Napuru Waterfalls Hike

Everyone in Arusha knows somebody who has been to Materuni, an hour and a half away on the other mountain. Almost nobody realises there is a 70-metre waterfall on Meru’s slopes twenty minutes from town. Napuru is Arusha’s own, and it is quieter than it deserves to be.

Morning: A short drive north out of Arusha towards the Meru Conservation Area gate. You are climbing the whole way, and Arusha’s traffic gives way to farmland fast — coffee, banana, maize, and the small mixed plots that feed the city.

The hike is the best part. You follow a river valley up, crossing the water several times on stones and log bridges. The crossings are the character of this walk: in the dry months they are easy, and after rain they are genuinely a scramble, with water over your ankles. We bring you the right way for the conditions on the day.

The forest thickens as you climb. Colobus monkeys are frequently in the canopy here — you hear them moving before you see them — and the birdlife is strong: turacos, hornbills, and the noise of things you will not identify.

Midday: The falls come suddenly. The valley narrows and Napuru drops off a rock lip into a pool ringed by wet stone and ferns. It is high and narrow rather than wide, and it throws enough spray that everything within twenty metres is damp. The pool is swimmable and cold.

Afterwards we usually sit with coffee grown on the family plantation at the trailhead — home-grown, home-roasted, drunk looking back down the valley towards Arusha.

Afternoon: Back down the same route and into town by early afternoon.

Why this over Materuni: it is closer to Arusha, cheaper because the driving is short, considerably less busy, and the walk itself is more interesting — more river, more forest, more feeling of going somewhere. Materuni has the bigger name; Napuru has the better morning.

What to bring: shoes that can get wet and still grip, swimwear, a towel, and a dry bag for anything electronic — the spray at the falls is not a fine mist.

Fitness: moderate. It is uphill and the crossings need reasonable balance, but there is no exposure and no scrambling.