When we stayed at Serena Lodge a week back and drove to Manyara we noticed the Tanzanite Experience at the side of the road. Well that and there are signs probably for about 50 km in each direction advertising it. So on the way back we decide to stop, what is the worst that can happen? First we almost cannot find the parking but then a security guard takes pity in us and directs us in the right spot, this is not somewhere where white people drive themselves in. Inside we get a minder that takes us through the tour that starts with a short, interesting film about tanzanite and where it is mined in Tanzania.
The tour continues with a fake mine tour. The mine is fake not the tour. But it has all the trappings of a mine like mine robber shafts closed with metal grates, fun.
It actually gives a good example on how tanzanite is mined, how dangerous it can be and how many byproducts there are while looking for tanzanite stones.
The tour ends at an exhibit of the different stones and then leads into the shop where you can buy tanzanite. Unfortunately the prices are quite high versus what we have seen previous so we decide not to buy. Instead we decide to use the facilities and again get shouted at, we were going to the driver restrooms not the tourist restrooms which are much more fancy we assume.
And then it is time for the long drive to Arusha. We have already done it in the opposite direction so we know what to expect. Beautiful areas outside of the villages where the only problem is mantaining the legal speed and then craziness inside the villages and speed traps.
Today even if there would be speed traps they wouldn’t be able to capture anything as the going is very slow. There is even a market day in one of the larger villages with minibuses and cars almost blocking the road. But by this time we are experts and slowly and surely navigate all dangerous areas exiting safely on the other side.
In Arusha we decide to take the bypass road that the car rental company recommended initially. We have been twice through the city proper and do not look forward doing it again so the bypass it is. And actually it is less busy and quite nice for long stretches and we enjoy it even though of course there are a couple police checkpoints on the way.
It also seems that this is the area where the middle class and richer people live, it looks much nicer than some other villages we have passed through.
As we approach the meeting point with the main road near New River suddenly the bypass decays, it becomes more busy and less marked. A couple times we would have missed turns without a GPS but this way we make it correctly to the main road and then to the Arusha NP road. Following that road and then a rocky side road we finally reach Meru Mbega Lodge, our accomodation for the last night in Tanzania.
