Day 1 at Moivaro

I woke up at 7:15. I don't think I moved an inch all night. The bed was great and the room was very comfortable. After a quick shower I ventured outside to see what world of Africa was like in the daytime. I found a nice little covered porch with a chair (see picture) out of my door. This would come in handy later on. I walked to the lodge for breakfast in a light rain. There is an umbrella in the room for guest use but I just carried it. The rain was very light, more of a drizzle. When I arrived at the lodge, I was greeted by a friendly waiter who seated me at a table on the outdoor covered veranda. I thought this was really cool. Here I was ready for my first meal on African soil and sitting at a table under a thatched roof with a gentle rain coming down. The view from the lodge was beautiful. Having come in at night, I really did not know what to expect when I walked out of my room in the morning. The walk to the lodge was through a lush forest of trees and shrubs up to a beautiful open air lodge that looked out onto an open lawn. I knew if nothing else, I was going to enjoy the view as I ate my meals.

THE FOOD
I had a choice of several juices, coffee or tea with my breakfast, which was self serve. I had a glass juice called passion fruit. This was the absolutely most delicious juice drink I have ever had. Just inside the lodge was a large table with several types of locally made breads or rolls. I had to try a little of each. They were all good. On another table there was a cook that would make an omelet for you. So, I had an omelet made from local chicken eggs and fresh vegetables. The omelet was ok, nothing special there. Also, there was a thinly sliced fried potato with onions. This was pretty good. There was a really good white cheese on the table as well. I think the cheese was a goat cheese. All in all, the breakfast was good and filling.

THE WALK
After breakfast, I went for a walk around the plantation. The waiters told me about the 2k trail that goes throughout the plantation within the plantation walls. So, I was off on my first little adventure. I had the day to my self I guess so that I could get rested and acclimated. No need for that, I was ready to explore. I quickly found that there is an amazing amount of bird life here. I was in bird heaven. I get a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment out of watching the birds in my back yard at home and what I was seeing here was truly a treat. It was almost like walking through the enclosed bird sections of the zoo at home. They are brilliantly colored in yellow, orange, red, flourescent blues and greens. I did not even try to photograph them, just watching them was all I needed. By just standing still for a few minutes, the birds seemed to literally come from out of nowhere. It was easy to see that different birds were attracted to different types of flowers. The plants and flowers here are varied if not more so than the types of birds. There are so many different fruits and flowers you can see why there is such a great diversity of animal life here. And I have not even left the 40 acre plantation yet.

At one point I was very near the plantation wall and saw this woman hoeing weeds in a field of banana trees across the road. There were 4 or 5 chickens around her as if they were pets. They were probably eating bugs that were getting stirred up by the hoeing process. I found this scene to be very touching as it was my first exposure to seeing what the life of a "typical" African might be like. This woman was working very hard. It made me wonder, "Is she working for someone else, or is this her personal field of bananas?" I never found out. You may want to click on it and blow it up to get the full picture.

My first night in Africa

The room is simple but very nice. There are two single beds with a white mosquito tent around them. The beds have pretty fresh orange flowers on them. It is a very earthy natural looking room. There is no air conditioning or heat for the room outside of opening windows and a small fire place in the corner of the room that does not look like it gets used. The bathroom is nice with a lot of space. There is a small desk in the room by a window. With the window open, I look out into a small bit of the forest I am now living in. I can hear many different bird or bug sounds, an occasional cow in the distance and even rooster or chickens at times. I cannot see another room from my window all though there are 40 of them scattered around the compound.

The room is cool and damp, (everything is damp here). It has an earthy, almost musty smell but it is clean. Before I went to bed, I decided it would be nice to walk back to the lodge to send a quick e-mail home to let my wife and daughter know that I had made it. I had little trouble finding my way back to the lodge following the trails. I had a flashlight but did not need it with the trail lights. There is a computer at the lodge that I could send an e-mail from. When I was ready to go back to my room, one of the lodge workers asked if I needed a guide back to the room. Being the good Boy Scout that I am, and having a good sense of direction (or male ego), I declined and started off in the right direction. I soon however, found the maze of trails through the forest more confusing than anticipated. I was lost! Fortunately, I knew the area was small and after backtracking and trying again I made it. I had actually walked right passed my room once before.

