Mushroom Farm Eco Lodge (without my bike)

August 15, 2022

Many cyclist have raved about their visit to this lodge. It's not easy to get too. One choice was to detour yesterday, but the road was remote and very hilly. I opted to figure things out from this end. It's a horrible road and climb up to the lodge. I knew the road had a lot of rocks, but in the end, let's just say it's a darn good thing I didn't take my bike, lightly loaded or not. The climb is brutal and I would venture to say, that most of it's not even rideable unless you are really hardcore. The descent wouldn't have been enjoyable at all either. Too many sections of large rocks and curves on the switchbacks.

The lodge owner drove me down to the junction and let's just say there was a lot of attempted scamming going on. In the end, I went with an ambulance driver that we had arranged a price and he was going to contact us when he was ready to head up. He later told me, the guy who was trying to scam me overhead him give his phone number to the lodge owner and took it down as well and called the guy at least four times. He was pissed. When I finally got my ride, the scammer had to be paid off even though he didn't help me at all. The ambulance drive told me he told him, "She's a Mzungu, she should pay twice the price." Thankfully, the ambulance driver told him we already had a deal. I will say though, I did tease him about charging a family of two or three, plus their bags, the same price as I paid and they were going further. Again, I don't mind paying a little extra, but don't try to really take advantage of me just because my skin is white.

The other thing worth pointing out is that most people hitch a ride on the back of a motorcycle. That is a touch subject with me as I had friends killed in a motorcycle accident that negatively shaped a big part of my life. Yes, I've been on motorcycles in the past, but for the most part, I avoid them. The scammer tried to get me to take an old Toyota pickup truck which was way overloaded with people sitting in the back. He knew I wanted a regular seat in the cab, but the reality is, this road is long and difficult and I also wanted a vehicle with some sense of safety in that it wasn't going to break down or have the brakes fail.

The road has 20 some switchbacks I believe. The locals know them like the back of their hand. I had a nice chat with the driver and he dropped me off at the parking lot to the farm. I walked down a bunch of steps until I found the reception. I had really hoped to get a cabin with a spectacular view over the whole valley, but they were all sold out. I was so disappointed. My options were a dorm room or a private cabin up in the woods. I opted for the dorm as either way I had to go to a shared bathroom. It was late in the afternoon and the likelihood of anyone one else was slim to none. Except two guys did show up at about 10:30 at night which I'm not going to lie, freaked me out a little bit. All of a sudden I hear the door open and hear guys and see a flashlight shining. They didn't take long to get settled, but clearly, they weren't tourists and had stayed here before. I took that opportunity to try and fix my bed. The mattresses in the dorms were incredibly thin. I went ahead and pulled a mattress off of another dorm to double them up. It definitely helped, but it gave me the sensation of being a taco at that point. Not a good night of rest at all.

What I did like about the place was that the views were absolutely incredible. The restaurant serves vegetarian food and everyone eats the same thing. It was okay, but there were some issues with bugs and sanitation, and I was not impressed at all.

It's worth mentioning that there is a little yoga studio, and an outdoor bathtub that's heated with rocks that you can pay/reserve. I thought about it, but it didn't looks especially inviting to me, so I passed.

It was a cool place with all the steps and paths, but overall, I was expecting so much more and was pretty disappointed in the experience considering the effort it takes to get there.

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