Travelling to Tanzania. Our First Days in Arusha and then Travelling to Tabora.

 Travelling to Tanzania

We left our home in Bristol at 2.30pm on Wednesday 21st February and caught the 5.15pm KLM flight to Amsterdam. 

On this trip we had decided to break the trip with an overnight stay in Amsterdam to make the journey more pleasant. Luckily we were able to book our luggage all the way through to Kilimanjaro so just had our hand luggage for our overnight stop.

We had booked to stay the night at the Corendon Amsterdam Schipol Airport Hotel. It is 3km from the airport and took about 10 minutes on the hotel shuttle bus. Check in was smooth and we were given a room on the 8th floor (the top floor). The room was very nice and comfortable with huge pillows 🤣.

It was now about 9pm local time so we headed down to the restaurant where they served an “All you can eat and drink buffet” for 34 Euros each which was pretty good.

After that it was time for bed.

The next morning we got up, showered and were on the shuttle bus back to the airport at 7.30am. We went through security and passport control before heading to the departure gate for our 9.30am flight to Kilimanjaro. Boarding and take off went smoothly and the flight was pretty uneventful apart from quite a bit of turbulence….I think the “ Fasten seatbelt sign” was on more than it was off.

We landed pretty much on time, at 8.15pm local time. We got our Visa on arrival which all went smoothly, you just have to follow through the process moving to each of 4 desks in turn before your Visa is finally approved, paid for and issued. By the time we had done this our bags were waiting for us in the arrivals hall, so we put them through the scanner and then headed out of the airport to meet Eddie who would drive us to Researchers Rest in Arusha, our home for the next 2 nights. By now it was about 9pm.

It took about 1.5 hours to reach the guest house, the last 20 minutes being on some pretty rough roads. Eddie showed us to our room which is great. We then had a quick drink in the lounge and went bed.

I should explain that we normally stay in Moshi on these trips but when we booked our flights I completely forgot that it was the Kilimanjaro Marathon this weekend which starts and ends in Moshi. This meant when we came to book accommodation in Moshi most of the reasonably priced hotels were already full, so we decided to stay in Arusha.

The next day was Friday and we had arranged this to be a rest day. Joseph served us a lovely breakfast of granola, yogurt, mango, eggs and bacon, toast and orange cake.

Researchers Rest is a small guesthouse with just 5 rooms and has a lovely homely feel. It is in Arusha town but has a surprisingly rural feel once you are inside the grounds. They even have a few tortoises wandering around.

Our morning was spent sorting out our luggage and chatting with a couple of other guests from Texas. It was lovely to exchange thoughts and experiences. By the time it got to lunchtime it felt like we had known Denise and Tom for more than just a few hours. We all had lunch together, a meal of lentil curry, rice, chapati, salad and bananas. The afternoon then continued in a similar vein and we felt we had made some real friends. 

This evening at dinner we were joined by a family with 2 boys who had just finished their safari. Again Joseph and Eddie had prepared a lovely meal. During the meal the boys wanted to hear about our project and the Tanzanian schools that we support. Don’t you find that kids ask the most interesting questions!! In the end Pete had to take over answering them so I could eat my dinner. I found it great that an 8 and 11 year old really “got” what we are trying to do when sometimes adults don’t 😀. 

Saturday morning we wake to sunshine. We have another good breakfast with the family and then spend the day repacking our bags ready for the next few days and then chilling in garden.

Joseph cooked us a lunch of beef pilau and salad which was very tasty.

Our original plan had been to meet up with Robert and Shabani from ACTT and drive to Singida today but Robert then had some work comments so changed things so it was decided that we would only do the shorter drive to Babati. However at 4pm Robert still hadn’t left Moshi which would have meant that by the time he had picked us up we wouldn’t have got to Babati until 11ish which I was not happy with.

So in the end we arranged with Eddie and Joseph to stay another night at Researchers Rest.

The following morning we have breakfast and meet Shabani at 8am. We pick up Robert at the bottom of the road and start our drive to Tabora.

Below are a few photos from the first part of the drive.

We get to Babati about 11 and stop to get take away coffees, mandazi (donuts) and samosas.

We carry on driving and I am surprised to see so many sunflowers I don't remember seeing these before, maybe its the time of year.

Around 12.30 we drive through the town of Katesh that was devastated by a mudslide in December 2023 causing 80 people to lose their lives. Torrential rain had caused a slice of Mount Harang to collapse leading to raging mud covering homes and anything else that stood in its way. 

The town is still trying to rebuild and recover.

We drive on to Singida where we stop for a quick lunch at a place Robert knows. Chicken, chips, ugali and bananas arrive promptly and we are soon on our way again.

We eventually arrive in the town of Nzega where we decide to stop for the night as it is now nearly 6pm and we have been on the road for 10 hours and covered 545Km.

We check out the Watermelon Hotel and it seems fine. We can have a double room with breakfast for TSh 50,000 (About £15.50) and Robert can a single room for half that.

Robert has some other business to attend to so we grab a drink in the bar and we then all meet up for dinner later.

Tomorrow we will drive the final couple of hours to Tabora before we then start visiting the schools.