Hi Guys!!!
Sorry for the delayed postings - we have had great difficulty finding internet in Eastern Africa. Now that we are heading into Southern regions, we hope things will improve...so keep you fingers crossed!
3 Weeks and we are Stoon Town Bound :)
xoxoxox
Katie and Jeremy
Sunday, June 6, 2010
MALAWI!!!
Jeremy and I had no expectations for Malawi...we actually had no idea what we were scheduled to do. So, you can imagine our surprise when Moses, the night before entering, informed the group that Malawi was a "Shoppers Haven". I was ecstatic, Jeremy...not so much – lol :)
We crossed over into Malawi in the late afternoon of Day 34. Because we were leaving the Eastern region and heading into the Southern region, we gained an hour...yep, another hour to shop-shop-shop! Crossing over into thr Southern region also meant no more squat toilets and no more cold showers...or so we were told.
When we finally pulled up to our lake front camp-site at Kande Beach, everyone on the truck was glued to the windows. We had just passed shops upon shops of beautifully carved wood...and right outside the gates of our camp-site. I must have been the first one off of the truck as I was a girl on a mission. I knew that once our tent was set-up, we were free (neither Jeremy nor I had any chores to do that day). The sun was starting to set, so I grabbed Jeremy and our headlights and we headed to the shops. The others were not too far behind us. Just like any other souq or market shop, you hear the old familiar phrases, "Madam...come look for free...no charge" or another favourite, "Sir...I have made no sales today, be my first sale and it will bring us both good luck". Jeremy stumbled across a beautifully carved table that not only had checkers/chess game on it, but on the reverse side it had the Backgammon board. He was so pumped (Backgammon has become our new favourite game while in Africa) that he came running over to me to show me (and he thinks he is not a shopper). I was sold and I knew the two Malawi chairs I was looking at would be perfect as a trio. We briefly talked to the seller and told him we were very interested but wanted to come back early in the morning. He then told us that he had a Funeral to go to and would not be back at his store. We told him, sorry, tough loss and that we would have to buy from another seller. His story then changed and he said the funeral was very early in the morning and that there was a good chance it would be over before we departed. We casually started talking about prices and he, as expected, started his price at a extremely ridiculous offer of $350 for all three. We laughed at him and he then immediately dropped his price to $150. We told him it was too late to negotiate and we wanted to wait till the morning where we could get a good look in the natural light. He was very nervous about this and basically made us promise we would come back to him and his stall. It is so sad to see but all of the sellers compete against each other - they are very very ruthless!
After supper we headed to the bar for a quick drink. I phoned my family out at the lake as it was my brother Adam's 28th Birthday. It was an emotional time for me as it was the first year that I was not present to 'open up' the cabins for the lake season with my family. It was also a first time for Baby Jaxson and Nadia's mom, Delaney, to be introduced to the lake.
The next morning (Day 35) Jeremy and I were up and shopping by 6am as promised. We had asked about the funeral and he had said that he had already gone – it is one thing to lie, but a totally different thing to lie about death...and somehow, we took offence to this. We still dealt with our guy and we could not believe when he told us that he slept on it and was willing to offer us $450 for the one table and two chairs. We told him that the day before he started at $350 and that there was no way we were going to pay that price. He then proceeded to ask us what his lowest offer was to us (I guess they even get confused when they throw out such ridiculous prices). After some negotiating and much deliberation, we settled on $100US for the table and chairs and a set if salad spoons and coasters – trust me, this is a GREAT deal when you see how intricately carved the chairs are. He then asked if we had anything to donate to him and was especially eyeing up Jeremy's T-shirt that his cousin Shea had given him the past Christmas (created specifically for our travelling trip). Jeremy gave him his T-shirt and he immediately threw it on...everyone had a good chuckle when they saw this local wearing Jeremy's stinky and worn out shirt.
