We left Dar es Salam to go north on Friday 13 July. We were thinking of spending one more night at the Indian Ocean, but the place we had booked turned out NOT to have a TV. Ok, I know you are thinking that is a pretty high expectation when you are camping. The problem is the World Cup started on Thursday, so we wanted to catch as much as we could.
So we changed plans and decided to go to Lushoto, which our friend Maja had told us was nice. Was she ever right! It is off the main road and up a super twisty winding road into the mountains that felt like it was mostly one lane wide. Thankfully there was not much traffic going the other way. We camped at this place called the Lawns Hotel. Everything in that place was covered with some kind of creeping ivy. I thought if we left the tent up for a week it would probably be overgrown by the time we came back.
So we changed plans and decided to go to Lushoto, which our friend Maja had told us was nice. Was she ever right! It is off the main road and up a super twisty winding road into the mountains that felt like it was mostly one lane wide. Thankfully there was not much traffic going the other way. We camped at this place called the Lawns Hotel. Everything in that place was covered with some kind of creeping ivy. I thought if we left the tent up for a week it would probably be overgrown by the time we came back.
They had a pretty nice living room for watching the games, and my parents were impressed with the scotch collection in the bar. Turned out to be a fun night, except that Spain, who I was cheering for, were totally destroyed by the Dutch.
The next day we drove back down the winding road and continued on to Moshi. We were all hoping to see Mount Kilimanjaro, but it took two days before we got to see the mountain come out from the clouds. It is a pretty impressive sight.
In between Moshi and Arusha we took a detour to find the little oasis of Maji Moto, which apparently means hot water. That raised my expectations a bit, but it turned out the water was not hot at all. Still, someone had made a great rope swing from a tree out over the springs, and we spent a couple of hours swinging around and having a good time.
The next day we drove back down the winding road and continued on to Moshi. We were all hoping to see Mount Kilimanjaro, but it took two days before we got to see the mountain come out from the clouds. It is a pretty impressive sight.
In between Moshi and Arusha we took a detour to find the little oasis of Maji Moto, which apparently means hot water. That raised my expectations a bit, but it turned out the water was not hot at all. Still, someone had made a great rope swing from a tree out over the springs, and we spent a couple of hours swinging around and having a good time.