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In the Relative Cool of the Mountains
Lushoto Tanzania
Tuesday 18 January 2011
When told we were headed for
Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains, our taxi driver taking us to the bus station
recoiled in horror. He shivered and declared it was cold up there, much too cold
for anybody! We said we were looking forward to cooler temperatures after the
heat of Dar, and we were not disappointed.
There was not much traffic on
Sunday morning in town but near the bus station there were plenty of buses to
clog the roads. The taxi driver pointed out the Dar Express bus and left. We
found the ticket man for the Dar Express bus line but his bus and the
Kilimanjaro bus were full. l finally managed to get seats on the Metro Express
line which left at 8:30 AM.
It too soon filled up and we
were off. Air conditioning was provided by open windows but the man sitting in
front of us controlled the window closed the window to avoid the dust and wind.
It was hot getting out of town as we were behind a steady stream of buses and
trucks on a two lane hi-way. Thank goodness we were right under the roof air
vent and it was open. It took almost an hour before we were able to make much
progress on the road.
Karen Allen, from Brome, Quebec, who we met on the
ferry to Dar, said the interior of Tanzania reminded her of PEI. It did, with
gently rolling hills and red cultivated fields interspersed with small villages.
Of course it was a tropical version as PEI doesn’t have coconut and mango trees
or red clay huts with thatched roofs.
Part way through the trip the
bus attendants passed out soft drinks and we bought a package of cashew nuts as
a snack from a salesman they allowed on the bus.We were not going all the way to
Arusha, our destination was Mombo, a little more than half way. About 40 km from
Mombo the bus stopped at a roadside restaurant that has the Express bus business
sewed up. Their parking lot was lined with buses and their small stands selling
food and drink were busy. This was also the welcome toilet stop so we were
relieved to find them clean and plentiful.
Less than an hour later we
were at the foot of the impressive looking Usambara Mountains. We were the only
ones getting off the bus at Mombo. Sales touts were waiting with all kinds of
snacks and to direct us to the dalla-dalla, a small public bus, that was just
about to take off for Lushoto. We bought 3 small samosas to eat on the bus and
took seats inside. We proceeded only a short distance before stopping in the
village to load up with a full complement of passengers. The road gradually
climbed the side of the mountain, stopping several times to let people off and
on. Ray spent the time to Soni, about half way, chatting to a school teacher
sitting next to him. Tanzania was a German colony until the First World War and
Lushoto was a favourite summer retreat. Many Germans come to find the graves of
their ancestors in the Lushoto area.
We reached the small market town
of Lushoto, about 3:30 PM and got off on a dusty dirt road in the middle of a
crowded jumble of shops. A young man approached us and said he was from an
information office that arranges hiking guides for various walks. He walked us
to Tumaini Hostel, where we had a reservation and agreed to see him later.
Tumaini has a restaurant serving Western style food, a second African style
restaurant at one side of a central garden and rooms in a two story building
behind the garden. It is quite peaceful here.
After some tea and a snack we
found Bakari, the tout who had met us, at the COCAFA (Community Care and
Friendship Association) offices. nother room more women were under driers. We
went through one office and into another with posters describing the various
walks, which Bakari proceeded to explain. Several are interesting to us. Ray
wanted a short day tomorrow as a start and then would consider a longer one,
possible a three day, two night walk, staying in villages on the way. The walks
are not cheap at $50 US each per day but not bad. The price includes all park
fees, the guide and usually lunch, plus they emphasize that 40% of the fees go
towards community projects. COCAFA dedicates 40% of their fees to fund community
projects. They hold free English language lessons, offer tailoring courses for
women and help support an orphanage and a school for mentally challenged
children. Several of their walks interested us and we signed up for a walk for
the next morning.
At the hotel restaurant that evening we met another
couple from Ottawa. Andrea Levy and Don Cockburn live just down from my sister
Mary! They had just finished a 5 day hike through the Ngorongoro and Masai Mara
area and were leaving the day for a three night trip in the Usambaras.
