Musing #1 Dala Dalas in Zbar
Aside from Zanzibar’s BEAUTIFUL white, fine sand beaches lined coconut and palm trees, abundant mangoes for less than a dime and whole pineapples for less than a dollar, something tour books fail to mention are the dala dalas in Zanzibar. They are more or less a truck with an open-aired back lined with long benches and a roof. We managed to squash 28 people onto these benches with luggage from flour sacks and pails of tomatoes to eggs, chickens, briefcases, and in my case a backpacking size backpack. So the benches are full of people and the area between the people are filled with the above mentioned items so you’d think that if someone gets on first, they would scoot further up the bench so as to allow other passengers to get on easier. Not so. Instead, me with my 73 cubic meter backpack, already too tall for the dala dala, crawling over the aforementioned tomatoes, eggs, flour sacks, etc. to get an open spot on the bench. But before I am seated the dala dala lurches forward and everyone follows suit. Of course there are no seat belts although the fellow passengers on both sides of you serve as a constrictor keeping your thighs glued to your seat because you are unable to move them either way due to the other people. I will note that this position when you have horrible sunburn on the backs of your thighs and butt is not ideal (never mind I put spf 55 on and wore a shirt when I went snorkeling). Another main difference is that the dala dala can lurch forward. In Arusha, there is so much traffic that you maybe go 30 mph maximum and most of that is when you are passing in the invisible middle lane. In Zbar, no traffic, no problem. So the daladala goes a considerable speed. Then the conductor taps with a shilling coin on the outside of the truck (yes he is just holding onto the back of the truck as are four other men) and the truck, brakes screeching and all, lurches forward again, stopping one second later. The word gradual does not exist! Then we pick up the passenger, load on the baggage, and with the tap-tap of the shilling coin lurch forward again. Even though we paid 4x what we should have, it was still 1/10th the amount of a taxi and why would I trade this experience for a $50 taxi ride?...
Musing #2 Resort food or fish market?
So besides the 8 cent mangos and dollar pineapples, there really isn’t any other food one can buy in Matemwe, a northern beach resort town with the best snorkeling I’ve ever done in my life! It was like looking at an aquarium! Except for the fish market. We were tired of going to resort dinners and spending a minimum of $12 on a plate (I haven’t spent this amount on food in a very long time!) and decided it would be a nice gesture to cook fish for our couchsurfers. They work at a resort and told us they ate there for every meal. What I didn’t realize is they truly meant EVERY meal. They had lived there four months and did not own salt, pepper, oil, a sharp knife, or even cooked in their kitchen-anything. Not cereal, bread, emergency pasta ration, nothing. So after buying this fish, which was a beauty and around $4, and carrying it by a string attached to its mouth for the 3k walk back home, we realized we had forgotten the key. It turned into a comedic act because of course many stopped us seeing mzungus carrying a fish on the beach. And then we walked by them again. The cook at the resort gave us a bit of butter, oil, and salt/pepper mixture and a sharp knife because they didn’t have any. The fish turned out quite well and the next day we were stopped multiple times with something along the lines of “Weren’t you two the ones with the fish yesterday?” I think we made a legend.
Musing 3 The Zanzibari/Western Muslim Wedding
So my main reason for going to Zanzibar when I did was my colleague’s wedding, which was a very cool cultural experience I will never forget. It began with a frazzled Sara trying desperately to find the place because there was no sign and the name I was given (Dhau Countries Music Academy) none of the locals knew. I walked in at 4 pm on the dot which is when the ceremony was supposed to begin. But upon arriving, I saw everyone was just waiting around and we were on typical Tanzania time once again. About 45 mins later the western bride walks in, decorated with 6 hrs of Henna up and down her arms and legs (and her shoulders were bare) and goes to her dressing room. 15 mins. later we hear drums and women fluttering their tongues. Down below 4 stories is a processional of the groom's whole family, probably 100+ people dressed in beautiful gowns, women all with their hair covered, and waving money above their heads. We were served lemongrass tea, a sweet gelatin with sesame seeds called halau, and a samosa, while the Arabic singing continued. I did not feel like I was in Tanzania AT ALL. Eventually, the groom showed up and entered the bride's dressing room, where I think is where the religious part of the ceremony took place. I saw a man (I would guess to be the equivalent of a preacher) putting his hand on her head as a sign of blessing and then unveiled her and they had a photo shoot and then walked out holding hands, no kiss. It then turned into a paparazzi shooting as they walked down the aisle with kisses on the cheek, and people attaching small bills of money to her dress. After parading around for probably half an hour, they did the exchange of the rings. It seemed very evident to me that this was not a common occurrence because all the women continued to talk and so it was very hard to hear. And then they finally kissed :) It was interesting to see how reserved they were with the family there because they had lived together beforehand for a year. Then we went to the groom's house where sat on mats on the floor and waited and then saw an Arabic men's dance where they all danced in kneeling synchronized movement with one hand behind their back and the other varying between waving in the hair and sweeping the ground and them leaning back on their calves.
