Tukuyu: Useful Camping

During this season we´ve been able to note down what visitors have to say about Bongo Camping, because unlike the first years, the campsite is now being included in several blog posts on travellers´ websites. Although one post describes that the food was served cold, there´s been very few negative aspects in the descriptions of travellers´ stay at Bongo Camping. Most of them say ´beautiful and simple´.

Photos from our travellers´ blog at: http://youmeandmichael.blogspot.com/2011/04/tanzania-part-1-how-west-was-won-and.html

On a travellers´ blog in April 2011, these Bongo visitors write about their stay at Bongo Camping:

"50 km into Tanzania we stopped in Tukuyu at the community run Bongo Campsite. The campsite was very basic, but, brilliant as it was nestled in amongst a small village and you really felt part of the community as various people contributed to the existence and running of the campsite. It was incredibly cheap and now holds the record for the cheapest camping for us at Tsh 6000 per person which is roughly R20. We also had a Swahili lesson from some of the locals and were taught some of the basics that would help us get by at the market and when asking for directions."

We´ve noticed that we are useful camping to many travellers. Not only are we located close to a border post, where people can rest the day of leaving/entering a new country. Three useful things that we are proud to offer every visitor at Bongo Camping are:

Communal readiness to assist travellers, Swahili teaching, and transparency of local development going on at the office. At the moment any visitor is invited to get insight into the two on-going projects, Bongodox (a documentary film project, see www.bongodox.com), and the Kindergarten.

More visitors´ descriptions have been included in the recent posts on this blog.

Camping and local documentary films

Bongodox is the local documentary film team at Bongo Camping. Right now they need any moral support, as they have begun preparing to make 2 documentary films about local tourism and environment.

Mt. Rungwe

The Southern Highlands of Tanzania are greener than most of Africa and the environment has many positive effects on the lives of people. But although the environment seems endlessly green, farmers, poets and other people who need this condition to persist, should consider environmental protection. The trees, the flowers, the animals and the people all depend on the way we live. The healthy condition of environment must be protected by the society of the Southern Highland of Tanzania.

Bongodox is now digging further into this and other issues of importance to the future of the local society of Rungwe District in Mbeya Region, as they have started a new documentary project running until 2012.

Bongodox needs your moral support on http://www.facebook.com/BongoDox

Cool bananas

Banana fields everywhere. "Bananenplantagen überall", that´s how Germans describe what you see in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. "Das Land ist traumhaft schön. Bananenplantagen überall, winkende Menschen, kurvige, gute Strassen. Eine Wonne!"

The story goes on like this: "Gid entdeckt ein Schild am Wegesrand. “Bongo Camping”. Bei dem Namen kann man ja nicht nein sagen! Eine kleine Offroad-Passage führt zu der kuscheligen Campsite."

That´s how Germans describe the dreamlike beauty of Tukuyu, the people saying hello, the nice roads. A wonder. The Germans quoted above is getting closer to Bongo Camping, as one of them notices our signpost.

They pass on the offroad-passage, after 700 m arriving at the cosy campsite.

German lines and photos from our visitors´ travel blog at http://www.wuestenritt.de/?p=2223

Bongo Camping´s surroundings - a tourist´s view

From September 2011 we quote from Andrew´s African Adventure as written at his sponsor´s website www.hoopers.co.za

5th September - Tanzania

The original plan was to stop in the large town of Mbeya to resupply, and then shoot straight up to Lake Victoria. The dramatic scenery caused them to reconsult the Lonely Planet guide book and in the end they decided to make time and break the journey in a small town called Tukuyu.

With a little more tourist infrastructure Tukuyu would make a great base for hiking in the surrounding hills. Nearby attractions include Ngozi peak and crater lake, Daraja la Mungu, Kaparogwe Falls, Mt Rungwe and the Mbozi meteorite. With limited time Andrew decided to forgo the world's fourth largest meteorite and the 3km high Mt Rungwe.

Their chosen campsite, Bongo Camping, is actually a community project which raises money for the adjoining school by supplying guiding services. Two of the youths volunteered themselves to show them around. First on the agenda was Daraja La Mungu.

Daraja La Mungu, or "Bridge of God" in the local tongue, is an amazing rock formation that spans the Kiriwa River. It is believed to have formed when cooling lava from the now extinct Mt Rungwe volcano flowed over the water from the river. The result is a striking natural bridge of about 20m.

From here they passed through a military area, and their guides did some quick talking (or perhaps just blamed the stupid tourists) to get them past several checkpoints. This road led them to a pretty waterfall where they stopped for a snack. On the way out they ate lunch at a local restaurant in the village. For the sum total of $1 they got beans, rice and a coke...bargain! Mozza also got his usual royal treatment from the neighbourhood kids.

Andrew’s guides then turned them around and led them towards Kaparogwe Falls, which they insisted were easy to find. Tar gave way to gravel, which gave way to dirt, which then gave way to grass and small shrubs. The local villagers were giving them very strange looks (even stranger than normal), and they were beginning to get a bit nervous as the sun sank lower in the sky. Andrew’s guides were insistent that they would get them there and eventually enlisted the help of some passing kids. This local knowledge led Mozza back out of the grass paths and onto a slightly more recognisable track. Minutes later they arrived at the falls, and they were all very glad they hadn't turned back. Here they witnessed the Kiriwa River divide into several streams and pour over a cave and down into a jungle gorge. It was pretty spectacular! Mercifully the way out was far easier to navigate and Andrew made it back to town before dark.

The following morning Andrew got invited to teach English to the kids in the school adjoining the campsite. Darren and Andrew did their best to further their mother tongue by teaching the room of four year olds to count to ten, identify fruit and sing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes". Andrew thought they even managed to teach their teachers a bit of English along the way. Andrew thought it felt nice to feel like you've been involved in the community...even if it was to corrupt their future leaders with an Australian accent...

Their final stop on the road out of town was to visit the Ngozi Crater Lake....

(Read more from Andrew´s trip in Tanzania on the web address www.hoopers.co.za).

Tukuyu: Of nature. For people

Southern Highlands of Tanzania have plenty of shiny nature and lots of challenges in development. At Bongo Camping we are carrying still more responsibilities and gaining communally from those conditions which are surrounding us. Add a true will to make exhange with tourists work to the highest benefit of both travellers and local inhabitans, then you get the Bongo Camping spirit of today. The civil society group Kumbe, who is the owner of Bongo Camping, is conducting 3 main on-going responsibilities at present: The campsite, a Kindergarten (the photo showing some of the kids at Bongo Camping in September 2011) and the Video project Bongodox (See www.bongodox.com).

Also check this out on the internet:
Video of tourists teaching the kindergarten at Bongo Camping