Bakari was waiting for us the
next morning to take us on a hike to a view point and to have lunch at Irente
Farm. It was a warm day and we were glad to have our sunhats and sunscreen. On
the road out of town Bakari picked up a branch of wild Lantana with a bright
green two-horned Chameleon to show us. It stayed on the stem staring at us with
its 360 degree eyes and curling and uncurling its tail. The two horns project
from its nose and it has a yellow sideways arrow design on its body, rather
cute.
We reached a crossroads with a sign pointing to Irente
Farm but Bakari led us on a more circuitous route. We passed many farms and
several schools with children milling about at their break. They all greeted us
with “Jambo” and we managed to get photos of a few of the children. A dirt road
led up and down over the hills to a view point overlooking craggy Irente Cliff
with the Irente View Cliff Hotel on top. Bakari hopped onto a rock adjacent to
the viewpoint and persuaded me to join him. The plains at the base of the
Usambaras were spread out below us with the road we travelled on yesterday from
Dar cutting through.
It wasn’t very far from the
viewpoint to Irente Farm, owned by the Lutheran Mission and managed by a South
African and his Swedish wife. You can stay in a two bedroom self-contained
cottage or a simple rondavel ,a round African hut. Many of the area hikes
include lunch at the farm, in shelters in the midst of an arboretum with more
than 20 different species of trees. A French Canadian couple from Quebec CIty,
Ginette and Roger, had walked up the main road with a Dutch couple and were
having lunch of homemade brown bread, cheeses, jam and fruit juice at Irente as
well. The farm sells their products in a small store but we have no storage
space for food. Our return trip to Lushoto was an easy 6 km walk down the main
road.
Shortly before dinner time the electricity went off.
We waited before going to the restaurant for dinner thinking that the
electricity would be restored. Finally we went by flashlight to the restaurant
and found it lit by candles. Ginette and Roger arrived as well and we shared a
table with them. They have been travelling extensively since 2002 so we had lots
of travel tales to share. It was after 10 PM when the electricity was restored.
By that time we didn’t care as we were almost asleep.
Today (Tuesday) we stayed in
town and made a short walk on our own in the morning. We followed the bypass
road out of Lushoto to the main road where there was a sign indicating it was
1.6 km to Lushoto Executive Hotel, “the best hotel”, the sign proclaimed. It
sounded like a good coffee break destination. It was a quiet and mostly shady
walk to the hotel. Just inside big gates was a lovely garden area with a walking
path to small waterfalls. We walked up the road to the main building of the
hotel and around the back to a bar-restaurant. We ordered coffee and tea and sat
down to enjoy the view of more lawns and flower gardens. The waiter alerted the
hotel manager who welcomed us and invited us to have a tour of the hotel when we
finished our drinks. I don’t think there were any guests there that day.
The manager was very friendly
and showed us several of his 18 rooms. The rooms weren’t huge but were well
appointed most with Zanzibar beds that stand tall off the floor and have carved
wooden head and foot railings high enough to support mosquito nets. He showed us
their most expensive rooms which are popular because they remind people that
they are in Africa, not in a typical city hotel. All the rooms had modern
bathrooms with actual glassed shower stalls, preventing the water from running
all over the floor as it does in our hotel. There was also a conference room and
a small fitness center with machines, massage room and sauna. We didn’t ask the
price of the rooms but if you like a more luxurious accommodation, this may be
the place!
We were back in town by noon, had lunch and met Bakari
to sign up for a two day, two night hike through small villages in the
Usambaras. We leave tomorrow morning.
Saturday 22 January 2011
“You have a choice”, said our
Guide Bakari Hoya, “you can take the easier route around the hill or you can
climb up to the top to get the view from Magamba Peak”. Bakari was concerned
about the ability of his “elderly” clients. We weren’t concerned. In fact we
told him that if there was a peak with a view enroute, then it seemed a shame to
miss it. We climbed to the peak on a steep dirt path through farmer’s fields
terraced on the steep slopes of the mountain. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day
and the360 ᵒ view of Lushoto and surrounding hills was worth the half hour
climb.
We had started our two day, two night hike in the
Usambaras that morning in Lushoto. During the German Colonial period, prior to
WWI, the first prison in Tanzania had been established in the Usambara hills.
