Back in Iringa, we made a few stops to buy more snacks, batteries, antihistamines, and traditionally printed fabric. The main road passes through Mikumi National Park; we saw several animals along the way, including our first sighting of wildebeest. In the late afternoon, we arrived at Hondo Hondo, bordering the steep Udzungwa Mountains. While technically a tent, our room had a stone floor, power outlets, and three wooden beds, with an adjacent open-air bathroom area. The bar/dining area was next to an open field, with views of monkeys and hornbills in the trees. In the mornings and evenings, baboons came out of the forest and wandered around camp.

In the morning, our guide Rashid dropped us off with a guide from the Udzungwa National Park headquarters. Udzungwa is mainly tropical forest, and is known for waterfalls, primates, and many endemic species. We looked around the park museum, then walked to nearby Prince Bernhard Falls. After a short drive to the Sanje Falls trailhead, we hiked a steep, mostly shaded trail up and down through dense forest. Our guide really wanted us to stay together, but Evan often disappeared ahead. After about an hour and half, we arrived at the bottom of the Sanje Falls. The falls are beautiful, dropping 170 meters into a deep pool, surrounded by lush forest and butterflies. We swam in the cool pool at the base of the falls, then had lunch on a nearby rock. After lunch, we hiked back down (with lots of uphill sections); Strava reported a total elevation gain of 1,600 feet over 4 miles.

After chasing baboons away from the breakfast table, we drove south along the mountains through several small towns to a boat ramp on the Kilombero River. Fishermen with dugout canoes launch from here, and sell their catch to waiting women. Our guide arranged for fishermen to set up a canoe with empty plastic oil containers to sit on, and we set off upstream to look for birds and explore the banks. A two meter long monitor disappeared into the bushes as we landed, and later we saw another swimming across the river. We saw egrets, kingfisher, herons, plover, kite, and bee eaters while gliding along the river. We walked around watermelon plants planted on the sandy banks, and picked up some giant empty snail shells to take home.

On our way through the town of Ifakara, we stopped at the Ifakara Women Weavers Association shop. In the front of the shop, one woman used a contraption involving a bicycle wheel to wind thread onto a cone. In the back, we watched another woman work on a blanket using a hand- and foot-operated loom.

Our hiking guide the day before had mentioned the president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was scheduled to drive through the area today; she was here to open the new two-lane bridge. When we returned to the lodge, the front desk said they thought she'd pass by in about an hour. Kimberly walked out to the road and joined the crowd waiting across from the village. Someone had set up a giant speaker; others were playing drums and dancing. Several women wore colorful skirts printed with the president's face. Finally, the motorocade arrived and everyone rushed to cheer and wave. Dozens and dozens of giant black Toyota SUVs streamed by, filling the road for more than five minutes. The next day, Rashid said he heard she'd stopped for a few minutes at the other end of the village.