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Arusha City

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Arusha City

Arusha City

Arusha city is located in the northern highlands of Tanzania, beneath the twin peaks of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, Arusha is the safari capital of the country. Guests embarking on the popular northern safari circuit all stop in the ‘Geneva of Africa’ to prepare for their journeys into the African bush.

From is two-lane streets, the dramatic crater of Mt. Meru stands over the town like a majestic sentinel, it’s crater strewn with thick clouds, it’s slopes dark with verdant forest. Arusha’s ideal location near the major national parks and it’s highland setting make it a peaceful idyll of relaxation before the start of an exciting journey.

Built by the Germans as a centre of colonial administration administration in the early 20th century, Arusha was a sleepy town with a garrison stationed at the old boma and a few shops around a grassy roundabout. From its backwater status amidst the farmlands and plantations of northern Tanzania, today Arusha is one of the country’s most prosperous towns.

Arusha is a major international diplomatic hub. The city hosts and is regarded as the de facto capital of the East African Community. Since 1994, the city has also hosted the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It is a multicultural city with a majority Tanzanian population of mixed backgrounds: indigenous Bantu, Arab-Tanzanian and Indian-Tanzanian population, plus small White European and white American minority population. Religions of the Arushan population are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu.

The current site of Arusha was first settled in the 1830s by the agro-pastoral Arusha Maasai from the Arusha Chini community, south of Mount Kilimanjaro. They traded grains, honey, beer, and tobacco with the pastoral Kisongo Maasai in exchange for livestock, milk, meat, and skins.

Demand for Arusha’s foodstuffs increased substantially during the 1860s when the Pangani Valley trade route was extended through Old Moshi, Arusha, and ultimately to western Kenya. Although it was not yet a town, it was a regional centre and had a number of urban features.

Despite its proximity to the equator, Arusha’s elevation of 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) on the southern slopes of Mount Meru keeps temperatures relatively low and alleviates humidity. Cool dry air is prevalent for much of the year.

The temperature ranges between 13 and 30 degrees Celsius with an average around 25 degrees. It has distinct wet and dry seasons, and experiences an eastern prevailing wind from the Indian Ocean, a couple of hundred miles east.

Budget friendly accommodation for groups, families, backpackers, longstay etc – We recommend Maura HomeStay

Enduimet WMA

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Enduimet WMA

Enduimet WMA

LOCATED in Longido District on the Basin land of the western foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was established in 2003 with land allocated by nine villages covering an area of 1,282 kilometres.

The Small Garden of Eden, home to biggest elephants in East Africa.
LOCATED in Longido District on the Basin land of the western foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, Enduimet Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was established in 2003 with land allocated by nine villages covering an area of 1,282 kilometres.

The Enduimet WMA shares its border with Kilimanjaro National Park to the southeast, Engarusai Open Area to the west and the Kenyan border to the north.

Enduimet WMA sets a good example of a community based conservation area where local Maasai pastoralists are benefiting from tourism and conservation initiatives.

The conserved area occupies the Ol Molog and Tinga Tinga wards in Longido district in Arusha region and is occupied wholly by Maasai pastoral communities. Its operation office is located at Ol Molog ward in on the closer slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Engasurai Open Area is the main attractive geographical feature within Enduimet WMA where animals frequently move to in search for water and hunting ground for predators.

Photographic safaris is the most and well established tourist activity in Enduimet and where tourists from various parts of the world flock to view wild animals. The Kitendeni Corridor is located within the WMA and is a migration route for animals roving between Tsavo West, Mkomazi, Kilimanjaro and Amboseli National parks in Tanzania and Kenya.

Enduimet WMA is divided into three zones of Olkunonoi-Kitendeni
Wildlife Corridor Zone, the Engasurai Tourist Hunting Zone and the Sinya Photographic Safari Zone.  It comprises as well, the northern portion of the larger Kitendeni Wildlife Corridor, which is critical to the survival of both Kilimanjaro and Amboseli National Parks. The corridor serves as an important seasonal migration route and dispersal area for wildebeest, zebras and elephants moving between the two national parks.

The Zones are currently running photographic safaris since no tourist hunting taking place in the whole of Enduimet WMA’s conserved land. With a purpose to conserve Enduimet WMA as a part of the Kilimanjaro and Amboseli ecosystem, no trophy hunting business taking place in this area.
The conserved Area has a very unique and extensive plains ecosystem that is home to an abundance of wildlife and is the only WMA that protects a transboundary corridor between Kilimanjaro and Amboseli National Parks.

Ecologically, the WMA provides connectivity between the Mkomazi, Arusha, Amboseli and Kilimanjaro National Parks and the Greater Tsavo Ecosystem in Kenya.

Enduiment Wildlife Management is endowed with numerous tourist attractions.  Wildlife including giraffes, Thomson gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest, some concentrated at Engasurai plain and which looks like Ngorongoro Crater, commonly referred as “The Small Garden of Eden”.

Elephants, Oryx, Zebras, Giraffes, Lions, Buffaloes, Leopards, Elands, Wildebeests, Hyenas and other African big mammals can easily been seen in the WMA and Sinya, a private concession of about 600 square km, bordering Kenya in Amboseli National Park, offering spectacular landscapes with magnificent views of Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru, Ol Doinyo Longido and Ol Doinyo Orok.  Enduimet is a home to biggest elephants in East Africa.

Other tourist attractions including the “Seven Hill Sisters”: These are small hills located within the Enduimet WMA, each with different heights, but standing together, looking like sisters from one parent, born at different dates.

Cultural Tourism is another tourist activity in Enduimet WMA. Maasai Bomas provide cultural entertainment through traditional Maasai songs and ways of life among the Maasai communities like meat roasting (Nyama Choma), milking cows and folklores. Tourist walking safaris and bush camping safaris can be arranged as well.

Tourist accommodation and recreational services are offered at different lodges and camps established inside Enduimet WMA. These are Elerai Tented Lodge,  Shuma’ta Camp, Tembo Camp and Chui Campsite.

Best time to visit Enduimet WMA is in November when the entire area is full green, but visitors can book and visit there all the year round.  Foreign visitors are charged dollars 10 (US$ 10) as fees to enter and spend a day inside the WMA. Local tourists are charged Sh. 1,000 per day for adults and Sh 500 for children.
Access to Enduimet WMA is easy and possible all the year, except during rainy seasons when some roads and tourist tracks inside the WMA are not passable.

Enduimet WMA is connected by a rough road from Longido District Headquarters. The distance from Arusha City to Longido District Headquarters is 77 kilometres, while from Longido to Enduimet WMA gate is 25 kilometres.

From Enduimet to Arusha via Sanya Juu and Bomang’ombe is 120 kilometres and takes up to 3 hours by bus or a car. Tourists travelling from Arusha, Nairobi and Moshi could either use this road to connect from the Arusha to Nairobi highway.
The WMA can also be reached using a gravel road from Bomang’ombe through Sanya Juu and Engare Nairobi or the rough road from Arusha to Namanga road through Longido village to Sinya, Ngereiyani and Tingatinga.
Going there by a passenger bus, a visitor can board a mini-bus from Arusha to Bomang’ombe, then Bomang’ombe to Sanya Juu then and Ol Molog where the WMA’s operations office is located.