July 10-12: MamboViewPoint

We left Amani Nature Forest Reserve in the eastern Usambara Mountains and headed west, albeit in a circular route as there is no direct route through the mountains, the mountaintop villages of Mtae and Mambo in the western Usambara Mountains.

The drive to our destination skirted the edge of the Usambara Mountains and allowed us to observe one interesting land use I would like to share. A large portion of the land was dedicated to growing Sisal, which we learned is a type of Agave plant (that we are familiar with in the southwestern U.S.) that was supposedly smuggled here from Mexico in 1893 by a German (remember, Tanzania, then named Tanganyika, was a German colony back then) in the stomach of a stuffed crocodile. Sisal is grown for the leaves, which are harvested, dried and processed for the strong fibers which are used to make rope/twine, clothing, and a variety of other products. At one point, Tanzania was the largest exporter of sisal in the world, and apparently it is still producing a fair amount of it. Anyways, we new nothing of sisal until seeing it on our drive and found it interesting to see all the sisal plantations and small processing “plants” (in quotes, because some aren’t more than a big shack). Here’s a photo of small-scale sisal plantation and one of live sisal plants with the shredded leaves hanging on drying racks:

We also found it interesting and impressive that on at least some of the smaller, more rural sisal farms, they were planting beans and corn in between the rows of sisal – which reminded us of planting the “3 sisters” of beans, squash and corn of our southwest – as shown here:

Our drive to our destination also involved a climb of about 4,000 feet over a distance of perhaps 10 km up an incredibly steep winding road with numerous hairpin turns that the Green Dragon could just barely make. There’s a short piece of footage that doesn’t do the drive justice at all, as we both forgot to video the drive during the worst part of the climb since we were so focused on staying on the road and listening to the Green Dragon strain. Put it this way, I was in first gear for 95% of the drive up the escarpment owing to the 20-25% grade on most of it. Here’s a view down to the valley below the escarpment – and you have to wonder how they put a road up that hillside:

We stayed in a luxury cottage at Mambo Viewpoint Ecolodge perched on the edge of the Usambara Escarpment that drops off precipatously about 4,000 feet to the valley below. We were booked for a standard cottage – as a treat for Nancy after several days of camping in the Green Dragon – but they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite to accommodate another group – we didn’t protest, and I took credit for the upgrade claiming that it was for our belated 40th anniversity! Here’s a photo of our cottage and our sunset view (but see the video for a tour of the cottage inside and out):

Here’s a photo showing MamboViewPoint lodge (on the high point above the cliffs) and the precipatous cliff face of the escarpment below our cottage:

Our lodging was “full board”, which meant all our meals were included. Here’s a shot of our breakfast view from the restaurant veranda. Not a bad view to dine with, hey! And the food was excellent. After the first night we also had the lodge almost to ourself; there was just one other guest the second night, but some bikers joined for the third night.

We spent a fair amount of time just enjoying the views and watching the bird life in front of our cottage. The most notable and beautiful species was the Malachite sunbird, which I happened to get a decent photo of, even with my phone camera:

On our first full day, we hiked from the lodge along the escarpment on what was advertised as the “cliffside trail”. However, we quickly found out that the trail quickly disappeared and turned into a network of steep footpaths used by the locals to access their plots of land on the hillside. We meandered on footpaths until we reach a significant trail/road and then made our way into the center of the village for market day. We negotiated for some fresh produce that would not perish quickly, including some yams, carrots, onions and green peppers. Note, you haven’t really experienced Africa until you have mixed it up in an open street market and purchased items:

On our second full day we did a 7 mile trek through Shagayu National Forest Reserve, which is a partially protected montain cloud forest. Part of the Forest is industrial forestry; i.e., plantation forestry. The trek started out as a bird walk, but we quickly realized that not only did our guide not know the birds very well but that the vegetation was so dense that we couldn’t see the birds that were there, so we transitioned into what turned out to be largely an ethnobotony trek as our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the various human uses of many of the forest plants. Most of the trail was a wild and steep footpath that was created by local women from the adjacent villages accessing the forest for firewood and medical plants. Along the way we visited a beautiful waterfall that is in the video below and saw the striking black and white colobus monkeys:

Along the trail we also encountered a couple of tradional ritual sites that were quite intriguing. Apparently, many of the locals still believe in the spirit world and go to these sites to perform rituals to please the spirits. The ritual can involve cooking and leaving food for the spirits to eat and leaving money for them to spend (?????). These sites are also used by the “healers” to perform a bit of “black magic”; e.g., to bring people luck in the coming days. In fact, we met a party on the trail on the way to one of these sites, including the healer and a man and woman with two chickens that were going to be sacrificed, presumably to bring this supposedly already very rich man (according to our guied) more luck. Here’s a photo of one of these sites:

Here’s a composite video of our visit to MamboViewPoint Lodge and surroundings in the western Usambara Mountains:

MamboViewPoint composite (13 minutes)

OK, we are leaving the mountains and heading back to the coast to visit Saadani National Park, and Nancy’s last stop before Dar es Salaam. See you there!

New Species:

1. Malachite sunbird
2. Northern grey-headed sparrow
3. Bar-throated apalis
4. White-necked raven
5. Hartlaub’s turaco