Friday 25 June - Arusha National Park and Moshi

Today was fairly relaxed. We woke up at the Momella Lodge and went on a drive up the lower slopes of Mt Meru. It was very damp up in the forest but truly beautiful. The highlight was arriving at the Big Fig tree. We were amazed that it had a hole in the bottom big enough to drive our car through. What fun!

The Arusha National Park is truly beautiful and well worth the visit. The two craters are an added bonus. We only got to see one of them but Brock assures us that a visit to the Ash Cone is very rewarding. Unfortunately time and the weather were against us but we loved what we saw of the park. Thank you, Brock for arranging this wonderful visit.

We arrived back in Moshi in the early afternoon - just in time for a late lunch and disrupt Delphi's packing. She is leaving for Toronto this evening and she was trying to get organised. It was lovely to have a bit more time with Delphi before we took her to the airport for her flight.

This is a photo of us all together shortly before we took Delphi to the airport. We'll miss you Delphi. It's been wonderful meeting you for the first time. Thank you for your hospitality.

On the way back from the airport we caught a brief glimpse of the mountain from the Moshi area for the first time. It's so huge and dwarfs the town.

And so our time in Moshi is coming to an end. Tomorrow Brock, Mark and I will spend the day at home. Brock will be packing for his flight to Canada next week and Mark and I will be sorting and re-packing our mountain of stuff. When we leave and go to south again we'll have Brock and his baggage with us so it's going to be an interesting "sardine can" taking off from Moshi early Sunday morning. From here on we will be slowly heading home. There are still some highlights on the way and two weeks of travelling to go. The trip meter in the Jeep is about 6400km so far and counting.