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2 June, Thursday From a distance...

6/8/2011

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2 June, Thursday Moshi to Usumbara mountains
 
 
We get travel weary quickly these days and I now understand why
overlanders would say they took a week or 2 vacation: stay put in one place and
regroup. One would not think it, but this does tire you in an interesting way.
After 2 hours drive Willie starts to look for a place to camp. We have a
  waypoint of a camp which, apparently, has a stunning view. 
 
We stop at Mombo, the last town before you drive into the
  mountains or shall I rather say, we are stopped by street vendors whose shop is
  on top of their heads…big round baskets filled with anything you can think of:
  chips, sodas, water, chocolate, gum, tissues, samoosas, sausages, roasted corn
  on the cob, small donuts, peanuts, cashews…They are accompanied by shrewd stall
  salesmen who want to lure you to their little restaurant or food place.
  Everyone has a wonderful plan for my life and I lose my thinking processes as I
  am being barraged by their incessant talking trying to convince me that their
  product is the best. I, inevitably, go with the smoothest of the talkers, spend
  too much money (although he assures me that is not the case) and end up deathly
  tired back in the car. Hugo usually goes with me and he, on the other hand,
  loves to negotiate and barter with a big smile and loud voice without getting
  angry or tired. I think I am stocked up for a meal for the
evening.

 We drive on a narrow, windy road which twists and curves higher
and higher into the mountain through lush, green and dense vegetation and trees.
Our aim is Irente Mountain View Hotel – built on a cliff with decidedly the most
unbelievable panoramic view I’ve ever encountered. Standing on the ledge and
overlooking the world below gives a surreal feeling – an outsider looking in on
a world that has grown distant and silent and small. I feel her breath on my
skin as she sighs and I wonder if this is an inkling of God’s perspective of an
unseen and unknown universe out there…?

 We pitch camp in the parking lot of a hotel with no guests…We are
told it is low season and the quiet time of the year, but it is weird to see a
big complex so empty. The hotel is 150 meters away from a small village that
boasts, without a doubt, with the noisiest, hair salon in Tanzania: loud,
ear-piercing, thumping music pumps out of that small building to cover the
surrounding area like dripping icing on a cake. My theory is that you do not
need scissors for a haircut – the pitch and sound level make your hair fall out
spontaneously!

 Willie, Sammie and I walk to a viewpoint to watch the sunset. The
ledge with no barrier has a sheer drop and the dizzying height makes me feel a
little sick to my stomach. The view is breathtakingly spectacular as the sun
changes into different colored robes behind the cloud
curtains.

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    Author

    Caren

    "There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne - bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive. One only feels really free when one can go in whatever direction one pleases over the plains, to get to the river at sundown and pitch one's camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep
    beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night." -
     Karen Blixen - Out of Africa, Kenya
    'Of course as I am reading this, I know that you DO get your visas and the container DOES get released, but oh the internal struggle we face even though we should trust (as Hugo does) that God has His hands on all things and is constantly taking care of us.'


    From a Friend:
    :) Crazy to think that we are ALL made of blood, bone and water yet we speak in so many tongues that getting along together becomes a massive task within itself.

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