Taveta
Fri-Thurs 25th – 31st Oct.
Nice surprise on waking up and going onto my balcony…Kili was in view. Some cloud, and Mawenzi wasn’t visible, but at least Kibo peak could be seen.
Had breakfast and reached the stage around 09:00. Probably waited 30 minutes before leaving, but the whole trip to Holili was only an hour and a quarter. Before walking to the border I stopped off at the White House to ask mama Robert about Kibosho ( who looked incredibly ill last time I saw him), and had a tea next door. Oh, Kibosho on the mend apparently.
I had to wait for a fire drill at the border to be completed before I could get across. An ex neighbour Isaac was at the gate to take me down to Taveta.
The week up until the end of October was uneventful. I went a couple of times to Kilimanjaro Bar to meet up with Lucy. That weekend was partly spent at Utamaduni watching football in the late afternoon. Joseph didn’t make an appearance…he said because he thought I would be tired from my travels. He was right to some extent.
I hardly slept at all on the Friday night because I was so hot. Instead of getting
some sleep on the Saturday, I went straight through and by Saturday night I was absolutely exhausted.
Otherwise, each day followed a similar pattern…Mercy , breakfast, shopping.
However, on Weds 30th I woke early, saw that the weather was good and decided to cycle to Chala to visit Dad. I left at 7am and it was nice and fresh. 2 hours 10 mins and I was at the gravesite.. The grave was surrounded by grazing goats, but it was still in good condition.
The return journey was a little more difficult , although at least it was slightly down hill and the wind against wasn’t too strong. I stopped in Chala for a tea. I stoppped at Martina’s curios for a tea, a coffee and an orange. Finally, I had a long stop at a bar when I hit the tarmac road into Taveta. The bar wasn’t what I was expecting, and interestingly, it sold Tz beer. So I had Serengeti before cycling into Taveta. The beer cost 150bob, whereas a Kenyan beer costs 250bob. But it’s illegal to sell Tz beer so I won’t risk going there again!!!
I felt tired after the cycle, obviously, but not an absolute wreck like about 6 months ago, so I was pleased about that. I had given myself a day to recover just in case.
Otherwise, the weather was good and the week was spent watching football at Utamaduni or Matumu and varying the hoteli location for my early dinner. I ate githeri a couple of times; alternated between chapati and rice with pojo or beans; and a couple of very tasty kiti motos from Grace at Mwangaza.
Towards the end, the clouds cleared sufficiently to get much better views of Kili.
I bought my Mombasa ticket . I basically did the rounds of seeing friends and telling them I would be away for a few weeks. I cleaned my room and packed my rucksack, ready for what I hoped would be a successful tour guiding experience this time.