We arrive late afternoon to Meru Mbega Lodge, our last lodge for this Tanzania trip. We are not sure if we have the right location but there are enough sign pointing us to the small parking lot. There, for the first time with the help of porter women, our luggage is taken into the room while we do all the formalities. We have booked the best possible room here which is still significantly cheaper than anywhere else we have stayed in Tanzania. The room itself is not exceptional but for certain not ten times worse than some of the others we stayed.
We have a couple rooms and a bathroom which is not that different from other ones here, in fact it comes with a shower curtain which is a bonus.
The living room is spacious enough, we get two bottles of water, which is more than we have gotten in a luxury lodge and we even have a balcony. The one thing that is worse compared to some other lodges is the roof. It is traditional and thatched but that means that if something moves on the roof or if there is wind we will hear it. And both of these will happen during our stay.
The view from our balcony is quite nice and we decide to eat here but first we have to bring our lunch boxes from the car. We pass through the main building first and notice that they have a colobus walking tour and decide to get the information, maybe it is something that we could do the next day before we leave for the airport?
We also get a cold coke and a fanta, both quite cheap and welcome as we eat our lunch outside in the heat of the day.
Of course the birds and the mammals do not care about the heat, at least not as much as we care. To our surprise besides a squirel we also see a group of Blue Monkeys that in the end decide to pass over our room making loud noises, oops.
Given that there is not a good opportunity for relaxing with monkeys jumping on our roof we decide to explore the gardens and specifically to find the observation tower over Arusha National Park. The tower is actually in a sister resort that can be accessed via a path and doesn’t seem to have any visitors, or very few. The tower is also empty so we sit there for an hour or so looking for birds or mammals and failing to see any which is quite surprising. So we return to our accomodation to eat dinner from our provisions and then go to sleep, our last night in Tanzania.
In the morning as we get to eat breakfast there are very few people around. We can sit anywhere and we can order eggs a la carte and then get some extra toast and jam.
The eggs are served quite simply but are also quite good with a side of pancake which turns to be a crepe. Quite fun and good with jam
With breakfast out of the way we return a bit later to find our guide and to move our stuff to the new room. The guide is for the tour to see the colobus monkeys, that we booked in the end, and the move is because we will stay till afternoon due to when the plane leaves but someone will be taking over our room. But graciously the accomodation allowed us to move to a different room instead of just holding our luggage, quite nice of them. It takes a bit to find anyone but in the end we resolve both items and soon are on our way in a small car to look for the colobus monkeys.
Returning we now have a different room which is smaller than the original one. In fact the first one was at the top of the building and now we are sitting in the room at the bottom which is smaller and does not have a balcony.
However it is more than we expected and we use the time to pack all the souvenirs into the luggage, a very tight fit. And to explore the tower again where after lots of coaxing we finally see a Sombre Greenbul, they are they definition of a skulky bird.
And then it is getting late and it is time to leave. We say goodbye to our hosts, get the porters to help with the luggage and then it is time for the last part of our journey, back to the airport and to return the car before flying to Doha.
