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.
07/15/2010 Lemosho Trek Day 1+2
We started our Kilimanjaro hike yesterday on a 8-day tour following the western Lemosho-route ascending over the Shira-plateau. Just some quick facts for people who don't know anything about Mt. Kilimanjaro: it is the highest freestanding mountain on earth (not part of any mountain chain), it's peak is called "Uhuru" and is 5895 Meters or 19341 feet above sea level. It is one of the seven highest mountains on earth and the highest in Africa. Out of these seven highest mountains it is the only non-technical one, meaning, that you can hike it without any serious climbing.
This is a description of the Lemosho-route just in a shorter version:
http://www.climbingkilimanjaro.com/lemosho-route-kilimanjaro.php
We took off at 9am with a 20 year old Land Cruiser stuffed to the max with 6 porters, 1 guide, 1 driver, 1 assistant, Tosh and me, equipment and food for eight days (about 10 tons). It all looked like we were going on a month long excursion to the north pole.
We stopped several times at shops and street vendors to pick up missing bits and pieces. The tour operator had told us it would take 1.5 hrs to get to the head of the trail. After more than 5 hours we finally get to the gate of Kilimajaro National Park, where we pay the park fees and have some lunch.
We pick up two more porters here aswell (don't ask me how they fit in the truck, I honestly have no idea..) and drive for another hour up an impossibly steep trail that almost tips the truck over several times.
When we finally start walking it is 3:30 pm and we get the feeling that we were meant to start much sooner than this. Our guide is still busy with organising all our gear and the porters and tells us to go on ahead without him. We head off into the thick jungle. After about 1.5 hrs of pretty easy going uphill we already arrive at our first campsite.
Our porters don't get there until about 2 hours later and we really start worrying about them. We meet some people from other trekking groups at the camp: two italian guys, one girl from New Zealand and a dutch man and his teenage daughter. They all seem a lot of fun and we are excited to be on this trek together and meet at the camps at night.
When the rest of our team finally gets to the camp it is getting dark and I am starting to get hypothermic from still wearing my wet shirt in the rapidly dropping temperatures. As soon as the sun disappears behind the one side of the mountain all warmth diminishes instantly.
Much later we get some hot food (which is delicious) and an apology from our guide Anderson. I am really wondering if we made the right choice in tour company, hoping it will get better in the days to come.
We crawl into our sleeping bags and after a few hours I can finally feel my toes again.
In the middle of the night we both wake up from some loud animal sounds coming from the surrounding jungle. We can distinguish some monkeys (probably Colobus monkeys that we saw during the day) but there is also some sounds which are totally strange to us. One sounds like a ginormous mutant mega bullfrog (I hope you can imagine that, because it is really quite impressive) and we hear something that sounds like a flying dinosaur passing over our tent. Very interesting! I hope we get to see who makes those sounds soon.
The next day we get up at 7 am for an amazing hot breakfast with omelette, pancakes, sausages fresh pineapple, avocados and toast. We eat as much as we can (a lot) and start our hike at 8:30 am heading up further into the jungle. We have 1000m of altitude gain and about 8 km distance to cover, taking us from 2600m in the thick jungle to 3500m on brushy bare mountain desert.
We start off walking behind Anderson because he told us he would set the pace. He walks painfully slow, of "Pole Pole" as it is called in Swaheli and Tosh and I soon overtake him to walk our own pace. The hike is pretty easy, not too steep and we reach our second camp after about 5 hours including many breaks, lunch and picture taking. We were told in the morning this would be a long hard day with 7-8 hours hiking. If it keeps going like this, reaching the summit might turn out to be a Sunday stroll ;)
Maybe we could have done this trek in 6 or 7 days instead of 8. It is still great to have the time to look at all the funky plants and animals on the way and just enjoy the breathtaking views of the ice-capped mountain. So far we have seen some Elephant treks (huge dung heaps of at least 5 kilo poops - amazing!) Colobus monkeys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_colobus
that look a little like a big skunk with stripes of white long fur hanging off their otherwise black backs. And there are some huge black birds with white spots on their neck about double the size of a raven - these guys might be the flying dinosaurs we heard at night.
The vegetation has changed dramatically from lush thick green jungle with 3m wide cypress trees covered in thick layers of moss, ferns and colorful flowers to a dry and dusty desert like steppe with kneehigh evergreen bushes and small thick leaved plants that store water.
We haven't managed to find a computer fast enough to deal with large sized image files yet. Hopefully we can upload some pictures of Toshs camera soon.
