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May 16th
Before the six of us went to be the night before I had met a couple Germans doing some weird things with lights in the dark. After wondering for a bit what they were doing in the dark with a flashlight I went to investigate. It turned out that they were doing some long exposure camera shots and spelling out words and names with the lighting. By keeping the shutter open as long as they wanted they could use the lighting to make drawings and words, it was really cool, hopefully I’ve explained it so you understand, dear reader.
In the morning I talked with them some more and took a photo of the two of them, they were on an epic journey from Germany to Cape Town, South Africa. They had bought an old firetruck in Germany and decided to trek all the way down in time for the World Cup. You can check out their blog at www.downtocapetown.blogspot.com, you should be able to translate the website from their web page. I really envy them, but I’m happy with the trip I’m on.
Anyways after having tea and breakfast in the morning we jumped in
our safari jeep to go about two hours away and begin our hike to Sanje Waterfalls. The drive was great, going along the foothills of the Udzungwa Mountains and enjoying the scenery and little villages along the way. After about 60 kilometers (45 miles or so) we made it to the gate to pay our park entrance fees. It was there that I saw some primates jumping around on cars and buildings. I got pretty close to one but when he jumped from the hood of one car to other, kinda charging me I jumped back a bit. The group of us got a good laugh from that cause it really caught me off guard that he would come AT me.
After paying our fees we retraced out steps a bit to get to the starting point for the hike. We had a guide, his name was Jackson and he knew a lot about the jungle/forest we were to hike through. The hike wasn’t too bad, a lot of inclines that got my calves burning. But it was worth every step to make it to the waterfalls. Along the way we came across loads of insects and amazing views
of the sugarcane farmlands below us. It turned out to be a great hike and when we made it to the top of the falls it was surreal. We had lunch on the falls and had an
AMAZING view. Following lunch we trekked up the river a bit to a couple
other cascades. We had a chance to do some swimming (it was really cold!!) and sit back and appreciate the nature we were witnessing. We were all ecstatic and appreciative of Farron for bringing us to a place where not many tourists make it to, it’s kind of off the beaten path, the way I like it. In fact no other overland trucks take you there, so it’s a nice secret of ours to have been there.
After a nice swim we hiked down about 30 minutes to the base of the main cascade of Sanje Falls and marveled at the incredible scene before us. We were 170 meters (don’t ask me the distance in feet) below where we had lunch earlier. There was a
great swimming pool there and a place to jump off the rocks. The water was nicer than before, probably something to do with all the drops
and rocks warming it up. We all had a great time there before heading back down to where our safari jeep was waiting for us.
On the way down we saw some Red Colobus monkeys, they are endemic to this part of Tanzania, this is the only place in the world where you can find them. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a good photo of them at all, so sorry dear reader!! I’ll try harder next time I promise! ☺
We made it back to the truck at a decent time, with still enough sun to pick up some vegetables for dinner and eggs for breakfast. Wendy and I were on dinner duty for the night and we decided on making a vegetable curry. We made it with some spices that I had picked up on spice island, a.k.a. Zanzibar Island. It turned out really good, even though Wendy cooked so much rice we could have fed a group twice our size! We had a good laugh about this and gave the leftovers to the security guards, they were quite happy about this!
After dinner we sat around for our ritual tea and chat and talked
about the adventure we experienced earlier that day, and what was in store for us the next day. We all got to bed early and got a good nights sleep.
Hope you enjoy the post and photos!
Until next time, Pura Vida and Hakuna Matata!
-Brendan
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Lerina
non-member comment
I love this, it reminds me of the Lion king. I wish i could have seen it with you.