Day 17

We have breakfast at 8.45 – it is buffet style and there is cereal, chafing dishes of hot stuff, loads of bakeries to choose from. We are quite modest having cereal, juice and bakeries with local jam and honey. There is also tea and coffee. Its great and we don’t need to rush anywhere, so we take our time. The view of the gardens is lovely, even though there is low cloud and consequently no sun. They are growing lots of familiar tropical flowering plants. Sunbirds flutter in and out of the bushes and we can hear hornbills calling. Just to the right of the veranda is a little gift shop, and we wander in to see what they have. There are lots of typical things such as soapstone carvings and all sorts of wood and textiles. They also have bags of Tanzania tea and coffee and Zanzibar spices. We buy some little gifts before returning to the bungalow. Back at the bungalow, we enjoy sitting on our little veranda, reading. There are lots of birds fluttering about, but we can’t quite see what they are. Alan tries ringing Honest about the sticks. He doesn’t seem to know anything about it, but will look into it. He may be coming by tomorrow, although we have said we won’t take up his offer of a safari into Arusha Park.
It’s well gone lunch time, but we only fancy some coffee, so make our way over to the Lodge and order some. The lounge is quite busy, so we take the only free sofa, which is near some folk who appear to be having a briefing from their tour guide. They are off to climb Kili and the guide has brought some equipment with him for them to hire. This is warm gear, sticks etc. There are also some gaiters, which the guide explains they use to stop the scree getting into your boots on the way down. Now we know why we should have had gaiters – we never did get any! (Remember Alan had so much grit under the inner soles of his boots!) At last they seem sorted, but just before the guide leaves, the man asks will the porters be bringing the beer and wine for the week? There is a stunned silence before the guide explains that at higher altitudes, alcohol increases ones chances of mountain sickness – so no alcohol there, then!
Postcards are written and handed over to the desk for posting and we check the internet finding a reply from D. Then we stroll through the garden to the bungalow, which has been cleaned in our absence. A decides to soak in a bath – luxury! I sit on the veranda and gradually the sun appears. There are birds flying around the trees in the distance. We think there is a green parrot, but eventually realize that it is an emerald pigeon. There are also hornbills and maybe a turaco flying around, and the bulbuls sing sweetly in the trees. Towards evening, when we had our laundry back, A spotted a blue monkey in the tree close by. Some crane/goose type birds flew over, evening lengthened and we walked down for a beer and dinner.