk and good to stretch our legs.

The lodge is pretty quiet during the day and we have lunch on our own. Middle of the afternoon we find Abdul and arrange to do a forest walk with Joseph tomorrow morning. We then pick up some drinks and walk down to the view point with them.

This evening there was a good sunset which we watched before going to dinner.

Tonight we are joined by 3 girls from the U.K. who are teachers in Arusha. They have spent their half term hiking from Lushoto to Mambo View Point. We had a good evening with them, hearing about their hike and their experiences in Tanzania over the last year.

Day 51

Today we are doing a forest walk with Joseph. It is possible to do a full day hike to the forest from the lodge but we are just doing a half day so will use pikipiki (motorbikes) to get to and from the forest. We meet Joseph and the 3 pikipikis at about 9.15. The bike ride to the forest takes about 20 minutes. We see no cars on the way and only a few other motorbikes. The pikipikis take us right into the forest, effectively on footpaths, before they drop us off.

The first part of the walk is through fairly dense forest. It doesn’t seem like many people have walked this way recently as Joseph often has to clear the path as we go.  We can hear the monkeys in the trees and get some fleeting views but not good enough to take photos. Joseph identifies lots of trees and plants as we walk and explains what can be eaten or used in herbal medicine. These include camphor, wild peppermint, large fruits on a magnolia tree, and wild bananas trees.

After a while the path starts to go downhill quite steeply and Joseph asks if we want a stick. When we say yes he finds some straight sticks, cuts off all the side branches and cuts them to the correct height for each of us. As we continue our hike we pass a “Communication Tree”. Joseph explains that the bottom of the tree has been shaped so that when it is hit with a stone the sound resonates through the forest. This was originally done to alert people that something important was going to happen like a village meeting.

As we walk Joseph also explains about the local environment, the forest, sustainability and tree planting.

Further on Pete spots a freshwater crab on the path. Joseph says these can be cooked and eaten. We also see a rather large hairy caterpillar.

After a couple of hours we reach some waterfalls and stop for a rest. It is nice and cool here.

Walking on we come to an area that the locals have prepared for the “Healing spirits”. A special flag marks the spot and there is small hut where people leave water, food and small amounts of money for the spirits.

Further along we see a bundle of firewood that has been collected by one of the local women, she will come back for it later. We often see women walking with bundles like this but had never realised quite how heavy they are. Joseph ask if we want to try and carry it but I suggest he shows us instead. Even he says it is quite heavy, however once balanced on his head he says it is ok.

Our walk now takes us along the edge of the forest and we get some nice views.

We now see wild cucumbers, beans and bush berries. Joseph picks some berries for us all to eat. They are quite sharp but not unpleasant.

As we approach the village we see a channel has been dug to carry water from the waterfall to the village. This water can be used for irrigation by anyone who helped to build the channel.

We are now seeing more signs that we are getting nearer to a village, including some livestock grazing in a cleared area.

Once back in the village we meet up with the pikipikis who will take us back to the lodge. The ride back is shorter and we get some great views. This time they play local music as we ride. It had been another really good morning.

Back at the lodge we quickly freshen up and then enjoy a late lunch. We are joined by Natasha and later Sarah, 2 of the teachers we met yesterday. We stay chatting with them for a while whilst doing the blog and checking emails. Later we go back to our room and do some washing. I spot this Variable Sunbird from our terrace.

Dinner tonight is good and later we watch the lightning that we can see across the mountains before retiring to bed.

Day 52

Today has been a quiet day. We woke up in the clouds and by the time we went to breakfast it was raining. It was also quite cool.

We were the only people at breakfast as everyone else had eaten and then checked out.

Today we were going to visit the computer classroom set up by Herman that serves the local community. He had originally arranged for us to visit at 10 but Abdul came and saw us at breakfast and said that Salehe, the IT Teacher had asked to change it to 2 o’clock this afternoon which was fine. 

The morning continued to be cloudy and rainy so we read and blogged etc, inside. By lunchtime it was getting warmer and the sun was appearing periodically.

The IT classroom was just outside the entrance to the lodge so we walked over at 2pm and met up with Salehe. As I mentioned previously Herman, who owns the lodge has done various projects to support the local community and the IT classroom is one of these. It is equipped with about 10 computers and offers IT classes free of charge. These are mainly for school leavers, either Standard 7 or Form 4 and most come from the local schools. When we visit there are 6 students in the class and they are practicing how to write and send emails. We stay for about 45 minutes, chatting with Salehe and learning about what he does.

By the time we left the sun had come out and so we grabbed some drinks and came back to our terrace.

Later we go down to the dining room terrace for a drink before dinner. We met up with Herman and some new guests, Sarah and Wes, originally from South Africa but now living on Zanzibar. We had a nice dinner chatting with them.