We arrived in Capetown on Saturday after 16 hours of traveling (a direct flight would have taken 7 hours, but since we are cheap we flew all over Africa..). Luisa picked us up from the airport and it was amazing to see her after 3 years! Wow.
We noticed right when landing in Capetown, that this is different to the Africa we have seen and experienced so far. Here people have money, are dressed and styled like in any Metropole and there are even some fat people here. Not obese but definitely fat. Coming from Tanzania and Ethiopia we were used to the extremely poor and tiny people, with torn clothes and most of them without shoes. Here I felt shabby in my old t-shirt and dirty hiking boots.
After 2 days of discovering Capetown I have come to the conclusion that the level of poverty is the same here, but it is hidden away in the townships so that the extremely rich (there are a good amount of those here) don't have to look at the hardship and deprivation and not feel bad. The contrast of wealth and overflow with utter despair and poverty is unspeakable. It touches me more than just seeing poverty. This is sick!
It is not surprising that the level of crime and violence in this place is through the roof, where people are being shot every day for 5 Dollars or a cellphone. Every house has extensive alarm systems, huge barbwire fences and walls, iron gates, cameras, and private security guards. It is upsetting. Luisa told us that after a few years you don't notice them anymore. It just becomes normal that you can't walk the streets after dark and that your car gets broken into three times a month.
We went to the Cape of good hope yesterday which was amazing. We saw a pair of Southern Right Whales playing right before us. Such graceful and beautiful animals!
It was great to be standing at the most southern point of Africa, where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet after having been to the highest point of this fascinating continent.
We are going to try some Zebra meat for dinner tonight. I am excited about it!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Safari
So last week when we got down the mountain we had some delicious Tusker beers to celebrate our ascend to Uhuru Peak. We Took a shower and I can tell you, after 8 days of barely washing and marching through the lava dust, the water that came off us was more black than anything else. After a very chilled day of resting in Arusha we went on a two day Safary last Thursday and Friday with a group of dutch signlanguage teachers, an Australian and a british girl. We started off to Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania.
We had a Land Cruiser with an expandable roof, so that you could see the animals better. We saw Baboon Monkeys, all kind of other little monkeys, some of them with blue balls, Zebras, Elephants, Flamingos, Hippos, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Dikdiks (they look like micro-deer, about the size of a poodle and extremekly cute), Thompson Antilopes, Impalas (beautiful Gazelles), Hirax (a bit like a mutant guinea pig), spotted Hyenas (very ugly and nasty looking), and some amazing birds like the Crown Krane and wild african geese.
We drove around Lake Manyara all day and took many pictures. I liked the Impalas the most, because they are extremely elegant and beautiful animals. They can run up to 56 miles per hour and are pure muscle. They fur is a warm reddish brown color and you can see every muscle under the shiny fur coat. Their horns are twisted and bow backwards over their heads. They really impressed me.
The Elephants were very cool too. They wouldn't be scared of the truck at all and we saw some really close up. One of them almost ran our car over because we were parked in his way. Supposedly Elephants follow exact trails and don't like to move away from that trail.
We stayed in a lodge close to Lake Manyara with great outdoor fire pits, cool beer and a lovely dinner. We left early the next morning to go to Ngorogoro Crater, The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded, collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610 m (2,000 ft) deep and its floor covers 260 km2. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and the enclosed crater ground is a unique habitat for many animals. A lot of them never leave the crater, because of the overflowing food and fresh water supplies.
There were a lot of fossil finds in the crater proving that various kinds of humanoids have lived in the area up to 3 million years ago.
When you look down into the crater from the rim it is a breathtaking sight. The landscape seems to be a 3D animation for a fantasy movie - absolutely stunning. You can see the other end of the crater rim form any side and the bottom is relfecting with the water of lakes and streams and you can see large herds of Wildebeest, Zebras and Buffalos walking on the plain.
