Wales Tourism and Visit Planning

Holiday In Wales On the moss-covered rock face in front of me, three small blue-violet flowers pushed out of a rosette of velvet green leaves. There they were, finally: wild African violets, lovely examples of the ancestors of one of the world's most popular houseplants. They grow naturally only in the coastal mountains and forests of East Africa, and I'd come a long way to see them.

Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists visit South Africa every year, and of these visitors plan a stop in Cape Town, the pride of the southern African subcontinent.

Holiday Wales "They aren't in bloom all the time," my guide, Abduel, was saying. "Some people make special trips here, and never see the flowers. You are a lucky lady, Mama."

Porcupines on the red Kalhari dunes, Kgalagadi South African Tourism Definitely the most spectacular of the Shy Five, this endearing creature loves to roam at night rootling for... no, not truffles but bulbs and tubers. Alas, we don't have such a sublime wild delicacy in South Africaa but we do have the a African potato, a or imkomfe, a yummy, wild tuber that grows commercially in KwaZulu Natal and is making its way into stores.

Cottage Holiday In Wales For years I've struggled to keep at least one African violet in bloom through Montreal winters, but it wasn't until I started working on a novel about a Canadian politician and his Qub coise wife who is passionate about African violets that I began to wonder about the pretty little flower's origins. In French one of its names is la violette d'Usambara, and initially I thought it referred to Usumbura, now Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. But further reading revealed that the flowers originally came from the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Their story intrigued me, and when I got a chance to go to Africa last October I decided to check them out. I first took a flight to Dar es Salaam from Nairobi, and left the next morning by bus for Tanga, 200 miles north on the Indian Ocean coast.

Zulu induna South African Tourism Cultural tourism is fraught with all kinds of ideological pitfalls. Visit a classic 'cultural village' and you'll be treated to an admittedly fascinating visual feast of fabulous costumes, clad warriors brandishing stabbing spears and singing rousing war songs. even in the cities. But there is more to African Culture than beads and breasts and beating drums. And even the iconic Ndebele artwork, for which South Africa is renowned, traditional ways.

Caravan Holiday In Wales Tanga is the nearest good-sized town to the Amani Nature Reserve, a 20,000-acre preserve in the East Usambaras, home to eight wild African violet species.

Steenberg. Or simply just relax, soak in the South African sun in our private garden with pool and cabana. Enjoy long, breathtaking sunsets, a clear night sky filled with stars. Accommodation African Violet%š three luxuriously appointed suites feature a living area, furnished to create restful ambience in contemporary African style, all with open plan kitchens. tile heating, heated towel rail, shaver plug, shower or luxury bath. All suites have bath and pool towels provided,

Camping Holiday Wales Two of them, S. confusa and S. ionantha, are thought to be the ones from which the plants you find in any florist have been bred. (The one I saw in bloom there was probably S. confusa.) Even though the wild plants usually have only blue or violet flowers, the species are so marvelously rich in genetic variations that plant breeders have been able to tease out white, pink, dark blue, mauve, red-violet and green varieties.

Paragliding off Lions Head South African Tourism When you are tired of Cape Town, you're tired of life.

Accommodation Holiday Wales In the past there was a rail connection not far from Tanga, but today only freight trains use the stretch of rail. Scheduled airlines don't stop at the town either. Unless I wanted to rent a four-wheel-drive vehicle with driver, I was going to have to take buses. Not a good thing, several people warned me: buses weren't the sort of transport someone like me white, female and 58 should take by herself.

Holiday Last Minute Wales However, my contacts in Tanga and Amani assumed that I'd take the bus, and recommended the Raha Leo line. O.K., I thought; let's try it, I haven't come all this way to be timorous.

Catering Holiday Self Wales "No problem," the taxi driver in Dar es Salaam said when I gave him the address of the bus terminal. As soon as we drove through its gates, though, shills descended on us, shouting in Kiswahili. The driver exchanged a few words with them, then began to roll up the windows of the cab.

Holiday Wales Walking "What's happening?" I asked, in mounting panic.

Family Holiday Wales "They say that the Raha Leo bus left at 8:30, and the next one won't go until afternoon," the taxi driver began.

