Rainforest Fun in the Amazing Udzungwa Mountains!

We went to the Tanzanian rainforest for two nights last week. It was a great holiday and we had lots of fun.  We drove about 5 hours to meet our friends, the Dixons, at Hondo Hondo which is a lovely place to stay in the Udzungwa Mountains. Hondo Hondo is named after the Hondo Hondo bird. Louisa and I had our own Banda (a fancy tent) to sleep in – all by ourselves! The first night I dreamt there were crocodiles all around us and then woke up and thought it was real! There was a really huge thunderstorm in the night and the lightning made it look like daytime. It was very loud and we thought the tent might leak. Also in the night, you can hear lots of noises like frogs, monkeys and insects. And sometimes elephants walk through the camp. In the morning there was so much water everywhere that that it came up to our knees in places on the path. We had loads of fun wading and getting very wet with Elia and Finley.

Sanje Falls

We went on a long hike up a mountain to the Sanje Waterfall. It was a 6.3km walk and very steep going up. We had guide called Amini who lead us and helped us. We saw lots of monkeys swinging and screeching in the trees. They fly through the air from tree to tree. We saw the indigenous Red Colubus and Sanje Mangeby and Black and White Colubus.  We saw lots of interesting trees and plants. Many are used for medicine and our guide told us what the different leaves and bark were good for. One helps tummy aches, one for diarrhoea, one for having babies. We found a teak tree and rubbed and twisted the leaf and it turned red because of its tannins. This stops the elephants and other animals from eating it. People use it for lipstick! I tried it but it made me itchy! It also didn’t taste nice! Another interesting tree is a softwood tree which was used by the Hehe tribe a long time ago to call meetings because it makes a loud thudding noise when you bang it with a stone, which echoes through the forest. I tried it, but nobody came! We saw the poisonous antiaris toxicana tree. The sap is used for poison arrows.

We had lunch at the top of the waterfalls. We were very high up. We climbed onto the big rock at the very top and could see down the valley for miles and miles. We dipped our feet in the pools in the rock and looked over the edge. It drops 180m down! Our guide had his legs dangling right over the edge!

We went back down and swam in the pool at the bottom of the huge waterfall. We could see how high we had been before! It was really loud and there was lots of spray. It also started to rain while we were swimming.  On the way back, I walked in a path of army ants and they bit my feet. I screamed! Then Dad got bitten when he tried to help me.  Ouch!

The Nature Trail

We also went on a nature trail. We had to find 12 number logs and then look for teak (red lipstick) leaves, the strangler fig tree or elephant poo, or monkeys. It was very fun but we missed Number 7 and 10. We also got a bit lost! At first we went wrong so Ben and Mum went to see if they could see a path and then the next moment, we saw then hanging on branches like koalas! We later found out that there was a deep gully. They looked so funny! Then we found the trail and started again. We saw lots of indigenous plants and fungi and there were lots of bridges and gullies as well.

Click here for a slide show of our Rainforest Adventure.