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| 19 October 2003 - Post-Kili rest |
During breakfast at the hotel we again chatted to all the other guys there, all also getting ready to leave, either on safari or home. After checking out we went into Moshi to the internet cafe to catch up on emails. Being Sunday the rest of Moshi was closed but fortunately the Twiga Communications internet cafe was open. Boy, were there a lot of emails! Thank you to all for the best wishes.
As there are no decent camping options in or around Moshi, we chose to go off to Arusha to rest after the Kili climb. On the way there we took a little detour to Mweka village. The previous day, when we came through the gate, we did not have any money with us to buy ourselves a t-shirt so we stopped by the curio sellers and after a bit of haggling found some cheap t-shirts. The place was very quiet, with many of the stalls closed. Thanks to the well-oiled bush telegraph they know when to expect climbers... We found it oddly sad to be driving through the foothills and finally leaving Kili for good. Maybe tough experiences find a bigger place in one's heart? To feel better we stopped for cookies and colddrinks and then slowly made our way to Arusha.
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A rejuvinated and smiling Isla able to walk around our camp
The top of Mount Meru towering above Arusha |
There are not that many camping options in Arusha so we settled for Masai Camp, which suffers from the same problems as so many other places: emphasis is on entertainment and overlanding trucks so the bar and restaurant are great, the rest less so. But home it would be for a few days to rest and to make a plan with our broken digital camera. Also at the camp were a German couple travelling with dogs in a Land Rover ambulance converted into a camper, and a South African couple in a Landy R6. The Germans kept to themselves so we spent the rest of the day chatting to Jeff and René. Jeff was battling to get an oil change done on his Landy: the R6 they bought in Durban for a really good price, and they had not had any real problems with it, but the problem was that it had the Chev 4.1 engine conversion. After buying oil and filter for it, and draining the old oil, he realized he had been sold the wrong filter. I offered to take him into town the next morning (Monday) to get it swapped and boy did we search for the correct filter. We must have gone to all the spares shops in Arusha trying to match the filter: dusty boxes were brought out from who knows where trying to find one that would fit the Chev engine. For a laugh we went to the local Land Rover dealer, a large building next to the main road, totally empty inside, with a few employees who don't have a clue about anything, hanging around. Not that we were hoping to get an oil filter for Jeff there but I was hoping to find a replacement separator drain hose for the crankcase breather that cracked on our Landy when we were in Malawi. Totally clueless as to what I was after, even with the parts catalogue page in my hand, the best they could do was point us across the road to various spare parts dealers. But I did get lucky: one of the shops selling Landy spares pointed out that, cut correctly, the heater hose has the right shape for what I needed. I just love bush solutions! For Jeff, after exhausting the spares shops, and the old filter being a GUD, we ended up with the GUD importers who looked into their records and gave us the bad news that they had not yet imported such a filter. Chev engines did not really make it into Tanzania so there are no spares for them, and much the same for Kenya. So there is a lesson there somewhere: either take many oil filters with you if you want to travel in East Africa with a Chev 4.1 converted R6, or get a different Landy/engine. Thing is you can take a few oil filters with you, but what about other spares? So for the second oil change in a row Jeff had to put the old oil filter back with the new oil (he had the same problem earlier in their trip).
While driving Jeff around Arusha I noticed a Canon sign outside a shop - maybe we would get lucky with the digital camera? After fetching Isla we went to investigate: no luck, they only offered business solutions and did not deal in consumer electronics, and worse, there was no service centre in Tanzania, maybe Kenya they said. We consoled ourselves at the nice Shoprite on the other end of town (hint: they make the best bread in town) before heading back to camp. I spent the rest of the day on the cell phone negotiating with Canon SA what they were going to do about our broken A70 digital camera. Usefully I first contacted my brother-in-law to get Stax Fourways' number so that they could do a little ground work for me, and they came up with Canon SA's General Technical Manager, Mr Paul Hughes. He informed me that the only other repair centre in Africa outside of South Africa was in Egypt, and that I would have to bring the camera to Midrand to be looked at for a warranty claim. Not exactly impressed with the news, I again explained that it was not possible to do so and insisted that Canon honour the warranty on a virtually brand new camera which should not have broken in the first place. It was definitely not my fault that the camera broke and that they could not repair it anywhere else (even their Nairobi centre had closed). Basically the warranty you get is worth nothing unless you stay at home! I wanted the camera swapped via DHL (to be paid for by Canon), whereas Mr Hughes had issues regarding their rules for warranty repairs/replacements and the expense of DHL. In my mind, I was the exception rather than the rule: how many requests for replacement from somewhere in Africa do Canon SA get? Probably less than one in a thousand? So for that small number surely it is not such a big deal to DHL a replacement camera at their cost? After a few very expensive phone calls (cell phone international roaming should be avoided like the plague, cost me more than DHLling the camera!), I got a bit frustrated and told Mr Hughes that I should have bought the Sony digital camera I looked at instead and would say so on this web site. But he later did offer a solution which we agreed on: he would send me a used demo A70 camera via DHL and Canon would pay for it, but I had to keep my camera until our return so that it can be inspected. I really hope that by the time Isla and I get home he will still be working at Canon SA, and I wonder what they will say if the A70 is discontinued and cannot replace it unless with an upgraded model? So the thank you does go to Mr Hughes of Canon SA. It was good that in the end he was able to assist us. Although there is a photographic gap on the web site while we were without a digital camera, at least we will be able to continue with the web site once we receive the loan unit, and will be able to take more photographs of the common and less so "Views of Africa".