Day 2 of the Wedding
The second night was mainly just a party. Though MUCH later than expected. I had arrived early because my CS host insisted on giving me a ride and I didn't want to tell him to wait for a certain time. When I arrived hardly anything had been set up so I helped fill the centerpiece bags of sand (for the candles). Luckily the ground was sand so it was an easy task. The bride lived in Japan for 3 years so each table had 3 origami flowers. It almost became a joke when the guests walked in at 7:30 to help with the various tasks still not done. By the time the bride and groom walked in (9:45!!!), it had rained, wind had blown all the candles out and had to be relit multiple times, and I could hear my stomach quite clearly, having not eaten a large lunch knowing dinner would be huge. The bride's dress was BEAUTIFUL!!! Purple and gold with a train. They were seated and Tarab music (a Zanzibar style where they use flat two, major 3, and lots of tetrachords) began followed by the most insanely awesome Capoera I had ever seen! They made the sand look like a trampoline doing flips right there! And then they dragged the groom out, he removed his suit coat, and took part. AWESOME! 11 PM food was finally served with the largest fish I had ever seen, pilau, salad, and sugar cane juice, delicious!! I was amazed to see all the Muslim women with uncovered hair, bare shoulders, and drinking beer. But one of the brothers explained that they can do these things for special events like parties or invites. Interesting. No wedding cake, but a delicious fruit salad and banana bread. This was followed by dancing starting with rockin' robin swing and evolving into Poker Face (club music) lol. And then the party was over.
The spice tour was really cool because they made leaf jewelry and made it much more about the presentation of the spices then the spices themselves. The most impressive was a guy climbing to the top of a coconut tree (pics will be on Facebook soon). A book that might be interesting to read is Memoirs of an Arabian Princess about a Zanzibari princess who learned to read secretly (women couldn't read) by writing Koranic verses on the shoulder blade of a camel and then escaped to Germany where she converted to Christianity and changed her name and gained independence. I also learned that henna started as a way to cool off with a simple dot and then people got bored and started making designs. Coolest sunset bbq with you-name-it seafood for under 5 bucks. And we stayed with a Zbar family which was a really cool experience! I love TZ children!
Bagamoyo had an interesting history being the resting place of the slave traders with bwagamoyo literally meaning lay your burden of your heart down. Dar, aside from being hot and crowded, was wonderful and traffic over the holiday wasn't bad at all.We fell in love with the bucket shower, which is exactly what it sounds like. You dump buckets of cold water on your head. Saves A LOT of water and is so refreshing when it's so hot outside. Though you really do get used to the heat and with a parasol it's not so bad. The university was so green and people were so friendly. I felt like I made more friends traveling and showing me all the local places and going out every night then I do here in Arusha after 5 months. This Sun marks the halfway point. And I actually can believe it. Back to work this week. Fingers crossed on parents coming in two weeks!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Two Mountains in One Month
2 Mountains in One Month
I figured instead of writing about each mountain separately I could do a compare/contrast thing. But it ended up really long. Well, here goes.
Statistics
Mt Meru: 4512 metres, 3 days, 60k, 3000m vertical
Crew: A 53 yr old man from Texas (more or less a colleague) by the name of Tom, an armed ranger, a porter, and me
Mt. Kilimanjaro: 5895 metres, 5 days, 60k, 4000m vertical
Crew: Tom, a guide (we couldn’t do this one independently), 2 porters, a cook, a waiter, an assistant guide, and me
Day 1 Mt. Meru
After learning they don’t accept cash in the parks to prevent corruption, we stood in line at the bank for 45 mins. waiting to get these park cards. Going back and forth between lines and just a lot of red tape we find out that despite these are national park cards, they are only accepted at some parks, of course not the one we were going to. I had put the majority of my money on this card, we were 1.5 hrs out of town, and still had to pay..Luckily, Tom had a Visa card so we paid with that and were so thankful we had wasted 45 mins. of our lives standing in line at the bank for nothing! (Luckily we were able to recover this money later after writing a letter to the branch manager, coming back when they were closed, and eventually getting the money).
