After leaving Serengeti, I reached Arusha region on 29th February and Mr. Prem Grurung received me there happily. I had a wonderful time dining at Mr. Sushil Gurung’s home that night. Every time I spend my time in such a family environment, I miss my family a lot. Both Mr. Prem and Mr. Sushil work with the United Nations and have been living in Arusha since last 13 years.

The next day, on 1st March, I visited the office of the Mayor of Arusha and I also gave an interview to Arusha Times and visited United Nation’s office. It was a great time of honor and pride for me. On the 2nd I reached Moshi region where Mount Kilimanjaro is situated. Mt. Kilimanjaro stands 5,895 meters tall and is the highest peak of Africa. It is the most favoured tourist destination of Tanzania. 7500 tourists from all over the world visit Mt. Kilimanjaro every year.

The mountain top is always covered with snow and the mountain has a large variety of forest that contains 1200 vascular plant species. Unlike all other tall mountains in East Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro does not have any bamboo zone. There are four options to travel to the mountain and to reach the peak even the shortest route takes six days of travel from Moshi.

There are two different tribes of people dwelling nearby the mountain; Chagga and Pare. It is really interesting to know that the local people who live nearby the mountain have no interest in climbing it. Thanks to Mr. Asley Stebh, a local citizen, for providing us with this information. It is also very sad that the mountain is going through a lot of deforestation since the people living nearby cut down trees for different purposes like cooking, building shelters, etc. I’m afraid this might soon result in negative changes in the environment such as erosion, drought, etc. This can also hugely affect the tourism of Tanzania which has now become one of the largest source of revenue of the country. I really hope the Tanzanians are aware of the risk!

On the 4th of March, I left Moshi for Dar Es salaam which is 530 kms far from Moshi. The roadway was a bit narrow and it wasn’t easier for me to ride. Unfortunately, 120 kms ahead of Dar Es Salaam, the local currency I had was all finished and my bicycle’s trailor broke at the same time. I couldn’t find any ATMs for international credit cards anywhere and there wasn’t any money changer along the way. I had a hard time and I was about to panic. But thank God that I finally found a German lady travelling towards Dar Es Salaam and she helped me to change the money. A ton of thanks to the lady!

Peace and Harmony,

Furtemba Sherpa