We drive down into the crater and get to see some Lions feeding, a family of black Rhinos who are almost extinct, a cheetah, and buffalos. We can't really believe our luck and come back to Arusha glowing with the excitement of that experience. Ngorogoro crater is definitely one of the wonders of this world for me - fantastic!
We had a Land Cruiser with an expandable roof, so that you could see the animals better. We saw Baboon Monkeys, all kind of other little monkeys, some of them with blue balls, Zebras, Elephants, Flamingos, Hippos, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Dikdiks (they look like micro-deer, about the size of a poodle and extremekly cute), Thompson Antilopes, Impalas (beautiful Gazelles), Hirax (a bit like a mutant guinea pig), spotted Hyenas (very ugly and nasty looking), and some amazing birds like the Crown Krane and wild african geese.
We drove around Lake Manyara all day and took many pictures. I liked the Impalas the most, because they are extremely elegant and beautiful animals. They can run up to 56 miles per hour and are pure muscle. They fur is a warm reddish brown color and you can see every muscle under the shiny fur coat. Their horns are twisted and bow backwards over their heads. They really impressed me.
The Elephants were very cool too. They wouldn't be scared of the truck at all and we saw some really close up. One of them almost ran our car over because we were parked in his way. Supposedly Elephants follow exact trails and don't like to move away from that trail.
We stayed in a lodge close to Lake Manyara with great outdoor fire pits, cool beer and a lovely dinner. We left early the next morning to go to Ngorogoro Crater, The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded, collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610 m (2,000 ft) deep and its floor covers 260 km2. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and the enclosed crater ground is a unique habitat for many animals. A lot of them never leave the crater, because of the overflowing food and fresh water supplies.
There were a lot of fossil finds in the crater proving that various kinds of humanoids have lived in the area up to 3 million years ago.
When you look down into the crater from the rim it is a breathtaking sight. The landscape seems to be a 3D animation for a fantasy movie - absolutely stunning. You can see the other end of the crater rim form any side and the bottom is relfecting with the water of lakes and streams and you can see large herds of Wildebeest, Zebras and Buffalos walking on the plain.
We drive down into the crater and get to see some Lions feeding, a family of black Rhinos who are almost extinct, a cheetah, and buffalos. We can't really believe our luck and come back to Arusha glowing with the excitement of that experience. Ngorogoro crater is definitely one of the wonders of this world for me - fantastic!
We are ok!
Hey all,
after the last report we were out in the Serengeti for a Safari and I got a lot of worried e-mails from friends and family. So sorry we worried you all! We were of course safely down the mountain by the time I entered the last report. There is no internet on mt. Kilimanjaro! I apologize for making you worry! We are fine and enjoying Wine and food in Capetown right now with Luisa and Diego.
after the last report we were out in the Serengeti for a Safari and I got a lot of worried e-mails from friends and family. So sorry we worried you all! We were of course safely down the mountain by the time I entered the last report. There is no internet on mt. Kilimanjaro! I apologize for making you worry! We are fine and enjoying Wine and food in Capetown right now with Luisa and Diego.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
07/19/2010 Summit Day
Last night Tosh got worse and was shaking hard with a fever just before breaking out in sweat and burning like on fire. He couldn't eat and I again had to force him to take some Ibuprofen against the pain and the fever. He is still persisting to go up on the summit at midnight, with a injured hand and severe symptoms of altitude sickness - I really don't see that happening right now.
Anderson and I could not talk him out of it and I have kind of given up trying to convince him since it is absolutely useless. The man is almost as stubborn as me..
So at 11:30 pm our guide wakes us up with some hot tea and cookies. We pack our day packs with water, cameras and all the warm clothes we have.
So our guidebook for Kilimanjaro was not underestimating when it stated that the summit ascend is absolutely grueling and painful.
We start walking at midnight at 4600m up a steep gravel-sand-ash-trail. The higher we get, the colder it gets. We start off at maybe +5 Degrees Celcius and slowly cool down to about -20 Degrees at the summit. We walk with our head torches in the pitch black night (beautiful stars above, if you have the breath to look at them) and even through ten layers of fleeces, hiking under and overlayers and outer shells, I start shaking uncontrollably with the cold that slowly sinks into your bones after about 2 hours.
