27 June- Moshi to Muller's Lodge

We said goodbye to Moshi this morning without having actually seen the mountain from the town. Ah well, we guess it isn't really there - just a figment of everyone's imagination. We must have looked a sight setting out. The car was pretty full on the way up but now we have Brock and his luggage - he'll be flying to Canada from Dar for two months. We have added a couple more items to the roof rack. The person sitting in the back seat has just enough space for them to sit. They can't look right or behind because there's a mountain of luggage up to the ceiling. We're as bad as those taxis we pass along the road.

We didn't have too far to travel and when we got to the turnoff to the lodge we were going to we stopped and had coffee at a roadside tavern. We had an entertaining time watching the vendors and hustlers working the buses that stopped on the road. We left the main road and wound up through the most beautiful mountain pass. The views were spectacular. There were the usual little settlements we passed through and the road was really good until the tar ended. We eventually came to Muller's Mountain Lodge - an almost unbelievable place. It seems quite out of place with it's alpine setting. There are huge Norfolk pines and a beautifully laid out garden. It's a really lovely setting. Sadly I appear to have formatted my camera disk before I downloaded the photos of Muller's. At least it was only these photos and not the whole lot!

Shortly after we arrived a group of 24 cyclists from New Zealand and their backup team arrived. They are doing an 800 km cycle tour through Tanzania, ending tomorrow on the coast at Pangani. From there they'll go to Zanzibar and then fly out of Dar. The cyclists are a pretty friendly bunch and we had a very social afternoon finishing off with a gathering for drinks and watching the Germany vs England game.

Dinner was a buffet of the most delicious home grown vegetables and salads with some meat or other (I didn't even try it). Brock, Mark and I are now in our cottage. It has a lovely living area with a fireplace and two bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. It's a far cry from our night in the "guest house' in Morogoro last week but once we leave Brock in Dar it'll be back to camping for us so we'd better enjoy it while we're here. If the weather is good tomorrow we'll stay and do one or two of the lovely walks in the area otherwise we'll move on and maybe go to the coast.


Great place, great views, great company... Good night all.