What Magamba is
Magamba is the managed forest above Lushoto, and the reason the West Usambaras have a walkable high point rather than only viewpoints and village paths. Tanzania Forest Services gives it as 9,283.9 hectares spanning Lushoto and Korogwe districts in Tanga Region, and puts the reserve nine kilometres from Lushoto town — close enough to reach in the morning and walk in all day.
It is a nature forest reserve rather than a national park, which changes the experience in a useful way. TFS manages twenty-five such reserves nationally, made up of forty-two forest reserves totalling 962,500.64 hectares, and it offers guided walking rather than requiring it. There is no armed ranger and no vehicle circuit. What there is, is montane forest, plantation remnants, trails and a good deal of silence.
What is in it
The reserve runs from around 1,650 metres up to 2,287 metres, and that top figure is Kwehondo Peak — spelled Kwahondo in much of the walking literature — which is the highest point in the Usambaras. It is reached on a named trail rather than as an expedition, and there is a separate viewpoint trail that tops out at about 1,850 metres.
TFS names its attractions as the viewpoints at Kiguluhakwea and Kwehondo, an old German cave, waterfalls, Grewal pond, a wide range of bird species, two-horned chameleons and moths and butterflies of unusual colouring. It also names a stone bearing what is described as a human footprint, known locally as Jiwe la Mungu, and a feature it calls the oldest skyline in East Africa.
The “German cave” is worth a note. It is a tunnel dug into the hillside by German residents during the First World War, and local marketing has long described it as a cave. Knowing what it actually is makes it more interesting rather than less.
The chameleons are the reserve’s quiet speciality. The Eastern Arc blocks hold an exceptional concentration of species found nowhere else, and the two-horned chameleons of the Usambaras are among the easiest of them to actually see, because guides know where they sit.
What there is to do
TFS lists hiking, historical site visiting, camping, forest walking, photography, research and educational tours, bird watching, and cold swimming in a waterfall plunge pool. That last one is an accurate description of the temperature.
- Walking — the trail to Kwehondo Peak and the viewpoint trails are the usual objectives. See the day hiking guide, and the mountain trekking guide if Magamba is a leg of a longer village-to-village traverse, which it often is.
- Forest walking and natural history — the forest walk guide covers the slow version, which is the one that finds the chameleons.
- Birding — good, though serious Eastern Arc birders generally prioritise Amani in the East Usambaras. See the bird watching guide.
- Waterfalls — see the waterfall hiking guide.
- Camping — TFS says the reserve offers camping facilities, with hotels, lodges and rest houses available in Lushoto town. See the camping guide.
Why a protected block here matters
Magamba is not a large forest, and its importance is easier to see against what has gone. The West Usambara forest block is thought to have covered around 2,300 square kilometres historically; by 2000 roughly 323 square kilometres remained. What survives is a set of remnants inside one of the most densely farmed rural landscapes in Tanzania, and Magamba is the largest and best protected of them in the western range.
The pressure is agricultural rather than industrial. The Eastern Arc Mountains Conservation Endowment Fund’s account of its work at Magila village on the reserve’s edge is explicit about it: households had been burning into the reserve to open farmland and extracting forest products for income, with extensive degradation as the result. The fund’s response was education and better seed rather than enforcement, moving farmers onto onions, beans, bell peppers and mangoes on land they already had, and it reports that the use of fire in land preparation has stopped.
The argument that carried locally is the one worth understanding as a visitor: the forest is the water source for the irrigation the farms depend on. Conservation here is not an abstraction about biodiversity, it is about whether the streams keep running, and a walk in Magamba makes considerably more sense once you know that.
Getting there
Nine kilometres from Lushoto, which itself is about 340 kilometres from Dar es Salaam and about 310 kilometres from Kilimanjaro by TFS’s own figures. In practice almost everyone visits Magamba from a bed in Lushoto, either as a day out or as one leg of a longer walk.
The reserve is reached from Lushoto, up the escarpment road from the Tanga highway, and the guide to travelling between Tanzania’s regions covers how the range connects to the northern circuit and the coast. TFS names the other things worth combining it with: Irente and Mambo viewpoints, Kisasa Waterfall, the German cemetery, the vegetable farms and cultural tourism around Lushoto, Mkomazi National Park down on the plains, and the other Eastern Arc reserves — Amani, Chome and Nilo.
When to come
The bimodal pattern applies: Vuli from October to December and Masika from March to May, on the Tanzania Meteorological Authority’s definitions. Magamba is montane forest and holds cloud and moisture well outside the rains; the trails are often slick and the air is cold. Waterproofs and something warm are not optional here, whatever the weather was on the plains that morning. The month-by-month guide to Tanzania covers why the Eastern Arc ranges behave differently from the country around them.
Common questions about Magamba Nature Forest Reserve
How big is Magamba and where is it?
Tanzania Forest Services gives it as 9,283.9 hectares across Lushoto and Korogwe districts in Tanga Region, in the West Usambara Mountains, nine kilometres from Lushoto town.
What is the highest point?
Kwehondo Peak at 2,287 metres, the highest point in the Usambaras. It is spelled Kwahondo in much of the walking literature. There is a named trail to it.
Is the German cave really a cave?
No. It is a tunnel dug into the hillside by German residents during the First World War, long described locally as a cave. TFS lists it among the reserve’s attractions under that name.
Do you need a guide?
TFS offers guided walks rather than requiring them for this class of reserve. Taking one is sensible anyway: the trail network is not signposted to a standard a visitor can rely on, and the wildlife worth seeing here is small and easy to walk past.
Can you camp in the reserve?
TFS says the reserve offers camping facilities, and that hotels, lodges and rest houses can be had in Lushoto town nine kilometres away.
Are the Soni waterfalls part of Magamba?
No. Tanzania Forest Services does not list the Soni falls among the reserve’s own attractions; they sit in Soni town, on the Mkuzu river, on the road up from the plains. Magamba’s own waterfalls are separate, and the reserve’s management and rules do not apply at Soni.
How much West Usambara forest is left?
Far less than there was. The block is thought to have covered around 2,300 square kilometres historically, with roughly 323 square kilometres remaining by 2000. Magamba is the largest well-protected remnant in the western range.
Is it worth visiting if you have already been to Amani?
They are different forests. Magamba is higher, cooler, drier montane forest with the range’s high point and the escarpment views. Amani is lower, wetter submontane rainforest with the greater biological richness. Walkers usually prefer Magamba; birders and botanists usually prefer Amani.