The Northern Safari Circuit
The next day, we pushed north towards Kilimanjaro and Arusha. We were targeting the Pare Mountains and Lushoto, an old German mountain retreat, which the Germans once considered the town as a contender for their capital. Set among beautiful, fertile mountains, the slopes are terraced and heavily cultivated. The area still bears testament to the early European settlers. Although the road up from the main highway is good tar, it twists and turns, which means Lushoto was 3 hours or so driving, which was beyond the hours of daylight remaining. Following David Else's advice in the Lonely Planet 'Trekking in East Africa', we stopped at the intermediate Soni Falls. Time marches on, but not for the said Soni Falls Hotel, which had apparently closed. We ended up staying in a 'guesthouse' - Kimbute, where the owner was very helpful to us, although quite unprepared for white guests.
Kilimanjaro
As we drove north, we expected to see Kilimanjaro around every bend or hill crest. In fact the mountain is usually covered by cloud around the southern slopes and can often be difficult to see. It came into view just short of Moshi. The outline was unmistakable and despite the poor visibility still impressive. Kili is thought to be a dormant rather than an extinct volcano and is young in geological terms, created around 750,000 years ago. At 19,340 ft, it is the highest free-standing mountain in the world and it is said the area around its base in larger than that of Greater London. We have heard many tales of people from all walks of life walking to the top (both fit and not so; young and old) and for anyone who reaches the summit it is a fine achievement. So many tourists are attempting the ascent now there is serious environmental damage. For every tourist there are porters, guides and assistant porters (the ratio is more than 1:5 locals to each tourist), forcing the authorities to increase the Park fees to discourage people. It now costs between $600-1,000, depending on the reputation of the company and the amount of tips one wishes to pay on decent. It had been Adrian's long held desire to walk the mountain (indeed we initially intended to conduct the 'Roof of Africa tour' - climbing Thabana Ntlenyana in Lesotho, Kili and Mount Kenya, the Ruwenzori Mts, the Simien Mts and the High Atlas in Morocco) but our timeline has taken such a bashing due to the accident we have decided to delay our Kili ascent until after our initial Kenya trip (Adrian has to return to UK for a week at the end of July and we believe it will be best to fly from Nairobi).
Arusha
The road to and through Arusha was good tar, which surprised yet delighted us for on a previous trip in 1998, the road resembled one just hit by a military artillery barrage it was so badly potholed. Whether this was due to general improvements, a generous donation, assistance to the burgeoning tourist trade or due to the fact that the UN had taken over the Arusha International Conference Centre to conduct the war crime trails (examining the genocide in Rwanda in 1994) would be pure speculation.
The area around Kili is a very fertile, benefiting from two rainy seasons. The local Chagga people are great agriculturalists and farm varying crops depending on the height of their plot. There is a bewildering variety of bananas grown here, red sweet ones, a savoury one, some used to brew local beer and feed the cattle. However, arabica coffee is the main cash crop, suited to growth on the upper slopes.
Most of Africa's terrestrial telephone landlines are so unreliable that internet cafes here use a wireless connection, which is faster and more reliable. We had not been able to connect the laptop to the website since Botswana and after we had tried a number of internet cafes in Arusha we finally found one prepared to loan us a network card to connect - such a relief!
Tarangire
It was late when we left Arusha on an excellent tar road, heading towards the Serengeti. The camp site at the Meserani Snake Farm, some 25 km from Arusha, had been recommended by a number of people and it was easily found. Sadly, whether the place had fallen into disrepair or had a change of ownership, we only found a dust bowl of a car park and some extremely rude owners. After having waited 30 minutes or so and walked about the place to find someone to book in with. We had sufficient time to drive down to the public campsite at Tarangire before last light, which was a better location for the next day. 
Tarangire NP is a good place to visit in the dry season, for whilst the Serengeti rivers are dry, the Tarangire River benefits from run off from Kili, attracting large numbers of animals. We were lucky to see large herds, especially elephant, in the river valleys and were very privileged to see an exhibitionist couple of leopards mating frequently in a baobab tree! 