This is a description of the Lemosho-route just in a shorter version:
http://www.climbingkilimanjaro.com/lemosho-route-kilimanjaro.php
We took off at 9am with a 20 year old Land Cruiser stuffed to the max with 6 porters, 1 guide, 1 driver, 1 assistant, Tosh and me, equipment and food for eight days (about 10 tons). It all looked like we were going on a month long excursion to the north pole.
We stopped several times at shops and street vendors to pick up missing bits and pieces. The tour operator had told us it would take 1.5 hrs to get to the head of the trail. After more than 5 hours we finally get to the gate of Kilimajaro National Park, where we pay the park fees and have some lunch.
We pick up two more porters here aswell (don't ask me how they fit in the truck, I honestly have no idea..) and drive for another hour up an impossibly steep trail that almost tips the truck over several times.
When we finally start walking it is 3:30 pm and we get the feeling that we were meant to start much sooner than this. Our guide is still busy with organising all our gear and the porters and tells us to go on ahead without him. We head off into the thick jungle. After about 1.5 hrs of pretty easy going uphill we already arrive at our first campsite.
Our porters don't get there until about 2 hours later and we really start worrying about them. We meet some people from other trekking groups at the camp: two italian guys, one girl from New Zealand and a dutch man and his teenage daughter. They all seem a lot of fun and we are excited to be on this trek together and meet at the camps at night.
When the rest of our team finally gets to the camp it is getting dark and I am starting to get hypothermic from still wearing my wet shirt in the rapidly dropping temperatures. As soon as the sun disappears behind the one side of the mountain all warmth diminishes instantly.
Much later we get some hot food (which is delicious) and an apology from our guide Anderson. I am really wondering if we made the right choice in tour company, hoping it will get better in the days to come.
We crawl into our sleeping bags and after a few hours I can finally feel my toes again.
In the middle of the night we both wake up from some loud animal sounds coming from the surrounding jungle. We can distinguish some monkeys (probably Colobus monkeys that we saw during the day) but there is also some sounds which are totally strange to us. One sounds like a ginormous mutant mega bullfrog (I hope you can imagine that, because it is really quite impressive) and we hear something that sounds like a flying dinosaur passing over our tent. Very interesting! I hope we get to see who makes those sounds soon.
The next day we get up at 7 am for an amazing hot breakfast with omelette, pancakes, sausages fresh pineapple, avocados and toast. We eat as much as we can (a lot) and start our hike at 8:30 am heading up further into the jungle. We have 1000m of altitude gain and about 8 km distance to cover, taking us from 2600m in the thick jungle to 3500m on brushy bare mountain desert.
We start off walking behind Anderson because he told us he would set the pace. He walks painfully slow, of "Pole Pole" as it is called in Swaheli and Tosh and I soon overtake him to walk our own pace. The hike is pretty easy, not too steep and we reach our second camp after about 5 hours including many breaks, lunch and picture taking. We were told in the morning this would be a long hard day with 7-8 hours hiking. If it keeps going like this, reaching the summit might turn out to be a Sunday stroll ;)
Maybe we could have done this trek in 6 or 7 days instead of 8. It is still great to have the time to look at all the funky plants and animals on the way and just enjoy the breathtaking views of the ice-capped mountain. So far we have seen some Elephant treks (huge dung heaps of at least 5 kilo poops - amazing!) Colobus monkeys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_colobus
that look a little like a big skunk with stripes of white long fur hanging off their otherwise black backs. And there are some huge black birds with white spots on their neck about double the size of a raven - these guys might be the flying dinosaurs we heard at night.
The vegetation has changed dramatically from lush thick green jungle with 3m wide cypress trees covered in thick layers of moss, ferns and colorful flowers to a dry and dusty desert like steppe with kneehigh evergreen bushes and small thick leaved plants that store water.
We haven't managed to find a computer fast enough to deal with large sized image files yet. Hopefully we can upload some pictures of Toshs camera soon.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
07l14l2010 Tanzania and getting there
After around 32 hours of traveling Tosh and I arrived in Arusha, our basecamp for our Kilimanjaro hike at the bottom of the mountain. The trip went pretty smooth, except for the last leg of our flights from Addis Abeba in Ethiopia to Kilimanjaro, when our plane landed unexpectedly in Nairobi. We thought we might have some kind of technical problem with our plane from Ethiopian airlines, because we saw a guy check the bolts of one of the turbines of our plane with a very dim torch, when we were boarding the plane. It turned out the extra stop was on schedule, just nobody had told us about it. One other thing worth mentioning about the trip is that you should definitely avoid the Addis Abeba airport,if you can. It is one of the ugliest and unwelcoming places ever and we had the pleasure of spending four hours in this nasty smoke hole(everybody smokes there, everywhere).
