And with that it began. Three years ago, sitting on the balcony of our house in Dar es Salaam, my husband Woody and our two friends and business partners, Roy and Zoe, thought we’d start up another business. Woody, Roy and Zoe already run a safari company here in Tanzania, which covers the whole country and sends guests from all over the world into hidden nooks and crannies of the country. Between the four or us we had several years of experience as ecological volunteers in the Tanzanian bush, fifteen years of experience in Tanzanian tourism, a Masters degree in Management of the Natural Environment, and several years of teaching experience both at home and abroad. All of us were passionately committed to Tanzania; all believed in eco-principles and helping the environment; and all wanted to bring more people here, to show them the wonders of the African bush that had so entranced all of us.
Roy and Zoe had spent several years as ecological volunteers collecting field data in and around the Kilombero valley in Southern Tanzania and had grown to know and love the Udzungwa Mountains National Park. It became a regular feature on the Wild Things Safaris southern itineraries. Groups would be guided into the park, hiking to the top of the stunning 180m Sanje waterfall and camping on the top. They would be served a full English breakfast as they gazed out over the jaw-dropping vista of the Kilombero Valley and the Selous Game Reserve in the distance. This, we decided then, would be where we set up our camp. This would be our location – an area well known to all of us, with more to offer than many of the parks in Africa – a unique, “no cars hiking only” park brimming with endemic primates and birds, with rivers and streams and waterfalls, with huge drooping strangler fig trees and clumps of African violets.
It was to prove an interesting task. First off the buying of the land – never an easy task in any country but in Tanzania, with its complex laws on government land ownership, village councils and foreigners status, things were even more of a maze. Woody enlisted the help of one of the local National Park rangers, a friendly and cheerful man called Sospeter Setting off from Dar es Salaam for the bush with quite literally millions of shillings in a bag and a rifle under the passenger seat, they embarked upon a series of village meetings which lasted up to eight hours apiece and in which every aspect of the project was torn apart and analysed by the village elders. Eventually satisfied, the council gave their approval, and piece by piece we were able to buy the land we needed from the farmers. We jigsawed the site together in small parcels until we had a 4 hectare site bordering the National Park directly, consisting of cleared farmland and a small border stretch of existing rainforest.
Starting out with minimal funds, we concentrated at first on getting the site functional and thus gaining a name for itself. Named Udzungwa Forest Tented Camp, the locals call the place Hondo Hondo which translates as hornbill in Swahili – the camp is a favoured nesting spot! We built a simple barbeque style kitchen and a shower and toilet block, and we cleared the farmland and planted local grass and indigenous trees across the site. We declared our campsite open and started to receive guests. Due to the high biodiversity and fascinating ecological features of the park, we proved popular with school and university trips, and soon we were full of students from Germany, the UK, Uganda and Tanzania, to name a few.
However we wanted to be a real ecolodge, not simply a campsite, so over time we began to develop the site. First we consulted the local villagers on appropriate building materials and came up with a blend of the locally used mud and “burnt earth”. We built first three and then another two thatched huts on a small rise at the back of the plot, looking out over the valley floor and shaded by the teak trees planted by the Park Authorities as a natural border. The thatched huts are simple and comfortable, furnished with double beds with mosquito nets, netted windows, colourful curtains made of local kanga cloth, and simple rattan rugs and wooden furniture. These huts share a bathroom and as such have provided a great budget option for travellers looking for a comfortable, ecofriendly accommodation option. From the windows of the huts the view is straight out into the rainforest, with troops of colobus swinging through the trees and baboons roaming the ground; by night the sounds of the bush babies fill the air, and during the dry season the forest elephants crash past on their way to find water in the valley.
The next stage was the luxury safari tents. We had these made to our specifications and using local labour erected the tents with a mikuti roof for added shade. These tents are the luxury option, providing a great choice for people who want to experience the African forest while keeping a touch of comfort and class! The tents all have their own en-suite bathrooms, and the furniture in the tents is all made from coconut wood, a locally-sourced sustainable hardwood option.
Being eco is harder than you may think, especially in Africa where things can be hard to get hold of and the existing way of doing things impossible to change. We interpret ecotourism as referring to responsible and sustainable tourism both in terms of the natural world and the local community and as a contributing member we follow the International Ecotourism Society Code of Conduct. Environmentally conscious and aware, we try to minimise our footprint on our natural surroundings. We have installed low energy LED or CFL bulbs throughout the lodge, and use top-opening fridges and freezers to minimise energy loss and wastage. We have solar powered reading lights in all the rooms, and our hot water is provided using a solar heating system of simple black pipes. As we are at the base of a large mountain range and on the edge of a rainforest, we have an abundance of water, and we have taken advantage of this, installing a micro hydro-power generator. Still being tinkered with, this will once completed produce all necessary power to run the simple needs of the lodge, and ensures our total self-sufficiency and dependence on renewable energy sources. A comprehensive tree planting programme is underway as part of our plan to reforest the land, and to date 400 indigenous saplings, obtained through the National Park Authority, have been planted, with more planting planned in advance of next rainy season.
The other oft-neglected side of ecotourism is the “co”, or community aspect. We support the local primary school financially and in terms of resources, assisting them with the construction of a new toilet block. We are a participating member of the “Pack for a Purpose” scheme which allows travellers with a conscience to fill the space in their bags with desperately needed items requested by the local school. We are currently setting up workshops with the schoolchildren, looking at recycling and arts and crafts, and the intention is to sell their recycled produce on our lodge shop. We support the local Ifakara Womens Weavers group, using their linens and other products in our lodge and selling their products in our shop. We also have plans to work with a village womens group to produce organic soaps and shampoos.
We are still only a couple of years old which in Africa means we have a lot more to learn. Every day we encounter new and unexpected challenges: deciding what to do when an elephant walks through your camp and smashes the plumbing pipes six feet below the ground; discouraging the cheeky baboons from pinching corn on the cobs from the kitchen; despairing as the floodwaters from another tropical downpour wash through our carefully tended market garden, taking all the basil plants with them; explaining to the Natural History Museum entymologist researchers that no, they cannot kill the camp cat in retaliation for its eating their prize Coleoptera sample; calming panicked guests who swear they heard a leopard until we point out the tiny bush baby in the tree; tossing and turning all night as the troops of nocturnal mammals stomp about outside the tents, shrieking and grunting and keeping everyone awake. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Hannah Wood
Udzungwa Forest Tented Camp
Related links :
www.udzungwaforestcamp.com
www.wildthingsafaris.com
www.packforapurpose.org
www.africanrainforest.org
