Motorbiking Moshi
For most travelers the small town of Moshi in Tanzania is a stopover when climbing nearby Mount Kilimanjaro.
Good restaurants and few night clubs give people a chance to live it up before or after toppling Africa’s highest mountain.
There is also no shortage of day trips and smaller sights around Moshi and at the local shack/shop, for 80 USD I was able to organize two guides and a motorbike for the whole day.
The roads up in the foothills soon turn bumpy and rutted, so a reasonable level of skill with off-road riding is needed, but anyone can certainly get a ride with a tour or on the back of the bike with a driver.
Once we got going up into the foothills the views were amazing among the banana plantations and villages which dot the landscape with plenty of friendly people along the way.
Our first stop was Materuni waterfall, which is about a fifteen minute hike from the road. It is a popular spot to cool off after a day of hiking or in our case, biking.
On our way back from the falls at the top of the track in we stopped at the village for a lunch of grilled bananas, sausage and pork-bone soup.
It was a typical afternoon with many of the village’s residents enjoying Mbege — the social beer of the area’s Chaga people, brewed from fermented bananas.
While a few of the younger ones came down the road to see what all the fuss was about who were very helpful in pointing out the local wildlife.
On the way back down we stopped at the Chaga culture and coffee experience plantation for our fill of caffeine and another uniquely Tanzanian brew.
The ride back down was two things — harrowing as we avoided traffic and pot holes in the fading sun and stunning as the afternoon golden glow lit up the mountain and palms surrounding us.
Then back to the shack near town, where we had organized the trip, for a beer and game of pool.
