Usambara Mountains

Shangayu rainforest

Visit the Shangayu rainforest, a primeval forest with a great biodiversity of flora and fauna. Various monkey- and bird species inhabit this area.

Mambo caves

The settlement of the Usambara mountains goes back 1.5 million years. Traces of which were found near the village of Mambo and can still be seen, including in the Ngozoi or Mambo caves.

The caves must have been created by a heavy earthquake causing a number of very large rocks to overlap. Earthquakes with an impact this heavy aren’t known in recent Tanzanian history, meaning they must have an ancient origin too. Because the Usambara Mountains is about 100 million years old, this is quite possible. These caves show traces of old and more recent habitation.

In ancient times, the caves were used for shelter by the Usamba who lived in the mountains and were attacked by the Maasai. Women and children hid in the caves during wartime and men looked out over the rocks. The name of the nearby village Mtae still recalls those days. Mtae means “counting” and is suitable since people counted the number of attackers that were rising, so the defenders knew how many stones they had to throw.

Amani Nature Reserve

The Amani Nature Reserve was established in 1997 to preserve the unique flora and fauna of the – less accessible – Eastern Usambara Mountains. The Amani nature reserve has a tropical cloud forest habitat.
The submontane, evergreen forests grow especially on the sea side of both the west and east of the Usambara mountains.

Depending on the native moist forest cover, there are different types of mites, spiders, freshwater crabs, dragonflies, beetles, butterflies, centipedes and molluscs. There are relatively few large mammals in the reserve.

The research center founded in 1902 on the hill Amani, has done much pioneering research into malaria.

Mkomazi Park

The Mkomazi National Park is a beautiful 3500 km2 national park in northern Tanzania. Remote and inaccessible at first, it was founded in 1951. From Mambo View Point Eco Lodge it’s only an hour and a half drive to the entrance of Kivingo.

The Mkomazi National Park is a spectacular wilderness near the Usumbara mountains, with the Kilimanjaro in the background. This is the land of wandering herds of elephants, oryx and zebras during the wet season. But also giraffes, hartebeests, lesser kudu, moose, impala and Grant’s gazelle, buffalo and many predators, including lions, leopards and cheetahs. A total of 78 species of mammals have been registered and 400 bird species, including hornbills, weavers and guinea fowls and the warlike eagle.

Mkomazi National Park is the southern tip of the Sahel zone. It’s a classic dryland reserve of gray-green nyika bush, old baobab trees and isolated rocky hills. But also savannah forests with umbrella acacias and shallow valleys with grass.

The Mkomazi National Park is less known and therefore not so crowded, making the animals behave naturally. Almost all species are to be found, including the highly endangered black rhino and African wild dog.
Conservationist Tony Fitzjohn and his team, together with the support of the Suzuki Rhino Club, among others, are working hard to bring back these two highly endangered species; the Mkomazi Project. Currently, fourteen black rhinos live in a fenced and guarded area of 50 km2. The breeding program has also brought 60 wild dogs back to nature.