After arriving to the park, we found out that the fees for the porters had changed from 10,000 tsh to $10/day. Of course we were in favor of supporting the porters with a better wage, but again not knowing this was very frustrating when it came to budgeting. Then despite we were an independent group they told us we were going to be with 3 Germans and 7 of their porters! We wanted to leave soon so that we could go to the Mt. Meru Crater after arriving at camp and they told us we had to wait for this group. After, yes I’ll admit it, being very stubborn and okay a bit of complaining, they gave in and we got our own group and went to the huts via the crater…Little did we know this would involve an extra 10k. Beautiful botanically, not a whole lot of wildlife, some buffalo scat, lots of ants, a dyka, and a few birds, but a road full of scree and quite literally 20k straight up hill! The crater was beautiful and it was the first time I could just sit there and hear nothing-no birds, no wind, no people, nothing. Despite Lonely Planet guidebook telling us it was a short walk from the hut and the ash cone could be climbed, we found out you needed a special permit from the director of TANAPA (the TZ parks association) and had to be doing geological research. We saw the huge tree that the Meru people consider sacred and our guide who was from the area told us we were the only ones he had ever taken this way. We realized what idiots we were, but it was a beautiful detour! As we arrived to the hut, it began to rain. Perfect timing! This rain was a blessing because it served as fresh drinking water for the next day. We made some delicious soup on our camp stove and attempted cribbage without a board (not recommended). We were the only people without a guide, but we didn’t mind. The huts were really nice! Shared bathrooms with 4 bunks in each room and each group had their own room so we had two spare bunks to put our stuff on and no roommates. We conked out quite early with Ibuprofen digested ready for another day.
Day 1 Kili
We had pre-paid Kili Bike &Trek so we didn’t have to worry about park fees upon arriving. HIGHLY recommend them if anyone is thinking of doing Kili and we got a really good deal (well Kili pricewise). They picked us up from our houses and we went to see the waterfall in Marangu which also included a Chagga (an indigenous tribe) cultural lesson. The first day was only 7k and SO beautiful! We went through the rainforest and saw lots of monkeys, birds, and beautiful green rain forest. Each day had a designated lunch spot with a bathroom (well a square hole in the ground, why it was square I will never know!) and picnic tables. We arrived at the hut and then only had a 15 min walk (contrasted with the extra 10k) to view the crater. We could see the plains of Kenya and a waterfall in the distance. We also saw some hyrax on the way. The huts were a little more basic with a mattress on the floor and much smaller. But the food was substantial! A vegetable soup followed by a main dish followed by fruit, oh and I forgot the tea and popcorn upon arrival. We played cribbage, this time with a board (Tom got me one for Christmas), and went to bed.
Day 2 Mt. Meru
This day was very misleading because it was only 5k..but that actually translated as 4 hrs of stairs! I climbed 1000 official stairs and then probably another 1000 things that I would call stairs but the ranger told me were not included in the 1000. At the top we began to see Little Meru (3800 m). We had dinner around 3:30 and slept from 4-12, ready for the midnight climb.
Day 2 Kili
We left the rainforest and went onto the moorlands. Many open meadows with beautiful flowers, a lot of birds that no guide knew the name of, but black with turquoise and black with red both beautiful!, and had some beautiful views across the mountain. It was a much easier climb than Day 2 Meru with a gradual ascent and a GORGEOUS view! 11k but MUCH more scenic and no stairs :) Pretty uneventful.
Day 3 Meru 12 AM
Made some midnight oatmeal and then began the what-I-didn't-know-at-the-time 6 hr climb! We had a full moon so my cell phone torch was not needed. But I DEFINITELY underestimated 30˚ with no sunlight! In my mind, 30˚ is xc-skiing in a t-shirt so I figured climbing a mountain would keep me warm. I forgot about how cold wind can be and how hard it is to stay warm with no sun. Despite having leggings, two fleeces, a scarf, a hat, and woolen socks, I would say the only thing on me that was warm were my feet. Unfortunately, I had left my other woolen socks at the hut so my poor fingers had to wear cotton socks as mittens, which as you can guess was very poor insulation! My hands were literally molded into the pole position and took quite awhile to straighten them. And so we began pole pole (slowly) up the zigzag ridge. I can do this, I thought to myself. Little did I know this was just the beginning.
We reached the point they call Rhino Point that is the same altitude as Little Meru and then began the true adventure. To get off of Rhino Point, you had to walk down a knife ridge with 100m drop off on each side (remember it's dark). This was followed by walking across a rock wall. My thrill transformed into terror when I slipped on the wet rocks and had nothing to hold onto not being able to see where the drop off was. That was when I began to doubt and yes some tears were shed. The guide was very good, helped me to calm down, and had me put my foot on his, and took my poles so I could tangibly grasp the rocks. Pole pole I made it across, not knowing this wasn't even a 1/4 of the way! Next was climbing up a very narrow volcanic ash cone with huge drop offs on both sides. One wrong step and the rest was history.
