Monday 30 April 2007






Day Excursions from Dar es Salaam

From 9.30 am onwards boats daily leave from Slipway on the Peninsula to Bongoyo Island, which is about 45Min. out in the sea in front of Chui Bay (7’0000TzSh per person). The beach is beautiful with Makuti roofs for shade, which you can rent, and fried fish and cold beer on sale. There are walking trails across the island, including to shark bay, and snorkelling is not bad. The down side of the proximity to town comes after the big rains, when all the wastes of Dar es Salaam washed into the sea end up on the shores of Bongoyo Island. There are some Locals that have made a business out of recycling some of these wasted – however the sight a of a beach scattered with hospital waste is little inviting. Bongoyo Island, together with Mbudya Island make part of the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve and staff present on the island are knowledgeable about local wildlife (www.marineparktz.com). Biodiversity of Tanzanian coastal waters is amazing. However, despite that turtles, dugongs, dolphins and whales are protected under both Tanzanian and International legislation, many are still being illegally killed, their habitats destroyed and the enforcement of the law reamains very weak.

Andrew Majembe (Tel. 0784 49 03 99; e-mail: wildlife2001tz@yahoo.com) organizes early morning and late afternoon bird walks in different areas in and around Dar depending on the season. The flamingo tour to the salt mines in Kunduchi is well worth and the variety of coloured and large sized birds living in town is amazing, even for the ones that rather prefer the walk to the bird spotting! A very particular sight are also the huge bats flying over Ali Hassan Mwyini road when approaching down town towards the evening – have an eye open for them, they are not crows!

Josephine Siara’s (Tel. 0755 74 55 65 or 0754 00 02 34); e-mail: thehoreseclub@yahoo.com) Horse Club is located in walking distance from Amani Beach and Ras Kutani (to reach the Club from Dar, follow the tarmac road from Kigamboni ferry South, until it turns into a wide dirt road; After 27km from the ferry, a sign post with a horse head towards the left indicates the turn off to the stable. Follow that sand track along the sign posts until you end up in the flowery gardens surrounding the stable;) The riding tours along the beach and narrow trails through fields, bush and garden, are fantastic, however only to be recommended to well experienced riders, as Josephine’s horses are rather hot blooded! A tour of 1.5 hours is 40’000TzSh.

The closest escape from town into the green are Pugu Hills, originally a forest reserve, but badly damaged by the expanding town and hunger for charcoal. Yet, still some forest is left. A good starting point for hikes is the Pugu Hill Guesthouse (Tel. 0754 56 54 98 or 0754 39 48 75; www.puguhills.com) , with a good restaurant – they do excellent steak with pepper sauce - under a huge Makuti roof overlooking the valley below, bandas and a campsite. To reach Pugu Hills Guesthouse, drive to the airport, but instead of turning left from Nyerere Road into the airport area, you turn right towards Kisarawa, on tarmac road. Passing several market spots, and a prison, you reach an ORYX petrol station about 20 to 30Minutes after having left Nyerere road. Turn left and a little later on your right on the slopes below the forest you can already see some of the coloured bandas in the equally forested territory of the guesthouse. A dirt track leaves up the hill. If you reach the Tazara railroad crossing the dirt road, you have gone too far. The Guesthouse can provide you with guides for a beautiful two hours hike to the water reservoir completely surrounded by forest, or for an early morning half day hike to the impressive cattle market at Pugu railway station, where cattle from Mwanza - mainly Sukuma herds - are brought and sold.

Cattle markets have similarities all over the world – be it in Tanzania, Britain, China or Armenia. It is a men’s thing, there is a lot of money involved, clever middlemen do the business, a lot of suspicion is expressed towards every stranger – and there is good and substantial food available! We went to Pugu Hill cattle market, some 20km from the centre of the four Million town of Dar es Salaam, the place where meat enters the town still on four legs. In Tanzania, several breads of cows are bread, some more the light Zebu version, others a lot heavier, with impressively long horns. These horns must be so heavy to carry, the elegant ones bent up site, and the odd ones bent down site, giving the respective cow or bull a rather stupid expression into the face. In the nearby stalls still in the animal compound, Chapati – a kind of a omelette, Amazi – something similar to our dough nuts, and later on in the day Ugali – Polenta - with meat and spinach are prepared in abundant quantities; However, in February 2006, in Pugu Hills there was one remarkable difference to other cattle markets in the world. Animals were so thin that they died on the spot, they refuses to stand up for a last time despite being hit and pinched by a dozen of men – the result of an East African drought, partly man made, partly bad luck; There was even a couple of Maasai with their hopelessly thin cattle. Desperation must have run them to do what they are said to never do: sell their cattle;

Before, the Central railway line was used for the transport, explaining the location of the market, but since 2004 only lorries are allowed to bring in cattle, reducing the travelling time for the poor beasts. Do not go on the market without a guide. Cattle trade is about a lot of money, and the presence of strangers with cameras can render people nervous.

There are also numerous bat caves in the Pugu hills to visit with a guide, and the numerous small trails are excellent for off road biking.

Important mission stations had been established in the Pugu Hills, including Pugu Secondary School where Julius Nyerere worked as a teacher before venturing into politics full-time.

Afriroots (Tel. 0754 45 98 87 or 0713 65 26 42 ; e-mail: afri_roots@yahoo.co.uk; www.afriroots.co.tz) organize low budget day, week end and longer trips regularely, mostly by public transport, such as hiking in the Uluguru and Udzungwa mountains, cultural tours, biking and safaris.

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