A few hours on in the mind numbing tumbling in the dark on a ground so soft that it lets you take half a step forward while you slide two steps back on the loose gravel we are all covered in ice crystals. The ones on the eyelashes are actually very pretty and I wish I had the energy and the light to take a picture of them.
At about 4 am I hit a complete wall and start shaking all over. We rest more frequently now but the cold only allows a few minutes of non-motion before you get into serious trouble. Tosh and I both feel the altitude intensely - Tosh getting dizzy and uncoordinated (more than usually so) and stumbling over rocks and his own feet, me getting nauseous and having to puke every five minutes, with no success.
The six hours it takes to Stella Point on the ridge of Uhuru Peak are the longest six hours of my life and I have no idea how I made it up there.
From Stella Point it is another 45 minutes to Uhuru Peak and that does not sound a lot, but you have to imagine being frozen to the bone for hours, absolutely exhausted and tired, out of breath, dizzy, sick to the stomach, confused and desperate and then having to walk over a spiky ice field, where every wrong step can either twist you ankle so badly that you won't be able to walk down or you just fall off the narrow ridge.
Tosh and I are both delirious and unable to talk or really appreciate the breathtaking views by the time we reach the summit. Anderson quickly takes a picture of us (I can't even bring up the energy to open my backpack to get out my camera, or hold it) and urges us to move down quickly. Tosh has severe hypothermia by now, his lips being completely purple and him not responding to anything said to him. Anderson takes his pack and guides him onwards.
Getting to the top of a mountain is always only half way and I am terrified at the thought of the long descend. Surprisingly I come up with the energy from somewhere and feel better every meter we get down. Tosh is quite the opposite, he completely breaks down soon after Stella Point and is unable to walk.
Anderson and I have to force liquid and some sugar into him and push him on. He collapses every few meters, even with Anderson holding him. I have never seen him in such a state and am really worried the injured hand is too much on his organism together with the exertion and the altitude.
We somehow manage to get Tosh down the mountain in 4 hours instead of 2 and a lot of hard work pushing him on. We are supposed to walk on to a lower level forest camp, which is about another 4 hours away after a rest at Barafu and some food. Tosh has gotten worse in the meantime, lying in the tent, not responding, not eating, and certainly not listening to any reason. He wants to stay at Barafu and not move on, which is understandable in his state, but I know that the only way to make him better is to descend as quickly as possible.
Anderson and I come up with the plan to go to a closer camp, only two hours away but 1000m lower than our current camp. Somehow we convince Tosh to get up, get dressed and start walking (don't ask me how, it was hard work). We finally make it to the lower camp and he is sleeping in the tent now. I hope he will feel better tomorrow.
Right now it is 18 hrs later as I am writing this into my journal and I can truly and honestly say that the past day/night has been the most physically and mentally challenging in my life. I am pretty amazed at myself that I can still sit upright and hold a pen.
Anderson and I could not talk him out of it and I have kind of given up trying to convince him since it is absolutely useless. The man is almost as stubborn as me..
So at 11:30 pm our guide wakes us up with some hot tea and cookies. We pack our day packs with water, cameras and all the warm clothes we have.
So our guidebook for Kilimanjaro was not underestimating when it stated that the summit ascend is absolutely grueling and painful.
We start walking at midnight at 4600m up a steep gravel-sand-ash-trail. The higher we get, the colder it gets. We start off at maybe +5 Degrees Celcius and slowly cool down to about -20 Degrees at the summit. We walk with our head torches in the pitch black night (beautiful stars above, if you have the breath to look at them) and even through ten layers of fleeces, hiking under and overlayers and outer shells, I start shaking uncontrollably with the cold that slowly sinks into your bones after about 2 hours.
A few hours on in the mind numbing tumbling in the dark on a ground so soft that it lets you take half a step forward while you slide two steps back on the loose gravel we are all covered in ice crystals. The ones on the eyelashes are actually very pretty and I wish I had the energy and the light to take a picture of them.
