[photos] Iringa Trip Pt.2

Two days in Iringa were spent on walking around the town, rock climbing and visiting Isimila stone age site.



Main street of Iringa.

An overview of the residential area.

I and three others decided to climb up the famous Gangilonga, the huge rock seen on this photo. Gangilonga means Talking Stone in the local Hehe language. It is said that their legendary cheif Mkwawa back in the late 19th century often mediated on top of the rock.

A magnificent view from the top of Gangilonga, looking over the town of Iringa.

Another view of the beautiful landscape from the top of Gangilonga.

The weather was not looking good, but we decided to journey out of the town for half an hour to visit the Isimila Stone Age Site. The site was considered to be a home to some important stone tools from way back but was rather well-known for a small canyon of these eroded rocks seen on this photo.

I wished the weather was better, but definitely worth a visit.

This was taken just outside of the entrance to the Isimila Site. The road is actually a major highway route connecting Dar es Salaam and a southwestern city of Mbeya and then to Zambia and Malawi. It doesn't look like much is going on, but coach buses and fully-loaded cargo trucks often passed us by while we were waiting for our daladala back to the town.

[photos] Iringa Trip Pt.1

I’m back from my first trip to the town of Iringa located in the Southern highlands with much satisfaction!
Although I generally enjoy the tropical climate and ocean on the island and the coast, it was nice to get away from it for once to spend several days in cool and dry highland climate with mountainous landscape. In fact, Iringa reminded me of one of the towns perched in the Rockies.

These are the photos from the trip.



It takes about 8 hours from Dar es Salaam to Iringa by bus on the highway route between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya (a major hub near the boarder of Zambia and Malawi). We continued to see the usual flat, tropical landscape dotted with palm trees for about 2 to 3 hours after leaving Dar es Salaam. Then Ulguru Mountains began emerging on sight as seen on the photo.



One of the highlights of this trip was the bus ride itself. After leaving the town of Morogoro, the highway cuts across a national park called Mikumi, so we could have one hour of quick safari experience. As seen on the photo, the landscape looks like the classic African savannah. I was surprised to easily spot so many wild animals including giraffes, elephants, African buffaloes and gazelles.



Plenty of wild animals but this was my best attempt of taking their photos. It wasn’t easy to seize the right moment with my camera when the bus driver was nonchalantly going at 40km/hr. Driving through Mikumi was definitely an exciting experience though.




The scenery changed drastically after leaving Mikumi. The bus began gradual ascent into the mountainous region towards the Southern highlands.



Taking a break on the way to the highlands. The altitude at this point was about 1000m above sea level. The air was already much cooler than that on the coast.

Cruising on the Southern highlands. Beautiful landscape with rolling hills and vast cornfield occasionally dotted with sunflowers. It’s a lot different from the coast: the altitude is about 1500m above sea level and the temperature is around 18˚C.

Another photo of the highlands from the bus window.

The town of Iringa is perched on top of one of the hills. We branched off the Dar-Mbeya highway and began final ascent to reach our destination, while looking down the Ruaha river as seen on the photo.

Arriving at Iringa bus terminal just before the sunset around 6 o’clock. I hadn’t been out in the town yet and it was getting dark, but I was already enjoying its hilly landscape and cool climate.

To be continued on Pt.2

[quick notes] Apr.03.2009

1. Shatamisn, continued.
According to my colleague, it is a high season for shatani possessions around this time of the year. I'm not sure if that really is the reason, but we had several possessions at my school today. He also told me that during one of our afternoon sessions when I wasn't there, 8 students were possessed at the same time and they needed to close the school for the day.

2. 6 Months
Time flies and it's already been 6 months since I arrived in this country.
18 more months to go and I'm sure it'll go by really fast. Although I'm enjoying my life here, part of me is already starting to think about what's next after the service is over in September, 2010.

3. Traveling
The school is closed for 10 days starting from today.
I'm going to travel around the inner mainland to visit some of the fellow 20-2 volunteers in the cities of Iringa and Bagamoyo.