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Ngorogoro
Arusha and Kilimanjaro Village Walk
Arusha
Tanzania
Tuesday 2 February 2011
“Be careful of the touts in the
Arusha bus terminal. People have lost all their belongings. I can phone my
friend who has a travel agency to meet you.” That is what we were told before we
left the Usambaras for Arusha. We have not encountered any difficulties at all.
Yes, the touts were in the bus terminal parking lot but we managed to fend off
most of them. Yes, we could have walked the short distance to Hotel Flamingo if
we had known where it was. Instead we paid more for a taxi than we needed to but
the driver delivered us safe and sound. The hotel was recommended by the French
Canadian couple we met in Lushoto and it met all our criteria. It is clean,
comfortable, has a good breakfast, is central and is inexpensive. Ginette
complained about the mosques and their wake-up calls to prayers. She said there
were three mosques nearby and I hear them in succession in the morning first at
5 AM and again at 6 AM. We are getting used to the amplified chants and usually
manage to go back to sleep.
Two restaurants, a short walk from Flamingo,
have become our favourites. Khan’s BBQ has a choice of meats and an excellent
salad buffet included in the price of the meal. The portions are so large we
share a meat dish and get an extra salad portion. The Big Bite, an Indian
restaurant also has large enough portions for us to share. We haven’t exhausted
their choices yet.
We walked over to the slightly more upscale area
around the Clock Tower traffic circle to find a Coffee House with brewed coffee
and tea. The downside of that area is the number of street hawkers with
paintings you must see and buy and newspaper vendors desperate to make a sale.
We quickly learned to decline the opportunities offered politely and walk on. We
also discovered a lunch spot in the area good enough to brave the street hawkers
more than once.
My plan
was to do an overnight hike on Mt Meru, which we can see from our hotel room. We
had no intention of trying to summit the 4566M peak, but the logistics and cost
nixed that idea. Then it became a choice of doing a walk around the base area of
Mt Meru, visiting villages and hiking in the forest or doing the same around Mt
Kilimanjaro. We ended up arranging for a car and driver to visit the Kilimanjaro
area yesterday.
It took almost 2 ½ hours to get to the start of our walk
in Marangu, a village closest to one of the most popular routes for climbers.
The Two-lane hiway is paved all the way and passes small village after small
village. It would be a quick trip but for the number of “traffic calming” big
humps in front of every village.
We stopped part way for a view of
Kilimanjaro. Clouds blanketed the base but the summit was clear, suitably capped
with snow. The driver stopped again to buy potatoes, onions, tomatoes and green
peppers by the bucket from a woman with her wares displayed at the side of the
road. Our driver said he takes advantage of the better prices from road side
sales whenever he comes this way.
We stopped at a small house and store
compound in Marangu to pick up our guide for the day, Steve, a 22 year old
University student on holidays. He said he did the village tours before starting
University this year and liked the work during his holidays. Our driver stayed
at our starting point and met us at the end of our leisurely 2 ½ hour walk. The
altitude of the area, located at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro, is 1500 M so the
climate is moderate and the vegetation lush. We walked along shady jungle paths
connecting one village to the next. It was difficult to know where one village
ended and the next began, they were so close together. The walk reminded us of
our Spice Tour on Zanzibar with Steve pointing out various leaves used for
seasoning and the crops important to the area. The biggest crops in the area
were sunflowers for their oil, three types of bananas; small sweet ones, large
cooking ones and another used to make local banana beer. Coffee bushes were
planted under the bananas to take advantage of the shade. There were also fields
of beans, potatoes and other vegetables.
Ndoro Waterfalls was one of the
highlights of the walk. We were each given walking sticks to aid our descent
down a very steep set of stairs to the river. There were small falls coming off
the mountainside on one side of the river and larger, multiple ones on the other
side. The pool under the falls looked inviting for a swim but we weren’t
prepared. We just took photos.
Out next stop were caves and tunnels dug
under the earth nearly 3 centuries ago. During an extreme drought period the
Maasai tribes climbed from the arid plains up to the lush mountains seeking land
and food in the Chagga territory. This meant tribal war. The Chagga built the
tunnels for the people to hide and wait out the warring Maasai. The resident
guide at the site took us into a part of the tunnels to show us how they were
constructed and used. Ray didn’t like walking almost on his hands and knees
through the tunnel to get to the bigger and higher living spaces. It wasn’t very
difficult as we only visited a very small section. Our guide said there were 4.5
km of tunnels built but most are in disrepair. The wars with the Maasai lasted
until the first missionaries arrived in the area and brokered more peaceful
solutions to the problems. Our guide also showed us a Chagga grass hut, a small
round room divided up into spaces for cooking, sleeping and room for a cow or
two. There was no room for privacy in Chagga families.
Our last stop was the local market in
Marangu. We bought some sweet bananas from a woman sitting by the side of the
road just outside the market. Steve said it was cheaper to buy them there than
inside the market where the vendors pay a premium to sell their wares. We were
there for one of the two biggest market days in the week, Monday and Thursday.
Other towns are host to markets on alternate days. It was a busy place with the
usual fruit and veggie area, household goods and clothing sections. There were
large bundles of green bananas still on the stocks and mounds of peeled bananas,
the main ingredient in the local beer, fermenting in pails. Our lunch was in the
market. Steve ordered platters of chicken, rice and some vegetables for each of
us. Ray got a bottle of the local brew. I had a few sips although it wasn’t to
my liking. I think even Ray admitted it was an acquired taste.
Our driver
arrived after our lunch and drove us up to the gates of Kilimanjaro NP. We went
through the gates into the parking lot where a group of 7 or 8 men were just
finishing their climb. They were having photos taken of themselves with their
large crew of guides and porters. We could walk around the area with its small
A-frame buildings for reception and a store, but we couldn’t go any further up
the path without buying a $60 day pass.
We drove Steve back to our
starting point, which is near his home. Our driver had one last purchase. He had
a live chicken in a woven basket which he put in the back of the van. It
remained very quiet for the trip back to Arusha.
The UN International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is still in progress in Arusha after more than 14
years. We decided to attend part of one hearing. We just needed to produce our
passport to be given a pass and directions to one of several court rooms in
session. Visitors sit in chairs outside a glassed in courtroom where the
Prosecutor interrogates the witness while several judges and other lawyers look
on. Ear phones with English, French and Kiswahili translations are provided and
several monitors are positioned so that you can clearly see the person talking.
We listened to a lawyer, addressed as Mr President (I assume one of the lead
investigators), interrogate the then president of the NRA (National Resistance
Army), whose youth section, the Interahamwe, rampaged throughout the country
murdering the rival Tutsi clan members. We both found it exhausting but
interesting to see cat and mouse game played between both sides.
It is
time for us to leave Tanzania. We bought airline tickets from Rwandair to fly to
Kigali, Rwanda, tomorrow, Wednesday. The one way ticket was expensive but the
alternative was two or three long days on buses. The choice was easy. Our plan
is to spend about two weeks in Rwanda, culminating in a visit to see the
Gorillas on February 15. After speaking to fellow travellers we have changed our
original plan. Instead of returning to Tanzania we will continue by bus to
Uganda, possibly visiting Murchison Falls. Finally we will head to Nairobi to
explore a bit of Kenya.
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