Finally at Kilimanjaro airport we were delighted to see that our luggage made it there too (supposedly not so very common with african airlines). At the airport, which is a tin shed with one luggage band we have our first encounter with "how-stuff-works" here. We were asked to show our vaccination records to an officer, which neither of us had brought. We told him we didn't know we needed to bring it and were advised to stand aside and wait for further instructions. Ten minutes later we had a little group of people around us, who all didn't know about the vaccination records either. Finally the officer comes back to us asking for the records again. We repeat, that we don't have them with us. He seems unmoved and starts arguing with other passengers. After discussing back and forth with several upset people he finally decides to give in and hands us back our passports. "You can go" is all he has to say in a pretty grumpy tone. A lot of things here seem very negotiable... probably more on that later.
Then we had to get our visas at the visa counter. We paid $150 US dollars, $100 for Tosh and $50 for me. Germans are half price, I really need to find out why ;)
The most obvious difference we noticed right when stepping off the plane is the smell. It smells a bit like a potpourri of asian spices, body odors, tropical plants and the big cats cage in the zoo- exotic and a little dangerous too.
We catch a cab ride for the 50 km from the airport into Arusha town and are pretty upset it is pitch black (4 am) and we don't get to see any of the landscape and villages we are passing. We are driving to our backpackers hostel which I tried to reserve in advance, because we were arriving at such a horrible hour. I got a reply by e-mail saying "yes, you can reserve the room, and you can check in early, but it depends on availabilty." Ha.
So we are pretty happy that there is a girl sleeping behind the counter, who lets us in to a nice clean 4 bed dorm room (which we have to ourselves). Finally in a horizontal body position feels like heaven and we both pass out quickly.
Today we woke up to a whole new world. I had the bed right next to the window facing the busy main street. And busy doesn't just mean many cars and people. It is more like watching the crazy choreography to a modern dance from up here: people carrying all kinds of goods on their heads, on wooden push-carriages and on bicycles. Men and women sitting in the street selling bananas, oranges, sweets, corn and nuts. Rusted pick-up-trucks that look way to old to be driving around loaded with metal poles about 4 times as long as the truck itself or stacked with tied up parcels so high that it seems impossible for them not to fall off.
All these loaded vehicles and people shuffle around eachother in a way that looks like it must be directed from a higher intelligence. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see pink Elephants or green aliens amidst this circus.
After a tasty breakfast of hot chai tea and fruit lassis we go strolling around town.
I don't really feel safe to take out my big camera and take pictures but do it anyway because there is too much interesting stuff to see and capture. I soon realize that this is not exactly the right place for picture-taking because we are soon surrounded by some pretty aggressive smart-asses, that try to mess with us and pretty much get some cash out of us. I have to put the camera away and we have to get very fierce with them, before they finally leave us alone. It feels like a very unsafe environment and I as a white woman by myself would not feel comfortable at all. With Tosh by my side there is always some sort of safety even in the most dangerous settings, but even he seems tense and uncomfortable.
Overall Arusha seems like a very dry and dusty/ dirty place. I imagined it to be prettier with older buildings for some reason, but it reminds especially Tosh more of a city in Iraq than in Africa. The people are mostly very kind, modest, warm and welcoming. They seem to have a way to communicate almost without words, reading gestures and sensing emotions - very fascinating and still a lot to learn about.
We managed to book our trip to Kilimanjaro today, heading out tomorrow to go on an 8 day trek on the Lemosho route ascending over the western Shira-plateau. Tonight we have a briefing with our guide "Anderson" and then we are heading out with a 4x4 to the head of trail tomorrow morning.
Finally at Kilimanjaro airport we were delighted to see that our luggage made it there too (supposedly not so very common with african airlines). At the airport, which is a tin shed with one luggage band we have our first encounter with "how-stuff-works" here. We were asked to show our vaccination records to an officer, which neither of us had brought. We told him we didn't know we needed to bring it and were advised to stand aside and wait for further instructions. Ten minutes later we had a little group of people around us, who all didn't know about the vaccination records either. Finally the officer comes back to us asking for the records again. We repeat, that we don't have them with us. He seems unmoved and starts arguing with other passengers. After discussing back and forth with several upset people he finally decides to give in and hands us back our passports. "You can go" is all he has to say in a pretty grumpy tone. A lot of things here seem very negotiable... probably more on that later.
Then we had to get our visas at the visa counter. We paid $150 US dollars, $100 for Tosh and $50 for me. Germans are half price, I really need to find out why ;)
The most obvious difference we noticed right when stepping off the plane is the smell. It smells a bit like a potpourri of asian spices, body odors, tropical plants and the big cats cage in the zoo- exotic and a little dangerous too.
