Climbing Killer Hill*

Mount Kilimanjaro
Near Moshi, Tanzania
April 27th, 2009


Do we or don’t we. It was a big debate for me rather than Karel as I am the one who reads the guidebooks religiously and likes researching the goings on and the possibilities of goings on. The books were truthful saying not to “underestimate” the mountain and “be prepared mentally” for the challenge. I must say I was torn. Enamored with the thoughts of climbing but hindered by the warnings of caution. Then in Zanzibar we met Chris and Christine, a fun couple who had just climbed the mountain. It was tough they said but amazing. They also passed on the details and phone number of the guide they had who was brilliant. Sold. We were sold.

We arrived in Moshi and called the number requesting to speak with John. Meeting John at The Coffee Shop we discussed details. The Machame route – the whiskey route would be our path and Monday we would start our six day five night epic climb. He arranged to meet us the next day to get equipment – tents, warm down jackets, warmer sleeping bags, ponchos, you name it. Kitted out we then helped by driving John and his right hand man and brother-in-law Alex to the market to pick up all of the things we needed. We were invited back to John’s house for lunch and were led into a lovely living room with a lace covered blue couch and large poster of a young Bob Marley. Toasting our upcoming journey over Fantas and Cokes, we ate a delicious lunch of a coconut milk based stew with cooked bananas.

The next day, slightly nervous we made our way in a mini-van with crushed orange velvet seat covers towards the Machame gate. Our ponchos were a must have item as the rains certainly came down. The first day of hiking was easy with a slow and steady ascent. Following our guide John we carefully made our way through the rainforest admiring the many beautiful mountain flowers. We also made many pee stops as we drank the recommended four to five litres per day of water. The porters didn’t move as slowly as we, instead they steamed along sharing the weight of the food stuffs and equipment between their backs and their heads. Once we arrived at camp we had the pleasant surprise of having a bowl of hot water ready for us to wash our hands and faces, and the even more pleasant surprise of having a tent lined with a red and black checked cloth, lit by a candle and filled with every hot drink mix imaginable along with a thermos of boiling water. We ate well enjoying spaghetti with a beef sauce and fresh fruits. Alex was our cook and what a cook he was. After eating we peacefully feel asleep at Machame Camp.

Day two was more difficult. It was a short climb of three hours but it was extremely steep. We went slowly taking one step, then another in slow motion. The scenery changed from rainforest to a mossy coated forest. Again it was stunning. We stopped frequently and admired the views. The last hour of the hike Karel and I got drenched. It really poured and the poncho didn’t quite earn its keep. When we at last arrived at our camp, Shira Camp, we spent the majority of the day in our tent avoiding the rain and doing our level best to dry our shoes and clothes. Karel had a slight headache due to the altitude but luckily a few tablets later was fine.

Thankfully day three was sunny. Our shoes dried quickly along with our clothes. We had a longer day of hiking- about seven hours. This time it was proper mountain climbing with some scrambling up bits of hardened lava. The scenery change this time moved towards a rocky and barren landscape. Karel’s headache worsened and by lunch he was really struggling. We switched bags as I was feeling strong and had the unusual occurrence of an increase in appetite, which is highly unusual given normal altitude adjustments. Karel downed another couple of headache pills and had a nap once we reached Barranco Camp. He was feeling better by dinner and I made Karel eat as his appetite was affected.

On day four we were speaking to a French couple about the trek and talking about altitude sickness. The woman who is a neurologist said she had some mountain sickness tablets and would give us some. Karel eagerly took them and downed them along with additional headache tablets. He was told to take some now, and then some later that night when we would wake up to make our final ascent. The day was taken up by two three hour hikes. Slowly and steadily we made our way, happy to have a rain free day. The landscape continued to be rocky. We arrived at Barafu Camp at four in the afternoon and had a quick nap. Waking for dinner at six we ate quickly and went to bed for a restful four hours sleep as we needed to wake at eleven to begin our final ascent.

