On the road: day 8

The project leader

Today was to be a long day as we had decided to take a chunk out of the distance back to Moshi, but we firstly had to honor a promise to look around the charitable development the Fox's had carried out in the area. Zanner had also offered to look at any of the children that may need medical care.

The children's village that has been built is truly amazing, with six schools to educate a large range of children the project boasts its own community hall and will soon have an adult computer lab. You have to take into account this has all been built high in the mountains and the level of commitment is like nothing we have seen before. To power the place there are numerous generators but one of the sons is in the process of building a hydro electric system to bring a more consistent power supply.

Mmmm. ok I'll take this one. Do you wrap them?

The children were fantastic and looked very happy, more importantly they looked loved by the house parents whose role is to give these orphans the kind of support that we all aspire to give our own children. There are many HIV issues in the area but this doesn't daunt the Fox's, in fact I would say that they rather see this as a minor challenge in the grand scheme of things.

We didn't get a chance to see the hospital and outreach clinic that they have built but we are going to get more info about these I time to come. The one thing that they are really struggling with is being able to bring care to the villages and bring in the sick to the hospital. We discussed at length how we could look into raising funds to buy a vehicle that could be converted in to an ambulance in the UK, maybe an ex army land-rover or the like as it would have to be able to manage the inhospitable terrain. If anyone has any ideas we will be happy to hear from you.

With twins...I remember when Zac and Josh used to be this good.

Oh no I've only got four fingers...Daddy, your being stupid again

And over there is where you can shove your advice

Who needs a bird?

After lunch we set out with the intention of making it as far a Mikumi, 320km. The reality was that this would involve driving on the suicide roads in the dark and, although we didn't talk about it Zanner and I recognized this was far from ideal given what we had seen the during the journey down this far south.

Every man will build a castle no matter how out of place

House guest at Geoff Fox's new house

The boys were great the whole journey, playing road bingo with Zanner no end of times, although the decibel level inside the car did little to aid the concentration. We had only covered 200km by the time it had gotten dark and the next 100km were fraught with huge artics and road trains hurtling along the mountain roads. Of course we came upon fresh carnage with one lorry managing to overturn on an uphill corner which defied gravity which only goes to show how fast he must have been traveling.

Tea...tea pickers...taken by tea drinker

Ring a ring a...nah I'm bored of that.

The world awaits me

Yes we can

We eventually arrived at Swiss Tan Lodge and were given the same bungalow much to the  joy of the boys who remembered immediately that it had a TV. Back to top and tailing, but without any hassle so, i am sat writing hoping they will sleep well so that they can deal with tomorrows epic journey home, approx 600kms. Only time will tell!