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Places

By Elisha Mayallah

Fun and mystery at the Rift Valley town, Mto-wa-Mbu

Beauty and culture of the town has steadily and strategically positioned itself as an alternative holiday town

By: Elisha Mayallah

In the street roads tens of tourists navigate around human traffic and roadside activities on two wheels as they enjoy their cycling adventure and make inroads in the tiny town (an unexpected sighting creating a memorable first impression of what was to come). By pure chance, this was my first hour as I set foot in Mto-wa-Mbu, a town in Monduli district, recently.
Mto-wa-Mbu gives one a sense of being away from the city life, yet not too far (a one-and half-hour’s drive from Arusha) a place to getaway with many activities around. Unlike other destinations in the northern tourist zone which have a high and low season, this town is nearly busy all year round.

The vista here offers a lush canopy of palm, baobabs and acacia trees framed by the sweeping Great Rift Valley escarpment around the town, endless views of the countryside, breathtaking landscape, the Maasais herding cows and goats and weather patterns that combine beauty with agricultural and cultural heritage.

Because of the topography and altitude, tourists with keen interest in sports have found the place ideal for biking adventure, watching the locals go about their daily activities and wildlife. The town is weather-friendly providing an ideal weather for biking: Around the lowlands (in the valley) it can be cool and breezy in the mornings and evenings but often turns hot most of the afternoons.

Biking adventure is a relative new tourist attraction in Tanzania and it dates from a couple of decades ago. Thanks to the Tanzania Tourist Board’s programme on Cultural Tourism, now there are several biking activities across the country, mainly concentrated near the mainstream tourism spots. Biking is considered by many that it serves as a very good exercise to keep the body fit.

To this day, biking has become popular among the expatriates community and tourists who deem it a pleasant surprise for them to find a biking adventure in the countryside near tourist hot spots. The number of clients (tourists) taking biking adventures have been increasing rapidly each year, says Mr. Elirehema Maturo who is the coordinator for the cultural tourism programme based in Arusha.

In Mto-wa-Mbu, to find a little more adventure and insight tourists can take a cycling (biking) tour which lasts between two and four hours. Biking takes tourists around the countryside (in the villages) up to the shores of Lake Manyara. In the trails tourists are likely to view herds of buffalo, zebras, and giraffes at a close-range during such biking adventures, in the adjacent Lake Manyara National Park.

A bike ride to remember. Biking adventure is a relative new tourist attraction in Tanzania

Cyclers here have an option to carry a packed lunch or choose to eat in the village where they get a chance to taste traditional delicacies. And one of the conditions for cyclers is that a local guide who is well-versed with the whole tour (route) goes with a party of few tourists at a modest fee.

Not far from the valley escarpments lie the Great Rift Valley walls (where cyclists traverse to and end their adventure) that rise higher and provide romantic scenery. To sample one of the activities here I joined two others to hike to the top of one of the Great Rift Valley wall. The hike is basically a steep uphill walk and we hiked along balancing ourselves on small slippery stones.

After a 30-minute hike we found ourselves in a dramatic hill with breathtaking views of Lake Manyara, the Mto-wa-Mbu village and the sprawling Maasai steppes. Our hike ended at the 2000 years baobab tree where breathtaking views of farms in green oasis could be seen far at the foot of the Great Rift Valley.

The baobab tree is an independent attraction. It has been repeatedly used as a place of worship for the locals as they visit the tree for special prayers, I was told. According to the guide in our group, it is the elders who go to ask for rain or forgiveness when the drought period has prolonged and other calamites that have befell the community.
At the site it is believed that a tourist, not long ago, spent a few hours dead quiet and later he confided to the accompanying guide that the baobab tree offered him a chance to converse with the spirits far in his country.
From the mysterious baobab tree we walked back to the town through a host of makonde woodcarvers, tingatinga painters and other artisans making different ornaments all trying to find a market into the rising number of tourists in the area.

As I drove back to Arusha, I realized a full day spent here is a piece of heaven that is almost impossible to ignore.

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