Times in Tanzania: Mt. Mbeya hike

Overlooking the valley

While in Mbeya we really wanted to do some trekking and Mt. Mbeya (2,565m/8,415 ft) was the natural option. Mbeya is located in rolling hills with the Mbeya mountain range to the north. The range is formed by the joining of the eastern Gregory Rift and western Albertine Rift valleys

We are always averse to taking a guide if only for the reason that we love taking our time and moving at our own pace. It’s not that we’re unfriendly people but a critical aspect we love about hiking is the solitude. Many guides in less touristy areas sometimes overdo the guiding and fail to read that we want to just chill on our walk. It doesn’t help that the typical tourist to Tanzania actually enjoys more interaction with a local guide so I’m sure they perceive interactions with tourists along the trail as a net positive.

However, it became increasingly clear that the trail up Mt. Mbeya is not well marked and it would be wise if someone would show us the way. Through some normal chit-chat with locals I recruited an eager older gentleman who said he could show us the way. He was just a normal local farmer and we generally enjoyed his company up the mountain.

We started out from a coffee farm located as close as one can drive to the south. There is another access point to bypass the majority of the hike from a small village in the north but we decided that we had the time to hike and wanted to take advantage of it. The first part of the hike wound through farmland rather steeply. The majority of the forest had long been cleared but we passed through a few bird rich fragments of forest. The path was very steep and we passed maybe five different groups of people that were either living deep up the mountain or coming from the village on the other side. At one point we passed a caravan of people with donkeys loaded with mangoes and they explained they were a type of mango that wasn’t available on the other side.

The path continued steeply until we reached a sort of plateu where we could see the alternative starting point village on the other side. Some cows grazed on the steep grassy hillside and we began to climb. We eventually started to snake around the side of the mountain on a very narrow path though far less disturbed than the previous trail.

As we neared the peak the views were lovely. The clouds came below us and around us. There had been frequent rains the previous days so the trail was very slippery. As we reached the final ascent the trail became unclear and we were basically scrambling up the slippery hillside using small clumps of grass as footing. We made it to a nice vista and decided it was probably not worth it to continue and headed back down.

The trail was very steep and although it lacked the beauty of having pristine forests, the views overlooking the valley were spectacular. Even if one starts at the alternative starting point the trail is still very steep although it would allow you to really take your time. We’ll hopefully come back again and perhaps summit the top though the trade off between sore knees and good view is one to consider!