Hot springs

We're in our last week volunteering and counting down to safari. Starting to get itchy feet to start travelling and looking forward to seeing more of the country. Also hanging out for Zanzibar and to be on a beach. I think Emma and i will get there and fall in a heap.

Looking back at our time as volunteers we feel like so much of it was spent waiting around for things to happen. But that's just Africa, and sometimes its frustrating because there's so much we want to get done while we're here. Now with only a few days left, we are trying to cram so much in and realising some things wont happen but also looking at what we have achieved. And apparently its quite a lot.
In fact our program coordinator Lema, sat Emma Stephanie and i down (we are all involved in the HIV program) and told us we were the hardest working volunteers they've had and no one has contributed more than us. And so he had organised us a suprise for us. He and a friend took us camping overnight at some hot springs. It was so nice to get away from Arusha and our village and work for a break. The place was magical and the locals had lots of stories about al the 'voodoo' that happens there.

Lema's Range Rover was broken so he ended up driving us in his tiny two-door bubble of a car through some of the roughest 4WD drive tracks i've ever seen. His friend rode his dirt-bike there to show us the way, guiding us through the mud puddles left by the wet season. There were some very close calls. Such as a river crossing and a bazzar moment of getting bogged in the mud and us three girls getting out and walking in the middle of no-where while all these massai people crowded around to watch. After leaving the whole exhaust pipe from the car behind on a rock, we eventually made it to the springs.

Sitting around the water were a whole bunch of tourists, some with beer cans in hand. Sadly i think this might be a glimpse of whats to come. eventually they all left in their mini-van and we were left to have the place to ourselves.

The water was crysatal clear with a strong current running out of the rock from undergound. It was warm but apparently in summer its really hot. There were ancient looking trees that seemed to come from Lord of the Rings. Their massive roots twisted down to the waters edge and trailed away under water.

It's a very special place. I had a moment to myself at sunset as the cloud lifted enough for us to see the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro on one side while the sun set behind Mt. Meru on the other. I was standing in my bikini in the middle of no-where and i finally had a good look at Africa. Some massai women walked past and i tried to cover myself as much as i could in my sarong. They were wrapped in their massai blankets carrying sticks on their heads with babies wrapped to their backs and we greeted each other in swahili.

Then the silence was broken as Lema's friend decided to show off by doing some jumps and donuts on his dirt bike with Mt. Kilimanjaro as his backdrop and me in a bakini standing barefoot as the sun set on a landscape that looked like what you imagine Africa to be.