By the time I got to bed it was just about midnight Tanzania time. Eight hours ahead of central time in Kansas and about 30 hours after I started my day at home the day before. As I was finally in bed, I it was to the sound of a gentle rain. As I found out, it rains just about every night here until the dry season sets in in a few weeks.

Moivaro Lodge

After driving about a mile or so down the village road, we came to driveway with a gated wall. There was a man there to open the gate for us to enter the lodge compound. At this time, it made me think that the wall and gate were there to protect the visitors from the villagers. Again, I was thinking "where am I and is this going to be a good place to be?" As it turns out, all of my fears and doubts would soon be erased.

We drove 100 yards or so and stopped at the front of the lodge. There were three men there to greet us and take my bags. It was very dark out when we arrived. We were seemingly surrounded by forest. The air was slightly damp and had a sweet forest smell to it. We walked up a couple of steps into a central foyer with a check in desk on one side and open in the back to grassy area. We were in a breeze way that was open on both ends. Although the employees were all wearing a light jacket or sweater, I found it to be very pleasant temperature wise. I was offered glass of juice that looked like orange juice. It actually was passion fruit juice and was absolutely delicious. My first bit of African cuisine and it was a big hit.

After getting checked in, David led me to my room. Moivaro Lodge has about 30 small cottages scattered through out the 40 acres of the walled plantation. Moivaro is a coffee plantation and the lodge is a part of the plantation. We the main lodge, which I will describe in more detail later, with a flashlight in hand. David led me down a path into the forest. The path was well maintained and lighted with round globe lights about every 40 to 50 feet. We made several turns passing several other cottages and path intersections along the way. The three or four minutes it took to get to my room seemed like a whole adventure in itself. I had no idea where I was going or what was ahead of me, and loved every step of it. All of my senses were on high alert. I could hear birds or bugs singing in the night. The smells were like nothing ever smelled before but pleasant. David stopped at one point and told me to look at the path. Between us was a black line across the path. The line was moving! There were literally thousands of ants moving back and forth across the gravel trail. Their movement had actually created a little smooth road in the gravel. I would find many more of these lines in the next two and a half days.

I love being out in the wild of nature and enjoy any walk in the woods. This was a walk that no other could compare to. I found myself thinking about the possibility of running into some wild animal. But then, realized I was within the confines of a walled compound in the middle of a village. I could hear chickens and cows outside the walls. There were children's voices playing and the sounds of a radio playing music. This was all a fascinating part of the adventure that was already beginning. I tried to think about what was really going on outside these walls, what was the village really like?

THE ROOM
The room or cottage, has two main sections. You enter into the sleeping area with two single beds, surrounded with a mosquito netting tent (picture above). There was a small desk with lamp and a small fireplace in one corner. After a short hallway with closet and storage for my clothes was a toilet room and a shower. This was not a lot different from some rooms you could have in rustic lodges in the U.S. But yet is had a more rustic feeling to it. The room was slightly cool and damp. This was the general feel of the whole environment here. We were just coming to the end of the rainy season for this region.

The drive to Moivaro Lodge

After collecting my bags, I exited the terminal to find a group of drivers with signs awaiting their passengers. I soon found my driver. His name was Jackson. He is a guide for the Hoopoe Safaris company that I will talk more about later. Jackson would be my personal guide for most of the next 18 days as we toured 5 different game parks and several villages. He is a very pleasant man with a great Tanzanian accent but pretty easy to understand. He was about 5'7", certainly not the tall war-like Maasai we have heard so much about.

