Mbeya

At 850km from Dar, south lies a beautiful region of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, Mbeya. We initially planned to travel with a train but due to increasing demands in holiday season, they were all booked 3 weeks prior so that left us with one choice: Bus travel.

Bus travel is the most popular way to travel around in Tanzania. With the improvement of so many inter city highways, it's much easier travelling to almost everywhere in the country. After travelling for more than 5000 kms by road from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza, Mara, Dodoma, Mbeya and Arusha several times, here at my top 5 tips if you're looking to travel by bus in Tanzania;

1) intercity bus travel is the cheapest way to move regions in Tanzania and most prefered by locals.

2) if you're booking, make sure you go and pay at the OG booking office. NO agent. Some buses have online booking which works.

3) There are buses that go literally everywhere in the country. Most notably known are; Shabiby, Abood, Kimbinyiko, Sauli, ABC, New Force, Kapricon, SATCO, KLM Express, Darlux, BM Coach etc

4) The capital, Dodoma, is the CENTER of inter city bus travel. If you get to Dodoma, you can easily travel to anywhere in Tanzania.

5) Most buses are safe. I would always advice to break a travel in Morogoro, Dodoma or Iringa. Travelling in the night is not always a good option and buses that travel to a further destination more than 800km are known to speed. It's also an opportunity to discover a region you have never been even for a few hours.

P. S - you will mostly likely see animals on the way from monkeys, zebra, giraffes, herds of antelopes or if you're lucky, a herd of elephants!

The lush Southern Highlands of Tanzania lies the country’s breadbasket. Here, maize, potatoes, rice and fruits are grown among the rolling hills and verdant valleys. Mbeya is well known for its famous Kyela rice. It produces the finest grains in the country.

The production of rice in Kyela is mainly favored by its geographical location and weather. Rivers such as Mbaka, Kiwira, Lufilyo and Songwe flowing into Lake Malawi all cross through Kyela.

Kitulo National Park is perched at around 2,600 meters between the rugged peaks of the Kipengere, Poroto and Livingstone Mountains. The well-watered volcanic soils of Kitulo Plateau which is home to 350 species of vascular plants, including 45 varieties of terrestrial orchid many of which are endemic to the Southern Highlands.

Kitulo is a unique piece of land. The chilly high plateau is a vast open grassland that strerches away kilometer after kilometres.

One of the most important watersheds for the Great Ruaha River and is the first national park in tropical Africa to be established primarily to protect its flora. Kitulo Plateau is one of the great floral spectacles of the world.

The gently undulating Afromontane garssland is the dominant landcscape in the Kitulo National Park. Due to it's several mountain ranges Mpanga Kipengere, Rungwe Mountains and Livingston Mountains, the park is adorned with numerous multi climates, endemic flower species and primates. Rain is much more common here than elsewhere with low hanging clouds creating a mysterious atmosphere.

The orchid specie Satyrium is endemic to Kitulo Plateau and Mount Rungwe. Unfortunately these are kinds of orchids which are edible In South-Weestern Tanzania, Northern Zambia and Malawi are used as food by rural communities, where the root tubers are collected and boiled to produce a local dish known as Chikanda or Kikanda.

Why visit Kitulo;

-Superb scenery: open grassland, rolling hills, the Numbe Waterfall.

-Closeness to nature, thanks to the good hiking facilities

-The open montane grassland is a unique environment for Tanzania. The area is more reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands.

-Endemic or near endemic species of plants and animals like the Moraea callista.

-A feeling of solitude, as there are few visitors

Breakfast picnic by the flowers of Kitulo

At Matema beach, we met a nice guy called Faraja. He has a mtumbwi and takes people cruising around the lake for sightseeing.

Faraja is of Wakisi tribe known for being fishermen and swimmers living along the Eastern coast of Lake Malawi on Tanzania side. On our way we chatted a bit and I asked many questions about the lake and people that surrounds it.

The boarder with Malawi on Lake Malawi or famously known as Lake Nyassa is a strange one. Even though there's a large part of Lake Malawi on Western shores of the lake in Tanzania. The boarder passes right by the shores on the Tanzania side not devided in the middle like most lakes.

"Our present boundaries are--as has been said many times--the result of European decisions at the time of the Scramble for Africa. They are senseless; they cut across ethnic groups, often disregard natural physical divisions, and result into many different language groups being encompassed within a state. If the present states are not to disintergrate it is essintial that deliberate steps be taken to foster a feeling of nationhood.

Otherwise our present multitude of small countries--almost all of us too small to sustain a self-suffiecient nodern economy--could break up into even smaller units--perhaps based on tribalism. Then a further period of foreign domination would be inevitable. Our recent struggles would be wested" Julius K. Nyerere.

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