The vines on it are gorgeous with the brightest orange flowers I've ever seen. Certainly rivals bougainvillea in Rancho Santa Fe.
The hike started at Bomba road on a fairly well-surfaced dirt road. After a while it started to get a little bumpier and I started to question my choice of shoes--not that I really had one considering I brought two pairs of TOMS and that's it. The views were spectacular from the get-go, as you can see.
The trail was difficult but fun. At many points the trail wasn't more than two feet wide and among the tall grass I almost disappeared. The mountain-side was used as farmland. Apparently a deforestation movement started in the 1970s so the only remaining forest--the "primary forest"--is on the very top of the mountain. The cleared land has been used for cultivation. The soil is really rich and according to our guide you can grow pretty much anything. His farm has cinnamon, strawberries, currants, a full assortment.
After a steep and winding trail and a whole lot of loose gravel, we made it up to Morningside. It's 900 meters up the mountain and the views are impressive! We pulled out the left-over cake, cassava chips--my new favorite snack--and some PB&Js I'd packed.
There's Bird-Man looking out on the valley and Morogoro below.
After a nice break and a gymnastics competition with some of the kids that followed us up, we headed towards the village and our guide's farm. (My cartwheel lost pretty terribly to the five minute headstands and handsprings these kids pulled out!) The trail was pretty tough and I could already tell that I was going to be in some major pain the next day, especially with my shoes. The kids along the way would all yell MZUNGU at us and one group insisted that we take their picture. I think the only English they knew--or pretended to know--was "Take picture."
After the farm, we went over to the "local disco." I didn't take any pictures in fear that I'd get beaten up. Basically a huge block party on the side of a cliff, the "local disco" was hoppin'! (Tangent: "Local" was the word of the day...we'd ask our guide what type of plant something was and the response was "local bush" or "local tree"; the paths were are "local" and the fruit we picked straight off the bush was "local fruit".) Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the music was a mix of drums, an out of tune organ, and 80s pop. Earlier our guide had said that the two biggest problems for his village are alcohol and pot--which is grown all over the place in the mountains. Safari lager was all over the place and so was the smoking. But the whole village--at least to my knowledge--came out for it. All ages were there and the energy was awesome.
We decided to head back down although I could have stayed people watching for hours! We paid our guide (TSh 6,000...about $5; SO CHEAP!) and started on our way, just the mzungu. Of course we got lost but we found our way, thanks to some locals. We ran into some sketchballs who tried unsuccessfully to sell us a bag of "local" marijuana. The highlight of the decent was when Team Mzungu took on some locals in a impromptu soccer match. The boys we played only wore one shoe and were much more accustomed to the bumps in the "pitch" and the slope. Somehow we ended up having to play upfield. After a couple of goals we were on our way.
Afterwards we headed to Dragonaire for pizza. Pizza twice in a week, SCORE! Barely able to walk, especially after the long dinner, we went over to Bird-Mans to watch the Spain/Italy game--what a snoozer! What an awesome day though. All the pictures are here.
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