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Most of the matatus in Arusha are old Hi-Ace game viewers where paying customers are able to stick their heads out |
The next day Jeff and René left for Ngorongoro area, and Isla and I went into Arusha to do some shopping and change money. The pick of the shopping options is definitely the Shoprite, but to support the local community a little we went to the market to buy fruit and vegetables. I also got one of the Kili films developed and found that film development is very cheap but printing the photos is quite expensive. A thorough search of the internet cafes revealed one that could scan a few photographs of our Kili climb for the web site. Scan quality was poor but connection quality was good so we can recommend Kremola Internet Cafe just 100m north from the Clock Tower. To change money I tried a few places but the rate was the same everywhere (Tsh1040 for US$1) so no recommendations there. There are plenty of Bureaux de Change around the Clock Tower area, and the small RTC supermarket also there stocks useful basics. For pastries you can pop into the Patisserie 200m east of the Clock Tower down Sokoine Road, DHL is a little further down on the left, and the Shoprite a few km further down (S3.37519 E36.67922). By now you should have worked out that apart from the Shoprite you can get most things done around the Clock Tower area. Unless you want a hamburger, then you go to McMoody's near the market. The market is rather large and you can find just about anything you need, quite cheaply. We found the pineapples and passion fruit to be excellent. A youngster latched onto us and helped guide us around. Surprisingly he did not ask us for money afterwards! In Arusha you have to pay for parking, something we did not know. Those people walking around wearing bright coats sell you a ticket which entitles you to park anywhere in town for the day. When we returned from the market one of these ladies was waiting for us. I could not understand what she wanted and she let us go when she saw we had been at the market for fruit and vegetables. Only afterwards did we realize she wanted parking money! During our shopping spree we also got a small bottle of Konyagi, the local spirit made from sugar cane. It's quite rough, strong and cheap, so will have to drink some more to get used to it.
Oddly I felt ok from the day we returned from the Kili climb, but Isla needed a few days for her knee to come right so we gave ourselves until Friday morning before leaving Arusha. Over the next couple of days we caught up on rest, washing, work on the web site, and most importantly collected the loan digital camera from the DHL office. It also rained a lot while we were there so to get all the washing done took longer than planned. One evening we decided to drive into Arusha and check out Pizzarusha's claim for "The best damn pizza in town". In a small dusty side street, the inside looks a little better than the outside where an old broken down car blocks the entrance. I would not like to be caught inside during a storm but the night we were there was clear. They do not have a wood burning oven, nor an electric oven. They instead place the pizza in a pan on charcoal and a steel plate with charcoal on top to cook from above. Novel way of cooking their pizzas, and the pizzas were ok, except that the fillet and chips was the same price as the vegetarian pizzas so next time I will settle for the steak! We were their only customers (low season) but a group came in just before we left so I guess it is relatively popular.
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Pizzarusha's questionable exterior ... is fortunately not matched by the interior
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Working very hard on the web site |
One morning while I was repacking the Landy (yes, still not happy with where things were) a couple arrived in a 10-ton MAN truck. After a while they came over to chat and they turned out to be Klaus and Erika Daerr. The average overlander will not know who they are, unless you happen to be German. Klaus has written the bible for Germans overlanding through Africa "Durch Afrika" as well as other country-specific books. Erika has written the most popular German travel guide to Morocco. Klaus sold his business and they are now travelling for a couple of years. It was very interesting to chat to him as he was involved in many areas of travel and equipment, having supplied Camel Trophy with sand ladders for many years. He was very interested in the sand ladders I have on my Landy because they are true originals and he explained to me the history and details of their manufacture. He has now tracked the original tooling used for their manufacture and is making these in Germany but with different materials as the original grade of aluminium is much too expensive. Surrounded by Germans, we met the head of the German Development Aid Agency, based in Nairobi, in the camp's restaurant. He was in Arusha for the weekend with his family, had just driven down through the Serengeti and told us how good the game viewing was. We had decided to give the Serengeti a miss based on what Noel and Bron O'Sullivan had said, but after his recommendation we just had to go and check it out for ourselves, so Isla started doing a bit of planning for the next few days' travelling.
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| Diary entry summary: |
| Camp sites/places to stay: |
| Place | GPS position | Costs | General comments | Our rating (*) |
| Masai Camp | S3.38473 E36.71986 | TZS3000 / person | Good place for a few days: (I) average ablution facilities with hot water; (II) grass, no shade, shelter on overlander trucks side, rubbish bins, no braai areas, water taps, wash-up facilities, no table/bench; (III) grassy area with trees on the sides; (IV) good value for money; (V) pub with restaurant, food is good. |   |
(*) stars represent (I) ablutions, (II) camping facilities, (III) setting, (IV) overall value for money, (V) anything extra that warrants an additional star
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