Training in the Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

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The Usambara Mountains are relatively close to Moshi and our traveler friend, Charlie, had told us they were beautiful.  We had multiple reasons for heading there.  Firstly, we needed to get some hiking training in for our upcoming climb of Kilimanjaro.  Secondly, the mountains are around 1800m altitude, so we could get some acclimatization in as well.  Thirdly, it seemed like the only place near Moshi that we could actually go to and NOT break the bank while we fill in some time waiting for our friend Bernie to arrive.

Our "VIP" bus to Lushoto - Kilimanjaro in background

We had seen the mountains on our ride up from Dar es Salaam, but until you drive up into the hills, you have no idea how beautiful they actually are.  A plateau of rolling hills, high above the plains below, covered with lush vegetation, natural forests, terraced fields of crops, and picturesque villages with some very friendly locals!!

The colourfully painted "VIP" bus went direct to Lushoto town - the main town of the Usambaras. We felt very grateful for the surprisingly uneventful journey - considering the nature of the winding road with steep drop-offs! Lushoto was a busy little place with lots of colourfully clad locals.  Like every other place, when we arrived in town, there were lots of touts and hustlers itching to get something out of us, mostly for guided walks in the area. We were horrified, though, when we saw the prices - about 45,000 shillings (about $30)....each person to go walking!! We did actually meet a  large group of 8 who paid the guide this.... each - it must have been his lucky day.

Local Ladies Walking to Magambo

We pitched tent at a nice lodge with a somewhat grumpy owner, but it did have a great view and five very social guard dogs that just wanted to hang out close to us and our tent (it was pretty cute).  One drawback was the lack of decent local food in town.  We like to eat locally for the experience, but also the price.  In Lushoto, it was tough to find anything other than chips mayai (chips/french fries in egg like an omelet).  Good, but not every meal!!

Charrie had recommended we just go out walking ourselves.  Heck, we've got ourselves around the world, we should be able to figure out how to get around from village to village.  And if we have trouble, just ask one of the very friendly and helpful locals.  The first walk we decided to do was to a waterfall.  We would have to take the local dalla dalla to Magambo and walk from there.  Only problem was, the dalla dalla didn't drop us off in Magambo, but in some tiny village about 5 kms past it.  We walked a more direct route back to Magambo through fields and bush, and when we were there, thought it best we head back to Lushoto based on the time.  It didn't really matter where we walked, we just needed to get out walking.

Dancing with Locals of Kwembago

Avoiding the main roads, we found ourselves in a little town called Kwembago, in the hills above Lushoto.  This place had great views a lot of character, and a lot of characters!  Watching a game of football/soccer with boys vs. girls was interesting.  The boys had the skills, but the girls played with some fun aggression.

There was apparently a religious meeting or festival happening in town, and we arrived just as it ended.  There were tons of people out on the main track in town, all dressed in their finest - and mostly muslim - clothes.  Shimmering green tunics seemed to be the colour of choice for many.  One lady, walking towards us, was listening and dancing to some arabic music on her phone.  We both joined in with a few moves, and before we knew it, we had a small group of the ladies all dancing with us.  They even called over this older lady, who joined in with some interesting stepping motions and a bit of a butt wiggle.  What fun we had with the ladies, and they even allowed us to take some photos, which most of the ladies reject.  All with only a few words of Swahili under our belts!  We finally made it back to town, cherishing our memories of our day of walking aimlessly.

That night, there was a small group of American Peace Corps workers, who congregated at the hotel.  I soon found out that this hotel had the best TV around, and that night was the Superbowl.  For me, that was good luck, and after a few hours nap, I woke up around 2AM to watch the only American football game I had seen in more than a year.  I even enjoyed the half-time show.  The American's were so disappointed that they didn't get the Superbowl commercials.... welcome to the Canadian experience of missing out.

At Irente Viewpoint

To continue the hiking, we packed a small bag, left our main packs at the hotel and headed out towards Irente Viewpoint.  We planned to camp a night at Irente Biodiversity Reserve, then head up to Mambo.  Another pleasant walk to Irente and we were pleased to find what the owners of the reserve were accomplishing.  They were trying to restore the indigenous plant species to the area and attract back the original wildlife.  Some decent success, as many birds have started to return.  We enjoyed the walk around the area, including the view from the edge, looking down hundreds of metres to the plains below.  Also, some delicious food, that we ate at a nice table beside our tent with a view over the lush, green hills.