I continued to shop around and was in complete heaven. I purchased some beautiful wood work while Jeremy visited with the locals and helped locate the pieces for our chess and backgammon board. Jeremy had to then help prepare for breakfast as it was his day to cook. I waited in the long que to have our stuff packaged up in preparation for shipping. Surprisingly enough, we made it out of the camp-site on time, which is an impressive feat when you consider the amount of souvenirs that we had all purchased. When we were pulling away, we couldn't help but watch out the window our guy who was running alongside the truck with the, "I Love Canadian Accountants" t-shirt on.
Driving through the countryside was a beautiful experience. The lake was to the left of us and multiple people kept mistaking it for the ocean. Had we not known that Malawi was inland, we would have been one of those numb nuts who made fools of themselves (Jeremy and I are slowly improving our limited geographical knowledge – and trust us...we need all of the help we can get). One of the highlights on the drive was coming across four pigs 'thrown' on the back of a semi carrying a load. I use the word 'thrown' because there was nothing holding them in and they had absolutely no space to move...if they moved around, they would simply fall off. As a result of this, the semi was going very very slow. It took us some time before we were able to pass the semi and when we did, we were all glued to the left hand side of the truck. Actually, you would not believe the things we have seen while driving. It comes as no surprise that vehicle accidents are the number one killer in Africa. Just the other day, we came across a truck pulled over along the side of the road, its load of bails was scattered all across the highway – loads are not properly strapped down and speed is always a factor here in Africa. We also drove across a bridge that had everyone on the truck nervous, boys included. The structural members of the bridge were constructed out of steel (thank goodness), but the top deck was laid out with timber, which over time had rotted...and the river below was a fair distance away. Luckily, we made it across no problem but these are the little things that really make you appreciate the wonderful roads we have back at home and at no point in my life in Canada have I crossed a bridge fearing for my life.
On route to our next camp site we were informed that we would be passing through yet another market :) but prior to arriving at the market, we stopped in town to purchase our 'fancy dress' for our house boat. We were limited to one hour so we made a beeline for the start and hurried through all shops. There were a couple of items that caught our eye but we promised ourselves to look at all of the shops before we made any 'rash' decisions. Jeremy spotted this beautiful hand carved table that I immediately fell in love with. Unfortunately for us, it was already sold to a Over land truck driver who was stopping by the following day to pick it up. We informed him where we were staying (60 km away) and that if anything happened, we would buy it in a heart beat. Since we couldn't get our hands on the table, I was really wanting to buy this Fisherman that had caught my eye. I showed Jeremy and he agreed that he was pretty cool. The only thing that caused doubt in my mind was his weight...he was going to cost a fortune to ship home. In the end, we purchased him for what we thought was a fair deal to both parties. I was so excited that I hugged the carver and told him I would cherish it forever (seriously...he is so damn cool!). He was really touched and told me he was honoured that I appreciated his work. He then told me that because of this sale, he could feed his family. Can you imagine living day to day on so little income that making that one sale could mean the difference of being able to put food on your families table for supper that night - ??? Again, we are so lucky and fortunate to be living where we do and for Jeremy and I, it took us travelling across the world to realize this. Will we forget this when we get back, definitely not...travelling has opened our eyes and given us so much insight.
When we pulled into our camp-site, again, for the second night in a row, the sun was starting to set. We had quickly set up our tent in what little light we had left and then both went our separate ways. Jeremy was on cooking duty so he went to prepare supper while I literally headed to the washing up sink where I carried a garbage bag full of laundry. We had not done laundry since before the Gorilla trekking in Rwanda. Since we had left Rwanda, we had stayed at every camp-site for one night only which made it impossible to do laundry. Then, when the group went off to Zanzibar for the 4 days, we headed to Kili. So, you can imagine just how much laundry there was to do. I washed and scrubbed for a solid two hours, which coincidentally was perfect timing as when I finished, supper was just being served (Mexican night...yummy!). After supper, Jeremy took over for me (as I was on dish duty) and hung the clothes on our 200 foot line...the line was completely filled which gave everyone in our group quite the chuckle.