Holiday Riding Wales "But," said a man with his head and shoulders through the back window just inches from me, "there is another bus which leaves in half an hour, just as good a bus."

Adventure Holiday Wales I looked beseechingly at the driver. "Do you think it would be all right?"

Holiday Park South Wales "Yes," he said. "Probably," he qualified. And after carefully locking the taxi, he took my suitcase over to the bus, made sure it was stowed in the luggage compartment, and saw that I boarded.

Cottage Holiday Wales Inside, to my surprise, I found goodnatured courtesy. The bus was the size of a North American intercity bus, but with red-flocked velvet wallpaper. All the seats already appeared to be taken by people dressed for a special occasion, but the conductor immediately shooed a young man from one so I could sit near the front. After two people made sure I found my way to the (quite clean) restrooms when we made a rest stop halfway through the four-and-a-half-hour bus trip, I began to think that traveling in Africa when you're a certain age has its advantages: you get respect you don't find in North America.

Holiday In Wales October is the start of the short rainy season in East Africa, and it was drizzling when the bus set out. As the road turned inland, the rain stopped. Clouds hugged the earth, as did smoke from fires set by farmers to prepare the soil for the next crop. In places banana palms were scorched where the flames had spread more quickly than a farmer wished. In others women were already at work with hoelike mattocks, getting ready to plant the small patches of land when the rains came in earnest.

Holiday Wales In the distance were the East Usambara Mountains, which catch moisture-laden breezes from the Indian Ocean. Lush forests are a result, abounding in a rich variety of plants and animals. The Eastern Arc mountain forests, of which the East Usambaras are a part, were recently named as one of the world's biodiversity "hot spots."

Cottage Holiday In Wales The mountains were densely forested until the beginning of the 20th century when Tanganyika became the centerpiece of German colonial aspirations in Africa. The Germans, along with the British, systematically exploited the forests, but also established a botanical garden at Amani, experimenting with plants from all over the world. The scientific name of African violets Saintpaulia reflects this German colonial past. Baron Walter von Saint Paul Illaire found the plants in 1892, when he was commissioner of Tanga province. He sent seeds back to his father, an amateur botanist, in Germany, and within 10 years African violets had become a horticultural sensation throughout Europe.

Caravan Holiday In Wales Recently Saintpaulia have played a key role in safeguarding what is left of the East Usambaras' natural splendors. Most of them grow in damp, shady places, and when the forest is cut down, they vanish. But commercial logging continued into the 1980's, threatening many streams and forest glades where Saintpaulia thrived, as well as rare species like the Swynnerton's robin and a three-horned chameleon with eyes like Homer Simpson's. To protect all this, some 250,000 acres of the mountain forests have now been declared a U.N. Man and Biosphere Reserve. (The Amani Reserve is an even more strictly protected part of the biosphere region.) Conservation and village life here are supposed to go hand in hand, and today about 100,000 people live relatively lightly on the land gathering no more wood than they can carry themselves and clearing no new fields in small villages within the designated area.

Camping Holiday Wales It rained a bit my first morning at Amani, but the sun shone most of the four days I was there. Despite being just 5 degrees south of the equator, days were pleasant, in the low 80's, and evenings were cool; a blanket felt good at night in the lodge at the reserve's headquarters where I stayed.

Accommodation Holiday Wales The cement-floor building has small, spare rooms with single beds and mosquito nets (and screens on the windows). It sleeps about 20 in single, double and triple rooms, but I was the only guest most of my stay, so I felt like a camper with camp all to herself. No camp I've ever stayed at had food as good, though. The manager asked me what I wanted for each meal, offering doughnutlike mandaazi, eggs, toast and cereal for breakfast; curry-inspired meat dishes at lunch and dinner. Rice, pasta or ugali (a corn porridge rather like polenta) rounded out the meals; excellent fresh fruit was dessert.

Holiday Last Minute Wales The Amani guides are all local people, chosen after competitive exams and then trained in botany, ecology and natural lore. The guide I got to know best, Abduel B. Kajiru, is the first in his family to finish secondary school. He knows the scientific names, the uses in traditional medicine and the economic importance of a staggering number of plants.

