[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