Usambara - Day 1 - The drunken guide

  Lukuzi, Tanzania
Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Took a while to wake up this morning. I'm pretty sure my battered body is still recovering from the Kili trip. While at breakfast one of the touts who had taken the 3 Danish girls for a hike was trying his best to chat to a German girl. The Danish said he'd followed them around incessantly until they had signed up for a hike with him. Even though we'd all played cards the night before he totally ignored me. I wasn't sure if he was a ladies only guide or if he was scared that I'd spill the beans that he had hounded the Danish girls.

Boys leaving school

Collecting firewood

Collecting the harvest

Local grasshopper

Local Flower

Jumu my guide seems like a nice guy. We set off through farmland and villages before arriving at a viewpoint. Lots of nice flowers, colourful grasshoppers and a couple of Black and White Colobus monkeys along the way.

We met 3 Germans who bragged about seeing a chameleon - I wonder if they knew my story from the Rwenzoris and were taunting me. I told my guide I must see one.

We stopped at Magamba for lunch. I'd been promised lunch as part of the deal and was given half a packet of biscuits! I ordered a plate of chips from the shop next door to fill the gap. I also ordered what I thought was a Fanta Lemon - It turned out to be a Fanta Pineapple. Why do the people over here get so many options? Don't they think we are capable of choice in the USA?

I've noticed the salt over here seems to add a better flavour to the food. I think it's sea salt, I wonder if that is the reason why?

About an hour into the afternoon after a brilliant morning the thunder started and was followed by the rains. I'd been a bit concerned about coming to the Usambaras, given the fact it seemed like the rainy season had started. We stopped for shelter under the overhanging roof of some locals house along with about 10 Tanzanians. One young girl in particular was fascinated by the presence of a white man. It was funny to catch her staring and laughing at me.

Hillside in Usambaras

Local Transportation

I have to admit I did what I consider cheating once the rain did not stop for a while. I committed sacrilege and took the bus for the next 20 minutes! Once we got over to the next valley we could see all the rain water surging down the valley and across all the fields of crops. The locals must have been happy that the rains seemed to be finally returning. The short rains last year had not arrived in Tanzania and I think these were the first real rains for 9 months or so.

Coming into town all the locals kids were chanting Muzungu (or it may be Wazungu in this part of the world) again. Juma had also tried to teach me some Swahili along the way, but I don't think I was born to learn, or speak for that matter, languages other than English. New words seem to slip through my mind like a sieve.

It was tomato harvesting season and there were huge baskets of them everywhere. This caused us a bit of a problem when we came into Lukuzi as all the merchants were here from Dar Es Salem and our first choice of hotel was full. I think we got the last room in town and our hotel was a craphole, with chicken shit covering the hallway and no shower room - although they did offer to let me stand above the squat toilet and wash in there. I politely refused.

I spend the rest of the afternoon in the nice hotel drinking Castle Milk Stout - This South African beer sold for 75c for 500ml out here in the sticks. It had been a nice pleasant days hiking in the Usambara Mountains. Good scenery and the colourful Sambaa people, especially the women who seemed to like to wrap themselves in yellow.

We went to a real locals place to dine that evening and I told Juma I wanted to try Ugali (ther same as the Poshi I'd tried in Uganda). This was an East African staple made of maize flour. The locals liked to eat it every night of the week. Personally I though it was a bit flavourless and once a month would be sufficient! The meat it came with was like old shoe leather.

Juma kept stumbling into me on the way home and I have I feeling he'd been knocking back the old sugar cane beer. I though I'd smelt alcohol on his breath at lunch and in late afternoon. Both time he had disappeared somewhere for a short while!