Catering Holiday Self Wales In addition to that first, marvelous sighting of Saintpaulia in the wild that he led me to, he took me on several long walks. We started off with a tour of the remnants of the well-maintained old German botanical garden (although there are no labels on the plants), with its jacaranda-lined roads, century-old cinnamon trees and views of tea estates in the distance.

Holiday Wales Walking The next morning we scrambled down into a canyon to see another nest of Saintpaulia. On the far side of a stream, the damp rock wall was covered with dozens of African violets. None were in bloom, but clumps of salmon-colored impatiens, another East African native, brightened the edges of the water course. From there we skirted a portion of forest that hadn't been logged where we could look out on the dense canopy of treetops. Then we climbed past patches of corn, banana trees and other tropical staples like a kind of tuber called cocoyam, interspersed with coffee trees laden with tiny flowers scented like orange blossoms. In the nearby village, cardamom pods lay drying in the sun on mats; it was Saturday, and that evening a constant stream of people paraded by the Amani guest house on their way to a market-day celebration miles up the road.

Family Holiday Wales The last afternoon was a golden one, and our walk took us past fish ponds and stands of sugar cane and grass grown to feed cattle. At one tiny settlement, three children ran out to show us a brilliant green and yellow chameleon that matched the buttery light coming through the leaves of the palm trees. Farther on four women invited me to help celebrate the birth of a child. And as we walked, Abduel continually amazed me with what he knew about the plants and animals of the region, so rich yet so very fragile.

Holiday Riding Wales Now that I'm back home, I have great hopes for my own domesticated Saintpaulia. My plan is to juggle humidity and fertilizer, watering schedules and shade to imitate conditions on the banks of streams in the East Usambaras. Whether or not I succeed, I hope that Abduel and his colleagues will be able to protect the mountains' marvelous ecosystems, and that Saintpaulia will continue to flourish at home in the wild.

Adventure Holiday Wales Getting There

Holiday Park South Wales Northwest/KLM has flights from North America to Amsterdam, with connecting flights to Dar es Salaam. British Airways and American Airlines flights connect through London. It's a long trip the shortest routing takes more than 21 hours if you don't make a stopover.

Cottage Holiday Wales October and November are good months to visit. Air fares are usually lower than in July and August and the dust is settled by the first rains. East Africa has two rainy seasons: from mid-October to December and from mid-March to May.

Holiday In Wales If you don't rent a car and driver, bus is the only way to get to the Amani Nature Reserve. Raha Leo and Bembea Line buses, which leave between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. from Dar, connect with either the Bin Seif or Jabwebwea bus, which leave for Amani around noon every day from Muheza, a small market town about 15 miles inland from Tanga. Ask the driver on the bus from Dar or at the Muheza station about connections: the trip up into the mountains takes about two hours. Bus tickets are ridiculously cheap: from Dar to Tanga on the Bembea line I paid about $12, at 1,030 Tanzanian shillings to $1. The second-leg bus trip from Muheza to Amani cost $1.

Holiday Wales Where to Stay

Cottage Holiday In Wales The Amani Nature Reserve is also a bargain. Open year round, its rustic wood-paneled lodge sleeps 20, with simply furnished single, double and triple rooms and shared bathrooms. Full board three generous meals and lodging is about $10 a night. The reserve also has cabins with private baths for the same price at Sigi, six miles down the mountain, where there is a visitors center worth a stop. For reservations contact the reserve conservator at (255 2627) 40313; anr@twiga.com.

Caravan Holiday In Wales The Reserve

Camping Holiday Wales Finnish government and European Union aid programs have been helping Tanzanians organize both the reserve and the tourism program. The aim is to provide income for local residents while safeguarding the natural richness of the East Usambara Mountains. (The European Union's contribution ended in March, and the Finnish aid will end in December.) The Amani guides share the fees that visitors pay ($10 a day). I invited Abduel to join me for lunch each day at the lodge, since meals are not included in the guides' pay.

Accommodation Holiday Wales By Mary Soderstrom
New York Times - 11/3/2002

Topic: Biodiversity

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