At about 4 am I hit a complete wall and start shaking all over. We rest more frequently now but the cold only allows a few minutes of non-motion before you get into serious trouble. Tosh and I both feel the altitude intensely - Tosh getting dizzy and uncoordinated (more than usually so) and stumbling over rocks and his own feet, me getting nauseous and having to puke every five minutes, with no success.
The six hours it takes to Stella Point on the ridge of Uhuru Peak are the longest six hours of my life and I have no idea how I made it up there.
From Stella Point it is another 45 minutes to Uhuru Peak and that does not sound a lot, but you have to imagine being frozen to the bone for hours, absolutely exhausted and tired, out of breath, dizzy, sick to the stomach, confused and desperate and then having to walk over a spiky ice field, where every wrong step can either twist you ankle so badly that you won't be able to walk down or you just fall off the narrow ridge.
Tosh and I are both delirious and unable to talk or really appreciate the breathtaking views by the time we reach the summit. Anderson quickly takes a picture of us (I can't even bring up the energy to open my backpack to get out my camera, or hold it) and urges us to move down quickly. Tosh has severe hypothermia by now, his lips being completely purple and him not responding to anything said to him. Anderson takes his pack and guides him onwards.
Getting to the top of a mountain is always only half way and I am terrified at the thought of the long descend. Surprisingly I come up with the energy from somewhere and feel better every meter we get down. Tosh is quite the opposite, he completely breaks down soon after Stella Point and is unable to walk.
Anderson and I have to force liquid and some sugar into him and push him on. He collapses every few meters, even with Anderson holding him. I have never seen him in such a state and am really worried the injured hand is too much on his organism together with the exertion and the altitude.
We somehow manage to get Tosh down the mountain in 4 hours instead of 2 and a lot of hard work pushing him on. We are supposed to walk on to a lower level forest camp, which is about another 4 hours away after a rest at Barafu and some food. Tosh has gotten worse in the meantime, lying in the tent, not responding, not eating, and certainly not listening to any reason. He wants to stay at Barafu and not move on, which is understandable in his state, but I know that the only way to make him better is to descend as quickly as possible.
Anderson and I come up with the plan to go to a closer camp, only two hours away but 1000m lower than our current camp. Somehow we convince Tosh to get up, get dressed and start walking (don't ask me how, it was hard work). We finally make it to the lower camp and he is sleeping in the tent now. I hope he will feel better tomorrow.
Right now it is 18 hrs later as I am writing this into my journal and I can truly and honestly say that the past day/night has been the most physically and mentally challenging in my life. I am pretty amazed at myself that I can still sit upright and hold a pen.
07/18/2010 Trek day 5
Waking up this morning I felt horrible - stuffed dry nose, freezing cold, sore and a headache that seems to split my head. I have serious doubts that our plan to skip one camp and attempt the sunmmit one day early is such a good idea.
After a hot breakfast in our tent (it is too cold outside) we head off for the real "breakfast" - that is what the guides call the Barranco wall, which we are facing right now from our camp. The Barranco wall is a 200m steep rock wall that has to be climbed, sometimes using all fours. We really have to climb using both hands and feet in some areas and I am enjoying this part a lot. After a little while of climbing my head clears and I start feeling great.
When we get to the top, after about 1.5 hrs of climbing, I am kind of sad it is over.
We now walk over a ridge that is way above the clouds and it looks a bit like we are walking on the clouds, very cool. We soon get to a very steep downhill section that is partly covered in ice from the little streams running down the mountain. Tosh is walking ahead of me when he suddenly looses grip and falls head first down the mountain. I scream like a stupid helpless girl, but there is nothing else for me to do than watch him fall. Just before he falls off a cliff that drops at least 30m down the edge, he manages to hang on to some rock and stop himself. The seconds of his fall seem like an eternity to me and I am close to a heart attack. Tosh gets up and wants to continue walking. Anderson and I have to force him to sit down to check him for injuries. He is bleeding from some nasty scratches and I am pretty sure he hit his head on a rock, but he keeps insisting he is ok and wants to walk on. In the next five minutes he falls another two times, not as bad as the first one, but worrying enough to make me get really mad at his stupid stubbornness. He finally agrees to take a rest in a valley and tells me he thinks he sprained his hand pretty bad. I can see the swelling and am pretty close to punching him in the head for being so ridiculously hard-headed. I find a flat piece of rock that we use to stabilize and straighten his hand and tie it up with a bandage.
