On the road to Dar Es Salaam

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After a fairly early night we were up early for a long drive day. Our next major stop would be Dar Es Salaam but it is a two day drive to get there from Arusha so this is broken up by a stop over in Tembo.

Before we hit the road we stopped at the Tanzania Culture Centre in Arusha which sold lots of souvenirs, but most famously also sells the rare gemstone tanzanite. The culture centre is the only place you can buy Tanzanite stones which are unset and even uncut. For those of you who don't know what Tanzanite is, it is a blueish/purpleish/reddish gemstone discovered in the 1960's and only found in Tanzania. Its value has increased rapidly in the last few years, so much so that many people buys stones purely as an investment. A man at the centre showed us lots of stones and took us through how you can identify the better quality ones. Needless to say the only stones I would have been able to afford were very small and of poor quality so I didn't buy one. I have to say though, it has now become my firm favourite over my previous favourite of sapphires. Hopefully I'll be able to afford some Tanzanite one day but at the rate its value is increasing I would say probably not!

Today it was my first turn as part of cook group. We are all basically put into groups of three and roughly once per week we are responsible for shopping for, and preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for us all, 25 people in total. Our first meal went well. My days as an impoverished student, making anything I could out of left overs in the cupboard helped!

So, after a whole day of driving we finally reached our campite at Tembo. We had been looking forward to it as we had heard they had a pool. Running off the truck when we got there we found the pool and there was immediately no question about it ..... we would NOT be diving in, now or later considering you could not see the bottom of it from all the stuff floating around in it. Plan B was to just relax in the bar instead. Some people went on a hike the following day but it was far too hot for me to contemplate that. Sunbathing, journal writing, painting toe nails and washing clothes were the order of the day. Boring but necessary on occasion. Not everyday can be so action packed!!!

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