It was raining, which was a little unexpected, but being a Brit, I can cope with any kind of weather. As I pushed my trolley outside, there were a sea of faces - loads of people all holding up signs. Some of them had been hastily written and were a little hard to read, but having made a sweep, I determined that my name wasn't among them.
So I wandered off for a damp cigarette while I waited. By now, lots of people had come through, found their contact and moved on, but I couldn't see any new meeters and greeters arriving, so thought I'd better do another sweep.
There was one guy with a sign that said Maria, but it also said 2 persons, so that wasn't it.
Another one just said Marianne, I gave it hard look, decided it wasn't for me and went back to my smoking spot.
At this point, the young man holding the Marianne sign, broke away from the crowd and asked me my name and what company I was meeting. "Soul of Tanzania" I told him. Well that's me, he said. He then apologised profusely for the misleading sign and introduced himself as Azizu. We walked over to the rather lovely and much bigger than expected safari vehicle, loaded my luggage and set off for the hour long journey to Arusha - the starting place for all the Safari fabulousness .
He explained that the journey should only take 40 mins but is always longer because of the traffic and the speed limits. I was a bit baffled because this road looked nothing like the M25 and I couldn't for the life of me see where the traffic jams would be. After a while it became clear - there a lot of slow moving vehicles and it's not always easy ( or safe) to pass.
This young man was a mine of information, pointing out trees that I'd never heard of (and some that I had), coffee plantations, crops and lots of animals, mostly goats, cows and chickens belonging to the farmers,. There was one dodgy moment when we both spotted a tortoise in the middle of the road. It was very small, so we didn't see it until the last minute, but he expertly steered the jeep so that his wheels went either side of it. I only hope the other drivers on the road were as careful and considerate.
We passed all manner of interesting shops, many of them with open fronts, sort of like a cross between a stall and a shop really. Each one declared it's business with all manner of interesting signs, some professionally done and some clearly home made, but all with a flair for creativity and guaranteed to catch the eye. I couldn't help thinking that Dubai airport ought to take a leaf out of their book. I particularly liked the open fronted store offering secretarial services and the series of little shop/stalls all selling beds - lot's and lots of beds. All were displayed outside on the road and I'm not sure whether they bring them in at the end of each day, but given that none of the shops looked big enough to hold even one, I'm assuming they just leave them out.
There were plenty of schools, a university and one that described itself as a management training centre accessed by a rough track that had turned to mud in the rain. The only buildings that looked like they didn't belong, were the banks. You could have picked them up and plonked them down in any major city in the world and they would fit right in. This was a real shame, I thought they could have least made an effort to blend in with the local style and culture. Bloody typical of banks if you ask me.
During our one hour ride, Azizu and I chatted endlessly. I found out he has 2 sisters and a brother and really loves his job. He enjoys meeting all the varied interesting people that come on Safari and said it gives him different a perspective on things. He found out that I live alone in Spain with my 4 dogs, that I love to travel and was ridiculously excited to be going on Safari.
As we got closer to Arusha he pointed to a building almost completely hidden behind a wall of palms and other exotic plants and declared that we had arrived at Christine House, my B&B for the night. We exchanged WhatsApp information, he helped me in with my luggage and reminded me that I was to be picked up at 8.00am the following morning.
Stepping into Christina House felt like walking into an amazing jungle clearing - gorgeous giant palms and so many the building looked almost like a tree house.
Christina and her staff came out to greet me and I got a huge warm hug from this lovely charismatic lady. It was still very early, so as her previous guests had only just left we sat down together and had a lovely chat, while my room was prepared. Where else in the world can you turn up at 10.00am and have the staff hopping about to get your room ready? I told her about my hideous second flight and said I was dying for a cup of coffee or 2 and within minutes one of the boys appeared with gorgeous and very welcome strong coffee in a nice big mug. This was most definitely my kind of place.
Christina has done a great job of creating a rather special place. The building itself is unusual but full of character and everything appears to be crafted from wood and the enormous 4 poster bed complete with practical but very pretty mosquito netting is just lovely. If you are the sort of person that is uncomfortable anywhere except luxury hotels, this may not be the place for you, but at the price she charges per night it's charming, warm, friendly, clean and offers exceptional value for money.
I spent the day relaxing, catching up on some much needed sleep and getting up to date with this blog. From bitter past experience (earthquakes in New Zealand) I know that if I get too far behind, it's very hard to catch up and I was absolutely certain there would be loads to write about in the days to come.
After a great, very tasty dinner and a nice glass of wine or 3 it was time to try to get packed up and ready for bed. However by now it was absolutely bucketing it down and just as I was putting the last few bits back in my case, all the lights went out. Living in Spain, this is not entirely a new phenomenon for me, however at home I have candles aplenty and I know where they are. Here, my only option was to try to locate my iPhone and it's handy torch function. Having fumbled my way around the room and finally located it, I quickly realised there wasn't a hope of me being able to see well enough to finish my packing, so resolved to go to sleep and do it in the morning when....
a) hopefully it would have stopped raining &
b) there would be some daylight to see by
I'd just got settled into the extremely comfy bed and was starting to drift off, when all the lights came back on.
So I got all the repacking done, had another swig from my bottle of wine and headed to bed.
I had a bit of trouble getting to sleep, but so would anybody who had an epic adventure starting in less than 8 hours.