Lodge

Contact us: Email. Tel: Diana (Dar es Salaam) 0756 774 035  |  Subi (asst manager)  0784 307 841 |  Msheba (manager)  0787 279 371 | Land line 027 26 404 27. Country code for Tanzania is +255.

Juma Kahema is company director and tourism manager. He knows EVERYTHING about the Usambaras, and has been EVERYWHERE in and around these mountains, working as farmer, trader, community mobiliser, development worker and of late tourist guide. Just go ahead and try him, ask him anything about this piece of Africa.

THE SAMBAA KINGDOM
Maweni lies in the heartland of the old Sambaa kingdom, between the villages of Magila and Shashui. The gravesites of the old kings in Vuga are within walking distance. In the nights you often hear the drumming from the small ridgetop hamlets in Magila. Parts of Magila village still looks much like a traditional Sambaa village, whereas the Shashui area was to be dominated by German settler farmers in the colonial time.

This picture was taken on the boundary -- literally -- to Mazumbai forest reserve in 1989. Few camphor trees (Ocotea usambarensis) of this size remain outside the reserve.