The hike from this point on is the most strenuous so far - steady uphill, very steep in sections, continuously gaining altitude over another 3.5 hours.
I strangely feel super fit and can almost hike at a normal speed at 4600m. Tosh is hurting badly more from the altitude than his fall, but does not want to take any painkillers.
He is napping beside me in our tent now and I really hope we will make it to the summit in only 7 hours from now.
After a hot breakfast in our tent (it is too cold outside) we head off for the real "breakfast" - that is what the guides call the Barranco wall, which we are facing right now from our camp. The Barranco wall is a 200m steep rock wall that has to be climbed, sometimes using all fours. We really have to climb using both hands and feet in some areas and I am enjoying this part a lot. After a little while of climbing my head clears and I start feeling great.
When we get to the top, after about 1.5 hrs of climbing, I am kind of sad it is over.
We now walk over a ridge that is way above the clouds and it looks a bit like we are walking on the clouds, very cool. We soon get to a very steep downhill section that is partly covered in ice from the little streams running down the mountain. Tosh is walking ahead of me when he suddenly looses grip and falls head first down the mountain. I scream like a stupid helpless girl, but there is nothing else for me to do than watch him fall. Just before he falls off a cliff that drops at least 30m down the edge, he manages to hang on to some rock and stop himself. The seconds of his fall seem like an eternity to me and I am close to a heart attack. Tosh gets up and wants to continue walking. Anderson and I have to force him to sit down to check him for injuries. He is bleeding from some nasty scratches and I am pretty sure he hit his head on a rock, but he keeps insisting he is ok and wants to walk on. In the next five minutes he falls another two times, not as bad as the first one, but worrying enough to make me get really mad at his stupid stubbornness. He finally agrees to take a rest in a valley and tells me he thinks he sprained his hand pretty bad. I can see the swelling and am pretty close to punching him in the head for being so ridiculously hard-headed. I find a flat piece of rock that we use to stabilize and straighten his hand and tie it up with a bandage.
The hike from this point on is the most strenuous so far - steady uphill, very steep in sections, continuously gaining altitude over another 3.5 hours.
I strangely feel super fit and can almost hike at a normal speed at 4600m. Tosh is hurting badly more from the altitude than his fall, but does not want to take any painkillers.
He is napping beside me in our tent now and I really hope we will make it to the summit in only 7 hours from now.
07/17/2010 Trek day 4
Today was a pretty tough hike, steep uphill for the first half of the day until we reached "Lava Tower" at 4600m, where we had lunch and a rest. Lava Tower is a huge pinnacle of black rock that reminds me a lot of the volcano in Mordor of Lord of the Rings (we didn't throw our rings in it). Lava Tower must have been part of Kilimanjaro at some point and managed to stay upright inbetween a flow of hot magma around it. The landscapes up here shaped by the volcano are amazing, bizarre and beautiful. Steep sharp rocks poking out of a black soft bubbly surface, that still looks liquid, although it has hardened 150 thousand years ago.
From Lava Tower we hike down to our camp called "Barranco" at 3850m, passing through some groups of the dinosaur tree-plants we saw yesterday. We had amazing views of Kilimanjaros Peak all day, slowly getting closer to it..
I really felt the altitude today: very short of breath and a splitting headache all day. I took some Tylenol extra strength in the evening and felt a little better after some rest.
We decided at dinner that we are going to skip one camp tomorrow and walk all the way to our base camp "Barafu" from which we will attempt to reach the summit at midnight.
