The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, February 12, 2021

What's up next?

We've just been relaxing the past few days since our return from the top of Kilimanjaro. The weather here in Arusha hasn't been great. Rain on and off, and hard at times. So we've been doing some computer work and getting caught up on things from our almost a week away. And, we've been doing some planning to figure out what we're going to do next!

We are so close to Serengeti National Park. Just about any tourist who comes to Arusha is here because it's the set off point for safaris in the Serengeti. But apparently we are not "just anybody"...

Originally, our plan was to do some kind of walking or camping safari in the Serengeti. But when we started researching prices... we just can't justify it. Doing an African safari is usually a once in a lifetime experience for most people, simply because it's so expensive. 

And if we had not already done several days of safaris in Namibia's Etosha National Park back in December of 2013, I'm sure we would just bite the bullet and pay the money to do it here.

Just to give you an idea, the cheapest way to do a Serengeti safari is to do a self drive with your own camping vehicle. To rent one with all the gear is minimum $100 USD per day. Then, entrance fees to Serengeti National park are $60 USD per person per day. Then, a campsite is $30 USD Per person per day. 

So, five days in the park would cost minimum $1,640 USD ($2,086 CAD) including the fees to get through Ngorongoro crater both ways. Start using any kind of a tour or guided trip, and you're looking at minimum $500 USD per day for two people.

So we're going to pass on that. We just finished spending big bucks to climb Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro so we're going to give the bank account a break for a while.

Sort of.

We've decided to head over to the Usambara Mountains and the town of Lushoto. We've booked a villa for two weeks at a cost of $30 USD ($38 CAD) per night. It's a bit nicer than we would usually book, but in comparing it to other places in the area, we think it has more to offer for the extra money. And again, because tourism is down, prices are lower than normal. It looks like a really beautiful spot, and we are looking forward to showing it to you.

The Usambara Mountains are a popular hiking area. Lots of trails for all levels, and viewpoints and scenery and village walks. We should be able to keep busy there for two weeks, and we have an option to extend for another two weeks if we are really happy there. At this point, the more we move around Tanzania, the more it costs. 

We looked at renting a vehicle, but the very best price I could find was 55,000 shillings ($23.70 USD, $30 CAD) per day, and that was for a long term rental. Can't justify that either, so we are taking the bus and the local transportation on Saturday to get to Lushoto.

Having lunch with our friend Justin.

Just came back from buying the bus tickets. It turns out there is one bus line that goes direct from Arusha to Lushoto. Fortunately, our friend Justin came down to the bus station area with us. What a circus! There's no real organization... you simply ask around until you find the guy who sells the tickets you're looking for. We ended up buying two tickets on the Chakito Longway bus for 20,000 shillings ($11.00 CAD, $8.65 USD) per person. It leaves at 6:00am tomorrow morning! Supposed to be a six or seven hour ride.

Saturday morning's bus ride, 334 kms (207 miles).

So, Saturday will be a long travel day and you likely won't hear from us again until after we arrive in Lushoto.

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Nice deal on a variety of Dragon Glassware.

And in Canada...

17 comments:

  1. Have you or are you considering Zanzibar before leaving? Somewhere completely different to where you are.
    In general Europe is currently tight on Covid restrictions which may/probably? ease the longer you leave collecting your camper from Germany. I'm sure you keep tabs on the situation in Germany but things are changing continously.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're not interested in Zanzibar at all. We're not beach people to begin with, and Zanzibar is not known to be overly cheap either.

      Yes, we are closely following what's going on in Europe, and if we have to put off our arrival in Germany until they are ready for us, then so be it. Albania will be starting to warm up by the end of March.

      Delete
  2. Better staying over there for a while. Canada has implemented a Hotel Quarantine at your expense upon your return. Maybe even try to get the Vaccine while you are there.
    Catching up.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have no intentions on returning to Canada anytime soon. We are hoping for May but we are now having our doubts that that will happen, we really don't see things improving before then.

      Unless we absolutely have to we will not be getting the vaccine.

      Delete
  3. I dont have any ads...
    Just caught up on the climb!! Golly my heart was beating fast.. It was exciting.. so glad you both made it and then got to do it together... what an adventure!!

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    1. Yep, it was a pretty exciting climb for sure! The summit day was definitely a hard day, all the other days we fine, we never had an issue other than a slight headache one day and a bit of one of our summit day as well. We were so happy to reach the summit and we are both so proud of ourselves. Thank you for following along with us! :-)

      Delete
  4. Well you 2 have confidence now that you have conquered 2 mountains! I'll bet that was a once in life ordeal! And you both made it. My hat is off for your adventures! Sounds like a long bus ride, but I'm sure you will find something interesting, take care, Rawn Stone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that was definitely a once in a life time ordeal, we don't ever need to or want to repeat that.

      It was a long bus ride and again it was an interesting day.

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    2. That was an tough, but you 2 endured and conquered those mountains! My hat's off for you 2!

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  5. Wanted to call your attention to a news program I was listening to on the radio yesterday where they discussed covid in Tanzania. It's around 45 minutes into the program. https://the1a.org/segments/myanmar-mars-covid-china/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have free WiFi so we were able to check it out and as we figured it wasn't anything that we didn't already know or suspect. We know that they can't be totally COVID free, yet from everything that we hear and see from the locals the numbers are not real high. We will continue to do as we have been doing, which is just trying to be careful and try to stay our distance when we can. Being outside really helps though, it isn't very often that we are inside without any kind of airflow.

      Delete
  6. Twice my comments have been deleted. Please explain. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sondra. By using an adblocker, you are depriving us an income. I'm not sure why you would think that we don't deserve to be compensated for what we do. If you would like to send a donation in lieu of viewing the ads, we would be okay with that. My paypal address is [email protected]. I deleted your comment in the hope that it might prevent others from possibly using an adblocker as well.

      Delete
    2. Everyone deserves compensation for what they do but, running an ad on every post 20 to 35 times is frustrating to say the least. Can't the ads run on the side or bottom like they always have? People are weary of the constant barrage of ads on everything. I hope
      you reconsider.

      Delete
    3. As Kevin mentioned before, he is experimenting with the placement of the ads to optimise them, if he doesn't see any change in a week or so then they will go back to what it was like previously. Also not everyone sees the same ads or same placement of ads. So far I don't really see much of a change from before but I know that others do.

      Delete

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