It was drizzling as we climbed down the stairs to the tarmac at Kilimanjaro, a one plane airport, for the start of a slow entry to Tanzania. First obstacle were queues to check our boarding passes! Next queue was to check our Covid clearances and passports. Finally we were allowed in out of the rain to go through immigration. Other people seemed to be filling out entry forms so I started doing one, using a pen there which as I wrote felt a bit moist. The moisture turned out to be it was a leaking black pen! My right hand was stained black for days after! I was worried my passport and visa approval form would get blotted and rejected.

After aeons in the immigration queue they were happy with a mugshot, I didn’t need to stain their handprint scanner. I was very happy my main case had made it there, and even happier to see Alex picking me outside the airport! He drove me from the airport to Rivertrees Country Inn, through a dry landscape of gulches waiting for rain, shanty towns, shrubland yet with nice new dwellings dotted around, people on foot herding goats, modern petrol stations, 3-wheel tuk-tuks.

Rivertrees was great! The Usa River runs through it meaning greenness rather than dryness. Patrick from Asilia met me and told me my guide’s name is “Goodluck”! They practically interview you before you get anywhere near your room. Don’t drink the water (filtered water is available in the rooms for drinking and cleaning teeth). Dinner 7 to 9:30 leave key so they can fumigate room and prepare mosquito net. They gave me black coffee while getting room 7 ready, and I (encumbered by all my bags) managed to spill it over myself, echoing what I did at Matamata.

They used wheelbarrows to transport cases for guests which was effective if not what one would see at the Ritz. I walked around the grounds before lunch, but the flies were out. At lunch I thought it was costing $30 plus dollars and started worrying about running out of cash! I was mistaken it was $10 in dollars, and 30,000+ in Tanzanian shillings. My second mistake was ordering Zanzibar Vegetable Curry which did for my stomach. I went for safer blander options for the evening meal.

I got Virginia African patterned kitchen gloves and apron partly to check credit card payments worked. I hoped she likes them and doesn’t feel it’s a message for her to stay in the kitchen.

Darkness came early soon after 6pm here, aided by a short power cut. Especially in the dark I wasn’t sure of how to find my way back to my room. The power sockets were old English style but happily there was a USB socket too. Slept okay under the mosquito net in my room.