22nd January - Arusha

As we had arrived in the dark the previous night, we didn't get to see much of the Songota Falls lodge and its surroundings but in the morning it became apparent that my internet research on where to stay had paid off. We were awake before it even got light though. A bird came calling outside our banda every morning before 5am with a very repetative and unusual call. Elvis (I'll introduce him later) identified this as a Tropical Boubou. This bird would have maybe half an hour to itself to call, before all the rest of the birdlife joined in!!

Anyway, Songota Falls Lodge is a small lodge consisting of just 6 bandas and is run by Joice Kimano and her son Ray. It's away from Arusha, in the heart of African village life. It was exactly what we had wanted - a small simple lodge with no TVs etc in a nice setting that served African food. Joice does all the cooking and treated us to some lovely dishes. The little round bandas had walk-in showers and were very clean and comfortable, quite basic but that's what we wanted.

We had a bit of a lie in today listening to the birds and then had breakfast. Joice did the best breakfasts we had in Tanzania. Lots of fresh fruit, millet porridge, eggs any way you like with tomatoes and other vegetables and then toast and jam or peanut butter. Sometimes she also gave us fried bread squares that were a little like doughnuts but with flavoured with spices.

Here are some pictures of the setting:

Our Banda

The view down the valley

The lodge dining room and bandas barely visible from the river below, in perfect harmony with their surroundings.

The falls below the lodge

Joice's son Ray took us for a walk around the village, where we saw villagers tending crops, children singing in the church and often very basic living conditions. Block built houses in Tanzania often get built over long periods of time as people can afford the materials. Those who can't even afford these materials to start with use more natural building materials. Therefore, much of Tanzania appears very 'unfinished' and this is the case everywhere.

The rest of the day we just relaxed in the very pretty grounds, ate a lovely lunch and later a lovely dinner and had a few more of these