Tanga to Western Usambara Mountains, August 2023

In retrospect, we’re happy to have taken the coastal route ever since taking a right at Iringa. The coastline around Kilwa Kisiwani is still to be explored but will have to wait for another trip due to time constraints. We have been able to explore from south of Dar es Salaam all the way up to Tanga city and now have a very good sense of the northern Tanzanian coastline. We’re planning to explore further north of Tanga city on the return journey from Kenya. But first, Kilimanjaro.

A morning spent in Tanga city results in only a few groceries and a slightly belligerent traffic officer. We leave after picking up a few litres of milk and some bread. The region administrated by Tanga city is called Tanga region and Tanga means sail in Kiswahili. The British renamed old German East Africa as Tanganyika, the sail in the wilderness.

We drive through Muheza town and regretfully leave the option to explore the Amani forest behind us at the Muheza turnoff. We have debated on this since Pangani and have decided that it’s a no go because of the days of rain coming in this week. Nearly every comment on the area has said that the tropical forests of the Eastern Usambara mountains are incredible but in the same breath, every comment has mentioned impassibility if it has been raining heavily. We are not in convoy and vertical mountain tracks in flood are a convoy adventure. We opt for the Lushoto area in the Western Usambara mountains which are well beyond the large band of rain that has been threatening for the past few days.

Homecooked Feasts, Social Enterprise & Spectacular Views

The Lushoto area is home to the Washaamba. “Wa” denotes people and so it would be redundant for us to say Washaamba people. Lushoto town can be found up high in the Western Usambara mountains and is capital of the Lushoto district in Tanga region. The Washaamba have lived up high in the mountains for many centuries and there are interesting stories of the people permanently living up in the mountains for generations from fear of malaria and other dangers. The Washaamba reportedly referred to the Maasai plains below the mountains as the bush or hinterland.

I am excited to be heading up into the Usambara mountains. My visions of the African tropics have always assumed deep and impenetrable tropical forests with lianas hanging and large pythons slithering through the massive limbs of the towering trees. I am beginning to understand however that this is more of a Central and West African geography (and maybe Tarzan in India inspired). Except, maybe, for the sights on top of our old friends the Eastern Arc Mountains which we are now rejoining. I am most looking forward to seeing my first colobus monkey in the wild and this is apparently the place to achieve this.

The Usambara mountain range was formed through faulting and uplifting millions of years ago. The islands of unique tropical rain forests separated by the completely different ecology of the lowlands has resulted in many unique (endemic) species. Unique species even on each separate mountain range.

The turn off from Mombo towards Lushoto is tarred. The road is slightly narrow, winding and steep to the point that we’re careful on the corners and slightly nervous about oncoming traffic on the narrower parts, particularly those maniacal buses. We take a wrong turning to our destination, Irente Farm, but eventually find our way after a sweating 3-point turn at height with a sheer drop.

Some other travellers have commented on Irente Farm as a good value for money camping option and we are well pleased on arrival. The campsite is in and amongst large trees with a view over some semi-tropical forest below. I say semi-tropical because unfortunately ever since the Germans first arrived, Lushoto has been slowly but perceptibly losing the natural cloud forests to invasive species, timber production as well as local agriculture. The vegetation in front of us is however dense with silvery-cheeked hornbills sailing by with their distinctive call. I can not hand on heart say however that the vegetation in front of us is indigenous.

The first evening is spent in the old farmhouse building near the fireplace. The kitchen makes one large meal every evening which everybody serves from. Atmospheric smells and tastes of excellent home cooking are mingled with the local and highly picante chilli sauce we dare each other to try.

The next morning I go for a jog leaving Kirsty behind as she’s more keen on sleeping this morning. I run down the hill and enjoy the feeling of my trail runners on the dirt road. We are on the outskirts of Lushoto town and I run from the Irente Farm property into a small neighbourhood of cement and mud brick houses. Small children smile and wave as I jog by and I nervously skirt around local village dogs eyeing my exoticness with suspicion and burgeoning interest. A few of the homes have mud bricks drying in the morning sun. Some of the homes have a small shop window on the edge of the fence selling anything from basic vegetables to cooldrinks.

I run further down the road and turn right at a hilly field almost the size of a football pitch. Two rudimentary goal posts are on either end of the field. On the right hand side, behind one of the goal posts, are a few houses but also a significant end of the mountain. I would hate to be the kid who has to go and collect the ball.

The path near the end of the mountain contours along the edge of the drop and I steal myself before walking along it. The small houses quickly fall away and I’m now privy to an amazing sight. The morning clouds and mist are thick but they are many metres below the contour path. I am walking along the edge of the Usambaara Mountains and can see the peaks to my right and a surreal blanket of clouds below me. Every once in a while, the clouds open up to give me a view of the Maasai plains below, brown and dry in comparison to this lush mountain plateau.

