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| Trusty "Sherman" |
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| Getting ready to leave for our trip |
Kent and I have been intrigued about what a trip around the whole mountain might be like for quite some time. The base of Mount Kilimanjaro is 60 by 90 miles but we decided to go around it on a road that is about 7000 feet in elevation. We began to ask if anyone had done it and the reply was no, no, and another no… but everyone said.. “Oh I should do that”. We thought this might be a trip that would be fun for some of our US guests for the future. So…. on Saturday morning we headed out with a plan to go and stay at the 1/3 spot and then continue on Sunday morning. We left Moshi around 10:30 AM after doing some errands in town and headed up the Marangu road. When we reached Marangu we continued to the east to begin the circle. The name of the lodge we were to stay at was Snow Cap Cottages. We had somewhat vague directions which is quite normal here. We had also searched for a map and there was none to be found but everyone said “there is only one road so follow it.” We came to a town a bit before the one where the “cottages” were located and found a few signs for Snow Cape Cottages…. it was so remote that I quickly informed Kent that we were NOT staying there for the night…. as it turned out is was a police barracks!! Everyone kept saying go a bit further… so we did. Finally we saw a sign pointing to a dirt road on the left that said Snow CAP cottages and as we drove up the road we saw them in the distance. It only took about 3 hours from Moshi to arrive and we were there shortly after 1pm. The place was lovely and cool and you could smell the pine forest all around us.
As it has been a bit warm ….. HOT…. in Moshi, we sucked in the cool air. We spent the afternoon knitting…me… and reading…Kent and it was wonderful. The mountain was typically clouded over but the cool air was enough for us to be happy we were there.
As we checked into the lodge, we were asked if we would like fish and rice or chicken and chips (French fries) for dinner at 6pm. We chose chicken and chips. At 6pm our dinner was served and it was quite nice. The bill was about $3.00 each. Our room was clean and adequate with a nice shower. We also slept well in the cool air.
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| Motorcycle with passenger and bananas |
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| Snow Cap Cottages |
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| Looking into Kenya |
This morning (Sunday) we enjoyed a nice breakfast (included with our room) of eggs, sausage (hotdog) and warm bread and we headed off for the last 2/3 of our adventure at around 8:30 AM. We could tell that it has rained in the evening and Kent said he heard it raining. After about 4 KM we began on the unpaved road which looked from the simple map we did find, to be about 30KM long. It was beautiful with the pine forests all around us and the clouds covering the magnificent peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. We knew we were skirting the border of Kenya and this became even more evident when my phone sent me a message saying I was now on Kenya network! It started to rain a bit off and on and we began to go though a few “little streams” on the road. The road continued to be more remote but the scenery incredible. We did come to one section of road that was quite muddy and we had to use 4 wheel drive low to navigate the ruts but “Sherman”… our trusty Nissan Patrol…. made it though. We continued our drive on the remote unpaved road and began to wonder if somehow there might have been a road turn we missed but we knew that both of us were glued to the route and could not have missed a turn and there were NONE. There were also no other vehicles… even motor cycles.. for miles. After a bit more than 3 hours on this road we finally came back to the tarmac and we were in Sanya Juu!!! What a wonderful sight!! We arrived home with a very muddy and dirty Sherman about 1:30pm and a wonderful adventure behind us.
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| Some of the better road |
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| Pine forest |
We did decide that we will NOT do the trip again until the VERY dry season… January and February perhaps and even then we will most likely not go all the way around. We also decided that the Snow Cap Cottages will be a great occasional trip to escape the heat and at $20. a night for 2 what a bargain!!!
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| Wonderful scenery and crops growing |
This morning (Sunday) we enjoyed a nice breakfast (included with our room) of eggs, sausage (hotdog) and warm bread and we headed off for the last 2/3 of our adventure at around 8:30 AM. We could tell that it has rained in the evening and Kent said he heard it raining. After about 4 KM we began on the unpaved road which looked from the simple map we did find, to be about 30KM long. It was beautiful with the pine forests all around us and the clouds covering the magnificent peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. We knew we were skirting the border of Kenya and this became even more evident when my phone sent me a message saying I was now on Kenya network! It started to rain a bit off and on and we began to go though a few “little streams” on the road. The road continued to be more remote but the scenery incredible. We did come to one section of road that was quite muddy and we had to use 4 wheel drive low to navigate the ruts but “Sherman”… our trusty Nissan Patrol…. made it though. We continued our drive on the remote unpaved road and began to wonder if somehow there might have been a road turn we missed but we knew that both of us were glued to the route and could not have missed a turn and there were NONE. There were also no other vehicles… even motor cycles.. for miles. After a bit more than 3 hours on this road we finally came back to the tarmac and we were in Sanya Juu!!! What a wonderful sight!! We arrived home with a very muddy and dirty Sherman about 1:30pm and a wonderful adventure behind us. 
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