Moshi Arusha Road Trip

I love adventure!!!! I love travelling...so when my friends contacted me and asked me to join them on a road trip...I was excited.I am Kenyan and the trip was cross border to a place i have not travelled to.I am usually the planner of most trips,events etc...but for this one,we left all the planning to a tours and travel firm...Our role was just to show up.The travel day was a Saturday. The plan was to travel from Nairobi>>Oloitoktok>>Tanzania/Kenya border>>Moshi>>Arusha>>Namanga>>Nairobi.

DAY 1

I woke up very early on Saturday and was picked on Mombasa road and off we left to Oloitoktok.On boarding the van i enquired about the van's music system which i was told was broked..Imagine an eight hour long trip with no music..Just imagine..so i brushed that off and we killed the silence with small talk and laughs with my friends.

We had the first stop at Emali and the next stop was at the border.At the border i met an acquintance and he informed me he was heading to the Kilimanjaro marathon in Moshi,Tanzania.This is when i remembered the tours firm representative had mentioned that they had to change hotels since all were booked because of the marathon.I learnt that the Kilimanjaro marathon is held annually on the first sunday of the March.

We were cleared at the border,took some photos and crossed over to Tanzania.We then went on and had lunch in a hotel next to the border.We had converted kes to tzs and had to use a calculator at most times to know how much we had spent..funny!!!Anyways....we moved on and the next destination was Moshi town.Once on the road,the first thing i noticed were this speed limits of 30kms and 50kms.The thing is,in Kenya the least kms on the road is 50kms and can go to as high as 100kms on major highways however in Tanzania the highest km on the road is 50kms.

So on we went,the road has so many corners,so i assumed that was the reason for the speed limits.The journey to Moshi was long considering the speed limits,they were times when we would be all noisy in the van then a time the van would be all quite..we were 10 of us in the van including 1 driver and 2 tour firm representatives.When the van was quiet,it meant we had all dozed off..and we would wake up and be noise makers...heheheheh

We arrived Moshi at around 5:30pm and taken straight to hotel.Shock on us,the firm had booked us in a dingy hotel and the excuse was that it was a packed weekend and all the hotels were booked because of the Kilimanjaro marathon.They had not communicated that to us,otherwise we would have moved the trip to another date.That hotel was in a bad state and we refused to compromise,we refused to check in.

Here we are,in Moshi,Tanzania a foreign country,darkness coming in fast and we are stranded.All hotels were full and we were frustrated.The tours and travel firm had apparently not booked us to the 3 star hotel they had mentioned in the package.They did not book the hotel in advance and therefore it filled up,they therefore looked for an alternative which as i had mentioned early was bad news.When I recollect that time,i just laugh...the planners were speechless,because we confirmed the trip much early and they had all the time to book the hotel.

We decided as a team that we would not let that derail us,we therefore went from hotel to hotel asking for referals and at last we got this manager of a hotel who offered us accomodation. We had to compromise and share 2 rooms.Imagine this,a group of 7 ladies sharing 2 rooms with a bed each..which was the reality against the expectation of a 3 star executive hotel sharing double...but we had no choice,to be honest,it was a long night.The tours and travel firm failed us BIG TIME.We had dinner and went out to check out Moshi night light and retired to sleep

DAY 2

We woke up early ready for the day,after breakfast we left for Arusha which was our next leg of the trip.On our way we were amazed by sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro,beautiful scenery!!!We stopped by the Kikuletwa Hot springs which was on the way,.that place is quite a distance off road and it was hot!!!!!!!We had a good time swimming which was timely because it was very very hot!!!We had lunch there and headed off to Namanga then back to Nairobi.

That was a very long road trip with an unforgettable experience and memories.

Overall it was an awesome trip,we created memories.However Lesson learnt....due research is required before employing any tours and travel firms..they may end up spoiling your trip.Photos below..

At the Border

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Kikuletwa Hot Springs