At this point, I could feel the altitude and exhaustion and knew the only thing keeping me upright were my poles! After a steep incline and repeating to myself "I can" in as many languages as I could think of over and over again, I made it to the top of the ash cone and began climbing up rocks, more or less rock climbing. I had thought I had seen the top and I kept telling myself the only way is up. But the guide told me that was only the halfway point. That was when I thought I couldn't do it anymore. I have no idea how I continued, but it was getting dark so the guide handed me his headlamp and I continued onward.
After many more ridges, we finally had thought we reached the top-AGAIN-but the sun was on the verge of rising and I told our porter (who became our guide, our guide stayed where he gave me his light and took a nap I later found out) I didn't want to miss the sunrise over Kili-that was my motivation for climbing. So we kept climbing and continued to check for the sunrise. It happened and it was GORGEOUS! We could see Kili peaking above the clouds (see photos on FB) and the light was hitting the ash cone so beautifully. Morning light is so beautiful! The sky turned an aquamarine color and the first rays of warmth for the past 6 hours appeared. I realized how hungry I was and ate some dried fruit and nuts watching the beautiful sunrise. Tom and I looked at each other and were quite content. We had seen the sunrise, we had climbed the ridge, we were ready to go down. But our guide wasn't having it, "Twende," he says (Let's go!). So we continued. After 4 more ridges and 2 more false quits, we reached the boulder, that once we reached the top would FINALLY be the summit. It was marked with the TZ flag. I continued to climb as my eyes were fixed on that flag. There was no way I was giving up now! 40 mins later we had reached the top, signed the registrar, and saw all of Arusha. I tried to locate my house, but it was too foggy and far away.
And then down we went! Down, down down. The drop offs were even more magnanimous than I could ever have imagined in the dark. No wonder you climb in the dark. No one would do it in the daylight! After 4 hrs we made it back to the hut, had a quick lunch, and went down. We figured going down the stairs would be quick..but 3 hrs later we had only arrived at the first hut ready to tackle the last 3 hours down. We took the route that most people took to climb up and after being in a permanent 45˚ angle descent for almost 4 hrs I am very glad we took the longer more scenic way up! I was quite literally limping by the end and there got to a point where I couldn't walk any longer and the park truck came and picked me up. By that time I had walked continuously with an exception for lunch and a brief 5 min stop at the 1st hut for a little short of 16 hrs!!! The only high point was seeing a giraffe and buffalo on the way down. I got my certificate, had a delicious Mexican meal, and fell asleep by 8:30. That was BEYOND pushing my limits, but it just goes to show your body is capable of anything even if you don't think it is. Mind over matter and I felt like I could do ANYTHING after that!
Day 3 Kili
Day 3 for Kili was only the halfway point so not nearly as exhilarating or exhausting. We decided to take the "longer route" (by less than a km) because it was more scenic and brought us to the base of Mawenzi, another peak. On the way, we saw some very interesting rocks appropriately named zebra rocks, an eagle flew over us so I felt we had luck for the night ahead of us (the climb to Uhuru peak), saw many alpine chats (a small bird), and learned many plants. Did you know the pretoria flower from S Africa comes from a flower found in TZ called Pretoa? Or that there are two types of Arica, red and white? This route also gave us our first view of what we would be climbing that night..daunting to say the least, but this view soon disappeared with clouds and fog completely surrounding us. THe last few steps to Kibo Hut were the most difficult as we were now at the altitude of the peak of Mt. Meru, couldn't see what we had already traversed and what was ahead of us except for the hut way off in the distance. Walking on gravel sand that gradually ascended with a chill and sudden sting of cold in the air. I used my Ckon knowledge and started walking up in a zigzag formation not letting myself stop and very thankful for the Camelbak on my back.
Upon reaching the hut, we checked into a much bigger dorm room type hut with 10 other Aussies and tried to not smell the stench coming from the hole-in-the-ground toilets as it is too high for them to empty so nothing circulates...We had dinner at 3:30 and attempted to sleep from 4:30-11.
Day 3 11 PM-Day 4
My alarm clock went off and I brutally made my body leave its warm 30˚ sleeping bag and start piling on the layers. I ended up with a long sleeve, a light wool pullover, a down vest, and a waterproof heavy jacket, wool pants, pants, and snow pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, a scarf, a fleece hat, and goretex warm gloves. No this wasn't overdressing! I was not going to have another Meru again!
This time called for a flashlight as the moon had already left the sky giving us nothing but stars to look at as we began the zigzag climb up to Gilman's point. Note: there was a trail the whole way. I knew there was a 5 hr climb ahead of me and knowing there were only 2 hrs, 1.5, 1, 30 min. etc left really helped! At the halfway point I got some hot tea and ate some chocolate and chapati (Tanzanian tortilla) realizing that was the main problem. I had only eaten 2 biscuits and some hot tea before beginning to climb (they don't give you a lot of food because many throw up with the altitude). Luckily my diamox was doing its job (high altitude pill) except it serves as a diaretic..I started to get a horrible stomachache but in 45 mins would reach Gilman's Point where everyone told me, if you make it there you can do it for sure! Seeing shooting stars also gave me hope, and I saw Venus and Mars, and the sky turn orange in the distance as a thunderstorm occurred in Moshi. BEAUTIFUL.
