I got home a bit early and wanted to make the most of the evening before losing the sun at about 6:45. It goes very dark very quickly… a bit like someone turning the lights off. So I don’t want to be outside after this time.
Last time I tried to get to the top of the mountain (Uluguru mountains) I walked an hour but still did not make it. I stopped half an hour short so it remained a goal I had not achieved.
Hence we decision to take a boda boda/ I don’t like them at the best of times but i Morogoro there really isn’t any choice as soon as you leave a metalled road. Only a motorbike can access the mountain roads. Even a 4×4 can’t navigate these arrow twisting rutted steep tracks.
I took my chances and jumped on a bike which turned out to be ridden by a man who clearly goes up this lane every day because he knew exactly how to pick his way up hill.
The bike crunched and slid and bounced and ground it way helped by the driver who had his feet down on several occasions. I thought I would have to get off nd walk. At every turn I was expecting to see the top but each corner led to another corner and the top remained illusive. It took about 20 careful and slow minutes before the track levelled off and we were at the village of Ruvuma.
I didn’t even know there was a village at the top of the hill. What a surprise. And what a place to live. No navigable road, walking and motorbikes are the only options. There were two very small shops selling handfuls of tomatoes and other produce.
I paid my driver and discharged him after I’d got him to show me the field track to walk back down to the hotel. Immediately the kids came running towards me. Thankfully they didn’t beg for money – just wanted to see me and laugh and dance and jump in their excitement.
Morningside is clearly the place to go for the best views but I was more than happy to be at th village and didn’t feel the need to go further up to the next mountain.
The children followed me around as I walked through the village taking pictures of the scenery. They were so happy. I stopped ata very small kiosk shop and bought some lollipops for 100 shillings each and handed them out to the children.
I also felt obliged to buy five wraps of peanuts even though I had no interest in eating them. A friendly woman as selling them at 100 shillings each. I took five packs and stuffed them in my pocket. I would later give them to a group of boys on the main mountain road.
Waving goodbye to the children I dipped down what is laughingly called Msami Street – it was a very narrow track leading me steeply downhill. As I carefully picked my way down it occurred to me that the driver could be having a laugh at my expense and sending me down to a dead end. I would not have the energy to climb `ll the way back.
The track took me along a ridge to the left the sun was setting and to the right was a huge mountainside bathed in orange light, dotted with houses, banana plantations and tidy kitchen gardens. Down below in the valley I could hear and see a busy stream and all I could hear was birds and insects.
It was 5:30pm when I started my descent and even though I stopped constantly to marvel at the view it only took me 25 minutes to reach the main mountain track again.
The weather had been perfect, the views are unrivalled in this area Msami Street was a real adventure. At the very end I had to use both my hands to navigate the steep drop.
Ruvuma village is by far the best thing about Morogoro, place I have no love of. It’s definitely worth the discomfort of the boda boda ride to get there.