We catch a cab ride for the 50 km from the airport into Arusha town and are pretty upset it is pitch black (4 am) and we don't get to see any of the landscape and villages we are passing. We are driving to our backpackers hostel which I tried to reserve in advance, because we were arriving at such a horrible hour. I got a reply by e-mail saying "yes, you can reserve the room, and you can check in early, but it depends on availabilty." Ha.
So we are pretty happy that there is a girl sleeping behind the counter, who lets us in to a nice clean 4 bed dorm room (which we have to ourselves). Finally in a horizontal body position feels like heaven and we both pass out quickly.
Today we woke up to a whole new world. I had the bed right next to the window facing the busy main street. And busy doesn't just mean many cars and people. It is more like watching the crazy choreography to a modern dance from up here: people carrying all kinds of goods on their heads, on wooden push-carriages and on bicycles. Men and women sitting in the street selling bananas, oranges, sweets, corn and nuts. Rusted pick-up-trucks that look way to old to be driving around loaded with metal poles about 4 times as long as the truck itself or stacked with tied up parcels so high that it seems impossible for them not to fall off.
All these loaded vehicles and people shuffle around eachother in a way that looks like it must be directed from a higher intelligence. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see pink Elephants or green aliens amidst this circus.
After a tasty breakfast of hot chai tea and fruit lassis we go strolling around town.
I don't really feel safe to take out my big camera and take pictures but do it anyway because there is too much interesting stuff to see and capture. I soon realize that this is not exactly the right place for picture-taking because we are soon surrounded by some pretty aggressive smart-asses, that try to mess with us and pretty much get some cash out of us. I have to put the camera away and we have to get very fierce with them, before they finally leave us alone. It feels like a very unsafe environment and I as a white woman by myself would not feel comfortable at all. With Tosh by my side there is always some sort of safety even in the most dangerous settings, but even he seems tense and uncomfortable.
Overall Arusha seems like a very dry and dusty/ dirty place. I imagined it to be prettier with older buildings for some reason, but it reminds especially Tosh more of a city in Iraq than in Africa. The people are mostly very kind, modest, warm and welcoming. They seem to have a way to communicate almost without words, reading gestures and sensing emotions - very fascinating and still a lot to learn about.
We managed to book our trip to Kilimanjaro today, heading out tomorrow to go on an 8 day trek on the Lemosho route ascending over the western Shira-plateau. Tonight we have a briefing with our guide "Anderson" and then we are heading out with a 4x4 to the head of trail tomorrow morning.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Getting ready
This Sunday at 6pm our flight leaves from Atlanta to take us over to Africa, the cradle of human kind. I can not explain how excited I am to finally see this continent with all the wildlife, the people and landscapes. I know already it will be the trip of a lifetime.
We are going to climb mount Kilimanjaro after a few days of acclimatizing in Arusha (at the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro). The hike should take about 8 days, if we make it to the top and won't be forced to descend before because of altitude sickness or AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).
Tosh and I have been reading a lot and are trying to be as prepared as possible, but it just can't be foreseen how the high altitude effects us. We both have been hiking in high altitude before (Machu Picchu in Peru), but it will always be a new way to adjust the body to the low oxygen levels. I know that Tosh won't turn around, even with AMS, before he breaks down. So I will have to watch myself and him, because the porters carrying our tents and food are not prepared to carry a 190 Pound American Beefcake down the mountain.. It will be interesting :)
This is a map with all the different routes up to Kilimanjaro. We still haven't decided which one we are going to take. Probably either the Rongai route, which is supposed to have the most wildlife on the trail and be very remote and lonesome; or the Lemosho route, which is a longer route ascending from the west with stunning views of the entire plateau and hardly any other hikers.
We are going to climb mount Kilimanjaro after a few days of acclimatizing in Arusha (at the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro). The hike should take about 8 days, if we make it to the top and won't be forced to descend before because of altitude sickness or AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).
Tosh and I have been reading a lot and are trying to be as prepared as possible, but it just can't be foreseen how the high altitude effects us. We both have been hiking in high altitude before (Machu Picchu in Peru), but it will always be a new way to adjust the body to the low oxygen levels. I know that Tosh won't turn around, even with AMS, before he breaks down. So I will have to watch myself and him, because the porters carrying our tents and food are not prepared to carry a 190 Pound American Beefcake down the mountain.. It will be interesting :)
This is a map with all the different routes up to Kilimanjaro. We still haven't decided which one we are going to take. Probably either the Rongai route, which is supposed to have the most wildlife on the trail and be very remote and lonesome; or the Lemosho route, which is a longer route ascending from the west with stunning views of the entire plateau and hardly any other hikers.
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