Uluguru

It's time to go: my routine life in Iringa ends, and i return to northern Tanzania. Before I'll start another volunteer job, I really wanted to enjoy reconnecting with nature. So I joined Said (Jovin's friend, where I stayed in Dar es Salaam, who is also a guide) to go on excursion to Mount Uluguru.

After a bus ride full of peripetias, of 7 hours instead of 4 hours, we meet in Morogoro, the town at the foot of Mount Uluguru.

The next morning, we started walking around 10 hours. We walk through the city to get to the start of the excursion. On the way, we stopped so I could prove the fenesi: a great fruit of the size of a watermelon, green with spades, from which you eat inside, putting oil on your fingers, because it's very sticky. The taste is similar to mango, a little less sweet.

Once in the mountain, we come across women who produce ugondo, sand sticks, filled with good minerals. Pregnant women like to eat to stop nausea. I could see how they get this kind of stick shape, mixing sand with water, and I could try a fresh one. It's strange to eat sand. It was good, a little salty, with a citric flavor.

On the way, I also tried sambwa, which looks like plum, and the embe gongo, a little mango. I love to discover all those new fruits.

In the middle of the afternoon, we reached our goal, a natural waterfall, in the middle of the Uluguru Mountains. After the effort of the climb, I was able to refresh myself in this clear water.

Then we arrived at Morning side, the camp where we spent the night, before sunset. It is also a coffee and strawberry farming farm that I could taste. We could plant the tent with a view of Morogoro, and I could enjoy a good night in the cool mountain. I woke up at dawn to do a yoga session in the morning's fog, with the singing of birds and the run-up of water: true happiness.

After a good breakfast in the mountains, it's time to come back to the city, back to my lodge, and take a bus, early in the morning, to northern Tanzania.