It was a rare weekend stuck in Morogoro and I had trawled the internet to find something interesting to do in the town. Apart from visiting a giant Baobab tree (aren’t they all giant?) the only other thing I found was a walk to Choma Waterfall.
I had never been up into the mountains I look at every day so I suggested to Evelyn that we pack some food, sunblock and plenty of water and head into the hills.
To get to the start point is a short journey in a bajaj to a place called Rock Garden. After that it’s Shank’s pony for the rest of the way. I was trying to get a sun tan back on my legs which had returned to white after a spell in the UK in trousers every day.
Passing through some pretty little villages, we marvelled at the steep-sided hills dotted with tiny houses impossibly clinging to the valley sides. How on earth do people get there? Some of the places were so remote I am sure they rarely get into Morogoro town.
The path is wide and it’s hard to go the wrong way. In any case there are many lazy people taking boda boda up the road to the waterfall and you can follow them. We struggled on, plodding up the increasingly steep path standing aside every few minutes for the motorcycles straining under the weight of their human loads.
As well as human loads, many of the motorbikes were carrying huge loads of households items, sacks of food and building supplies. One rider carrying parts of a wide double bed successfully managed to navigate a narrow bridge with the help of a pedestrian.
Onwards and upwards we plodded, head down, sweat running down our faces, with the views of Morogoro town getting more impressive the higher we climbed. Still the boda bodas streamed past us carrying the lazy people.
After two hours we rounded a corner to find a group of local people trying to sell visitors strawberries, some music coming from a shed and the oath down to the waterfall. At last the uphill struggle had come to an end.
We gingerly descended a steep path which had been cut into steps at several points. Evelyn took the precaution of shimmying down on her backside to save slipping into the river below. A stick would have been a great help.
It was worth it though and soon we had hopped over the large stones and were watching the other visitors posing for photos or standing in the torrent from above. We sat for 40 minutes before we had summoned enough strength to head back downhill.
It took us over 2 hours to get back to the start where our bajaj was waiting but we had been taking it slowly, stopping for quite a while by a fantastic rock pool where we sat and drank some Stoney Tangawezi (Ginger pop).
By the time we got back to civilisation the daily power cut had arrived. The workers generously agreed to switch on the generator and I had the most well-deserved shower I have had for a long time.
It’s hard to find something to do in Morogoro if you’re a visitor so walking to the waterfall is definitely a “must-do” activity. It’s hard going at time but if you take it slowly and take a lot of water, the climb is worth it.