I know there is a view point in front of me, Irente Viewpoint, which turns out to be even more spectacular with another but smaller mountain in the distance also crowning the bank of clouds. I stand on the edge of the cliff and enjoy the cloudscapes of the Usambaara Mountains below.

Finally, the viewpoint caretaker interrupts to ask whether I have paid my viewpoint admission fee. I haven’t and don’t have enough money with me which all becomes very administrative. I promise to pay later in the day which he accepts with grace and I head back along the slightly dodgy contour path instead of through the hotel in case I am asked for another small fee. One small hop over a massively significant drop and I run back past the goal post with no net. I can imagine the screams of anguish from the kids every time a football goes over the edge in a puff through the clouds.

I run back and excitedly tell Kirsty of the sights back down the road. We head that way after what I feel is an overly leisurely breakfast, keep an attentive eye out for the village dogs, pay the caretaker and enjoy the view minus the morning cloud bank that I was lucky enough to experience.

The rest of the day is spent contentedly catching up on some clothes washing. The ladies who run the accommodation are kind enough to let me wash about 10 kg’s of clothes and take up a large section of the washing line space.

We enjoy a pizza for lunch and another shared dinner in the evening. No alcohol is on sale for the evening and everyone is given a large pitcher of water with slices of lemon floating near the top. I don’t know if this is a licensing or Lutheran thing but enjoy the healthiness of it all with the roaring fireplace in the background. The heat has disappeared since we started up the mountain and the evenings are cool.

Irente Farm was established in the early 1960’s when a Greek farmer sold up his plot of land to the Lutheran Church. The church set up a mental hospital and the patients of the hospital worked the farm to feed the needs of the hospital. The “mental hospital” slowly evolved over the decades into a plot of land utilised by a school for the blind, a school for the disabled as well as a childrens’ home. The old farm house was converted into tourism facilities and produce from the farm is sold to further the income for the social enterprise. The enterprise falls under the umbrella of the North Eastern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. They also make a damn fine chilli cheese.

Chameleons, Conservation & Deep Fried Snacks

On our final day at Irente Farm, we organise through them for a guide to take us on a hike through the forest reserve. The guide is excellent and walks us away from the farm through an old farm plantation. We wend and wind through the village trails with school children in uniform passing by. Some more of the homes are drying large amounts of mud bricks in the sun. Some plots of land are large enough to grow a few crops.

Our guide tells us how, during the Covid pandemic, there were no tourism jobs available at all and how his family and himself were destitute with fear of starvation gnawing at them. Our guide taught himself how to make mud bricks on his small piece of land to bring in a little bit of income. The work was so tough, and remember this is a fit person who can walk far distances with significant portage if required, that he couldn’t stop working at the beginning in fear that all of his muscles would bunch up if he rested and not let him continue. The mud bricks would take time to earn money from, and so he seeded and grew lettuce which takes 14 days to harvest so that his family could have some food and nutrients.

Our guide, has an incredible ability to find chameleons along the trail. He lets us walk past a huge specimen, stop, raise his hand in a tut-tut and then point out the weird looking creature somehow floating on the end of branch much to thin to bare the weight. He even finds a juvenile chameleon the size of a matchstick from what must have been 5 metres away.

Just before leaving the village, our guide runs to the side to a small group of women with white cloth knotted on their heads. Many of the village children seem to know the guide and crowd in amongst him while he pays his respect and greetings to the village ladies. He leaves with a small packet of goods in his hands before rejoining us.

“This is my favourite food. Try it.”

It is indeed very, very good! It’s a simple food but most good foods are. I assume it to be deep fried mashed potatoes. On deeper investigation, we discover it is par-boiled potatoes dusted in flour and turmeric and then deep fried. The Scottish have found a new super weapon if they ever hear of this holy grail.

We spend about 6 hours walking up to Kigulu Hakwewa Peak and through the 92 km2 of the Magamba Forest Nature Reserve. The trees are tall and dutifully draped with lianas. We explore the German cave and the accompanying bats. There are some porcupine dens and plenty of birds including buzzards, turacos and cuckoos. The three of us share our lunches, cheese and jam sandwiches from Irente Farm and the local deep fried potatoes.

We don’t unfortunately come across any troupes of black & white colobus monkeys nor the more elusive blue monkey.

We leave the forest reserve and return on village paths to our campsite. It is truly inspiring to have seen the protected forest area managed by the government. There are some more designated reserves on the same mountain but without the Nature Reserve designation. Our guide admits that slowly, over the past few decades, the population of local villagers on top of the Western Usambara Mountains has been growing larger and protected area management is becoming more difficult. We gaze over the hills, valleys, contour farming, cattle paddocks, village homes and forests on the edge uncertain whether the forest walls will still be there next time we return.

The drive out of the Western Usambara Mountains is a little less hair raising as we have now practiced the route and know what to expect. After having not seen a single monkey on our hike the previous day, we come across a troupe of blue monkeys sitting in tree limbs hanging over a cliff and the valley below. Finally, our first proper monkey find.