Waterfalls and Culture

A short drive from Moshi up to Materuni village at around 1,600m, where the road ends and the walk begins. The trail follows irrigation furrows through banana and coffee plots for about 45 minutes to the base of the falls.

Materuni drops roughly 90m into a cold plunge pool, and you can swim if you are brave. Back in the village a Chagga family walks you through their coffee, picking the cherries, pounding them in a wooden mortar with singing, roasting over a wood fire and drinking the result.

Lunch is cooked by the family, usually banana and beef stew, before the drive back down to Moshi.

Note: Bring a swimsuit, towel and shoes with grip. The trail is muddy after rain.

You drive northeast towards Rombo and walk into the Ndoro forest, quieter and greener than Materuni, with good birding along the way.

Kuringe Falls sits in a narrow amphitheatre of rock and moss. After time at the water you visit the Chagga defence caves, hand dug tunnels once used to hide families and cattle during raids, and hear the history from a village elder.

A late lunch in the village, then back to Moshi with the evening free to wander the market and clock tower.

An hour and a half west of Moshi, the Kikuletwa springs surface as a startlingly clear turquoise pool ringed by fig roots, fed by water filtered through Kilimanjaro's slopes.

You have the morning to swim, use the rope swing, eat grilled fish from the stalls and do very little else.

Afternoon transfer to Kilimanjaro International Airport, or a handover to your safari or trekking guide if you are continuing.