Mambo View Point, Tanzania

Wow! And What a View it Is!

February 2014

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We left Amani Forest Reserve in good time, as we wanted to stop at the Irente Farm for some supplies and just to check it out. We tried to stay off the main highways on our way north, but we had to use them a bit.

People ride bicycles and motorbikes a lot in Tanzania, and they don't ride them for fun. They are a primary means of transportation, not just for people, but for products. People use their cycles the way we use pickup trucks. It's hard work, but it's what a lot of them have. They end up pushing up some hills, and then riding down the other side. That has to be dangerous, as all that weight makes a bicycle pretty wobbly and unresponsive. And things sticking out are easy to snag on passing vehicles on narrow roads.

NEMts Bicycle NEMts Carrying Water
Push Uphill, Ride Down
Photo by Dona
Carrying Water
Photo by Dona

Charcoal is, unfortunately, used for cooking a lot. So we saw people making charcoal, and saw large bags of it by the side of the road waiting to be picked up for sale.

NEMts Charcoal
Charcoal
Photo by Dona

We don't have a television, and we don't watch Disney trash, so we were clueless when we saw buses with "Hakuna Matata" written on the back. I guess it helps attract tourists to that artificial world that's disjoint from the real one they are visiting.

NEMts Hakuna Matata Bus
Hakuna Matata Bus

Our route took us winding through the Usambara Mountains. They are highly developed, yet peaceful and inspiring. There are small farms everywhere, small villages everywhere, and probably the best dirt roads for bike trips I've ever seen. Wonderful views and reasonable grades.

NEMts Stream NEMts Farms NEMts Tree Xxx
Stream
Photo by Dona
NEMts Farms
Photo by Dona
NEMts Tree Xxx
Photo by Dona

We made it to Irente Farm some time after lunch, but in time to still get lunch. We cooled off and enjoyed looking at all the indigenous trees they had labelled, and got help with a tree at Amani that we couldn't identify. After lunch we continued on towards Mambo View Point.

NEMts Irente Gary
Gary, Lunch at Irente
Photo by Dona

NEMts Irente Tree Cape Fig Mkuyu Ficus Sur NEMts Irente Tree Cabbage Mtindi Cussonia Holstii NEMts Irente Tree Mtalawanda Markhamia Lutea NEMts Irente Tree Dragon Tree Ng Weng We Dracaena Steudneri
Cape Fig / Mkuyu
Ficus Sur
Cabbage / Mtindi
Cussonia Holstii
Mtalawanda
Markhamia Lutea
Dragon Tree / Ng Weng We
Dracaena Steudneri
Photos by Dona

NEMts Irente Tree Wild Olive Mziaghembe Olea Europea NEMts Irente Tree Cape Ash Monko Ekebergia Capansis
Wild Olive / Mziaghembe
Olea Europea
Cape Ash / Monko
Ekebergia Capansis
Photos by Dona

NEMts Sunflowers NEMts Farm
Sunflowers Farm

NEMts Water Haulers NEMts Hand Cart
Water Haulers NEMts Hand Cart

NEMts NEMts
NEMts NEMts

NEMts
NEMts

We didn't have much of a map, and as I've said before, there are no street or road signs anywhere in Tanzania, except for maybe the major junctions on the main highways, of which there are maybe two. So we took a few wrong turns and had to backtrack a bit, but it gave us a chance to stress-test our Swahili (it failed mostly) and interact a little with the average person-on-the-dirt-road.

NEMts
Typical vista from an Usambara Mountains road.

We finally made it to within a few miles of our destination, Mambo View Point, and they had some signs up. At that point the roads started going to heck, but that was ok.

Mambo View Point Driveway
Mambo View Point Driveway

We had chosen Mambo View Point because of its spectacular view, and we were not disappointed. We were incredibly lucky, as this is a place known for being obscured by fog or rain or just overcast weather, in a country known for clear skies. We were close behind the short rains, and the weather had been mostly overcast for the past few days.

