Marangu - Arusha

We spent 2 days in the house of Dille, a friend of Kitty. He and his wife run a village education project, with school developments for the English language, computer skills and vocational training skills. We visited a primary school and a vocational centre. Very impressive. We also hiked all the way down to the village. Trough the villages and the banana trees and the waterfall. The market is very colourful. And the evenings were very cold.
Dille gave us also information about places to stay near the Crater. He had students everywhere and cell phones are so handy!!
3 May we arrived in Arusha. Also a big city, lots of traffic and the gateway to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. And Shoprite is the place to be to meet other overlanders and to buy your goodies. We met 2 Dutch couples also driving back to Holland. One couple comes even from Rotterdam. It's a small world after all.

From Dar to Marangu

On Queensday we left for Marangu. We wanted to take the shortcut to Msata. Unfortunately we heard there that the road was closed because of flooding! A D-tour of 200 km. Back to Dar, through the chaos of that big city with all the trafic jams. Then 100 km to Morogoro. We were lucky, not too much traffic but it mend we could not reach Marangu that night. The road was in a good condition. The views were excellent. We passed lots and lots of sisal plantations and the boys were reading.

In Marangu the scenery was beautiful. Totally unexpected rain forest and very green. OK, it was raining a lot. That is why the Kili could not be seen. But the moment you see the Mount Kilimanjaro it changes everything. What an impressive site. We had the idea to walk or hike to the first hut. But the fees of the National park were huge. 60 USD for 1 person, only for a walk of 4 hours? No, we arranged a guide and did our own tour.

Even Nederlands

Auto klaar voor vertrek, maar waar is Bart? Misschien moeten jullie de foto even uitvergroten.

Voor alle Nederlandse vrienden even een babbeltje in de moerstaal. Hoewel het de bedoeling is dat de jongens de weblog bijhouden doen die liever spelletjes op het internet. Het is wel een ervaring in een internetcafe de tijd doorbrengen. Het kost ongeveer, met deze verbindingen, 8 minuten om een foto op de blog te zetten. Geduld moet je wel hebben.

In ieder geval is de auto weer voorzien van nieuw materiaal en nieuwe banden en moet ons dus verder kunnen brengen. Morgen vertrekken we naar het Noorden van Tanzania en gaan dan eindelijk de beesten zien. En wat betreft mijn vijfstigste verjaardag..... Dat 'vierden' we in Mbeye en in de auto. Wel een kadootje van Kitty gekregen, via de jongens, een tas die precies bij mijn broek past. Misschien vieren we het uitgebreid bij thuiskomst of op mijn 55ste, toch ook een mooi jaartal!

Vandaag gaan we naar Dar es Salaam met als hoogtepunt een maaltijd bij de SPUR, kunnen de jongens er ook weer even tegen. Hoewel de echte regenbuien over zijn, komt er nog heel wat water uit de hemel. Van overstromingen heb ik verder niets meer gehoord.

Ik weet niet wanneer we de volgende keer kunnen schrijven maar nu zijn we in ieder geval up to date. Groeten aan iedereen Helma

Some photo's

Evert is ready


Moving Malawi style

Moving and Farewell

Friday 6 April the movers came to collect all our items to send to the Netherlands. On Saturday the “leftovers” were moved in a Malawian way, leaving us with a very empty house. Although the boys were thrilled: “you can play football inside the house now!”
Fare wells
We had to say goodbye to our staff and to some of the animals. Whitesocks moved in with Letwin and the cat Misty and the dog Jip went to Anneke Meursing’s house where they settled in nicely. We had lovely farewell dinners with the Surtee- Tomsons, the Sacranies and the Kitty-Willies.

Radio interview
Bart and Evert went to the FM 101 studio for a radio interview.


We’re off
After the car was fixed finally we could leave on Monday 21 April. Evert is packed!
We even found a place for Bart.
Heavy loaded but we’re off. Bye Blantyre, bye!!

Photo's will follow ( difficult here in this internetcafe)

Chinteche – Dar es Salaam
We spent one sunny and one rainy day in Chinteche where we camped at the Chinteche Inn to get organized. The 24 April we arrived in Mbeya in Tanzania. We spent a very comfortable night in Karibuni Centre. Evert calculated our expenses to 2 euro per person per night.
The next day to Mikumi. The rainy season has not stopped yet, so we had quite some rain. The next day from Mikumi to Dar es Salaam. Our first 1500 kilometre!
Unfortunately again some minor problems with the car. That is no problem because we are very comfortable at Maua Garden, a Swiss B &B in Kunduchi beach. On Sunday Ed had his first experience in an internet cafe while Bart and Evert were sliding and sliding at Wet and Wild Water Park.

Sorry for the photos. I hope it will be better next time

last day in uniform

Easter holidays

End of March was the last day at school. Leaving with mixed feelings. But the boys were looking forward to the easter holidays and the big trip.

The little holiday at the lake before closing up the house was wonderful. As always we went to the Venraay's cottage where we spent some nice days with Kitty, Willie, Uma , Joyce and Mike.

While the children were busy playing, swimming and relaxing, Helma and Kitty worked hard to finish the farewell tablecloth, designed by everyone who was present at the lake.

Then back to filling cartons and checking if the camping gear was OK. The boys enjoyed that very much and camped 3 nights in the tent in the garden together with their best friend Courtney. The weather was great and they woke up early to continue their games on PSP and Gameboy.