Day five was long. Really long. We woke at eleven, dressed in several layers and had our head torches ready. We began our ascent at eleven thirty. A six hour ascent. Uphill all the way. On four hour sleep. The first few hours went quickly enough but the last two hours for me were killer. I don’t know what was worse the pain in each step or that fact that I had Madonna’s “Time goes by so slowly” in my head- actually it wasn’t even the whole song just that line on repeat. We reached the top. We saw the glaciers. It was heaven. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever been lucky enough to witness. We snapped photos until we could no longer feel our hands as they were frozen with cold (we have several blurry photos as a result). Sadly the saying what comes up must come down also applies to people who have climbed a mountain. And so down we went. It was a three hour descent. I’m not sure what happened to me, I was doing so well climbing up not feeling sick but on the descent I felt totally out of it. Karel was doing fine thanks to the tablets, but he said I looked so vacant. I don’t fully remember the descent I just know I was out of it and struggling to move. John and Alex helped me down and we went very quickly. Once we were back at our camp I was feeling 100% again. We had a two hour nap followed by a soup lunch and then continued our descent. Another four hours downhill. Each step was difficult as the route was extremely steep. Essentially day five consisted of walking for thirteen hours out of sixteen. We reached camp enjoyed an African stew and feel peacefully asleep trying to block the next day’s walking from our minds.

Day six I was back to feeling totally energized and enjoying the descent through the rainforest. Karel was feeling the pain. It was only a two and a half hour walk down to the gate. Upon our arrival we received certificates for reaching the Uhuru peak at just over 5896 metres. I think we’ll frame them. Once we arrived back at the car, we decided that we deserved a hotel. In fact the idea of having a bath kept me going for most of day five and it turns out Karel was thinking the same. We checked into the Impala hotel for two nights where Karel enjoyed the rugby and I had a bath for three hours. It was our second taste of Heaven that week.


* A slightly different Killer Hill than the one in Saskatchewan hey dad

Overheard at the immigration counter in Zanzibar

A tiny vignette I hope you enjoy as much as we did (and still do)

As overheard at the immigration counter in Zanzibar:

Immigration officer: “What profession are you?”

Young adult: “Do you want my profession here, or at home? Here I’m a teacher. At home I’m a cleaning lady.”

Beach or Bust

Nungwi, Zanzibar
Tanzania
April 21st, 2009


The next stop on our tour of Zanzi was Nungwi, one of the northern beach spots. We headed there using a daladahi (a public bus which is really more like a minibus). It cost next to nothing for the one and a half hour trip and was quite an experience. The speed limit postings were for 30kms/hr and we spent most of the time 100kms/hr. It was a mix of incredible speed for an aging vehicle and a liberal use of braking to pick up passengers along the way. At some stages we had twenty six people in a space which comfortably would seat twelve.

Arriving at our stop at the end of the line we picked up our bags and headed towards the beach. Unsure of where to stay we ended up asking each hotel and guesthouse their prices. Again low season played into our favor and we scored a clean but decaying hotel room for $30 a night including breakfast- the same price as the decaying and dusty backpackers a few doors down.

The beach was amazing and Mozambique like in status with warm clear aqua waters and fine white sandy beaches. We spent our afternoons there and evenings admiring the ocean views, sipping delicious G&Ts (which we never drank before, but somehow in Africa they just make sense) and eating pizza (a mini-holiday from African cuisine).

We spent our last day in the North on a snorkeling trip to a protected marine area. The boat ride was smooth on the dhow and we saw several groups of flying fish. The snorkeling itself was brilliant too and had all the requirements of a healthy coral reef life. We saw starfish, barracuda, eel, trumpet fish, paper fish, several cleaning stations and feeding stations, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and more. After snorkeling for over an hour and enjoying the gentle rain whilst we were in the water we headed to a nearby beach for lunch. Treated to freshly caught grilled fish and beautifully steamed rice we were very content with our trip.

An Arab Venetian Wonderland

Zanzibar, Tanzania
April 18th, 2009

Hearing mixed reviews of Zanzibar (“highlight of our trip” and “too touristy”) we made our way to see for ourselves what it would be like. We took a luxurious ferry, especially when compared to the Ilala of Malawi, but paid a luxurious price of $140 return for the two of us. The ferry was smooth sailing, air conditioned and comfortable. I slept and Karel watched a pirated movie about Cyborgs trying to take over the world (yes it was as good as you imagine it could be). I woke up just in time to see the end of the movie (don’t worry the humans won) and a few episodes of Mr. Bean.

