We rise just before 7:00 when coffee and tea are served on our porch. The four of us sit, sip and enjoy the view of the fertile valley below.
It is a leisure day at Gibbs Farm, a guest house and organic coffee plantation that also grows organic vegetables, herbs and fruit.
At 10:00 we meet up with Honest our guide for a hike to the elephant caves and waterfall. It is a short 2 hour hike on well-trodden paths. Quite unlike the Mt Makarot hike. We reach the caves, which aren’t really caves but are the banks of a creek. The elephants “mine” for minerals (calcium and sodium) using their tusks to loosen the rock and soil so that they may eat the rock.
We stop at a waterfall, a trickle right now but it grows in size as the rains come. We all peer over the edge looking 30M to the bottom.
We arrive back at the farm in time for the buffet lunch. The choices are endless – chicken, salads, samosas, rice, beef, noodles and breads. All delicious, except we have been in Tanzania for about 10 days and have not eaten any true Tanzanian fare. The lodges are geared to the tastes of the North American and European tourists.
The afternoon is spent as each one of us wants. Murray walks outside the farm gates, L&R walk the vegetable garden and I lounge on the porch and then take pictures of the flora.
We end the day again on the porch watching the darkening sky over the valley.