Issue No. 2 A focusA break on the to least new known and excitingtourist attractions adventurous of Tanzania sights in December Tanzania 2012 Tourist Attractions in the SOUTHERN ZONE Lindi | Mtwara | Ruvuma Focus on Southern Zone HARDVENTURE TOURISMMap| Least known of tourist attractionsTanzania Tanzania Tourist Board 2 HARDVENTURE TOURISM | Least known tourist attractions N Map of the Southern Zone 3 Tanzania Tourist Board HARDVENTURE TOURISM | Least known tourist attractions Contents Editorial comment Southern Zone ready for more visitors 05 Focus on the least known tourist attractions in the Southern Zone The ruins of the 15th 06 Century Great Mosque or Lindi Region Friday Mosque, in Kilwa, Mtwara Region 23 Lindi Region, the largest then in Equatorial Africa Ruvuma Region 38 Tanzania Fact File 45 Southern Zone Cultural Cruise 51 A human pyramid by Makonde carvers, the symbol of Mtwara Scenic view of Mbamba Bay Beach, Ruvuma region with canoes of area resident Ä shermen Tourists taking a break at Msimbati Beach, Mtwara in loin dress, a formal garb by coastal Swahili males Tanzania Tourist Board 4 HARDVENTURE TOURISM | Least known tourist attractions Welcome to HARDVENTURE TOURISM HARDVENTURE TOURISM Southern Zone ready for more visitors his is the second edition of HardVenture, a tourism news magazine. Its Publisher Tanzania Tourist Board maiden edition was launched in Dodoma, early in August 2012. In that P.O.Box 2485 edition, HardVenture reached out to numerous sites in the Lake Zone Dar es Salaam Tin which the least known tourists’ attractions exist, some of them in Tel: +255 22 2111 244/5 remotely placed villages and islands. Fax: +255-22 211 6420 www.tanzaniatourism.go.tz In this second edition, HardVenture has turned its focus on the least known tourists’ Editorial Board attractions vastly available in the Southern Zone whose composition include the Dr. Aloyce K. Nzuki three regions of Lindi, Mtwara and Ruvuma. The Zone, formerly thought as a Managing Director, TTB sleeping giant, is quite vibrant and ready to host more tourists! Ms. Devota K. Mdachi Director of Marketing The Zone has improved its road network and airports as a result it receives more Geofrey E. Tengeneza Principal Public Relations OfÄ cer scheduled Å ights and charter-plane services. Hotels and other accommodation facilities are also going through continued refurbishment and expansion to cater for Editorial Technical Coordinator increased arrivals. Savor Tanzania Limited Tel: +225 713 234722 A wide range of these facilities and the beckoning attractions are highlighted in +255 716 158 969 E-mail: [email protected] the 60 pages of this edition and they include a collection of ruins, beautiful sandy [email protected] beaches and dunes, wildlife, marine parks, untold lifestyles of the earliest and Advertising Coordinator tallest humans that lived and roamed the bushes and beaches of Lindi and Mtwara Savor Tanzania regions, and the magniÄ cent viewpoints and rolling country side of the Ruvuma. Tel:+255 754 366 447 Design and Layout Physical checks indicate that the number of visitors to the Southern Zone has Savor Tanzania Limited increased as more tourists Å ock to the sea and lake resorts in Lindi, Mtwara, Kilwa, Reprints: Permission is required Songea and Mbamba Bay towns. to reproduce articles, photos and artwork from this publication. Therefore, it is our anticipation that our stakeholders are sending desired changes to Please contact Managing Director the Southern Zone by exposing its then unknown tourist attractions to the outside Tanzania Tourist Board world, improving hotels and transport facilities as well as visitors’ services in the E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +255 22 2111244/5 Zone. TTB can perform much better and improve the livelihood of the Southern Zone residents by consolidating revenue collections through increased number of tourists’ arrivals not only in the three designated southern regions alone, but also in and across Tanzania as a must see destination. Aloyce K. Nzuki, PhD Managing Director Main cover photo: Lindi Beach 5 Tanzania Tourist Board Focus on Southern Zone HARDVENTURE TOURISM | Least known tourist attractions LINDI Land of Tendaguru and little harmless dragons Much to off er, much to see the best time to do. A set of six letters of Lindi relatively looks like an olive Geographical Location (KLMNRS) have been curved from the leaf; a symbol of friendliness, a trait alphabet family to deÄ ne a complete shown by its residents. But there is INDI region borders Coast and set of a unique geographical proÄ le another L that stands for Liwale a Morogoro on the northwest of Lindi, which between 1885 and district in Lindi which was one of the and Ruvuma and Mtwara 1919 was the major seaport for the early trading towns whose origin is a Lregions on the south. Much of German colonial administration in