Day 25 - Arusha, Tanzania

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Awoke to the sound of a bundle of guinea fowl squarking their heads off. I couldn't work it out until I popped my head out of my tent. They were so ugly up close, but the plumage is gogous, salt and pepper speckled grey. They are very dopey like pheasents.

After breakfast we headed into town for a look round. As soon as we got off the bus some guys were houndig us for newspapers, which was a new one (even the Guardian!). Ben, Becky and I went into town, where I got some more money. e bought some samosas, rise cakes and bahjis for lunch.

Ben has ro return to the truck to get his passport for cashing travellers cheques, so Becky and I went into a jewelers shop to search for some Tanzanite. This is an extremely rare gemstone that is only found at the foot of Kilimajaro, which was discovered in the 1960s and stocks will only last for another 10 years.We did find some and a lovely necklace which was a mere $8000! The stone was a beautiful royal blue that even managed to outshine diamonds brilliance.

After lusting over very expensive jewelry we went to the post office to get some stamps for poscards. There were some lovely stamp sets like Mushrooms of Tanzania or the Big Five, but they were rather expensive.

A bit later we headed to Shoprite for food for the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. I found some strawberry sweets, Pringles and water. Down the road was a gelato, so I had mango and vanilla flavour ice cream which was delicious and cool in the hot weather!

Next to the Cultural centre which was a treasure trove! There were thousands of wooden carvings, from tiny elephants to 9ft giraffes or life size Maasi sculptures. It was like a feast for the eyes, more like a display than a shop. I has a quick look before viewing some Tanzanite.

There are two common colours of Tanzanite - blue violet and violet blue. When a light is shone through them, the stone glows pinky red, like there is a fire inside them. I was in love from the first moment. The manager showed us the lighter stones and the darker stones and flawed and non-flaws ones, and a massive jewel about 2 inches square which was $600,000!! It was really interesting seeing all the cut stones that were not mounted and they are so beautiful.

I purchased a nice blue necklace from the shop (not Tanzanite!) that was made from marbles because I really liked it and then unfortunately we had to go.

Back at the campsite it was still scorching hot, so i washed my clothes in the shower and hung them out to dry. They seem a bit cleaner than when the women in Malawi washed them in the Lake (I don't think that they used soap!). I sat in the shade on my sleeping mat and wrote some of my diary and chatted with the others. The green pigeons (just like regular ones, exept bright green) cooed to each other and the weavers squabbled. The suberb starlings (which are brown, green and blue) pottered around close by. We are all really looking forward to going to the Serengeti!

Dinner was fajitas - I made the guacamole and helped clean afterwards. They were delicious. We had a somewaht interesting combination of super noodles with them, but they were lovely too. After dinner I went with Becky and Ben to the bar to see if I could spot the hedgehogs that they had seen. About 10 minutes after sitting down, one pootled through, although it wasn't as tame as last night's (which they christened Dermot). They are much like European hedgehogs except white underneath and more friendly and less spiky. We watched him toddle around, hoovering up insects off the floor that had stunned themselves on the light and concluded that this was why the hedgehogs visited the bar so regularly - take away bugs!

Xxx

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