The following day (Day 36) Jeremy and I awoke bright and early to clouds and overcast (not ideal for our clothes). I had just said goodbye to the group of girls that had opted to go on a beach horse ride when Jeremy came running back to me grinning ear to ear. He informed me that he was heading out with 'the boys' to go and collect our pig for supper. As a treat, the group had decided to buy a pig and have a traditional pig roast for supper – this made all of the other overland groups in our camp-site very jealous of us. When the boys finally returned, 2 hours later, they were proudly carrying their pig on a stick. I was quite horrified to see it there but was even more horrified when I found out that Max, one of the young-ins in our group, had fatally stabbed the pig in the heart. I felt really bad for Becky, who was the only vegetarian in our group. I still could not seee Jeremy and I asked one of the guys where he was. Turns out, my little social butterfly was in town with the locals, learning how to play a new board game called boa. When he returned, he told me he had purchased a game which was being hand carved at the moment and would be finished that eveing (and again, I say he thinks he is not a shopper).
The remainder of the day was spent just chilling out. Jeremy tackled the job of washing our towels and our zip ups and I caught up on some reading and blog writing. Rhesa, Clair and Anna went into the village and all had their hair braided. This followed with all of the boys heading into town to get their hair 'twirled'. The locals apparently tried on Jeremy's hair too but sadly for him, it was just too short. Rhesa came back beaming with excitement as she was swarmed with the local kids. One of the ladies let her hold her three month old baby girl and Rhesa was sold...she wanted to keep her. The locals had a great sense of humour too as they then started calling her 'Madonna'- lol!
As I was relaxing on a hammock, Grace came over and informed me that there was a man with a table looking for me. I could not believe our luck, I raced across the camp-site and when I saw him, I went straight in for the hug. It turned out that the owner had informed the truck driver earlier that day how much we had wanted the table. The local truck driver graciously told him to give it to us and have a new one ready for him the following month when he would be passing through. And then...this amazing man hopped on the local bus with the table in arms and travelled 60 km (one way) to see us – we were so grateful and appreciative that we tipped him for his efforts.
Towards the end of the day, Jeremy and I cooled off by having a swim in the lake...and we made sure we did the 'Heisler Plunge' when entering! We joined in on a volley ball game and watched the sun set over the beach. When we all headed back to camp, we checked on the pig. Moses had been tenderly watching over it the entire day and believe it or not...the pig was ready to be eaten. We all gathered around the table like school children as Moses and Robert began to carve. The crackling (which is the skin of the pig and apparently very popular everywhere in the world besides Canada) was a huge hit and everyone was savagely munching on it as the grease spilled down their chin – kind of gross. Jeremy and I tried it and both of us were not that impressed with it...which was good for the others as they fought over our portions. Actually, the pig was not what I was expecting and I was quite disappointed. Jeremy would disagree with me on this one as he easily finished his massively sized portion given to him by Robert. Poor Becky stayed at the bar and chose not to partake in our festivities...I don't blame her. All in all, the pig was a great way to get the group together and celebrate our much too short time together in Malawi (I say short because I could have shopped for many more days on end!).
The following morning (Day 37) we packed up our still not dry laundry and jumped in the truck for yet anther long day of driving, where by the end of it, we would be in yet another new country called ZAMBIA!
We crossed over into Malawi in the late afternoon of Day 34. Because we were leaving the Eastern region and heading into the Southern region, we gained an hour...yep, another hour to shop-shop-shop! Crossing over into thr Southern region also meant no more squat toilets and no more cold showers...or so we were told.