After Gilman's Point, my water was completely frozen and I saw my first snow since last winter! It was so weird, but yet felt so familiar to be walking on ice and so the trek across the ice cap began. Then the sun began to peak on the horizon and I was on a ridge. All around me glaciers lit up with the ice gleaming, the clouds were like a puffy blanket, and Uhuru Peak was in sight. The hardest part were those last 40 mins to the top! I could definitely feel the altitude, I couldn't drink my water, and I was so tired! But 7:52 AM I finally made it! It was beautiful. I could see Meru across from me, the clouds were completely surrounded and the glaciers were beautiful. Honestly, I think the climb up to Uhuru from Gilman's point onward was just as gorgeous as the peak itself but there I was a bit short of 6000m on the highest point in Africa!
The best part: coming down. Whoever said you need snow and skis to ski is wrong. I skiied in hiking boots, hiking poles, and sand. We began to traverse down the zigzags and then he asked do you know how to ski? And so we went straight down (with more-or-less parallel turning of course) and were at the bottom in an hr 15! It felt so great to ski knowing it was my only opportunity this year and I can now say I've skiied down Kili!
A 20 min rest, a bowl of hot soup, and so began the 8k back to Hurongo Hut where we spent the 2nd night. 8k in my mind doesn't sound like anything, but I assure you this was the longest 8k in my life! Perhaps because I had already done 12k (6k to the top, 6k down), perhaps because I had been awake the past 12 hrs, or because of the nature of the path being super rocky and again in the permanent 45˚ descent making my toes push against the front of my shoes. It involved climbing some ridges and going down, down, down. We went the "shorter route" back and it made me very glad we had done the "longer route" because the shorter route did NOT feel shorter, was not scenic, and was a lot less gradual. We got to camp around 3:15 and I slept til dinner at 5 and then went to bed at 6!
Day 5
Down, down, down. My feet were hurting so badly, but the views and weather were beautiful and I didn't mind going through the rainforest again at all! We reached the bottom, I bought a Kili shirt with all the diff routes and my fav pole pole saying on it, and were treated to Kitimoto (hot pork chops), ugali, fruit, salad, and cold beverages. We finally met the other 3 people in our group who sang the song of Kilimanjaro for us (yes I took a video) and had an awards ceremony receiving our certificates.
Came home and crashed!
And that is the end of my mountain climbing in Africa! Mind over matter! Kili was MUCH easier and really cool to meet people from all over the world! I got to speak some Spanish, a lot of Swahili, and a bit of Italian. Now back to work tomorrow :(
Dar/Zbar entry will have to wait
I figured instead of writing about each mountain separately I could do a compare/contrast thing. But it ended up really long. Well, here goes.
Statistics
Mt Meru: 4512 metres, 3 days, 60k, 3000m vertical
Crew: A 53 yr old man from Texas (more or less a colleague) by the name of Tom, an armed ranger, a porter, and me
Mt. Kilimanjaro: 5895 metres, 5 days, 60k, 4000m vertical
Crew: Tom, a guide (we couldn’t do this one independently), 2 porters, a cook, a waiter, an assistant guide, and me
Day 1 Mt. Meru
After learning they don’t accept cash in the parks to prevent corruption, we stood in line at the bank for 45 mins. waiting to get these park cards. Going back and forth between lines and just a lot of red tape we find out that despite these are national park cards, they are only accepted at some parks, of course not the one we were going to. I had put the majority of my money on this card, we were 1.5 hrs out of town, and still had to pay..Luckily, Tom had a Visa card so we paid with that and were so thankful we had wasted 45 mins. of our lives standing in line at the bank for nothing! (Luckily we were able to recover this money later after writing a letter to the branch manager, coming back when they were closed, and eventually getting the money).
