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July 23, 2005

Arusha and the Usambara Mountains

A few more days were spent in Arusha at Deb and Drew’s. We were hoping that they would be able to get away for a day trip on the weekend but due to Drew’s busy schedule, it was not to be. We had considered climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but figured it would cost us close to $1,000 each to do so and decided it was not that important to us. Deb and Drew’s neighbour Diane kindly offered to take us shopping to some of her favourite places and also offered to take our purchases with her when she moves back to Canada next month. This is extremely helpful as there are great things to buy here and the postal service in Tanzania is rumoured to be less than reliable.

I should mention that Kevin had another incident with a food vendor while we were still in Arusha, although this one was less smelly than the first. Many Tanzanian women start small fires at the side of the road over which they roast Maasai corn – a nasty, fodder-grade vegetable, very distantly related to Chilliwack Peaches ‘n’ Cream. As we walked by one of these women, she hurled a large piece of cob, catching Kevin in the side of the head. No harm was done, but you know what they say about things coming in threes…

Our farewell Arusha dinner took place at “Chicken on the Bonnet”: Car parts store by day, BBQ chicken restaurant by night. The chicken was excellent, as was the company: Deb and Drew and their friend Greg. Greg kindly arranged to have his taxi driver pick us up at 5:45 the next morning to take us to the bus station. This worked perfectly and as we walked out the gate of Deb and Drew’s, there was Abraham – thanks Greg!

Deb recommended a reputable bus company to take on the next leg of our journey to Mombo with a connection to our final destination of Lushoto. Despite this excellent advice, we booked with a rather sketchy looking bus company whose office was run out of a wooden shack. The lure of this company was a ride directly to Lushoto with no change of bus in Mombo. Lesson learned: always take the advice of a well-meaning friend.

On this bus journey (which was only 300 km long and was supposed to take about 4 hours) we also learned the following: the terms “luxury”, “express” and “this bus is full” are all relative. After three hours we arrived in the town of Moshi, approximately 70 km from Arusha. At this bus station, we stopped for about an hour while the ticket issuer and money collector from our bus crawled underneath the vehicle to do some repairs that seemed to involve the brakes. After the repairs were done, the bus (which we thought was already full) took on approximately 50 more people. We were now in a bus built for 45 that had well over 100 people on board. Shortly after we pulled out of the station, a women standing very near to us started screaming that she could not wake her baby. More about this below.

At the lowest point of the journey, Kevin had on his lap a mother nursing her child (those of you who know Kevin can image how uncomfortable this was for him) and I was holding the very-much-alive baby of the screaming mother. A large smelly man was standing on Kevin’s toes, but I had the luck of being able to jam my feet under the seat in front of me, which incidentally was occupied by a nun. Just before reaching the mountain town of Lushoto, another breakdown occurred which required an almost complete evacuation of the vehicle while the rad hose was repaired with a strip of inner tube rubber. Nine hours after leaving Arusha, we pulled into Lushoto.

The town of Lushoto is a farming community set at 1200 metres elevation in the Usambara Mountains. It is well-known in Tanzania for its hiking trails and beautiful vistas. We checked into a seedy guesthouse (only $8 a night!) and set out to find ourselves a hiking guide. Originally only planning to do a day trip or two, we happened into the TAYODEA Tourcare office where we met up with a Belgian couple: Lies and Tom. With them we negotiated a three-day, three-night hiking trip from Lushoto to the village of Mtae with an additional days hike to Irente Lookout.

The next morning, we set out on foot right from the TAYODEA office with our guide Said. Said told us about his education: three years in guide school in Arusha where he learned all about the plants, trees, animals, insects, reptiles, people, and history of the Usambara region and beyond. This, along with his kindness and sense of humour, made him the best guide we could have asked for. That day, we walked through small mountain villages where the children ran to the road to shout “Mazungu, mazungu!” (white person, white person!) and “Jambo!” (hello!). Mazungo sightings are so rare in this area that some of the younger children just looked at us and began to cry!

We walked through a protected rain forest and had lunch at a lookout with a view of valleys on all sides. The park ranger brought us two chameleons that he found. They are common in this area but are very hard to spot, being chameleons and all. For lunch Said had made us chapatis which were the most delicious we have ever had (look for Said’s recipe coming soon in the “Food” section of this site). Then we walked back into the forest where we were lucky to see small brown vervet monkeys as well as large black and white colobus monkeys. The monkeys we saw during our safari are unafraid of people and therefore sit complacently at the side of the road as the truck pulls up to get pictures, kind of like the baboons at the fine Ontario establishment “African Lion Safari” (although the Tanzanian ones do not eat your windshield wiper blades). The Usambara monkeys, however, are truly wild and escape through the trees when they sense danger. The “monkey highlight” was watching as one monkey in an attempt get away from us as fast as possible, missed his handhold and fell, flailing like a giant furry Muppet, 20 metres to the ground. Of course this was only funny because he seemed unhurt and promptly scrambled back up a tree and hurried off after his family, albeit in the wrong direction.

That afternoon we came off the trail and onto the road where we took a 30-minute bus ride to our first overnight town. This bus ride was similar to the one we took to get to Lushoto, however this time the road was not paved and we were the ones standing. Thankfully, it was a short ride. We were lucky enough to arrive in the village of Lukozi on market day. The market was huge and busy and colourful and really felt like Africa. We wandered around for a while and Kevin made some friends and then we checked into our hotel where they heated up some water for our “shower”. We had dinner with Said, Lies and Tom and then hit they hay, tired from a long day of hiking.

