We’ve been sleeping in the clouds. And I don’t mean this figuratively.
After nearly a month and a half along the coast, sleeping in sticky heat to the rhythm of the waves, we’ve opted for a bit of a change of scenery. Sleeping on the edge of a forested mountain, surrounded by cool clouds was just the change we were looking for.
It’s sort of surprising that only 150km from our previous destination, we could be surrounded by such a different panorama. Here, instead of coconut trees, were clean-smelling pines. Instead of a close-up view of the ocean was an aerial view of the vast Tanzanian plains. Instead of watching locals pass by in fishing boats, we watched them tend to their shambas(fields) of sugarcane or maize. Instead of listening to the waves at night, we listened to the whoop of endemic eagle owls occasionally breaking through the constant pitter of falling rain.
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| a view of the vast plains from German Viewpoint |
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| I’m always shy to take photos of people if they know it, so this is one of the few with a local in it. You’ll have to imagine the other images we observed as we walked. |
We were in the Usambara Mountains, part of the vast Eastern Arc chain of mountains that extends into Kenya and right up to the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
There aren’t a lot of tourists here, but those that come, come for the hiking. And so, we hiked too. Every morning, we left our campsite at Irente Farm, chose a path at random, and walked until lunch. And I liked it – for the exercise, of course, but also for the [dare I say “authentic”] scenes we passed as we walked.
Villages stud the hills, and as you walk through them, you catch inevitable glimpses into the lives of those that live here. Women bend over from the waist, bums wrapped in colorful African fabrics and pointing unselfconsciously in the air. Your step slides in with their rhythmic cutting of the cane, their hoeing of the earth. Old men sit on benches shaded by banana leaves lightly fanning them in the cool breeze. Children appear from hiding places above and below, shouting their “jambos” with enthusiasm over and over again, even when you reply. Incongruously, a few young men loiter outside shop windows, playing hip-hop tunes on their cell phones. Someone practices electric guitar from inside a run-down hut made of mud.
The foliage is densely green here, with a biodiversity that the Eastern Arc is famous for. All sorts of flora scents engulf you as you walk, from the unfamiliar African flowers and endemic shrubs to the familiar freshness of the pine. The morning mist that surrounds you at the beginning of your walk slowly floats upwards, revealing imposing cliffs of orange rock.
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| Some little kids saying hello to me as we walked. The little one wanted to touch me. |
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| A donkey blocking the narrow, steep path. Don’t mess with them – they have a horrible tempter and a strong back kick! |
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| Bruno hiking through a village |
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| See? We’re above the clouds! |
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| Morning mist, slowly unfolding to offer us a view of the beautiful cliffs |
Most of our walks were aimless. One walk, however, was walked with a goal: that of catching the sunset at the infamous Irente Viewpoint.
It had rained that afternoon, the first of many to come. We sat under our awning watching the drops fall into the earth, transforming it into clumps of sticky mud. We also watched the clock.
“It’s 5:30pm. The rain is falling harder. Should we go?”
“Let’s wait a bit and see.”
So we waited.
“It’s almost 6pm. Now or never.” The 30-minute walk to the viewpoint meant that we would be cutting it close for the 6:30pm sunset.
“Ok. Let’s do it.”
And suddenly, as if our will to see the sunset was being tested, and we had said the three magic words, the rain began to lift. We scurried up and down hills, through a village, around a corner, up the final steep hill, and – breathless – reached the viewpoint with only minutes to spare.
It was so worth it.
Sometimes, after the rain, the clouds lift just the right amount for the rays of the sun to peer through them and set them aglitter. Tonight, the sun was like a set of spotlights at a rock concert, each light pointed at a different cloud and lighting it up with a different sunset hue. Blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, red – they were all present and accounted for. Sat atop a cliff looking out into the endless sky – with equally endless plains below – we felt alive.
These are the moments we travel for.
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| Bruno taking in the sunset from Irente viewpoint. |
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| This panorama shot doesn’t even do the sunset justice! |
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| The sun about to disappear behind a pyramid-shaped peak. |
The German colonials used to come to the Usambaras for “rest and relaxation,” which really meant a reprieve from the malarial heat of Dar es Salaam. I suppose we were doing the same. In any case, the Germans are long-gone, but they did manage to leave one legacy – Irente Farm, where we camped. Originally a coffee plantation (failed due to surprisingly infertile soil), it is now a small-scale food production enterprise that also dabbles in ecotourism.
Good for us, who enjoy a delicacy or two. We bought muesli, butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, jam, juice, rye bread, and honey, all freshly made 300 meters from our campsite.
We even got to visit the rudimentary production site. A small dark kitchen with an attached pantry, manned by a single local lady, is where all the dairy products are made. Outside, the 20 or so cows graze. It felt a bit unnatural to see the actual cows that had produced the milk I drank that morning. (I guess I am still bound by my North American disconnection with my food.) Next door, the jam and juice factory was an old farm house with a kitchen and a few rooms for storage. That morning, they were getting ready to make a bit pot of raspberry jam. The twenty jugs of passion fruit concentrate they’d made the day before were still cooling on the counter.