We did the walk in reverse, back to Lushoto, and found ourselves a little bus to Mambo.  It looked close on the map (turned out to be only 58 km), and we thought we would head to Mambo for a night or two. 

Stunning Perch of MamboViewPoint - 1000m above valley

Well, it appears we didn't get the DIRECT bus, and it took us 5 hours to drive to Mambo.  Things seemed to be going well, and then all of a sudden we turned down a very small dirt track and started heading downhill.  I think we went about halfway down the mountain on, at times, a very thin and scary track, picking and dropping off locals at some of the small villages.  Don't get me wrong, the drive was actually very spectacular, but just not what we had pictured ourselves in that day.  The villages and hills were amazing, and we really hit some villages that hadn't seen 'mzungus' (white man) in quite some time, and maybe never.  Always fun, but when I brought out the camera, it sent many of the kids running.  The guy beside us in the bus said that they may think it is some kind of 'gun'.  Who knows???

Colourful Mambo Market

We finally reached the Mambo junction, and were dropped off at the side of the road.  The owner of MamboViewPoint Ecolodge (Herman) had said to call for a ride, but we thought we needed to do more walking, so started hiking the 5 km to the lodge.  Lots of fun with the kids, and plenty of shouts of 'mzungu' from all.  When we probably 3/4 of the way there, we were surprised to see Herman pull up to give us a ride.  Apparently, someone from the village had called him to say there were two strange mzungus walking up his way.  It is interesting how information gets passed around in Africa, and assumptions are made.
We drove up the final stretch to MamboViewPoint and were stunned with what we saw.  In only 3 short years, Herman and Marion had built quite the lodge on top of the peak, with a sharp drop of about 1000m to the valley below.  We had only heard of the place because we saw a small brochure in the guiding shop in Lushoto, and felt so lucky that we had.  I can't think of anywhere else I have been that has had such a dramatic location on a cliff.  It was at this point that Michelle and I wondered why we had left the bags behind, because it was obvious to both of us that we would spend more than 1 or 2 nights here.  Oooops!

Eating Chips Mayai with Mama Sally in Mambo

Herman and Marion had so many volunteer projects running within the local community. Check out their website and other volunteer projects at http://www.mamboviewpoint.blogspot.com/   Their hearts were really in their work, and the locals really welcomed their help and adopted them into the community.  We got along really well with one of the volunteers, an English lady who was helping teach at the school for 2 months.  She was affectionately known as Mama Sally to all the kids, and we visited her in class one day.   The kids in this school were very well behaved and we weren't the huge disruption we usually are when visiting schools!!  We also helped out Mama Sally at a sports day with the kids down at their local football pitch.  I played dodgeball, run around the ring races, and they did some other silly activities and group races, and all had fun. (Read about Mama Sally's work  on the MamboView website above).

We continued our training walks all around the community, and to other local villages.  We managed to get to the colourful Mambo market held once a week in the little village. 

Mambo Market

The ladies clothing was a rainbow of colour, and we were stared at constantly by all the curious locals.  We stocked up on supplies for our self catering, and also made a trip up to the local pottery area, where we were given an impressive demonstration for making a bowl.  It was interesting because the woman did not use a wheel, rather it was HER who went round and round in a circle!  Still, it was quite a good circular creation!

Along with Mama Sally and a guide, we did do a walk to the local protected forest and waterfall area.  It was nice to be in the jungle, but we were disappointed when we saw and heard the locals cutting down the trees.  This area of indigenous trees was protected for a reason, because there wasn't many left.  There were other planted trees for firewood, but I guess it was too expensive for some.  Our guide had harsh words for them, but as they scampered away with a head full of sticks, he heard them utter that they would be back tomorrow for more.  Very disheartening.

WIth Herman, staff and James and Katherine at MVP

We ended up spending 5 nights up at the MVP lodge, and actually left a day earlier than expected because we were able to find a ride back to Lushoto….. and then further.  We were sad to leave our stunning sunset views from the little benches perched around the cliffs.  Sad to leave the cool climate and pleasant camping spot with a hell of a view.  But happy to meet up with James and Katherine, an English/Australian couple who were gracious enough to not only take us to Lushoto, but also took us another 5 hours to Moshi.  For us it was great company, but also a safe ride - way safer than the minibus.  The only tough part was we had to figure out the way, and even with much doubt, we pulled into Lushoto just fine, and then we were home free to Moshi on main roads.  *Stub