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1995

Tanzania - Cairo to Capetown

Bec
2004-09-20 13:21:46

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Mount Meru
It was a long trip to get here. I left Bukalagi in central Uganda at 7 AM, got a bus at 9 AM in Kampala for Tororo to do the exit formalities, then a taxi to Malaba for the Kenyan entry formalities, then a bus that got into Nairobi at 3 AM. I did not feel like staying in Nairobi so I slept in the bus until daylight and left for Arusha in another one at 7 AM.

The border formalities at Namanga went smoothly but the weather turned bad and this is all I got to see of Mount Meru as it remained hidden in the clouds.

Arusha
I got to Arusha in the afternoon and met James Nethercott, a young Englishman backpacking around Africa like me. We got along fine so we spent a few days travelling together. We took a room at the Amazon Hotel, explored Arusha, had an excellent goat meat dinner and managed to get lost in the unlit streets.

When we finally got back to the hotel we met, and had a few beers, with Isaac Mgaya, a secondary school director who impressed me by his political awareness and broad African vision. He explained how frustrating it was to see the forces of tribalism prevent economic and social development in most African countries and to be able to do so little against it.

Kilimanjaro
From Arusha we went to Moshi at the foot of Kilimanjaro. This is all we got to see of it on the way as it remained hidden in the clouds.

Moshi
The Liberty Hotel in Moshi was cheap but there was no electricity nor running water and the chicken of our supper must have died of old age in the desert.

Kilimanjaro
The view of the Kilimanjaro from the Coffee Tree House restaurant is said to be superb on a clear day but the great volcano stayed hidden in the clouds while we were there. Naturally we were very disappointed but I was not going to wait a week for the sky to ...