At Libby's suggestion for this trip to Tanzania, we flew with KLM (wise move as it turned out) to Kilimanjaro International Airport and two days later, after staying with friends in Moshi, flew down to Dodoma on the MAF, Arusha / Dodoma shuttle, which diverted to KIA to pick us up. This 12 seater plane saves a lot of time for the people, who use it, picking up and dropping off on request, at available airstrips en route, including Haydom Hospital. The rural runways are grassy strips, which have to be maintained by the local people and look more like fields to the uninitiated. On our return journey, the pilot flew over one airstrip first, so we were told, to check for cows, before he landed.
Transferring from a big plane to a small one is always an interesting experience, but I love seeing the ground below, the patchwork of red soil and green growth, following heavy rains, riverbeds like roots, stretching into the distance, road networks, villages etc. It's an amazing way to see the countryside and we appreciated the expertise and the courtesy of the pilots, who flew us.
We were only in Dodoma for a couple of days, before we were off again to spend Easter at Fox Farm in Mufindi, in the Southern Highlands amidst the Unilever tea plantations. As we opted for the tarmac route, it took two days, including one night in a campsite, just outside Iringa; it was like doing two sides of a triangle. The alternative shorter side was the off-road route, which might not have been a pleasant experience for vehicle or passengers. As it was, the off-road stretch to Fox Farm was dire, having been ruined by heavy lorries, during the rainy season.
At least our longer route meant we could drive through Mikumi and experience a mini safari. Had we turned off the main road, we would have had to pay for 24 hour permits at £20 an adult and £10 a child (locals get it cheaper) but driving through on the Mbeya Road is free.
We'd travelled in two off-road vehicles to Fox Farm, ourselves Daniel, Libby and family, plus friends of theirs with a small daughter. Our accommodation was in three cabins/lodges, of which there are ten altogether, with a central lodge, where meals are served in the dining room and a lounge upstairs. At 6,ooo feet, it's much cooler than Dodoma, but still pleasantly warm to us, if a bit chilly early in the morning to those who're used to temperatures of 30 degrees or more.
A visit to a nearby orphanage run by a young American couple and catering for 36 children in three single storey houses currently, highlighted the problem of aids in the area and a missing generation of parents to care for them. These children are being taught local village ways, how to work on the land, do their own washing, cook etc.,. A local housemother is responsible for 12 children in each house and those, who are old enough walk one and a half hours to school and back. A number of grannies are also helped. They learn to weave baskets, which are then sold thus providing money to employ someone to work their land for them. The owners of Fox Farm helped get this project off the ground, when it became apparent that teenagers, too young to employ were left looking after even younger siblings, after their parents died, with no possible source of income.
Libby's already mentioned the activities available at Fox Farm and the children just loved the freedom to go wherever they liked. It's a very beautiful location, with expanses of farmland and lakes, but also beautifully landscaped areas nearer the main lodge with plantings of flowers, we tend only to see in small sizes and as house plants e.g. poinsettia bushes.
On Easter Sunday, after a picnic dinner on the croquet lawn, there was an Easter egg hunt for the children staying at Fox Farm and the orphans. There weren't actually any eggs, because it was too hot for chocolate, but sticky toffee bars were an acceptable substitute, as far as the children were concerned; it was great fun.
All too soon it was time to do the return journey. This time we found a less bumpy route to get us to the main road and as Libby has said already, it was straight on to Iringa (where we camped again), stay on the same road to Morogoro and turn left onto the road to Dodoma.
The rest of our holiday was spent in Dodoma, where it was good to see folk we'd met on previous trips to Tanzania. A trip to the Travel Cafe was mandatory for Roy, who hadn't had the experience of a cappuccino at the only place in Dodoma, where you can buy one, as also was the trip to the Pizzeria for lunch on our last day. These two establishments provide a welcome diversion for ex-pats as they only opened in the last eighteen months and there aren't many places like that to visit.
We returned the way we'd come via a MAF plane to Kilimanjaro, spending a few more hours in Moshi, whilst we waited for our night flight to Amsterdam (via Dar) and on to London, arriving home on Tuesday 13th April. Two days later a volcano in Iceland erupted.......
