Lushoto – Moshi; Kwalei, Soni
We began our day with a visit an extension office of the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) in Kwalei. This organization conducts participatory research projects in conjunction with interested farmers. Their trials in six villages include projects on fodder bushes, agroforestry, crop varieties, soil and water conservation, composting and manure fertilization, and promotion of specific species such as Mucuna pruriens and indigenous allelopathic grasses (e.g. mingingu). Some representatives from the organization accompanied us on a brief tour of the area, during which they extolled the successes of farmers who had participated in their extension work. Take-home message: If you grow more tomatoes than your neighbour does, you can buy a truck and monopolize market access, which will give you the income you need in order to build a two-storey house.
We took Sarah, our guide from AHI, back to Soni, a town near Lushoto, and had a look around the bustling market. We had no need for the fresh fruits and bread that the kanga-clad women offered us, though, as we had plenty of… Tuna and sardines! Anyway, no rest for the weary, we were soon on the road to Moshi. Villages became fewer and further between in proportion to the heat and lack of water and soon there were only Maasai huts here and there. We stopped in what must have been the hottest and most hostile ecosystem we encountered on the trip. The soil was so dry I’d swear you could light it on fire. There were few signs of life, though there were desiccated, gnarled, defoliated but supposedly living shrubs everywhere. Everything there had spines, thorns or prickles. We saw evidence of a symbiosis between ants and a myrmecophilic Acacia sp.; the ants live in, you guessed it, the thorns! Oddly enough, we also found the shells of several snails (Order Pulmonata). How they are able to survive there I am not sure, but it must involve some type of dormancy. We gratefully moved on.
Whatever the heat took out of us, though, our second view of Kilimanjaro put right back. The summit loomed like an apparition above the clouds, leading us toward the expectedly drab YMCA in Moshi. We dumped our bags and devoured a sticky but delicious jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) before enjoying dinner in town. We hurried back to the hostel, as the doors were to be locked at 23.00, but we would have done just as well to stay out; it was too hot and muggy to sleep anyway.
Why so much science? What is this?
We took Sarah, our guide from AHI, back to Soni, a town near Lushoto, and had a look around the bustling market. We had no need for the fresh fruits and bread that the kanga-clad women offered us, though, as we had plenty of… Tuna and sardines! Anyway, no rest for the weary, we were soon on the road to Moshi. Villages became fewer and further between in proportion to the heat and lack of water and soon there were only Maasai huts here and there. We stopped in what must have been the hottest and most hostile ecosystem we encountered on the trip. The soil was so dry I’d swear you could light it on fire. There were few signs of life, though there were desiccated, gnarled, defoliated but supposedly living shrubs everywhere. Everything there had spines, thorns or prickles. We saw evidence of a symbiosis between ants and a myrmecophilic Acacia sp.; the ants live in, you guessed it, the thorns! Oddly enough, we also found the shells of several snails (Order Pulmonata). How they are able to survive there I am not sure, but it must involve some type of dormancy. We gratefully moved on.
Whatever the heat took out of us, though, our second view of Kilimanjaro put right back. The summit loomed like an apparition above the clouds, leading us toward the expectedly drab YMCA in Moshi. We dumped our bags and devoured a sticky but delicious jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) before enjoying dinner in town. We hurried back to the hostel, as the doors were to be locked at 23.00, but we would have done just as well to stay out; it was too hot and muggy to sleep anyway.
Why so much science? What is this?