Leshoto grew to service the prison as well as being a favourite summer home for
the Germans. This legacy gave the town St Benedict Catholic Church and several
well built homes. Of course adults and especially children died while living in
Lushoto and many are buried in a small weed infested cemetery in town, which we
visited on our walk. The loss by the Germans of WWI to the British made it easy
for the British to gain control of Tanzania after the war. By 1922 the last of
the Germans had left. After Independence in 1961, the government took over the
German houses. Most are not in as good repair as they were when occupied by the
Colonial era families but some are being restored.
After enjoying the view at
Magamba Peak, we descended to hike through the Magamba Rainforest. It was lush
and peaceful but the Colobus monkeys who live there kept their distance. We
heard a raucous cry echo through the trees, warning other monkeys that hikers
were nearby, but we could not catch a glimpse of these beautiful black and white
creatures.
As we got higher in the mountains the rainforest
changed to pine forests. A reforestation project is replacing Eucalyptus trees,
native to Australia, with pine. The Eucalyptus grow tall fairly quickly, provide
needed shade, are pleasantly aromatic and their leaves yield healing oils but
they suck all available water from the soil, starving the farm gardens of needed
nutrients. The pines are not such heavy water users and their wood has created
an important industry in the region. The main roads in the mountains are still
lined with Eucalyptus, which we were thankful for whenever we found ourselves
hiking on the road as part of our hike.
Lunch the first day was a
picnic in the shade of the pines at the edge of more terraced vegetable gardens.
Bakari demonstrated his skills as a chef by preparing a tasty guacamole which we
ate with chapattis. He had also cooked an African version of Scotch Eggs early
that morning at his home and cut up bananas and a fresh mango for dessert. We
continued, well fed, through the forest to Magambo Agricultural College,
attended by students from many distant towns.
A short distance from the
college Bakari flagged down a bus to take us the rest of the way to Rangwi where
we would spend the night. Rather than hike for a third day we had opted to take
the bus part way. The bus was standing room only when we boarded so we spent the
first half hour keeping our balance hanging on to the luggage racks while the
bus rattled over the hard packed dirt main road. A man sitting next to me
indicated he would hold my hiking poles for me. I am sure that was preferable to
being stabbed by a pole. The bus lurched up the mountain switchbacks to the
market town of Loukoze, set in a lush valley covered with thriving vegetable
gardens. Thankfully several passengers got off in this town so we got to sit for
the 1 ½ hours more it took us to reach Rangwi.
We had another ½ hour walk,
mostly downhill, from the bus stop to the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of
the Osambaras, where accommodating developed into a good source of income for
the Order. The welcoming and friendly head of the order, Sister Maria Thomas,
who grew up in the orphanage run by the order, gave Ray the lowdown on the
Order. In 1954 a Greek man donated his house and large acreage to the Catholic
Church. The Church sent seven German Nuns and two Irish Priests to Rangwi to
establish a mission. Over the years they have trained 600 nuns. Today there are
two churches on the property, one for the large congregation in the area and one
for the 56 Sisters who live there. There is a house for the resident priests,
separate dorms for women and men travellers as well as rooms for the nuns. The
grounds are well kept and beautiful. The sisters grow all their own vegetables,
raise fruit trees and maintain a large flower garden.
After
tea and freshly baked bread served in the visitor’s dining room, we were shown
to our room in the women’s building. A display of potted plants flanked the
doorway to the building and more ornamental plants sat beside the doors to the
bedrooms. As a concession to the fact we are a married couple and the fact that
there were few other women staying in the building, Ray and I got to share a
room. It was simply furnished with two beds, a table, a wardrobe and a sink. The
toilets, Asian style and shower room were down the hall. Our sink had running
water but the toilet was flushed with a bucket of water and hot water in a pail
was delivered for our welcome shower. There was a light bulb in our room but
there has been no electricity in the compound since the system broke down two
years ago. Candles provided light at night. We were glad we had our flashlight
with us.
