Day 71 – Marangu
Walk to Waterfall, visit Mama Salma & pop to Moshi for tea and pick up a Tanzanite bracelet.
4. Leave Marangu feeling quite ill from probable mild Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Drive round Kili at Josh’s request. Quite long and a bit dull. Quite close to Kenyan border, we pull over & discuss option of crossing over and visiting Amboseli, Tsavo E & W then coming back down the coast. Kids werent bothered, me and Suma didnt feel like dealing with border control whil being off colour so we pigeon-holed it for a future trip.
Stayed near Mwanga in a nice quiet little lodge. Very good value for money at 70k Tsh for 2 rooms with evening meal and breakfast. I was still a bit off but improving after a lie down and a couple of small beers.
5. Drove round the back of the Pare mountains, then onto Paradise Eco Lodge way up in the Usambara mountains near Lushoto. Lack of good signage and a very narrow, steep, rutted & precipitous dirt track meant we had to keep stopping to ask locals if we were on the right route. Very nice lodge with amazing views, very high up and only accessible with 4×4. I wouldnt like to try getting there in the wet season, there are long drops off the edge of the track.
Stated in a very nice room instead of camping.
6. Usambara info: Its a huge mountainous area jutting out of the flat surrounding plain. Loads of hills, valleys & mountains going up to about 1800m, with numerous farms, villages and forest reserves covering the whole area. It seems like its own completely separate community, accessed by a 1.5 hour drive up form the plains below. Food grows everywhere, and the people have their own distinct culture and language (Sambara).
We did a few short walks around the area with the lodge manager as our guide. Nice viewpoint with a Chameleon, followed by a nice waterfall, then finally a short walk up the hill from the lodge to a great viewpoint to watch a lovely sunset. The council bollocked our guide near the waterfall as he wasnt an ‘official guide’. The land around the waterfall base had been annexed by the local council as they want to charge people to visit it. The owner of this land, who built the stepped access trail and built viewpoints was understandably none too pleased. He had a small shop selling drinks and snacks, and was furious with the council who were demanding a cut of his takings. The council seem a bit over-zealous in their pursuit of cash, and maybe need to be a bit more sympathetic to the landowners, who have lived there for generations.
Suma made friends with the cook & her very cute 2 yr old daughter.
7. Left there and drove towards the coast, heading to find somewhere between Tanga & Pangani. We had plenty of time so we looked in at all the places between Peponi Beach resort and Bahari Pori. All were very nice and had excellent rooms. We were spoilt for choice, all were empty too. We decided to camp at Peponi beach, as they had a pool, shaded beach-side pitch and a really nice shaded bar/chill area with sea-views.
Very nice place and only $8 USD pppn to camp.