the Shirazi word, liwal later corrupted in the western part of the region is in the portmanteau Tanganyika. The letters Kiswahili to read Liwali, an arbiter or a Selous Game Reserve, a wild game include: judicious ofÄ cial! reserve whose size is equivalent to Switzerland. K: Stands for the Kilwas and home to M: Represents Mtama, a vibrant It is located at 9:30 degrees latitude the Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara constituency and home to Sudi, a and 38:30 degrees longitude. The ruins which are UNESCO’s World world class historical site in the early word Lindi means a Å oating buoy or Heritage sites and Kilwa Kipatimo days of trading activities and political buoyant! It has also a funny meaning, and Kilwa Masoko, on the mainland. administration and also the only site a pit latrine pole! It occupies land currently used by Ä sherladies/women surface area of 67,000 square Kilwa was once the East African in the region. kilometres trading city port linking the kingdom According to the 2002 Tanzania of onamutapa in Zimbabwe to the N: Is for Nachingwea, one of its six National Census, the population for Middle East, Persia (Iran), Turkey, districts whose ruins of an abandoned Lindi Region was 791,306 and it is Indonesia and China. Whereas railway line and its position as the estimated that its residents can clock Kilwa Kipatimo, was the launching rear launching pad for the liberation close to or above one million and so pad of the liberation struggle for the of Mozambique, makes it stand tall in now. portmanteau of Tanganyika. the annals of history. Due to its geographical position, adjacency to the Indian Ocean L: Stands for Lindi, the region’s name R: Stands for Ruangwa, a newly shoreline, the weather in Lindi is and the name to its administrative head formed district and constituency as tropical and humid. town which to some locals means a well as a hub of inter-districts’ road The best time to visit the town/region town which Å oats while others say transport. is between the months of May and Lindi means Ä rmly anchored object. S: Denotes Selous game reserve, September, when the weather is Lindi as a seaside town was an the largest wildlife conservation relatively cooler. If you want to explore important port for early traders and area whose size is like the size of the attractions in Lindi that could be travellers. The geographical shape Switzerland and World Heritage Site. EFORE, setting off to Lindi on the Dar-Lindi terminal at 5 o’clock September 1 aboard Machinga Line, highway, which is still under construction, a friend one of the major transport companies that offer Ä rst class had suggested that an air travel to the southern road transport services for southern bound/ travellers Bcoastal town could have been less tiring. After and tourists. I spent the Ä rst two hours dozing off. It was debating for sometime, we resolved that I should travel around 7 o’clock when we were jolted from slumber as the the 330 km by road. So, I left the Ubungo upcountry bus bus rolled at Nanjirinji, one of the busy centres along the Tanzania Tourist Board 6 HARDVENTURE TOURISM | Least known tourist attractions A collection of Lindi attractions: The gorgeous Kitunda Beach, (top), PC’s House which was the ofð cial residence of the German Provincial Commissioner (below left), and the ruins of the Great Mosque, Kilwa Island (below right) highway. It were the voices of vendors could be one of the most traitorous mostly boys and females that awoke while the bus doing the 60 km us. stretches on Kibiti- Ndundu-Somanga road. Sometimes the bus engine Each and everyone tried to elbow out coughed up and gave loud hiccups the other by shouting on the top of his before it spluttered into life again. or her voice to catch the attention of the sleepy looking passengers. The Sometimes passengers could lament boys and the few female vendors and curse. But it was ‘all cheers’ as were selling a variety of snacks and the bus rolled at Somanga because it bites such as boiled maize, roasted was the end of the rough section of chicken, buns, and fresh fried sea Ä sh. the road. Slowly the bus veered into My seatmate and I opted for a piece an outpost electronic weighbridge. of boiled maize for snap breakfast. An electronic panel of the weighbridge Our next stop was at Kibiti, where the was facing us, and clearly showed the bus veered off a-29 km rough section net weight of our bus to the delight of of the Lindi-Ikwiriri road. The section the travellers. It was unloaded. 7 Tanzania Tourist Board Old German Boma ruins in Lindi, with trooping roots of Ä g trees trying to support it from curving in Shortly, we were on a tarred 33 km section on the Somanga- At Njia Nne a.k.a Nangurukuru, our bus stopped for at least Masaninga/Matanda road, midstream Nangurukuru resort ten minutes to allow voyagers to have breakfast and access (nearly 75 km away).