After arriving to the park, we found out that the fees for the porters had changed from 10,000 tsh to $10/day. Of course we were in favor of supporting the porters with a better wage, but again not knowing this was very frustrating when it came to budgeting. Then despite we were an independent group they told us we were going to be with 3 Germans and 7 of their porters! We wanted to leave soon so that we could go to the Mt. Meru Crater after arriving at camp and they told us we had to wait for this group. After, yes I’ll admit it, being very stubborn and okay a bit of complaining, they gave in and we got our own group and went to the huts via the crater…Little did we know this would involve an extra 10k. Beautiful botanically, not a whole lot of wildlife, some buffalo scat, lots of ants, a dyka, and a few birds, but a road full of scree and quite literally 20k straight up hill! The crater was beautiful and it was the first time I could just sit there and hear nothing-no birds, no wind, no people, nothing. Despite Lonely Planet guidebook telling us it was a short walk from the hut and the ash cone could be climbed, we found out you needed a special permit from the director of TANAPA (the TZ parks association) and had to be doing geological research. We saw the huge tree that the Meru people consider sacred and our guide who was from the area told us we were the only ones he had ever taken this way. We realized what idiots we were, but it was a beautiful detour! As we arrived to the hut, it began to rain. Perfect timing! This rain was a blessing because it served as fresh drinking water for the next day. We made some delicious soup on our camp stove and attempted cribbage without a board (not recommended). We were the only people without a guide, but we didn’t mind. The huts were really nice! Shared bathrooms with 4 bunks in each room and each group had their own room so we had two spare bunks to put our stuff on and no roommates. We conked out quite early with Ibuprofen digested ready for another day.
Day 1 Kili
We had pre-paid Kili Bike &Trek so we didn’t have to worry about park fees upon arriving. HIGHLY recommend them if anyone is thinking of doing Kili and we got a really good deal (well Kili pricewise). They picked us up from our houses and we went to see the waterfall in Marangu which also included a Chagga (an indigenous tribe) cultural lesson. The first day was only 7k and SO beautiful! We went through the rainforest and saw lots of monkeys, birds, and beautiful green rain forest. Each day had a designated lunch spot with a bathroom (well a square hole in the ground, why it was square I will never know!) and picnic tables. We arrived at the hut and then only had a 15 min walk (contrasted with the extra 10k) to view the crater. We could see the plains of Kenya and a waterfall in the distance. We also saw some hyrax on the way. The huts were a little more basic with a mattress on the floor and much smaller. But the food was substantial! A vegetable soup followed by a main dish followed by fruit, oh and I forgot the tea and popcorn upon arrival. We played cribbage, this time with a board (Tom got me one for Christmas), and went to bed.
Day 2 Mt. Meru
This day was very misleading because it was only 5k..but that actually translated as 4 hrs of stairs! I climbed 1000 official stairs and then probably another 1000 things that I would call stairs but the ranger told me were not included in the 1000. At the top we began to see Little Meru (3800 m). We had dinner around 3:30 and slept from 4-12, ready for the midnight climb.
Day 2 Kili
We left the rainforest and went onto the moorlands. Many open meadows with beautiful flowers, a lot of birds that no guide knew the name of, but black with turquoise and black with red both beautiful!, and had some beautiful views across the mountain. It was a much easier climb than Day 2 Meru with a gradual ascent and a GORGEOUS view! 11k but MUCH more scenic and no stairs :) Pretty uneventful.
Day 3 Meru 12 AM
Made some midnight oatmeal and then began the what-I-didn't-know-at-the-time 6 hr climb! We had a full moon so my cell phone torch was not needed. But I DEFINITELY underestimated 30˚ with no sunlight! In my mind, 30˚ is xc-skiing in a t-shirt so I figured climbing a mountain would keep me warm. I forgot about how cold wind can be and how hard it is to stay warm with no sun. Despite having leggings, two fleeces, a scarf, a hat, and woolen socks, I would say the only thing on me that was warm were my feet. Unfortunately, I had left my other woolen socks at the hut so my poor fingers had to wear cotton socks as mittens, which as you can guess was very poor insulation! My hands were literally molded into the pole position and took quite awhile to straighten them. And so we began pole pole (slowly) up the zigzag ridge. I can do this, I thought to myself. Little did I know this was just the beginning.
We reached the point they call Rhino Point that is the same altitude as Little Meru and then began the true adventure. To get off of Rhino Point, you had to walk down a knife ridge with 100m drop off on each side (remember it's dark). This was followed by walking across a rock wall. My thrill transformed into terror when I slipped on the wet rocks and had nothing to hold onto not being able to see where the drop off was. That was when I began to doubt and yes some tears were shed. The guide was very good, helped me to calm down, and had me put my foot on his, and took my poles so I could tangibly grasp the rocks. Pole pole I made it across, not knowing this wasn't even a 1/4 of the way! Next was climbing up a very narrow volcanic ash cone with huge drop offs on both sides. One wrong step and the rest was history.
At this point, I could feel the altitude and exhaustion and knew the only thing keeping me upright were my poles! After a steep incline and repeating to myself "I can" in as many languages as I could think of over and over again, I made it to the top of the ash cone and began climbing up rocks, more or less rock climbing. I had thought I had seen the top and I kept telling myself the only way is up. But the guide told me that was only the halfway point. That was when I thought I couldn't do it anymore. I have no idea how I continued, but it was getting dark so the guide handed me his headlamp and I continued onward.
