We spend a few days couchsurfing in the small town of Tengeru and learn a lot about life in Tanzania. The town is not far from Arusha, the gateway to the famous national parks and the great Serengeti, which we also traveled here for.

The guide of our upcoming safari invites us on a special tour to the nearby “hot springs“. However, he does not drive himself.

Another driver, with African tolerance of the time, comes to us just before 11 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. There is also a Portuguese woman in the car. Shangwe is allowed to come along too.

Before the oasis with the hot springs, we visit the Materuni waterfall and get a great impression of a tropical forest and the resident chameleons.

When we get back from there, we finally drive to the hot springs. Our driver assures us that we will get there in an hour and finally have the long-overdue lunch. But an African hour is longer than a UMT hour, so we don’t get to the hot springs until 6 p.m.

The landscape is very barren. We see isolated villages and children tending goats. Then, in the middle of the empty landscape, huge, knobbly trees suddenly appear. The baobab trees store huge amounts of water and can therefore survive long periods of drought.

We jump into the crystal clear green water of this oasis while monkeys do gymnastics in the palm trees around us and the sun slowly sets. The pleasure is only short-lived because then it is completely dark.

At least we don’t have to worry about where we change in the dark. We quickly put on our dry clothes. It’s good that I always have my headlamp with me.

Finally we get something to eat, which is called BBQ, but is mostly bones, which we can still gnaw on. My headlamp is our only light. We drive the long distance back to Tengeru in total darkness.

I’m taking the opportunity to introduce my African friends to the music of Linkin Park. Tomorrow we’re going to explore Arusha.