We left Bagamoyo and go off on our drive to Arusha, we break our journey at Loshoto in the usambara mountains. Beautiful drive round hairpin bends in lush green countryside. Not the African bush I've seen before! Reading the guide books there are more types of trees here than anywhere!! Birds galore so the boys are happy, the bird book is out and being well thumbed. There's a lot of vegetables being grown on the steep mountainside and the soil looks so fertile. Beautiful waterfalls and massive rock faces in between. We climb up to 1200m and find the hotel/ campsite. Not great but hey ho... Guide book let us down on this one.

What I thought was going to be a quiet night sleep... Wasn't.... How a tiny mountain road can be busy at night, no crash barriers! But it was ... Party near by too..... Music made me want to dance it's very catchy,, but finally dropped off to sleep. Up early as always.. And we had arranged a guide to take us walking in the mountains . A nice 2 hour walk, see a village and have some food in a mountain top village. Turned into a 4 hour , 10 mile walk through beautiful but very steep mountains. More like alpine villages than Africa . Never ever believe an African I'm beginning to believe... Always quite vague with their answers and just say what you want them to say. So after 2 hours and then we realise it's the same distance back, there was some moans. But we climbed up to 1400m and to a view point where the view was just simply jaw dropping. But you by the time we got there we could barely walk, talk or breathe!!!! Shattered is putting it mildly, it was so so hot and getting to midday. We didn't have enough water and just taking sips every now and then. Having been led to believe it was all included it wasn't funny, but we did manage to keep laughing. Then as we walk through more fields through maize being grown with peas underneath. Fresh tomatoes, potatoes, courgettes... All organic... I was in my element
then suddenly the guide jumps up and shouts snake...... Only Gabe saw it with him, luckily I didn't and as it was a green mamba ... Highly dangerous I'm so pleased. Gabe always walk with a stick so very pleased he does as its probably what scared it off! We bought some fresh cheese from the mountain shop which is run by Lutheran church. A beautiful campsite which I wish we had known about instead. They also run a school for blind kids and an orphanage, it was so beautifully done up there in a forest and the gardens filled with flowers and beautifully kept.
The last leg of the weak was actually tortuous .... I was struggling too, managed to cool Gabe down by wetting his shirt and putting it on him. Theo just kept telling me how he didn't want to go on the walk anyway and how much he didn't like me!!! He is definitely turning into a teen already... Oh no... But we went into a tiny bar in a wooden shack with a crazy 3 piece suite and had fanta, coke and water. Just had to give them some sugar to give them the energy to make it home. But we did and I'm so proud of the boys... It'll definitely be a story to tell for them in years to come.
But when we passed all the kids in their school uniforms, who were so happy to see us and all shouted out Jambo "hello how are you" in Swahili. It made you humble to know lots of them probably did that walk to school and back and there was us moaning..... Love it when the kids have a realisation like that....
We set off after cold showers and went onto towards Moshi, but it was a really hot day and Monty was running hot and we needed to stop. So we found zebra camp( no zebras) and camped up in the empty camp. Next to a river and there was a kayak the boys all went out on to spot the birds. The birds were so tame that the bee eater was flying within 2 feet of Theo! Early to bed... 7.30 as up extra early to get on the road to Arusha before the heat gets to high.....
I'm writing this in the car on the way on my mini iPad (LOVE IT) and we are nearly at Arusha now, we have been able to see Kilimanjaro in the distance for miles and its awe inspiring. Snow capped and when your sitting here sweating away in a hot hot car it's just amazing. The biggest mountain in Africa and is 5895m.... Theo says he's going to climb it one day...
The traffic is very busy and the roads great for a few miles then off onto a track as they haven't finished the road. Speed bumps regularly that shack rattle and roll the car, boys bumping their heads behind us. Great big trucks trudging along and can't overtake as so many cars coming in the other direction. Mad buses still around and overtaking everything no matter what's coming!
Every so often there is a police check where they pull you over dressed in their immaculate white uniforms holding a black silver topped cane... Full of themselves they ask to see your driving licence, check the car over..Do the windscreen wipers work? Indicators? All so they can ask for a fine... We have been caught once so far for speeding which in a laden down Land Rover is hard to do... The limit was 30kmh, And they had painted a zebra crossing in the middle of nowhere. But you can barter with them if you ask for a receipt as if you don't get one they get the money in their pocket. I think with the boys in the back it helps us too as we say we have to feed them!!Finally we find a battery in Arusha and find our first supermarket! It's a joy to wander around with a trolley and fill up with all we need knowing I can put it in a fridge now. The little things make you happy in Africa! Then we arrive in Ma's snake park camp, boys excited as I had looked this one up before hand and it looks fun for them. We are the only ones here again as its out of season and we have our choice of places to camp. We find a nice grassy spot under some trees and finally make camp and relax. Everyone's happy as we realise we have camped under a flock of love birds, This is so happy and runs around getting some great pictures. He has never seen them before, there is guinea down running around making their squawking noise we remember from last year. Gabe is chasing them everywhere desperate for a feather to fall out. The Masai are around and look amazing, one walked through camp carrying a bow and arrow and a spear. You can imagine Gabe's face! The people that own the camp have been here for 22 years and came here from South Africa when apartheid ended. They look great all dressed in the robes and jewellery and then they all have a mobile phone strapped to the ear most of the time!!!