Mambo View Point is one of those places with a spectacular view that should really not be there. It would be far better if it were sited back from the edge of the cliff so you could enjoy the natural surroundings. But given that it's there... it's an amazing view. The cliffs where you are perched drop steeply down the the plains below, which are just about pancake flat, extending off into the undeveloped areas comprising Mkomazi National Park and then Tsavo National Park in Kenya. We set up our tent and tarp and made good use of the community building to block the wind for cooking and playing bananagrams.

Evening Evening
Evening

Shelter
Shelter

The next morning we had the kind of view you expect from the top of a high alpine peak -- we were above the clouds, and the rest of the world was below them.

Morning Clouds Morning Clouds Morning Clouds
Morning Clouds

The folks at Mambo View Point have done a great job of growing and encouraging plants used by birds, and we had a great time chasing them. The butterflies and flowers were equally colorful.

 Variable Sunbird  Variable Sunbird  Variable Sunbird
Photo by Dona
Variable Sunbird
 Variable Sunbird  Variable Sunbird F
Variable Sunbird
Photo by Dona
Variable Sunbird F
Photo by Dona

 Malachite Sunbird
Malachite Sunbird

Butterfly Xxx Butterfly Dark Blue Pansy, Junonia Oenone
Dark Blue Pansy Butterfly (Junonia Oenone)
Photos by Dona
Butterfly Xxx Butterfly Xxx
Butterfly Xxx
Photo by Dona
Butterfly Xxx
Photo by Dona

Flower Xxx Violet Flower Xxx Pink
Flower Xxx Pink
Photo by Dona
Flower Xxx Violet
Photo by Dona

I was amazed by the fact that people were attempting to grow crops on some of these steep hillsides. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen, and a good way to throw / erode away your precious soils.

Steep Fields Steep Fields
Steep Fields
Cliffs Gary
Cliffs Gary
Photo by Dona

It seemed like the tourist business was booming, and everyone was trying to build a new eco-lodge or guest-house on the edge of the cliff with a great view. It struck me as a place in need of a sense of community planning.

Construction Big Place
Local Place with a View Big Place under Construction
Photo by Dona

House
House

Bottlebrush
Bottlebrush
 Malachite Sunbird  Malachite Sunbird  Variable Sunbird
Photo by Dona Photo by Dona
Malachite Sunbird Variable Sunbird

Chameleon Usambara Two Horned Chameleon Usambara Two Horned
Photo by Dona
Usambara Two Horned Chameleon

Checkers
Checkers
Women Walking Women Walking
Photo by Dona
Women Walking

Plains View Plains View
Plains View

I hiked part way down the steep hillside adjacent to one of the big cliffs, hoping to get a view of some raptors which might be nesting on the cliffs. I was surprised a bit later as four young boys non-chalantly walked out to my viewing place on the end of a small promontory.

I was trying to identify some birds through my binoculars, and trying to take some pictures. Unfortunately, they were looking for handouts, and appeared to be used to begging from tourists. It seemed like there were eight hands grabbing for whatever was available, and I quickly made sure my camera equipment not around my neck was stowed in my backpack. They thought looking through my binoculars was pretty cool, but then they wanted to keep them.

Cliff Tree
Cliff Tree
Kids View of rock fin
Kids
We're all on the end of the fin sticking out
in the lower left corner of the photo to the right.
Photo from Mambo View Point

Erosion
Erosion

Ridges Cliffs Evening
Ridges Evening by the Cliffs
Photo by Dona
Plains Ridges
Plains below the Ridges
 Black Chested Snake Eagle
Black Chested Snake Eagle
Photo by Dona

After two nights at Mambo View Point, we headed down the mountain for Mkomazi National Park. Originally I had wanted to take the "back road" down, which is a steep 4WD road with a spectacular view. But we got a rather confusing report the day before about someone who had come up it, or tried to come up it, or come part way up it and gotten stranded and had to hike the rest of the way, or had to spend six hours fixing the road so they could come up it. Or something like that. Since we only had our Rav4 and not a Land Rover, we decided to descend by a more conventional route. That involved some backtracking, but it was all pretty and we saw some things we would have missed otherwise.

Usambara Mts Plains Mambo View Pt
Mambo View Point from the Plains

On to Mkomazi National Park.