I had a good sleep after the weeding-nightclub night and as I finally got up I started to organize the trek to Mtae. Well, there was not that much to organize after all since this trek is one of the tours they tried to sell to you anyway. The only thing I had to do was to pick a guide and to tell him that I liked to go the first part per pickup and shorten the trek that way from three to two days.

We left the next morning and waved a pickup car down. It felt great to stand in the back of the pickup with all the locals and the bags of cement. We made a small detour to unload all the cement and some of the passenger and then went on our way again. We stopped some times more to pick up other peoples or drop somebody. Finally we made it to the town from where we would start the walk.

The walk followed the beaten path the villager use to get to the road and we came cross many of the villager on their way to there. Some were dressed in working cloths but others wear their best dress and shoes. Especially the women were interesting to see walking in their high heels across the mountains.

Along the way we passed many fields and villages. Wherever we crossed a village the children started to run after us – me – with a screaming voice. As soon as I stopped they got quiet and as I started walking towards them, they run away. We played this game for quite a while till I encouraged them to come closer. First they did not really dare but their curiosity was bigger then their fear and so some of them came closer and even dared to touch me. As the rest saw that touching this ‘white person’ did not hurt, they all came closer and touched me. I made some photos with my digital camera and showed them to them. By that time they had lost all their fear and were actually real cheeky – I had several times to move backwards in order not to have just a big, flat nose on the photo.

We walked for about 4 hours before we reached the place were we would stay for the night. There was not that much to do in this place except to have a look at the really small marked. After a walk up the village overlooking hill we went for dinner in one of the local restaurants. As to expect in such a place, the ‘restaurant’ was basic and the meal was what ever was available in town – that day it was lame with Ugali – a sort of a polenta.

The next day was pretty much like the day before – walking over some mountain ridges, through villages and children running after us. We reached Mtae around midday and had plenty of time to explore the surroundings. Basically we just walked around, visited the missionary church and some graveyards of apparently ‘famous’ persons. We continued up a hill and then down to small waterfall and lookout point. As it sometimes happens, we ended up to attend a ceremony to honor ancestors. First I thought the peoples would not like me taking photos of the ceremony. I had to learn then, that they quite liked me to take photos – I have to send them some copies – and thought it as an honor that I was there. The ceremony involved a lot of swinging of different bottles with strange tasting saps, a lot of water and the beheading of two chickens. The whole ceremony was much more ‘earthbound’ then I would have expected and not spiritual at all – at least not for me.

After the ceremony we went to visit one of the ‘voodoo’ healer in his house. There he showed us all the different bottles and explained what they are supposed to heal and cure and I had to smile many times about his explanations. He asked me weather I had anything that has to be cured but I felt totally fine and so I don’t know whether his medicine would have worked on me.

The next morning we took the early morning bus back to Lushoto where I picked up my big backpack and went strait on to Marangu at the basis of Kilimanjaro. The reason I went to Marangu was not to climb Kili but just to have a good view at him. As it turned out the view from Marangu is not the ‘typical’ one where you see the mountain raise above a flat plain, but a side view of the mountain. Nevertheless I had a good time in Marangu mainly because I met Kathrin und here mother (sorry, I forgot your name). They stayed in the same lodge as I – they in nice bungalow and I in my tent. The two had just successfully climbed Kili and it was great to here their stories – maybe one day I gone spend those 500-600 USD to climb the mountain. Pictures from their climb can be seen at www.kathrinweb.de

After some relaxing days in Marangu I headed to Arusha to team up with the Truck-Safari.