Biking Safari! Meru

There was very little internet for the duration of the bike trip and safari, and by the time I went to bed each night I was exhausted. But, it actually was exercise and blog-worthy. So, I am blogging with some notes that I wrote during the trip and some that is retrospective.

Our group wound up being 6; me, Andy, Maura, 2 Australians guys and a British guy. Sadly, for most of the trip I was the slowest biker, though actually it worked out OK in some respects because I really liked the tour guide, and he had to stay with the last person (usually me). So, aside from the fact that I was embarrassed and had to push my bike up hill a lot, it was OK.

We started the trip with a coffee farm tour which was really interesting. I was expecting a large farm, but it was a small educational center down a dirt road (most of the roads were dirt it turns out). The tour included seeing the coffee bushes, learning about how the beans grow and are picked (by hand) and then making coffee! The beans need to be dried in the sun for a few days. Then you use a mortar and pestle to crush off the husks, roast over the fire until they are the color of coffee, and then grind in another mortar and pestle until it's ground, then boil and drink. It's a lot of work for a cup of coffee, but it was delicious.

Our first day of biking was through Arusha National Park. I think there's one main road through the park, and we biked it. It was a reality check for me because the park is in the shadow of Mt. Meru, which isn't as large as Kilimanjaro, but is pretty darn big. So, of course the route that we took wasn't flat. There was a ton of uphill, and I did a lot of walking. I had a few moments where I questioned my judgement in coming on a bike trip instead of sitting in a nice jeep.

There were some pretty awesome moments, our first giraffe, zebra and monkey sightings. Biking through town and all the kids running out to greet us and yell hello ("Jambo" in Swahili, though the guide taught me that you can say "mambo mambo" to the kiddies and they will respond "poah" - which is like "all good?" "yup!"). It took a little getting used to having everyone yelling and waving hello - there should be an interim stop between Boston and Tanzania to allow New Englanders to get used to the idea of friendliness. Seeing people with cows and goats was fun and different. There was one point where there were three goats drinking from a river, and all I could see was a line of goat butt. The ride was about 30 km, or 18.6 miles, though it seemed much further. I didn't get to finish the entire thing because it got dark. I'm not going to lie, I was happy to get onto the bus.

One of the best parts of the lodge where we stayed was the shower - it was a room with no ceiling, just a bucket attached to a shower head. For your shower, a guy climbs a rickety ladder with a bucket of warm water and fills the bucket overhead and you flip a switch to turn the water on. The top is opened and you can see a million stars. It was so nice, the water was warm, I was really grubby.

They also had the "Kilimanjaro toilet" which I didn't use. It was an outhouse with one wall missing. Apparently during the day, from the seat, you could see all the way to the mountain. Some of the guys used it and said it was delightful.