2008 East Africa Trip

• 2008 East Africa Trip

  Mon 01 September, 2008

  We took the short hop from Nairobi, flying below the summit of mount Kilimanjaro to our left and banking right to land on the tiny strip of tarmac that is Kilimanjaro International Airport.

  Our first stop was Moshi a town in the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro but significant as the home of Tanzanias weekly coffee auction. Here coffee from farms across the country is auctioned to the highest bidder – usually international traders with instructions from overseas clients or their head office.

  As we watched lot after lot fall under the electronic ‘hammer’ I couldn’t help thinking that this was a soulless way of buying coffee – I was looking forward to meeting our contact , assessing his coffee, his farm and whether Grumpy Mule should buy his coffee and offer it to the UK market.

  After an hour we had seen enough and, stocked up with food and water, we set off for the Blackburn Estate some 300 Km west. The roads between Moshi and Arusha are excellent, well laid tarmac passing through small towns, usually with a police checkpoint (as Europeans we were always waved through, locals don’t usually fare quite so well….) We travelled along the hot dusty plain of the Rift Valley glimpsing all manner of animals from Giraffe to Elephant together with many Masai people in the brightly coloured clothes and the ubiquitous mobile ‘phone.

  4 hours later we turned off the main road and headed out of the great rift...