As we walked through the parking lot of safari trucks to get to our Land Rover, I began to get the sense that this journey into the wild of Africa had truly begun. The drive to Moivaro Village would take about 45 minutes. I quickly found out that a Land Rover built for the African bush country is no limo ride, even on a paved road. But I did not come here for a limo ride. The temperature was beautiful, just a slight cool in the air, so I was able to roll the window down and enjoy the fresh air. This was after all in the middle of winter just 3 degrees south of the equator. This kind of winter weather, I can take. As Jackson was telling me about the area and answering my many questions, I was trying to watch what was around me. Mount Kilimanjaro was within easy eyesight but is was too dark so see, so I would have to wait until at least tomorrow to see the "great mountain" of Africa. We were on one of the main "highways" of Tanzania. It was a well paved two lane road with a posted speed limit of 50 kph. This is the main, actually the only real road between Dar es Salaam, the capital, Moshi and Arusha.

I saw many people walking along the side of the road and even crossing randomly. You certainly don't want to drive too fast or veer off onto the shoulder for fear of hitting a pedestrian. I also saw numerous goats and cows grazing along the road side being tended by people, sometimes kids. Along the way there many homes, businesses, open air cafes and a few small communities. Corn and bananas were growing right up to the road at times. I was amazed at the number of people that were out moving about at this time of night. It was now well passed 9:00 and the sun had been set for hours. But then, the weather was absolutely beautiful, so why not be outside? It seemed that we were almost continuously in or very near a small village. We seldom had more that a few hundred meters with no one or some building in sight.

After a while we turned left off of the main road at a small cluster of businesses. There were many people milling around an open store and or cafe. I quickly looked around to see if I could find a sign telling us where we were. But, as the U2 song, "Streets With No Name" suggests, there was no sign to be seen. Even as we passed through various villages on our way from the airport, I could only recognize one village name, Usa River. But only because it was on several buildings. We were now on a muddy, bumpy, heavily rutted 4-wheel drive dirt road. This road was barely two cars wide and Jackson was constantly driving around large ruts or even rock outcroppings in the road. It had been many months if ever, that a grader had been on this road. There were many houses around that were very basic and most likely did not have electricity, much less, running water. Again, there were people walking on the road, sitting outside their houses or at several small stores along the way. The plant life around us was growing right up to the road and over it. It seemed like we were literally driving into the jungle.

The pictures of Moivaro Lodge on the internet were beautiful. I was beginning to wonder where I was going to end up. I was going to spend my first three nights at Moivaro Lodge before the actual safari started. Was I going to be off to a disappointing start? Certainly, the living conditions of the local village at least in the darkness of night, were not very encouraging at this time.

Arriving at KIA

Landing at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) was about like landing at any other airport. But that is where the similarities end. The airport at KIA is unlike any other airport I have ever been in. We departed the plane by a portable stair way that was wheeled up to the exit door. This was strange because this was a huge plane with several hundred people on board. We had to then walk across the tarmac about 5o yard to get into the terminal building. It was after 8:00 when we arrived and the temperature was absolutely perfect. With my feet finally on African soil, the real adventure was about to begin.

Once inside the terminal, there were two paths to take. If you had your travel visa for Tanzania as I did, there were three lines to get in to be processed. There was a separate line off to the side for people who did not have their visa. I was advised that you really wanted to go with a travel visa already in hand to avoid delays on arrival. However, Seda, the tourism guide did not have her visa so she went to the "need a visa" line. As it turns out, there were very few people in that line and she was at the bag claim area ten minutes before I cleared customs which was amazingly easy. The whole time I was in line, I could see the bag claim area in front of me. The airport terminal was very small and amazingly open. The doors to the terminal were all wide open. There were fans blowing to keep air circulating. It was getting warm in the building.

Bag claim was a small adventure in itself. The operation was simple. You could see the luggage being unloaded from the plane and brought right into the nearly open air claim area and placed on the conveyor belts. There were two baggage belts running when I was in line for customs check in. One apparently stopped working before I got through the line. A taste of African technology and efficiency at work and I haven't even left the airport yet. When the bags stopped coming on the one working line and mine had not made it yet, I began to worry a bit. But, there two more bag carts coming from the plane. They finally got into the bag area and two guys started loading the bags onto the one working conveyor belt. I swear, my bag was the vey last bag off the cart