The next morning we set out on foot again and spent the day walking through small villages and terraced farmland. In one small village the children gathered around us and sang the Tanzanian national anthem. We had lunch in an orchard and at around 3:30 we arrived at our next overnight destination, Rangwi Convent. Here, the Father and Sisters rent out rooms to travelers and we were welcomed with tea and fresh bread followed a few hours later by dinner which we enjoyed with the Father, and ironically, his father. There is no electricity here, but a generator is turned on for a couple of hours around dinner time and after that it’s only candlelight. It was a very peaceful place to spend the night.

We were off early the next morning, hiking the trails out of Rangwi and towards Mtae, which is a small village set on ridge of the mountains that sticks way out into the plains of Tanzania. Said impressed us again by wearing his traditional Maasai outfit, complete with shoes fashioned from strips of old car tires. In Mtae we were invited to visit with the local traditional medicine man, which was pretty interesting. After some chanting and inhaling of incense, he explained to us our ailments: Tom and Lies are apparently fine but Kevin and I both have the devil in us plus Kevin has gas. Sensibly, we didn’t take the doctor up on any of his offers of remedies. After watching the sun set over the plains and a good dinner, we were quick to fall asleep in our little guesthouse overlooking the valley.

At 4 am the buses to Lushoto began honking their horns. This was our cue to get up as the last bus back to Lushoto was scheduled to leave at 5:00. Luckily, we boarded early because it ended up leaving at 4:35 and soon overtook the 4:30 bus, which really left at 4:25. This is a crazy place. Even crazier is the road from Mtae to Lushoto which was a teeth-jarring 60km of washed out dirt. Thankfully the bus was not full, even by Canadian standards. It’s two days later and my kidneys still hurt.

Arriving back in Lushoto we had not an hour’s rest before Said had us back on our feet for our final hike to the Irente Lookout. The view at 1500 metres was spectacular as we were on the edge of the mountains which dropped away suddenly to the pancake-flat plains below. Clouds moving north collided against the mountains and were pushed up towards us. On the way back to town, we stopped at Irente Farm, which is run by some Swedish expats. There we had for lunch: fresh rye bread, homemade cheeses and jam, and fresh-squeezed passionfruit juice. A good way to end four days of great hiking.

The Usambara hike was really a highlight for us as we felt we were off the beaten track, away from the touts and vendors. We learned so much about the area from Said including the history and culture of the Maasai and the traditional uses of the indigenous plants and trees. Not to mention we improved our Kiswahili a bit too – we now know more than “simba” and “hakuna matata”. If anyone is in Tanzania or plans on visiting Tanzania, you must get Said to take you for a hike – you will not regret it! His email address is usambarachamilion@yahoo.com and his phone number is 0748-657019.

Back in Lushoto, we checked into a slightly nicer guesthouse and met up with Lies and Tom to try some banana wine home-brewed by nuns. It was nice to relax after hiking for an average of 15 to 20 km a day for four days. I was really missing my Cycle Fit classes (Hello Lisa, Gail, et al)!

And then it was time to move on once again, this time to warmer climes. Wise to the ways of the African bus, we took a mini bus down the hill to Mombo and boarded a true “luxury” and “express” bus to Dar es Salaam where we will spend one night before catching a ferry to Zanzibar.

So here we sit in our hotel room. I just killed our first Dar es Salaam cockroach. It was trying to break into Kevin’s pack. But not to worry, it was pretty small… relatively.

B.

PS: I know some of you have been wondering what has happened to the FFP portion of these postings. Due to the lack of Western tourists, FFP’s have been scarce. We hope to capture some on film once we get to Zanzibar.

Photos:
In an African Market
Kevin and his New Friends
Children Singing
Frightened by the Muzungo
Brandy, Said and Chameleon
Walking with Said the Maasai and Children
Brandy and Kevin
Lies, Tom, Said, Kevin, Brandy
At Irente View Point
Kevin

Posted by Brandy & Kevin on July 23, 2005 03:13 AM
Category: 08 Tanzania
Comments

Glad to hear you finally made it to Lushoto and had a great time there. Funny, we thought Kevin just had the devil in him, never noticed the gas. Just goes to show you that you should see a real witch doctor just to be sure. Enjoy Zanzibar! D & D

Posted by: deb on July 23, 2005 11:55 AM

I've been meaning to talk to Kevin about that little gas problem of his. Now, apparently, it might also seem prudent to address his devil problem!!! Great update Bran'. Keep 'em coming. Dad/Rick

Posted by: Dad/Rick on July 23, 2005 02:16 PM

Have you guys been using your amazing-one-of-a-kind-hand-crafted-pracitcal -yet-stylish laptop case?

Posted by: mica on July 24, 2005 12:44 AM

Greetings!
Thanks for the updates and pictures, keep them coming, It seems that you are in love with Africa! good thing is an adventure like this never leaves you!!

miss you both - travel safe & keep posting!

Posted by: Sus on July 27, 2005 05:21 PM

We're all waiting with interest for your next update (especially Brandy's Dad). I'm sure that after all of your adventures it won't be easy for you two to leave Africa. By the way, I hear that Mumbai is rather damp at the moment.

Marilyn

Posted by: marilyn on July 29, 2005 12:16 PM
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