Big weekend. At 33 I'm not as young as I used to be, so I feel it more now! Had Bwana Daudi, our good A-Town mate come to stay Friday night to do some marathon training with us. I don't know what the two huge owls hanging around our house screeching as he arrived portended...I like owls.
Despite a bit of a rubbish stomach (dunno what I ate that caused it) the wife, Daudi and I set out running at 730am up the steepest part of what will be the Kilimanjaro Marathon, heading straight at the Mountain. I liked the stop the wife did to do a brief throw up of the water she had guzzled too quickly, before we got on our way again.
Beautiful view of the mountain, running past coffee fields, waving locals, gaggles of hornbills...makes the pain of long distance running a bit more bearable. We ran 21 km in 2.5 hours, bit of a record for me...almost a half marathon I think? Maybe I can do this crazy marathon thing...
(the furtherest point on the run we got to...Im proud, if exhausted)
Daudi was keen to see Lake Chala (of my tembo obsession) so after the run, showers, we drank tons of water (it was getting ridiculously hot as the sun rose)ate some food in town and then set out towards Chala in a tiny 4 wheel drive car.
We found the turn off to the Lake okay...then we promptly got stuck in deep shifting, red dust and sand. It was like Lawrence of Arabia or something. Road works and no rain for ages meant the road- that was previously muddy on my last visit- was now a parched, narrow,cauldron of dust. Large piles of rocks and gravel from road works to avoid as well as the usual goats and cows.
(look out for the gravel piles...and the dust, and the other car coming at us, and the cows and...)
After pushing/reversing the car out of the place it was trapped in, we put it in 4 wheel drive and gingerly moved on.
('No worries, mate')
Despite, the one point when I thought we were going to tip the tiny car over, we got to the Lake in one piece and commenced relaxing at a campsite bar.
A group of new arrivals to Tanzania were camping at Chala and were in awe (ha) to hear how long us old timers had been here. Nice to get some awe. My wife helpfully volunteered me as a guide for them to lead them down to the Lake in the Caldera, as I had gone down there before. Hoping I could remember the way, I set off and managed to get the group down to the water. They seemed happy. The wife and I jumped in to cool off, keeping an eye out for the crocs the Lake is supposed to be full of.
After scrambling back up and out of 'The Lost World', we headed off home in the dusk light. The trip home was slow and in fading light. The wife and I got out of the car a few times to lighten it as it pushed through the dust. Many times we had to stop altogether as visibility was zero either due to dust or sunstrike. I had to move a boulder at one point from the road so we could get past...what a ridiculous drive.
It was good to finally be back on the main road and heading back to Moshi under the setting sun.
That night we were all too tired to do much of anything except listen to music with some drinks before falling asleep. Sunday morning, Daudi shot off back to Arusha and the wife and I caught up with another Kiwi volunteering couple in Moshi.
After a swim at the YMCA pool with bikini clad white girls swimming with local orphans on an outing, while Tanzania guys look on and drool, we chilled out at home.
Another friend crashed at our house late Sunday night(the wife and I are so popular!) having endured a long bus ride from Dar Es Salaam Her tales of Zanzibar were inviting...but I'm getting a bit poor/tired...we'll see...I found her description of the 'human kitty litter' room intriguing ie a toilet that is just a room of sand for people to use...
That start of another work week...least the big boss is backing my play on the prison training debacle and overruling our line manager...I'm also glad the staff member that got the free trip to Malaysia (courtesy of a local bank as a thanks for depositing tons of donor money with them) enjoyed his visit there.
A pity the visit which was only possible due to donor money had absolutely nothing to do with our work or outcomes for our clients at all. And that the wife and I were ignored when we urged a formal process for determining how to get the most benefit for the organisation of this opportunity...but I hear the Malaysian Zoo is nice.
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