After many more ridges, we finally had thought we reached the top-AGAIN-but the sun was on the verge of rising and I told our porter (who became our guide, our guide stayed where he gave me his light and took a nap I later found out) I didn't want to miss the sunrise over Kili-that was my motivation for climbing. So we kept climbing and continued to check for the sunrise. It happened and it was GORGEOUS! We could see Kili peaking above the clouds (see photos on FB) and the light was hitting the ash cone so beautifully. Morning light is so beautiful! The sky turned an aquamarine color and the first rays of warmth for the past 6 hours appeared. I realized how hungry I was and ate some dried fruit and nuts watching the beautiful sunrise. Tom and I looked at each other and were quite content. We had seen the sunrise, we had climbed the ridge, we were ready to go down. But our guide wasn't having it, "Twende," he says (Let's go!). So we continued. After 4 more ridges and 2 more false quits, we reached the boulder, that once we reached the top would FINALLY be the summit. It was marked with the TZ flag. I continued to climb as my eyes were fixed on that flag. There was no way I was giving up now! 40 mins later we had reached the top, signed the registrar, and saw all of Arusha. I tried to locate my house, but it was too foggy and far away.
And then down we went! Down, down down. The drop offs were even more magnanimous than I could ever have imagined in the dark. No wonder you climb in the dark. No one would do it in the daylight! After 4 hrs we made it back to the hut, had a quick lunch, and went down. We figured going down the stairs would be quick..but 3 hrs later we had only arrived at the first hut ready to tackle the last 3 hours down. We took the route that most people took to climb up and after being in a permanent 45˚ angle descent for almost 4 hrs I am very glad we took the longer more scenic way up! I was quite literally limping by the end and there got to a point where I couldn't walk any longer and the park truck came and picked me up. By that time I had walked continuously with an exception for lunch and a brief 5 min stop at the 1st hut for a little short of 16 hrs!!! The only high point was seeing a giraffe and buffalo on the way down. I got my certificate, had a delicious Mexican meal, and fell asleep by 8:30. That was BEYOND pushing my limits, but it just goes to show your body is capable of anything even if you don't think it is. Mind over matter and I felt like I could do ANYTHING after that!
Day 3 Kili
Day 3 for Kili was only the halfway point so not nearly as exhilarating or exhausting. We decided to take the "longer route" (by less than a km) because it was more scenic and brought us to the base of Mawenzi, another peak. On the way, we saw some very interesting rocks appropriately named zebra rocks, an eagle flew over us so I felt we had luck for the night ahead of us (the climb to Uhuru peak), saw many alpine chats (a small bird), and learned many plants. Did you know the pretoria flower from S Africa comes from a flower found in TZ called Pretoa? Or that there are two types of Arica, red and white? This route also gave us our first view of what we would be climbing that night..daunting to say the least, but this view soon disappeared with clouds and fog completely surrounding us. THe last few steps to Kibo Hut were the most difficult as we were now at the altitude of the peak of Mt. Meru, couldn't see what we had already traversed and what was ahead of us except for the hut way off in the distance. Walking on gravel sand that gradually ascended with a chill and sudden sting of cold in the air. I used my Ckon knowledge and started walking up in a zigzag formation not letting myself stop and very thankful for the Camelbak on my back.
Upon reaching the hut, we checked into a much bigger dorm room type hut with 10 other Aussies and tried to not smell the stench coming from the hole-in-the-ground toilets as it is too high for them to empty so nothing circulates...We had dinner at 3:30 and attempted to sleep from 4:30-11.
Day 3 11 PM-Day 4
My alarm clock went off and I brutally made my body leave its warm 30˚ sleeping bag and start piling on the layers. I ended up with a long sleeve, a light wool pullover, a down vest, and a waterproof heavy jacket, wool pants, pants, and snow pants, 2 pairs of wool socks, a scarf, a fleece hat, and goretex warm gloves. No this wasn't overdressing! I was not going to have another Meru again!
This time called for a flashlight as the moon had already left the sky giving us nothing but stars to look at as we began the zigzag climb up to Gilman's point. Note: there was a trail the whole way. I knew there was a 5 hr climb ahead of me and knowing there were only 2 hrs, 1.5, 1, 30 min. etc left really helped! At the halfway point I got some hot tea and ate some chocolate and chapati (Tanzanian tortilla) realizing that was the main problem. I had only eaten 2 biscuits and some hot tea before beginning to climb (they don't give you a lot of food because many throw up with the altitude). Luckily my diamox was doing its job (high altitude pill) except it serves as a diaretic..I started to get a horrible stomachache but in 45 mins would reach Gilman's Point where everyone told me, if you make it there you can do it for sure! Seeing shooting stars also gave me hope, and I saw Venus and Mars, and the sky turn orange in the distance as a thunderstorm occurred in Moshi. BEAUTIFUL.
