Rau Eco & Cultural Tourism

“Welcome to Moshi town to explore the nature and cultural beauty around the area”

Located 3 kilometres South East of Moshi town on the foot of one of the incredible wonder of nature of Mount Kilimanjaro, while in Rau, you will enjoy the astonishing beauty of undisturbed nature forest of Rau with its numbers of flora and fauna species, bee keeping projects and cultural heritage in Mandaka Mnono village where the established Lower Moshi Irrigation projects allows farmers to cultivate the rice plots and other crops throughout the year.

The following tours are offered

Rau nature forest walks.
Village cultural walk.
Bird watching.
Market tour.
Rice farming tour.
We organise extended biking tour.
Volunteer Opportunities
Tree planting projects (Giving back to the Nature)
Local foods preparation and tasting

Rau nature forest walks 2.30-5 hrs

A guided walk in the forest will give you a chance to see an abundance of nature, covered by the unique tree species including the largest Milicia excelsa (Mvule Mkuu) specie in Africa, Oxystigma mso which are rare elsewhere, and a lot of native tree with unique shapes and shrubs which make the forest a unique home for primates, birds, butterflies, squirrels and dik diks, also you will have 100 % chance see Black White Colobus monkeys, Blue monkeys.

You can extend forest hike with experience in tree planting where by a visitor participate in seeds collection and seedling uprooting in the forest and transplanting in our tree nursery and plant some tree around the forest and in the village.

Local food offered after the tour.

Village cultural walk 3-4 hrs
A tour will start at our office passing the forest reserve to Mandaka Mnono to explore villager’s lifestyle including their settlement, visiting irrigation rice farms which are owned by the villagers where rice is a common crop in the villages and make the area green and attractive, continue to one of the family to learn how banana beer and maize beer made and tasting also you will have a chance to taste coconut juice.

Rice farming tour
Walk through beautiful scenery of rice paddies in Mabogini village and get an insight on how rice is cultivated in these low land areas in Moshi where by our tour guide will explain all steps of rice cultivation while at the end of this tour you will have a chance to taste local food prepared from rice which includes Wali, Pilau and Vitumbua.

Bird watching 3-6 hrs
A bird watching start at Rau nature forest and extend to the rice farms in the villages giving a you chance to identify forest birds and common waterlogged bird species and other seasonal migratory birds that feeds in the rice farms. Where common birds includes egrets, heron, hamerkop, storks, ibises, jacana, black-winged stilt, blacksmith lapwing, pigeons, African doves, speckled mousebirds, African spoonbill, paradise flycatcher, pied wagtail, king fisher’s and other birds.

Market tour 2- 4 hrs
A visitor will have a chance to experience different products such as cash crops and local commodities selling to the market; also we will buy some so that we can go to preparation of local food with our visitor. However, during this tour; a visitor can be provided with historical information of Moshi town; also a visitor can visit historical sites like common wealth world wars grave yards and as well as learning and participating in artworks in Makonde handicraftsmen of Moshi and if interested to buy their product to support them.

Biking tour
Visitor/visitors can enjoy cycling tour to Rau forest Reserve for nature experience and Mandaka Mnono village to culture experience.

Biking tour to Lake Challa (3 days)
The first day; cycling to lake Challa, we can start from Moshi which is 50 kilometre the tour start at the junction of Dar es salaam and Marangu, using different routes on road and off road. Lake Challa trekking, walking in crater rim to the border between Tanzania and Kenya.

The second day; extending the cycling tour from lake Challa for Village cultural to experience Chagga lifestyle in one of the village nestled on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro 25 kilometres from campsite passing different hills there you will learn preparation of local brew such as banana and maize beer, coffee, having local food in the village and visiting chagga traditional cave and Chagga traditional house.

Third day; cycling back to Moshi town

Cycling to Chemka hot spring (3 day)
First day; this tour will start from Moshi to Rundugai village which is 20 kilometre from Moshi town to explore the village. Visitors will have a chance to swim in strong water flow in spring with a constant temperature of 280 centigrade while overnight will be camping in village

Second day; A visitor will have a chance to visit people and learn their culture especially Maasai and as well as participate in BBQ preparation, cattle herding and farming activities and home stay on Maasai Boma.

Third day; return back to Moshi.

Volunteer opportunities
We welcomes volunteers who are interested to work with us in environment activities in our forest and in the villages where you will involved in establishing tree nursery, collecting tree seeds from the forest, get involved in planting tree in forest and surrounding villages.

Tree planting projects (Giving back to the Nature).
One of the Rau’s main attractions is Rau forest reserve.

Giving back to nature project helps to restore the natural environment of the forest as well as reduce high rate of deforestation therefore our visitors who are interested can be involved in tree planting and hence they can become part of our conservation programme.

Local food preparation and tasting
Our local mama will teach you how to prepare different local foods which are mostly preferred by the local residence in our community and you can be able stay with one chosen family. Those who are interested to learn how to prepare local foods are highly welcomed.

Where to stay;
A visitor can stay in home stay in the village or camping. In Moshi we have varieties of accommodation facilities; we can organise accommodation for you.

Getting there:
Our office is located 3 km from Moshi town at Langoni, Mji Mpya near Mji mpya secondary school; it can be reached easily from town through Private car, Tax, hired car, Motorcycle. It takes 5-10 minutes to reach there.

For further information contacts:

RAU ECO & CULTURAL TOURISM ENTERPRISE
P.O BOX 7369, MOSHI - TANZANIA.
Tell: +255 769 335 359/+255 787 796 747
E-mail rauecotours@gmail.com, info@ rauecoculturaltourism.org
Website: www.rauecoculturaltourism.org