At dinner, which was excellent, we met three other
hikers and their two guides who had arrived before we had. Two young students
from US Universities were on holidays from their eight month course in
International Relations. They and sixteen other students from various US
Universities visit four countries, India, Tanzania, New Zealand and Mexico,
spending seven to eight weeks in each country learning about their politics,
government, economics, agriculture and culture. The two boys, one from New
Jersey and the other from Nepal, currently studying in the US, were accompanied
by their Economics teacher, a man from Tofino, BC. The other students had chosen
to stay in Arusha, from where they would fly next to New Zealand, or were on
other activities such as a safari. We enjoyed talking to them and the next day,
meeting them on the trail.
Well fortified from a hearty
breakfast, we set out again. Bakari led us straight up another steep hill, a
short cut compared to the longer route around the mountain, he said. It was a
hot climb and our hiking poles proved useful in some of the steeper sections,
but the view at the top was rewarding. We continued on a relatively level dirt
road through a shady pine forest, stopping to have a banana snack on the way.
Just after noon we reached the village of Sunga where
Bakari was approached by a boy of no more than ten, who looked dusty and dirty.
He followed us all the way to our lunch spot at a mountain hostel, all the time
talking quietly to Bakari. I was concerned that the boy would just ask for money
but Bakari told us he was just a desperately hungry child. His mother had died,
his father lived in another part of Tanzania and he lived with an elderly
grandmother unable to adequately care for him. He earned money helping vendors
on market day but there was no work for him that day. Bakari gave him bread that
he had brought from the Convent for extra snacks and he went away. I wished we
could have given him some of our meal, which was far too much for us to finish.
The other group, who had taken
the longer group and arrived at the same lunch spot minutes before we did,
joined us to visit a women’s pottery cooperative in Sungi. Several women rushed
to display their wares on the ground as soon as they saw us. One woman
demonstrated how she makes a pot out of the red clay so prevalent in the area.
She didn’t have a potter’s wheel. She set a lump of clay on a large upside down
clay pot and shaped the pot as she walked around the clay, smoothing it by hand
and with a simple scraper. Small pots lay baking in a charcoal fire on the
ground, hardening and turning the pots black. As they were finished baking,
another woman removed them and cleaned them with fresh grasses. The result was
very simple pots and bowls, some with designs made with a pointed stick. They
also made simple animal figures and some intriguing tiny containers to hold
herbs or ointments. While the women were busy with their pottery display their
many children played simple games on a grassy lawn next to the pottery area.
Some of the others did buy some souvenirs but not us. Just the thought of
guarding them against breakage in our packs for the next two months was enough
to deter us. Besides, we are the point in our lives when we need to get rid of
some of our belongings, not add to them. Instead we made a donation to their
cooperative.
Another hour of walking brought
us to a ridge leading to the village of Mtae at 2400 M, the last village in the
Usambaras and the end of the bus line. It was a scenic last stretch of road with
the plains below us and more mountains surrounding us. The city electrical
system didn’t reach Rangwi, where we stayed the previous night and it didn’t
reach as far as Mtae either. A few places had their own generators, including
our hostel, so we did have a light to read by when the sun went down. Once
again, we had a bucket of hot water for our shower and another bucket to flush
the toilet, but we did get welcome getting cleaned up after our walk.
After
a rest, we all assembled at 5:30 PM to walk down the road to the best sunset
viewpoint next to a medical clinic and small hospital. We were much too early
for sunset so a longer walk was in order. We walked down the one lane of the
village, laid out along a ridge. Adults greeted us and those who spoke English
asked where we were from. Children clamoured to have their pictures taken and to
crowd around looking at the results. The boys headed for the true end of the
road, another 20-30 minutes away but we turned back and returned in time to view
the sun set in a blaze of red sky behind the mountains from the vantage point of
the clinic.
All that was left was dinner, a short sleep and an
early, and I mean early, morning bus drive back to Leshoto. Three buses were
parked overnight in Mtae. The first left town in the dark at 4 AM and ours left
at 4:30 AM. Since we were the first stop, we all had seats, but frequent stops
in the villages along the way soon filled the bus, even at that early hour. Ray
and I both remarked that it was a safe but “shake, rattle and roll” 2 ½ hour
trip through the mountains to Leshoto.
The restaurant at Tumaini was
open when we arrived in Lushoto and we were able to get into a room right after
breakfast. We sent out laundry, cleaned up, did more hand laundry and here I am
writing this blog before taking the bus to Arusha the next morning.
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