Day 14

We left the hotel around 8:30am to go for some vegetable shopping at the market in Tanga. Found what we were looking for and headed off for Mtai Forest Reserve. Still a bit uncertain where exactly to go we went to the village Maremba and met with the forest officer. Out options were to either go high up or descend or to the foot of the mountain and go up. We opted for the first one.

Abeid and Andy discussing shopping at the market in Tanga,

After a few wrong turns we ended up at the village where we intended to start our trek down into the forest. Whilst there we got informed by the guy set to help us that it was a very long and hard walk and that we'd better start from the foot of the mountain. Oh well, we just had to turn around then.

Said is choosing his vegetables at the
 market in Tanga.

After even more wrong turns and bumpy paths we arrived at the village that was going to be our start point. We needed porters to help out with all our gear so the bargaining begins. Our driver, Abeid, was the main negotiator for us and after a looooot of discussion we got to an agreement and off we were. The forest was magnificent! Huge trees and a lot of green! We settled at a spot near the Musi river and the night fell. Finally a camp! After a whole day of driving and discussions it was quite the relief. One snag though, we couldn' hear any galagos...

Said (yellow shirt center) and Abeid (suglasses on head leaning
 on car) are dividing the camping gear amongst the hired
 porters at Musi village (Photo by Andrew Perkin).