Blue Mountains

Taking a break to take in the view. 

We finally got around to exploring the nearby "Blue Mountains" located south of Moshi. We often pass these mountains on the way to Nyumba ya Mungu but for the majority of the year they are brown and dry with no visible roads or hiking paths. The mountains are also more like hills so there doesn't appear to be any ecological difference in the surrounding habitat; in a sense we always assumed it was just a 'wilder' (less impacted by grazing animals) and steeper version of the surroundings.

Since I had to work Saturday and we didn't have a bigger trip lined up, we decided it'd be a perfect day to get up early and head out towards the mountains. We knew that we'd likely have a better chance of getting deeper in the mountains with a motorcycle but we then lost the shade the car can offer so we best to head out as early as possible. Although I haven't painted quite the most exciting picture, it'd been quite some time since we did a motorcycle exploration and we were both looking forward to a new place.

There are two villages at the base of the mountains and a power line with huge transmission towers run parallel to the mountains. This allowed us to take the "power line road' and choose a few promising roads to cut up into the mountains. The recent area had left the usually dry and dusty area quite green with emerging grasses, baobab trees full of leaves, and a dramatically different feel than during the dry season. We enjoyed the scenery but truthfully most of my attention was on the road, which actually was more like a dried river bed. It was some of the most challenging dry road driving that I've done, with thick sand, assorted boulders and sharp rocks. Worst of all, the thin road was lined with extremely thorny and sharp acacia trees, which meant that if I veered off the road I'd be instantly impaled (okay, a bit dramatic, but I'd have some serious scratches). I'm ashamed to say that we even fell once on a particularly rough climb which hurts my pride more than anything since we a go at such a slow speed that injury is unlikely.

The first road we took was adventurous but led nowhere. It did provide some great views looking down on TPC and then Moshi in the background, and I'm sure if it was clear Mt. Kilimanjaro would have been stunning. We headed back down and tried another road that seemed to be a bit more like a formal road, albeit it had no tracks from other vehicles. This foreshadowed the road turning into a proper dried river bed and it soon became unpassable due to the incline and treefalls. We decided to head back home but bookmarked the riverbed for a possible hiking spot to the top.  

Although we didn't necessarily reach the top of the mountain, we succeeded in having a good time exploring, scouting a possible additional hiking trip, AND getting back to Moshi for lunch. Beating the heat is half the battle in this environment and we're usually too excited looking for birds or exploring a new trail that it's hard for us to turn back when it's early. However, on a Sunday it's good to turn back early to ensure we are not exhausted for Monday at work!

Ana taking in the view

View ont he way up.