Afrique 42 – TANZANIA 8 – FROM ARUSHA TILL NAIROBI

 We get off Erik home early and we take the way to the border. The road follows by an easy long climbing, 30 km, by forest and farm land. There only a few small groups of houses along the way, basic shops, and a bigger village at midway. At the top, 2000 m about, we find us in a plateau, in fact hilly, with just grass, or small acacias in very open forest, undense, and forest on the hills around, which are in fact the peaks of the mountains. Again I suppose here it was all forest, a few hundred years before. Then humans cut the trees to make coal, fields, and push the animals away. Then rains brought the soil away, and now it lasts just poor grass and small acacias. That is the drama of Africa, too many people have to survive by anyway, they can’t respect the nature, and they can’t respect the future. And that is the way Africa would die, no more forest, no more wood for coal to cook and heat anything, no more soil for crops.

Then we follow on the plateau for a while. The road goes downhill in fact. 15 km after the top we cross a village, well very small and no guest house. From here starts the gravel road which goes around the mount Meru and joins the one around Kilimanjaro. No sign, no indication, and no sign to indicate the name of the village. After 25 km of light downhill the road flatters and follows undulating. We get some backwind and it is yet fresh for Africa. We cross a land without house or village, just grass, acacias, hills in the distance, and a few massais driving herds of cows or goats. By the end of the road, at the foot of a big hill, we can distinguish a big group of houses, a big village, our hope to find a roof for the night. It seems near, when we get at the end of the downhill, but we would have to cycle 2 hours more, and 30 km. We finally arrive in the little town, after 83 km, a long but easy day. I quickly find a guest house and a restaurant. People are nice here. We see a few gringos strolling around, certainly coming by some agencies to visit that typical massai place, but with new road and new buildings, not the so so poor places we saw all along the travel.
Just after the village we see the gravel road going west to Serengati. But we continue straigh for 30 km till the border, by an easy road. The little town is again looking like a slum, with a big building in the middle for the customs. It seems there a side district with good buildings, and the road is in works. Well we stop for a breakfast and we cross the border easily. Locals are yet very helpful for free, so good. Then we decide sleep here, as it is already hot, and the next guest house would be 32 km away. First we look for a guesthouse on the main road, which is in very bad state, but the 2 aren’t what we like. We see the town is in fact aside the road, by a gravel road on EST just after the border. So we take it and first we go too far. There are a lot of little shops along the street which confuse us. Then I ask and we go back. And just before getting out I see that the orange building I already noticed is a guest house. Good we are in town, which make easy some shopping. We first buy a sim card, and then we go to a little butchery restaurant.
We move early, and the road is hilly with long straight climbings. We go by farm land, with crops and cattle and poor grass with trees. There a few villages. The first at 20 km has just a few houses. The second 15 km away, smells, and don’t have a lot more, we just find a place to eat some chapattis, no lunch. We continue till the little town, 30 km more, where we decide to stop. As it is Sunday most of the shops and all the restaurants are closed. We find a strange guesthouse, unfinished, looking a bit like a Wald Disney castle. By the evening a drunk massai try to open our door with keys, 2 times. First I talk with him calmly, second I go to the boss of the hotel, who manages the trouble. But we close the door with a table, in case. In fact that was the watchman, drunk, who were trying all the keys to be sure there is no double.
In the morning we take a taxi to Nairobi to avoid any danger of robbery, 6000 sh. In fact we go in a suburb south, near the giraffe park. The taxi takes a back road on left at the first village. We see some wild animals and farmland and grass. We arrive at the entrance of the town, we turn on right at a big cross, and we arrive in Rangai suburb. Here we meet here the family of Francis who accept to lodge us for 3 days, warmshowers. We get a very nice time with us. First day we go shopping with the boy, then I go to the market with the 2 girls to prepare a Chilean soup for supper, and last the mother makes chapattis. In the early morning we take a taxi to the airport. The parents awake at 5 with us to say goodbye.
In the plane our neighbor is a woman, 45 years old about. That is the first time she takes a plane. Martine reassures her. She explains that she found by agency a contract to work as a housekeeper for 2 years in a family in South Arabia. She let behind her family with 3 children, and she doesn’t know anything about the family or the town where she goes. No possibility to escape, as she doesn’t have money. She speaks a few English. Till the end, we meet the terrible African misery. We get 15 hours waiting in Djeda airport, interesting to see all the Muslims tribes with local Muslim clothes. At the end we arrive in Istanbul.