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| Cheese! |
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| The production site of Irente Farm: in the center, the dairy, with cows in front. |
We liked our campsite. It was homey and cool. Plus, we had a great view – parked on a flat ledge halfway up one of the mountains, with a leafy view of the valleys below and the jagged cliffs above. The sun rose to our left, behind a hill, and we breakfasted in its pink light as the villagers below sang songs and beat drums – a wakeup call? a morning prayer? All day, we would hear the powerful whooshing of horn bills as they flew over the hills above. The toilet was so clean I actually put my bare bum on it (a true first for me!), and the dinners were plentiful and delicious and cheap.
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| our campsite, with hills and valleys beyond |
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| these horn bills were our friends and neighbors at the campsite |
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| washing and sunning themselves after a bit downpour |
Yet I have one qualm with Irente Farm (also known as Irente Biodiversity Reserve), which I cannot in good faith leave out. One of the proud aims of this farm (owned by the Lutheran Church of Tanzania), is that they are replanting endemic trees in the region. There is only 6.7% of the original vegetation left on the Usambara Mountains, so it is a worthy aim, surely. Yet, as I inspected our surrounding more closely, I felt wronged and confused by the hypocrisy before me.
There was a gigantic heap of wood behind one of the houses. It was – as is often the case – there to heat the water for showers. I approached the wood and saw that it was old, dense, heavy wood – the kind that must have taken 100 years to grow.
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| beautiful, thick old wood bound for the fire |
Not only that. The morning we visited the food production area, we noticed that there, too, the same beautiful wood was being used. To heat milk, to prepare the cheese, butter, and yogurt. To make the jam and to boil the fruit for the juice.
Suddenly, the products we had bought didn’t feel so pure, didn’t taste quite so good.
It’s the same story all through Africa (and this isn’t my first time blogging about it). Even in so-called “eco camps” wood is being burned to heat water and cook food. I can understand that poor locals might need wood for their cooking, but resorts and camps catering to rich mzungu certainly don’t need to – especially if they are advertising themselves as eco-friendly.
Newsflash to eco-camps: Wood is a precious resource to be preserved, not to use willy-nilly. There is so much sun in Africa that every eco camp on the continent should be using solar energy to heat their water. And a campsite that is calling itself a “diversity reserve” and that is replanting trees in the area (therefore recognizing that deforestation is an issue) should surely not be burning wood. For anything or any reason.
Irente Farm markets itself as “Paradise in the Clouds”. And it certainly is a near-heavenly place where cultural discovery, natural beauty, and relaxation converge. Our personal idea of a paradise is one where – among other things – respect for the natural environment is paramount. Therefore, Irente Farm needs to re-evaluate its use of wood before it can truly call itself a paradise.
To see more recent blog posts, including one about Tanzania’s coast, and several about my two-months in Kenya, click here.
Brittany - Instead, why not provide the wood to the thousands of people in the surrounding villages? I am almost positive that these people cannot tell the difference between indigenous and non-indigenous trees, nor do they know to cut one rather than the other. If you provided them this wood, it would keep your indigenous trees safe, could come with environmental education for the locals, and would keep more dead trees planted in the ground.
I’m not going to take issue with the burning of wood for your food production, as the alternative (cooking gas) has a questionable environmental impact as well. But there are other, better ways to heat water for your tourists’ showers. Of course, solar panels are the best method, and they are less expensive now than ever before. I believe that it’s an investment that repays itself quite quickly. Otherwise, buy large black water barrels, which attract enough heat from the sun throughout the day to provide us with hot showers.
I take issue with the showers, in particular, because my husband and I truly felt uncomfortable and guilty indulging in the pleasure of a hot shower each evening – especially because the water is kept hot 24-hours a day for our benefit. If you must burn wood for hot showers, why not do so only between 5-7pm, as many resorts and lodges in Africa do?
My point is that, even if you are burning the right kind of wood, burning wood is like burning clothes you’ve grown out of. The clothes would be best donated to those that can’t buy their own.
I reiterate that we really did enjoy our time at IBR. And we believe that you are doing some good work, especially on a continent that has a lot of misconceptions about environmental sustainability and ecotourism. Your work to replant indigenous trees in the area is to be applauded. We appreciated the fact that you installed solar lights in the bathrooms. It just seemed incongruous to be taking a shower heated by wood in the glow of a solar light.
Brittany - Dear Kirsi,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on IBR and especially for responding in such detail. Your message showed me that, despite my criticism of the reserve, we are both fighting on the same side of the battle – a battle that is difficult to wage in Tanzania.
I must preface this response with the fact that I am far from perfect, environmentally-speaking. My husband and I try to reduce the number of kilometers we drive – walking or cycling whenever possible, and traveling slowly – but we still burn diesel. We filter our own water rather than using plastic bottles every day – but filters themselves are made of plastic. We never accept plastic bags in markets and supermarkets – but we still buy processed foods. So feel free to take the comments that follow with a grain of salt, as mere suggestions.
