Mwanza Tanzania - Tanzania Tourists Destinations

Mwanza Tanzania

Tanzania’s second-largest city, and the lake region’s economic heart, Mwanza is set on Lake Victoria’s shore, surrounded by hills strewn with enormous boulders. In addition to being notable for its strong Indian influences, Mwanza is a major industrial centre and busy port. Yet, despite its rapidly rising skyline, Mwanza manages to retain a casual feel. In addition to being a stop on the way to Rubondo Island National Park,
Mwanza is a great starting or finishing point for safaris through Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, ideally as a loop by adding Lake Natron.

Sights

Rock City

The surrounding hills and boulders give Mwanza its ‘Rock City’ nickname and make it one of Africa’s most beautiful cities.

Bismarck Rock

Mwanza’s icon, Bismarck Rock, is a precariously balanced boulder atop the lovely jumble of rocks in the lake next to the Kamanga ferry pier. The little park here is a brilliant sunset spot.

Jiwe Kuu

One of the more interesting rock formations around Mwanza is Jiwe Kuu (Big Rock), which some people call the Dancing Rocks. Many round boulders sit atop this rocky outcrop north of town and have managed to last eons without rolling off. Dalla-dallas to Bwiru run west down Nyerere Rd; their final stop leaves you within a 1.5km walk.

Robert Koch Hill

Smack in the city centre is Robert Koch Hill, with an attractively decrepit German-built mansion at the top. Several Maasai now live here, but if you introduce yourself and give them a small donation, you can look around. To get here, push through the bustling market, and take the trail through the beer garden and past all the piles of rubbish. You shouldn’t go up there late in the day and single women shouldn’t go alone.

Saa Nane National Park

The rocky island 500m off Capri Point is Saa Nane National Park. Even though it’s only 0.76 sq km and home to only monkeys and impalas, visiting costs more than some huge wildlife-filled national parks. With 70 bird species it does make a worthwhile short excursion for birders.
In addition to the entry fees add boat fee for the return boat trip (which can seat 20). You can check out the old bones and some rather sorry looking stuffed animals in the office for free.

Markets & Temples

Central Mwanza along Temple St and west to Station Rd has an oriental feel due to its many temples (both Hindu and Sikh) and mosques, as well as Indian trading houses lining the streets. The street-side market and ambience continue west through the Makoroboi area, where the namesake scrap-metal workshop is hidden away in the rocks. Kerosene lamps (makoroboi in Swahili), ladles and other household goods are fashioned from old cans and other trash. East of Temple St, the huge and confusing Central Market is fun to explore.

Mwaloni Market

Mwaloni Market, under the roof with the giant Balimi ad, is quite a spectacle. The city’s main fish market also has lots of fruits and vegetables, most shipped in on small boats from surrounding villages, and there are almost as many marabou storks as vendors. Photography is prohibited because some scenes in the controversial documentary film Darwin’s Nightmare (2004) were shot here.

Maasai Market

Mwanza has a Maasai Market, with a couple of dozen Maasai selling beaded jewellery and medicines on both sides of the footbridge.

Sukuma Museum

Located in Bujora village, Sukuma Museum is an open-air museum where, among other things, you’ll see traditional Sukuma dwellings, the grass house of a traditional healer, blacksmith’s tools and a rotating cylinder illustrating different Sukuma words for counting from one to 10. In the past these were used by various age-based groups as a secret language of initiation. Each group used its own words among its members and these could not be understood by others.
The museum is 18km east of Mwanza. Also on the grounds is the Royal Drum Pavilion, built in the shape of a king’s stool, holding a collection of royal drums that are still played on church feast days, official government visits and other special events.
The Round Church was built here in 1958by David Fumbuka Clement, the Québecois missionary priest who founded the museum. It has many traditional Sukuma styling. English-speaking guides are available.
On request, the museum can organize on-the-spot performances of traditional drumming and dancing Sunday opening times change depending on when mass finishes.

Ukerewe

With its simple lifestyle and rocky terrain broken by lake vistas and tiny patches of forest, Ukerewe Island, 50km north of Ukerewe With its simple lifestyle and rocky terrain broken by lake vistas and tiny patches of forest, Ukerewe Island, 50km north Mwanza, makes an intriguing, offbeat diversion. There are a few sights, including what’s claimed to be sub-Saharan Africa’s first Cotton Ginnery (1904), now shuttered and home to scores of vervet monkeys, in Murutunguru (don’t miss the little forest reserve behind it). Ikulu (‘White House’) is the modest 1928 European-style palace of the island’s former king, signposted just behind the market in Bukindo. The real attraction, however, is the deeply rural life between these sights. Ukerewe is unusual in its highly successful farming techniques, centuries of stable population, and the fact that every patch of land and every tree is individually owned. There’s a fascinating account of how this all works in John Reader’s brilliant book Africa: A Biography of the Continent. Nansio, the main town, has internet access (when the island’s electricity is working) but no internationally linked ATMs. Shared taxis and dalla-dallas connect Ukerewe’s few sizable villages.

Rubondo Island National Park

Alluring for its tranquility and sublime lakeshore scenery, Rubondo Island National Park is one of Tanzania’s best-kept secrets. There may be days when you’re the only guests on the 240-sq- Km Island. Bird watching, particularly for shore birds (there are many migrants in November and December), brings the most visitors, but walking safaris (half-day walks) and boat rides can also be rewarding. Officially children under 12 cannot go on walking safaris but there’s usually some flexibility in this. Elephants, giraffes, black and white colobus and chimpanzees were long ago introduced alongside the island’s native hippo, bushbuck and sitatunga, an amphibious antelope that hides among the marshes and reeds along the shoreline. Rubondo is probably the best place in Tanzania to see it. Rubondo’s chimps are not yet habituated, but research experts were just getting started in late 2014 on the long process of getting them used to human company. This could take up to four or five years but sightings will probably increase as the chimps lose their fear of humans. In the meantime, fascinating chimp walks can take you in search of them, although there may not be actual sightings. Though the beaches look inviting, there are enough crocodiles and hippos that swimming is prohibited.

Biharamulo

The old German administrative centre of Biharamulo is a small nowhere town that some travelers find inexplicably appealing. It certainly has a remote ‘lost in Africa’ feel. Heading north from Biharamulo, the road passes between the 1300-sq-km Biharamulo Game Reserve and the 2200-sq-km Burigi Chato National Park, a new national park.