We arrived in good time, around noon and started to make our way to a friend’s recommend of St. Monica’s guest house. Unfortunately we picked up along the way a tout and it took the best part of an hour to get rid of him. There were a few touts about on the island and we learnt that the only way to avoid having them following you was to completely blank them. A bit uncomfortable to do in the beginning as it feels so rude but we quickly adjusted and enjoyed our free status.

We found St. Monica’s and booked a room. It’s a beautiful place to stay, on the budget end of things but extremely clean and supporting a good cause. The church itself was built on the former slave market and gives tours of the slave chambers where slaves were kept for three or four days without food and water awaiting market day. Market day would involve the slave being tied to a tree post and whipped so that buyers could see the strength of their potential purchase. East Africa’s slaves were sent to Persia, Arab nations and Madagascar. These slaves were separated by sex. The females were essentially added to harems and the males were castrated and used for work thus having a very different history to those in Europe and America where those slaves were encouraged to procreate as more slaves meant more laborers.

Our days in Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar were spent wandering around the narrow alleyways and getting deliciously lost admiring the beautifully carved doors, hearing children running and laughing and enjoying the men drinking their strong coffee. It really was heaven, especially as April is extremely out of season and the number of Muzungas (whites) is so low. We loved eating in local restaurants and tasting all the traditional dishes and going for our tea and cake at the church café. We also spent one day on a Spice Tour seeing the array of spices grown from the vanilla which is hand pollinated, to the nutmeg, lemongrass, cloves and more. It was brilliant fun and we met some great people.

Welcome to Dar Es Salaam

Tanzania
April 17th, 2009

We arrived in good time into the city of Dar. Or so we thought. It was late morning, around 11am on Friday so we presumed we would be able to navigate the city with relative ease. A lesson my friend, presume nothing when in Africa. It took over an hour of maneuvering before reaching our destination- the Sudanese embassy in hopes of acquiring some much sought after information. After parking the car on the pavement we headed inside, following a security guard. We were delivered to what we assumed was a waiting room- a room with lovely burgundy sofas and two other gentlemen sitting down. So we sat. It turns out we weren’t in the waiting room but rather in the company of the officials themselves. We chatted with the gentlemen and discovered what we needed to know.

Glancing at our watches and feeling our stomachs rolling the next stop had to be lunch. We stopped at a busy local café and ate brilliantly while politely declining the offers of watches, sunglasses, pirated DVDs and other bargains. Once finished we jumped back into the car and headed towards Mikadi Beach, our camping spot for the night. Driving along in busy traffic once more, we stopped at a light. Waiting in traffic a young man, a street child grown up, walked past our car. We thought nothing of it. Suddenly he ran back and with tremendous speed and technique he ripped our left side mirror completely off. It took less than thirty seconds. WTF!!! I know. We were completely stunned. I jumped out of the car first but couldn’t see the guy, then Karel jumped out. It was complete reaction no thought process at all. Luckily we were fine and so was the car, besides the mirror.

Deciding we needed to pit stop at Toyota to find a replacement mirror was our next move. No luck. It would take six weeks to order. The manager kindly told us this sort of crime happens all the time. He also said he would try to call around the black market and see if he could get our mirror back for us. No luck. Unfortunately for us, we need the side mirror as we don’t have a rear view mirror due to the steel plate in the car. Driving towards the campsite we decided we would deal with everything once we got back from Zanzibar.

April 24th, 2009

Armed with directions from ex-pats (behind Shoprite there’s a place, look for Shama’s), our point-it picture book and our Swahili phrasebook we set off. We found the place with relative ease. Karel parked and jumped out beginning the search. Finding it difficult due to language barriers we changed our strategy and took a picture of the missing mirror (got to love the digital age). Quickly thereafter we found a place that could help. They said they had another mirror at a different shop and would get it for us. Only fifteen minutes they said. In reality it took about half an hour, but they did return with a mirror that fit. It wasn’t exactly the frost free heated luxury mirror of former, but it did the trick. Whether it was a stolen to order we’ll never know. What we do have now is a strategy- the mirrors have our license number in tip-ex/white-out on them, are double cable tied and in every major town we go through I ensure that I have the Tabbard bug spray handy so if anyone loiters around the car they’ll be sprayed. Watch out F@%$ers!

