Located in north-eastern Tanzania and directly below Mount Meru, Mama Lydia’s Themi Valley Eco and Cultural Tourism Home Stay in Arusha, provided us with a very pleasant and peaceful environment from which to explore and simply relax.  We settled into a routine of enjoying breakfast with other guests, writing, sorting photos, finding little gems of places to have lunch, then as the sun set, walked 100m to an open air restaurant for G&T’s, a large bottle of cold water, and soup of the day – all for $10.

The Boma Natural History Museum is housed inside what was once an old German military outpost. When the British took over from the Germans, it served as an administrative office and residence for officials of the colonial rule.  Comprising three separate buildings, on display is the natural history, wildlife, culture and artefacts of the Arusha Region.  It also includes an area for taxidermy.  The original Boma, or enclosure, was built from 1899 to 1900 and through until today, the road leading to the Boma is lined with trees on both sides.  It was a quaint, interesting museum to explore.

Those born in December can claim tanzanite as their birth stone.  This precious stone was given the name 'tanzanite' by Tiffany & Co after Tanzania, the country in which it was discovered. The scientific name of "blue-violet zoisite" was not thought to be consumer friendly enough by Tiffany's marketing department, who introduced it to the market in 1968.  Depending on the crystal orientation, tanzanite can appear blue, violet or even burgundy.  It can also appear differently when viewed under various lighting conditions.  If I’d had anything of significant value on me, I would have sold it there and then to purchase the biggest, deepest blue chunk of tanzanite that I could!  Oh boy, this is one stunning precious stone!  Tanzanite is only found in Tanzania, in a very small mining area approximately 7 km long and 2 km wide near the Mirerani Hills, not far from Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro.  All week, it was “will we”, “will we not”, “will we”, then it was time to leave and we didn’t… 

Hamad, a new friend we had made at the homestay, was intrigued to see us gear up and leave.  I can only guess that normally we appear two middle aged, active and interested tourists, then suddenly when we don our riding trousers, boots, jackets, helmets and gloves we become a curiosity.  This process generally provides a lot of laughs, particularly when Dale starts the Fury Road Interceptor and his bride has to jump on the back!

The border crossing from Tanzania into Kenya, wasn’t difficult, and as usual just needed us to be patient and discover, and then follow, whatever process was in place.  It’s always a mystery without a check list, but if you look lost, someone will eventually tell you which way to face.  This border crossing was actually different to all others we had experienced as there was only one building which served as a “one stop shop” for both countries.  This will be our last border crossing for this trip…

70kms out of Nairobi, the skies turned black as black.  It started to rain, but still didn’t warrant taking out our new and yet unused, wet weather suits and boot covers.  We put on our light rain jackets and the Rain Gods favoured us yet again.  We rode onwards between the black clouds to our friend Bisrat’s apartment on the northern side of Nairobi.  We hadn’t seen Bis for over a year, so it was fun to catch up.  Bis offered us a base and we couldn’t have been more thankful.  

We had decided some time ago to send the Guzzi back to Australia from Kenya, rather than ride through Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.  The plan was to ride from Nairobi to Mombasa, spend some time lazing on Diani Beach south of Mombasa, then clean, pack and hand the Guzzi over to the shipping company for transport to Brisbane.  We would then fly to Egypt for a couple of weeks, then northern Morocco for a couple of weeks, then land back on Aussie soil on the 17th January to take up residency again after nine years…