After Gilman's Point, my water was completely frozen and I saw my first snow since last winter! It was so weird, but yet felt so familiar to be walking on ice and so the trek across the ice cap began. Then the sun began to peak on the horizon and I was on a ridge. All around me glaciers lit up with the ice gleaming, the clouds were like a puffy blanket, and Uhuru Peak was in sight. The hardest part were those last 40 mins to the top! I could definitely feel the altitude, I couldn't drink my water, and I was so tired! But 7:52 AM I finally made it! It was beautiful. I could see Meru across from me, the clouds were completely surrounded and the glaciers were beautiful. Honestly, I think the climb up to Uhuru from Gilman's point onward was just as gorgeous as the peak itself but there I was a bit short of 6000m on the highest point in Africa!
The best part: coming down. Whoever said you need snow and skis to ski is wrong. I skiied in hiking boots, hiking poles, and sand. We began to traverse down the zigzags and then he asked do you know how to ski? And so we went straight down (with more-or-less parallel turning of course) and were at the bottom in an hr 15! It felt so great to ski knowing it was my only opportunity this year and I can now say I've skiied down Kili!
A 20 min rest, a bowl of hot soup, and so began the 8k back to Hurongo Hut where we spent the 2nd night. 8k in my mind doesn't sound like anything, but I assure you this was the longest 8k in my life! Perhaps because I had already done 12k (6k to the top, 6k down), perhaps because I had been awake the past 12 hrs, or because of the nature of the path being super rocky and again in the permanent 45˚ descent making my toes push against the front of my shoes. It involved climbing some ridges and going down, down, down. We went the "shorter route" back and it made me very glad we had done the "longer route" because the shorter route did NOT feel shorter, was not scenic, and was a lot less gradual. We got to camp around 3:15 and I slept til dinner at 5 and then went to bed at 6!
Day 5
Down, down, down. My feet were hurting so badly, but the views and weather were beautiful and I didn't mind going through the rainforest again at all! We reached the bottom, I bought a Kili shirt with all the diff routes and my fav pole pole saying on it, and were treated to Kitimoto (hot pork chops), ugali, fruit, salad, and cold beverages. We finally met the other 3 people in our group who sang the song of Kilimanjaro for us (yes I took a video) and had an awards ceremony receiving our certificates.
Came home and crashed!
And that is the end of my mountain climbing in Africa! Mind over matter! Kili was MUCH easier and really cool to meet people from all over the world! I got to speak some Spanish, a lot of Swahili, and a bit of Italian. Now back to work tomorrow :(
Dar/Zbar entry will have to wait
Indigenous Tribes at Lake Eyasi
So I guess I should start out by saying don’t listen to Lonely Planet. Momoya is not the “enterprising” man LP claims him to be. More like he sees that I’m mzungu and the things he said in the email “work with your budget, give you the resident rate” etc. go out the window. There is serious reverse discrimination. We were even going to give him a ride. Anyway…after much off-roading, we found Lake Eyasi, or the place they call lake Eyasi. The lake is actually completely dry until the rainy season and feels a bit like walking on the moon with the dry, crispy texture of the salt crunching beneath your feet. Anyway, a nice Jambo tourist guide hut awaits us and the guide tells us half the price Momoya did, hops in our car, and shows us a campsite for $5 and then gives us a complete tour of the area showing us a huge vegetable garden, telling us about the surrounding flora and fauna, and then taking us to the Datoga tribe free of charge. This was a very interesting tribe similar to the Maasai, but their hobby is taking scrap metal such as a padlock and melting it into jewelry. They trade this with other tribes for things like honey. Sadly I don’t support this business with money because the only things money can buy in these isolated tribes are things like glue for sniffing, marijuana, cigarettes, or alcohol-i.e. nothing good. I had my chance at grinding corn flour to make ugali, the local white flour here, which was quite difficult and saw their boma. After a gorgeous sunset, a starry night and the goodness of camping, we woke up at 6 AM to go hunting with one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes, the Hatzabe. Upon arrival, after some extreme off-roading in a Suzuki Escudo, they were roasting a monkey over a fire and skinning a dik-dik. Breakfast time. We went hunting with them with our game being a Francoline. It takes a lot of skill to hunt with a bow and arrow! Right there and then, they plucked off the feathers, rubbed two sticks together and voila there was fire. I tasted it and it wasn’t too bad. I’d describe it as chewy chicken. It was certainly an experience I will not forget!
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