Ilboru Safari Lodge

link to lodge

I arrived at the Ilboru Safari Lodge just after 10pm, after long flights. I was exhausted. Everyone there was so kind and helpful. They advised that the restaurant was still open, however I was too tired to eat anything and went straight to my cottage. I was accompanied by two porters and they carried my luggage and guided my way down the tiny pathways of the garden, through the dark. It seemed like I was walking forever, although when I got up today and walked back to the front desk, in the light, along the same paths, it was quick and the paths seemed much bigger. 

I was quite familiar with what my accommodations would be like from checking them out online. And my room looked exactly as I expected. It is so unique to me, from the open shower to the windows without screens to the netted bed. Of course this is my first time to anywhere in Africa, so maybe this is very typical-I know the netted bed is. I was surprised to find no screens in the windows and that the door to outside doesn’t meet the floor completely. I suppose that is why the bed is netted, but I would have thought screens to keep mosquitoes out of the whole cottage. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. My porters went around turning on all the lights, closing the curtains - the whole front is window! - and pulling the nets around my bed. It took me a while to feel comfortable - I was checking everywhere for bugs and spiders! I knew I would have to overcome this while here, and I thought I was ready - I was not - lol! I was in bed just before midnight. This is the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. I am interested to see if I feel the same way after my second sleep. I was so tired that a rock floor would have looked comfortable. I checked under the sheets to make sure a scorpion wasn’t hiding there, and I wore socks in case one showed up in the middle of the night. Nothing was there. I am in the city of Arusha with a population of over 600,000 - not on Safari yet. Here are some photos of my room before I set up camp and made it my own. 

One thing I kept reading online was to not drink the water in Tanzania unless it’s bottled or canned. So using seeing this uncapped, but with a nice mesh overtop made me quite wary so I opted to put it through my life straw (thanks Mom!)

I woke up at 6:30am, 9:30am and then finally 12:30pm. That last one was too late - I know I’m on vacation, however I will never adjust to the 9 hour time change if I sleep that late! 

I woke up feeling 100% comfortable in my home for the next two nights. I didn’t even look for spiders! Here is my beautiful cottage on the outside. I’m in the right hand half. 

I spent today walking around and looking at the amazing gardens here.  I really need to take better photos of them - lol! 

I had a light lunch of guac and pita chips before setting up camp by the pool for the afternoon. 

It is much cooler here than I had expected. Fortunately everything I packed is in layers, so I was able to be toasty warm. It was about 22°C today - but somehow that felt way colder than I expected. It was overcast and quite windy. It didn’t stop a few kids and 3 brave adults from entering the pool for a swim. I’m usually tougher than that as I love being in water!

I took a brave venture outside the gates of my resort, to across the bumpy road - which I still haven’t been able to take a good photo of. I thought - just going across the street will be fine - nope. I’m not someone who has ever travelled to a place where you haggle/barter. I knew this would be tough for me, due to GAD. But I figured these were two women and they would be nice to me because I am a woman. Again, nope. I mean, they were kind and polite but there is no window shopping in their store. Of course I wanted to just browse but everything was shown to me personally - picked up by hand and shown to me. This was WAY outside my comfort zone. They also asked if I would give them my hoodie and if they could buy my dress. They told me all about how I was their first customer - it was 3pm, and we are in the middle of nowhere so it could have been true - and they needed money for food and school fees. I am fully aware that I am writing this as a white woman with so much privilege, however this was still very uncomfortable for me. I quickly bartered for a pair of earrings and 2 scrunchies - I will never admit how much I paid, but I was paying to leave. So I am happy with it, and that’s all that matters. You can see the three shops across the street, they tried to get me to go into more of them but I came back. 

My new scrunchie and earrings back by the pool 

I need to get better at this. I hung out a bit more by the pool and decided to have 5:00 cocktails - this was nothing official, I just ordered a cocktail at 5:00. I tried the Tanzania Mule - it was delicious.  Not sure what made it different, as they also had a traditional Moscow Mule on the menu, but I will certainly have it again tomorrow! Probably before 5:00 :). 

I had dinner upstairs in the restaurant. There was a fixed menu with French onion soup, choice of four entrees - I chose pork with sweet and sour sauce - and then two choices for dessert - I picked crème caramel - it was all delicious!

I didn’t get a photo of dessert because this amazing group of 3 Australians (2 women and 1 male) invited me to sit with them at their table since I was all alone. I was a bit uncomfortable, but decided to go for it and I am so glad I did. They were just coming off of their safari and they had lots of great pointers to share with me. They even gave me a 2L bottle of water they wouldn’t use before leaving, and they assured me that the “perfectly safe to drink” water in my room is fine. They told me they saw where they get it and it’s legit. Good to know. 

I headed back to bed in hopes of getting up earlier tomorrow.