Hot Spring Swimming at Chemka and Beyond

The name problem, which has to come first

Maji moto is Swahili for hot water, and it is the name of several different places in Tanzania. Two of them get confused constantly, and the confusion matters because one is a swimming spot and the other will scald you.

The first is the spring near Moshi, known variously as Kikuletwa, as Chemka and as Maji Moto. The water there sits at around twenty-seven degrees. It is warm, clear, and entirely swimmable, and it is what almost everybody means when they talk about hot spring swimming in Tanzania.

The second is Maji Moto in Lake Manyara National Park, a geothermal spring on the western shore of the lake running at something in the region of sixty degrees. That is a sight to be looked at, with a ranger, and it is not a bathing place under any circumstances.

There is a further wrinkle. Chemka means to boil, and the name describes the way the water wells up out of the ground rather than how hot it is. A great deal of copy about the place implies otherwise, and visitors arrive expecting a thermal soak and find a swimming hole. It is a lovely swimming hole. It is just worth knowing in advance.

Kikuletwa, the one people mean

Kikuletwa sits in Masama Rundugai ward, in Hai District of the Kilimanjaro region, roughly forty kilometres from Moshi. It is groundwater, filtered through the volcanic rock of the Kilimanjaro massif and rising naturally into a deep pool that is constantly refreshed by its own flow, and it drains away into the Kikuletwa River.

What that produces is a pool of startlingly clear pale blue-green water in the middle of dry, dusty, flat country, surrounded by enormous fig trees whose roots hang into the water and by palms and acacia. The contrast with the approach, which is hot and unpromising, is most of the effect.

The water is deep in the middle, shallow at the edges, and moves gently rather than sitting still. Visibility is excellent, which makes it one of the few places inland where snorkelling with a mask is worth doing, mostly for small fish and the root structures.

It is not a wilderness site and does not pretend to be. It is a community-managed site with an entrance, and at weekends and in the middle of the day in high season it can be busy.

What a visit is actually like

Plan for a half day from Moshi, longer from Arusha. Most people spend one to three hours in and around the water.

There are usually rope swings hanging from the fig branches, which are the reason a large proportion of the photographs of the place exist, and they are used enthusiastically. Whether that appeals depends entirely on who you are sharing the pool with on the day. Early morning is quiet. Late morning onwards, less so, and Sundays least of all.

Changing facilities and food are basic and variable. Take a towel, take water, and assume nothing is provided.

The bottom is uneven, with rock and submerged roots, and the edges in places are slippery. Water shoes are sensible. It is deep enough in the centre that it is not a paddling pool for small children, and there is no lifeguard.

Be careful with the ground around the pool as well as in it. It is soft in places, the banks are undercut by the flow, and the drop into the water from some of the edges is further than it looks.

Maji Moto at Lake Manyara, which is a different thing entirely

On the western shore of Lake Manyara, near the southern end of the park, geothermal vents feed a spring running at around sixty degrees. It is fed by groundwater heated against volcanic rock in the Rift Valley system, and it is one of the visible pieces of evidence that the Rift here is geologically active.

Sixty degrees is well above the temperature at which water causes serious scalding within seconds. This is not a swimming destination and should never be described as one. It is visited on a game drive or a ranger-guided walk, looked at, and left alone, and the national parks authority that manages the park treats it accordingly.

The wider point is that the Rift Valley produces hot and warm springs at many points along its length in Tanzania, and their temperatures vary from tepid to genuinely dangerous. The name on the map tells you nothing about which. Find out the temperature before anybody gets in.

Warm water and health

This is the part of a hot springs guide that usually gets left out, and it belongs in.

Kikuletwa is fresh, unchlorinated surface water. The United States Centers for Disease Control, writing about countries where schistosomiasis is transmitted, names only two categories of water as safe: the sea, and chlorinated swimming pools. Its description of how the infection is acquired explicitly includes streams and rivers, not only still water. And the widely repeated belief that fast-flowing or spring-fed water is safe has no backing from CDC or from the World Health Organization; neither body says it.

That does not mean anyone should assume Kikuletwa is a transmission site. Neither CDC nor WHO says that either, and this guide will not invent a risk assessment for a specific pool that no health body has published. What it means is that the reassurance people usually give about this place, that it is spring-fed and flowing and therefore fine, is not something either authority supports, and that the decision is one to take with a travel health professional rather than with a driver or a website. Infection is often symptomless at first and is treatable, which is why travellers who have been in fresh water commonly arrange a test some weeks later. The fuller position is in the beach holidays guide.

Two smaller points. Warm water and a long soak dehydrate you faster than cold water does, in a hot, dry part of the country where you are probably already behind. And do not put your head under or swallow water in any natural pool if you can avoid it, which is ordinary advice anywhere in the world.

Conduct at a community-run site

Kikuletwa is on community land, managed and staffed locally, and the entrance charge is part of how that works. Fees are set locally and change, and are not quoted here.

Swimwear is normal in the water. Getting to and from it through a village is a different matter, and covering up for the walk in and out is the local expectation and costs nothing. Tanzania's Kilimanjaro region is not the coast but the same courtesy applies.

Take your litter out, including anything that looks biodegradable. Do not use soap, shampoo or sunscreen in the pool, all of which end up in the river. Ask before photographing people, including children, and particularly before photographing anyone who is not there as a tourist.

The site is used by local families as well as visitors, and at weekends predominantly so. That is worth remembering when deciding how loud to be.

Getting there and what to combine it with

Kikuletwa is a straightforward half-day trip from Moshi and a long day from Arusha. The last stretch of road is rough, and after rain it is worse, so a vehicle with clearance is the normal arrangement.

It combines naturally with the Materuni waterfalls and village on the Kilimanjaro foothills above Moshi, and it is a popular decompression day for people coming off a Kilimanjaro climb, which is probably its single most common use. Warm water and legs that have just walked down from five thousand metres go together well.

Maji Moto at Lake Manyara is not a destination in itself. It is something you see while in the park, on the way to or from the northern circuit parks, and it takes as long as it takes to look at it.

Common questions about hot spring swimming in Tanzania