From Lava Tower we hike down to our camp called "Barranco" at 3850m, passing through some groups of the dinosaur tree-plants we saw yesterday. We had amazing views of Kilimanjaros Peak all day, slowly getting closer to it..
I really felt the altitude today: very short of breath and a splitting headache all day. I took some Tylenol extra strength in the evening and felt a little better after some rest.
We decided at dinner that we are going to skip one camp tomorrow and walk all the way to our base camp "Barafu" from which we will attempt to reach the summit at midnight.
07/16/2010 Kilimanjaro Trek day 3
We had a late start today, breakfast around 8 am with an amazing view of Kilimanjaro. We packed up around 9 and got on the trail for a short hike of only 3 hrs across the shira plateau with an altitude gain of only 200m. We planned this as an extra day for acclimatizing to the altitude, which is probably a good idea, because we both feel the effects pretty good by now. Every step makes you breathe hard and everything takes so much more energy than usual. The lowered oxygen levels up here also slow down the digestion and make every food you eat sit like a rock in your stomach. We drink plenty of water and have felt pretty good so far.
It is hard not to eat a lot with the amazing food we are being served here too. Last night we had carrot-potato soup followed by a beef stew with rice and fresh mangoes and pineapples for desert. All that with the sun setting behind Mt. Kilimanjaro - what more can you ask for?
Since our hike was very easy today we had plenty of time to fidget around and discover plants, lava rocks and insects. For me the plants are very fascinating. In this dry and hostile place, where the temperatures at night drops far below freezing (our tent was covered in ice this morning) so many different plants manage to grow with beautiful flowers. We saw a bunch of plants that looked like they were from the set of Jurassic Park - maybe we get to see some dinosaurs soon? I really wonder how they survive with such little water and the extreme temperature changes. I wish we had a biologist and a geologist on our team to tell us all about the things we are seeing here.
Since it is so dry up here right now the earth is like lava ashes, dust that gets into every single pore of your body. In the evening our hands and faces look almost as black as those of our African guides and porters. After 3 days of not washing properly (thank god for wet wipes) we are quite filthy and Tosh keeps threatening me to put his underpants in my face while I sleep. I threaten him with divorce, should he proceed with his plan. I am not going to describe the reek of that piece of clothing for the sake of everybody's well-being.
Today that sweet husband of mine also put a load of rocks in my backpack. I thought it felt kind of heavy, but blamed it on me feeling weak because of the altitude. The rangers of our camp laughed their heads off, when I pulled the rocks out of my pack. Tosh got a good chin-hook for it.
It is hard not to eat a lot with the amazing food we are being served here too. Last night we had carrot-potato soup followed by a beef stew with rice and fresh mangoes and pineapples for desert. All that with the sun setting behind Mt. Kilimanjaro - what more can you ask for?
Since our hike was very easy today we had plenty of time to fidget around and discover plants, lava rocks and insects. For me the plants are very fascinating. In this dry and hostile place, where the temperatures at night drops far below freezing (our tent was covered in ice this morning) so many different plants manage to grow with beautiful flowers. We saw a bunch of plants that looked like they were from the set of Jurassic Park - maybe we get to see some dinosaurs soon? I really wonder how they survive with such little water and the extreme temperature changes. I wish we had a biologist and a geologist on our team to tell us all about the things we are seeing here.
Since it is so dry up here right now the earth is like lava ashes, dust that gets into every single pore of your body. In the evening our hands and faces look almost as black as those of our African guides and porters. After 3 days of not washing properly (thank god for wet wipes) we are quite filthy and Tosh keeps threatening me to put his underpants in my face while I sleep. I threaten him with divorce, should he proceed with his plan. I am not going to describe the reek of that piece of clothing for the sake of everybody's well-being.
Today that sweet husband of mine also put a load of rocks in my backpack. I thought it felt kind of heavy, but blamed it on me feeling weak because of the altitude. The rangers of our camp laughed their heads off, when I pulled the rocks out of my pack. Tosh got a good chin-hook for it.
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