Swahili for Beginners

Iringa, Tanzania
April 14th, 2009

Entering the border at Tanzania proved to be an expensive experience with the two of us shelling out $50US each for visas and an additional $25 for the car. Once we crossed the border and were driving along the road we were struck by how beautiful the country is. The south has an amazing landscape with thick deep green leafy trees and bushes and rolling hills. Admiring the luscious views we worked our way towards the Old Farm an infamous campsite near Iringa known for its amazing culinary delights. We arrived as it was dark, set up our tent and fell fast asleep.

In the morning we woke up and organized for breakfast. We may have missed the famous dinner but wanted at least a sample. On route to breakfast we met the owner, an amazing woman named Nicky. She brilliantly runs the camping and lodging and manages the farm and has a staff of over 300. After asking a few questions, we decided to stop at the Toyota dealership in Iringa rather than Dar Es Salaam for a few things we needed to get done on the car.

After enjoying our breakfast of fresh bread, eggs, yoghurt, fresh fruit and fantastic coffee we made our way in to town. Finding the Toyota dealership proved to be dead easy given the instructions we received from Nicky. Unfortunately the car couldn’t be looked at that same day and instead we booked an appointment for the following day. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the market and struck by how different Tanzania is from Southern Africa. We were experiencing our first communication complications and stuck easy language had been until now. Stopping for a quick lunch in the market of mostly rice and a few pieces of meat (which actually couldn’t be cut and had to be swallowed whole) we chatted happily as best as we could to the woman running the restaurant who in return for conversation gave us some more lumps of meat (joy!). Following our lunch we went for a Pepsi, yep Pepsi not Coke (we were super surprised). Over our Pepsi we spoke to the owner who taught us our first Swahili. He was a lovely man, very patient and kind and enjoyed sharing his knowledge with us. It was wonderful speaking to a person so proud of their culture and so anxious to share it.

Livingstonia

Malawi
April 12th, 2009

Bidding a rainy farewell from Nkota Bay, we headed further North to Livingstonia. Adding an extra couple to Nessie’s load, Alex and Veera- friends from Chizzy, we made our happy way. The company was great and the drive wasn’t too long, but the last section of the road was extremely steep. This particular section of road had been shut the previous week due to rains and mud slide, but was fine now- well drivable anyways. We set up camp at the Mushroom Farm (a few kms short of Livingstonia) and admired the views of the hills and lake below while enjoying a G&T. I do mean a G&T – there was a whole bottle of gin but only one tonic, we had to make due with soda which worked rather well as the four of us polished off the bottle quite nicely.

The next morning we headed up the final few kms to Livingstonia. Arriving we drove straight to the church, which is the main attraction of the town. Climbing out of the car we headed for the wooden doors. Locked. What? Yes it was locked. Not people to give up we decided to try and find the vicar to open the church for us. The vicar it seems was away in South Africa for a Sunday School meeting. However we did enjoy a tour of the cathedral (set up specifically in a Malaria free area) given by the vicar’s son of twelve. The tour consisted of a pointed out impressive stained glass window, a tour up steep and rackety steeps past the church bell and on to the roof of the church for lovely views, and the back room of the church where meetings are held.

Satisfied with our tour we wandered around town. Feeling hungry we asked two people sitting on the steps of the town department of antiquities (yes I know) where we could eat. They told us we could eat there. Deciding to be forward thinking we thought it best if we ordered our lunch then, so we could wander as meals often take about an hour to prepare. No problems. Order taken and we happily continued to explore. An hour later we returned and waited an additional half an hour. At last the meal was ready. Unfortunately it just wasn’t the meal we ordered. No beef stew only fried chicken- but fried chicken African style with maybe three bites of meat on the poor roadrunners wing. No fair.  Our next stop was to find a bottle shop where we stocked up on beers and an interesting bottle of gin with an illustrated label consisting of a man without hands eating you guessed it, fried chicken.

The final destination of the day was to see the waterfalls nearby. Not exactly sure where to go, we heard some children shouting ‘waterfall’ and stopped. Parking the car we had another tour, this time led by four boys aged 10. Quite cute they led us to the first waterfall, and then to the second. On route to the second though, they decided it was too dangerous but only after we jump crossed some water and navigated some slippery mud. All in all it was a fun couple of days, and we enjoyed your company so much A&V. Thanks for the good times.