I think our main disagreement is about how to use the wood from the invasive alien trees that IBR is systematically killing off. I am aware of the difference between indigenous vs. non-indigenous, and invasive vs. non-invasive flora, having volunteered with the Lake County Forest Preserves (in Illinois, USA) to remove alien invasive plants from their reserves.
I am glad that you mention the fact that, after you kill the invasive tree, you usually leave it standing. As a botanist, you know that not only birds, but insects and other living creatures depend upon these trees, and the soil benefits greatly from the gradual decomposition of the tree. Whenever possible, it is important to leave dead trees standing.
However, I am not naïve enough to think that we can leave all dead trees where they are. Everywhere around us are wood products, from our paper to our furniture. I am also aware that most poor Africans use wood for their cooking, and that this is something so deeply engrained in their traditions that it is difficult to change.
Though you didn’t specifically mention it in your message, I think you were alluding to the fact that the wood you use for hot showers and food production is from alien invasive trees (Question: How do you monitor this?). What I am suggesting is that, despite the fact that your carbon footprint might be positive and that the trees you use for this burning is a small percentage of your annual tree growth, it is not a good enough reason to burn wood, even if it’s invasive.
Kirsi Salo - Furthermore we don´t just advertise that we are eco-friendly, we strive towards this goal and I believe we are on the right track. You are right in that wood burning and more specifically charcoal burning is hugely destructive and totally out of control in Tanzania. The government seems to do nothing on this issue. I know of 5 nature reserves near Dares Salaam that are decimated by charcoal makers. I wrote an article on this and sent it to many conservation bodies. But no one responded. Nobody seems to do anything about the charcoal crisis certainly the givers of Aid – like Europe and USA; they seem to have other priorities.
I think if you understand what is written above, that you will realize, my dear, that your criticism was unfounded. You can continue to enjoy the taste our products with a clean conscience, and you are welcome back to the Paradise in the clouds.
Irente Biodversity Reserve 2014-03-18
Peter Murless
Manager at IBR
PO Box 80 Lushoto
Info@irentebiodiversityreserve.org
Kirsi Salo - Dear Brittany,
I read your blog about Irente biodiversity Reserve with interest and I feel I am obliged to respond to it since I am the manager of the reserve, a professional botanist and you have charged us with being unfriendly to Mother Nature,
Your main bone of contention is that Irente Biodiversity Reserve (the old name of farm has fallen away) uses firewood for heating water, heating milk and heating fruit to make and jam and juice.
I quite agree with you that in some instances it’s not good to use wood, and if we had been a camp in the Serengeti, Ruaha or the Selous and we were burning wood this would not be so good, because these would be indigenous hardwoods.
But let me explain the difference between trees. Not all trees are the same. In Tanzania you can divide them in 3 groups:
• Indigenous –provide an ecosystem for wildlife (684 species and subspecies in the Usambaras)
• Alien – from other countries, planted for commerce, timber, firewood eg. Grevillea. Non invasive
• Invasive aliens – foreign trees that out-compete indigenous ones thereby reducing biodiversity. Eg. Guava, Acrocarpus, wattle, jacaranda, lantana
At IBR we have 200 hectares. Most of this covered with alien trees like wattle, pine, japanese camphor, grevillea and eucalyptus. We have replanted about 20 ha indigenous trees (local to the West Usambaras)
Our policy is to plant only indigenous trees from now on and to remove the aliens. We kill the alien trees in the areas where we don´t want them by ring-barking. Then we leave the dead tree standing because many birds and animals are dependent on dead wood. (There are about 20 bird species that nest in holes in soft wood).
Recently I talked to government officials and NGO.s in the Lushoto district, because on Environment Day they were planting masses of trees and the boasting that this was “helping the environment or biodiversity” as some of them said. Unfortunately, many of the species they were planting were invasive aliens like Leucena and Spanish cedar.
I tried to talk them into planting indigenous species rather, for the sake of nature conservation, sressing Mvule (Milicea excels) and Mkangazi (Khaya nyasica). It gave results.
We recently applied for accreditation as a Sustainable Tourism venue. The inspectors criticized us for the exactly the same question; you see they couldn´t see the bigger picture, just like you! After explaining to them, they passed our energy policy.
The big picture in this:
We have 200 hectares, with a lot of trees (mostly alien unfortunately)
The few trees that we do harvest for burning is a tiny percent of the total annual growth. Therefore our carbon footprint is more than positive! The means the amount of carbon IBR captures far exceeds the amount of carbon produced by IBR.
That said, we would like to reduce carbon emissions further, and we have introduced solar lighting, recentlywe put in 2 “kuni boilers” of Kenyan design that consume only a little wood.
Of course we would like to get solar fridges and solar water heating but this is rather expensive and our income just not enough – as we are not an establishment catering to the rich mzungus as you put it. Our rates are rather reasonable and our end of year profit (after all taxes to district and government) is rather low.