After the safari I spent another night in Arusha, before I went to
Moshi. Moshi is a little bit sleepy provincial town at the foot of the
Kilimanjaro. The town and her inhabitants live above all on trekking
tourism. There are various streets which are nearly as bad as the part
of town in Arusha with the safari enterprises. The only difference is,
that here it is all about trekking or souvenirs instead of safaris.
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| Benson |
On the roof of my hotel in Moshi I got to know a man from Holland,
who runs a travel agency in Moshi together with his wife. Due to the
economic crisis many porters and guides who have worked earlier at Mt
Kilimanjaro have apparently lost their work. This year 60 percent less
tourists are about to climb the biggest mountain of Africa than normal.
Logically, less tourists means, they need fewer porters and fewer
guides. Poverty and desperation rise and with it also the risk to be
attacked somewhere as a tourist. However, they advised me to take a
guide for my trip to Marangu to avoid the risk of being mugged on the
road. So I got to know Benson, a guide which comes from a village close
to Marangu. These 15 dollars per day were well invested money, as I had a
great time and I felt in very good hands.
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| Marangu |
Unfortunately, the Kilimanjaro did not show up these 2 days, but the
area around Marangu is very beautiful by itself, very green and there
are some waterfalls to see and hills to climb. I also tried one of the
local specialties – banana beer. I do know quite a few people, who would
get an immediate outbreak of herpes already at the sight of the mug….
Not to speak from the contents inside the mug! The taste of that one,
well, I would say, it is a quite nasty mixture of old banana and
fermented chopped up muesli… Sounds about as fantastic as it was!
However, once a while you come across things you just have to try, and I
know, that my stomach was never weak with things like that!
As Mt Kilimanjaro did not want to appear at all, I just took the
advice of Benson and added one more day in Moshi. This day was quite
rainy in the morning, and then we had a nice walk in the forest close
Moshi and tasty lunch with the aunt. But still no mountain.
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| Irente View Point, Lushoto |
I had already given up, when the following day a phone call from
Yusuf at the early hour of 6.30 got me out of bed (in Ramadan watches
and timings go somewhat different). In a kind of reflex, I was peering
out of the window and there was the mountain! Mt Kilimanjaro was
complete and was visible without clouds! Only for one hour, but this was
enough. This was the cooperation of a good advice of Benson and the
early phone call of Yusuf! Thanks a lot to both of you making me see
Kili!!!
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| Lushoto |
From Moshi, I travelled to Lushoto, which is in the Usambara
Mountains. Lushoto is a rather small place with a few thousand habitants
and is situated at about 1200 metres altitude. Here, I found the
ultimate guesthouse. More an oasis of quietness and peace, the hostel
more like a home stay, a charming owner and very good food. All that in
the middle of a nice mountain world with a lot of banana plantations,
fruit trees, cabbage patches and other vegetables. At this point thanks
to Julius, the owner of Karibuni Lodge. I had a great time in Lushoto!
The walk to Irente Viewpoint was especially great. Here, you are really
in the first row, without any fence you can see very far and 1200 metres
down! Exactly that day, there were final school exams, so many students
showed up at the view point as well to celebrate themselves and their
4-week vacation time starting now. For sure, they wanted the Mzungu (the
white tourist) to be in the mid of things!
On this tour we came once more across a bar with local specialties.
This time sugarcane beer. Well, why not. One thing is for sure – that
stuff was definitely better than the banana one. A bottle is 200
Tanzanian shillings, which is about 0,18 Dollar. On the 500 shilling
note, the bar owner could not give change, so the rest of the money went
to a local round for the other two customers. For sure, they were
rather happy about this idea.
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| Lushoto |
Now, I am in Dar es Salaam, the biggest town of Tanzania with approx.
4 million people. As it is week-end and, besides, Ramadan, it is rather
quiet in spite of the size of the town. Today, I went by bus for a day
trip to Bagamoyo. In the past, this was one of the most important
harbors of the African coast and the terminus of the trading route from
Lake Tanganyika to the sea. Mostly, slaves and ivory was traded here and
many of the European Africa travellers of the 18th and 19th century
began and ended their trips here, e.g. Livingston, Burton and Stanley.
At the end of the 19th century Bagamoyo was for a short time the capital
of Deutschostafrika. Therefore, there are many German colonial
buildings, most in an advanced stage of decay, but the government now
puts in some money for restoration. The town itself has a sleepy charm.
About 5 kilometers from town, there are the ruins of Kaole, which date
from 13th to 15th century. This was an absolutely nice and relaxed
daytrip with only friendly people round me.
Tomorrow, I will leave for Zanzibar. Apparently, there are only two
possibilities, either you like Zanzibar a lot or you hate it, there is
nothing in between. Am already curious, what my feelings will be. It is
definitely very touristy, with a lot of touts, fake guides, and other
dubious characters, but it must be very beautiful also. We will see!
This is going to be part of a new story.