When we finally pulled up to our lake front camp-site at Kande Beach, everyone on the truck was glued to the windows. We had just passed shops upon shops of beautifully carved wood...and right outside the gates of our camp-site. I must have been the first one off of the truck as I was a girl on a mission. I knew that once our tent was set-up, we were free (neither Jeremy nor I had any chores to do that day). The sun was starting to set, so I grabbed Jeremy and our headlights and we headed to the shops. The others were not too far behind us. Just like any other souq or market shop, you hear the old familiar phrases, "Madam...come look for free...no charge" or another favourite, "Sir...I have made no sales today, be my first sale and it will bring us both good luck". Jeremy stumbled across a beautifully carved table that not only had checkers/chess game on it, but on the reverse side it had the Backgammon board. He was so pumped (Backgammon has become our new favourite game while in Africa) that he came running over to me to show me (and he thinks he is not a shopper). I was sold and I knew the two Malawi chairs I was looking at would be perfect as a trio. We briefly talked to the seller and told him we were very interested but wanted to come back early in the morning. He then told us that he had a Funeral to go to and would not be back at his store. We told him, sorry, tough loss and that we would have to buy from another seller. His story then changed and he said the funeral was very early in the morning and that there was a good chance it would be over before we departed. We casually started talking about prices and he, as expected, started his price at a extremely ridiculous offer of $350 for all three. We laughed at him and he then immediately dropped his price to $150. We told him it was too late to negotiate and we wanted to wait till the morning where we could get a good look in the natural light. He was very nervous about this and basically made us promise we would come back to him and his stall. It is so sad to see but all of the sellers compete against each other - they are very very ruthless!
After supper we headed to the bar for a quick drink. I phoned my family out at the lake as it was my brother Adam's 28th Birthday. It was an emotional time for me as it was the first year that I was not present to 'open up' the cabins for the lake season with my family. It was also a first time for Baby Jaxson and Nadia's mom, Delaney, to be introduced to the lake.
The next morning (Day 35) Jeremy and I were up and shopping by 6am as promised. We had asked about the funeral and he had said that he had already gone – it is one thing to lie, but a totally different thing to lie about death...and somehow, we took offence to this. We still dealt with our guy and we could not believe when he told us that he slept on it and was willing to offer us $450 for the one table and two chairs. We told him that the day before he started at $350 and that there was no way we were going to pay that price. He then proceeded to ask us what his lowest offer was to us (I guess they even get confused when they throw out such ridiculous prices). After some negotiating and much deliberation, we settled on $100US for the table and chairs and a set if salad spoons and coasters – trust me, this is a GREAT deal when you see how intricately carved the chairs are. He then asked if we had anything to donate to him and was especially eyeing up Jeremy's T-shirt that his cousin Shea had given him the past Christmas (created specifically for our travelling trip). Jeremy gave him his T-shirt and he immediately threw it on...everyone had a good chuckle when they saw this local wearing Jeremy's stinky and worn out shirt.
I continued to shop around and was in complete heaven. I purchased some beautiful wood work while Jeremy visited with the locals and helped locate the pieces for our chess and backgammon board. Jeremy had to then help prepare for breakfast as it was his day to cook. I waited in the long que to have our stuff packaged up in preparation for shipping. Surprisingly enough, we made it out of the camp-site on time, which is an impressive feat when you consider the amount of souvenirs that we had all purchased. When we were pulling away, we couldn't help but watch out the window our guy who was running alongside the truck with the, "I Love Canadian Accountants" t-shirt on.
Driving through the countryside was a beautiful experience. The lake was to the left of us and multiple people kept mistaking it for the ocean. Had we not known that Malawi was inland, we would have been one of those numb nuts who made fools of themselves (Jeremy and I are slowly improving our limited geographical knowledge – and trust us...we need all of the help we can get). One of the highlights on the drive was coming across four pigs 'thrown' on the back of a semi carrying a load. I use the word 'thrown' because there was nothing holding them in and they had absolutely no space to move...if they moved around, they would simply fall off. As a result of this, the semi was going very very slow. It took us some time before we were able to pass the semi and when we did, we were all glued to the left hand side of the truck. Actually, you would not believe the things we have seen while driving. It comes as no surprise that vehicle accidents are the number one killer in Africa. Just the other day, we came across a truck pulled over along the side of the road, its load of bails was scattered all across the highway – loads are not properly strapped down and speed is always a factor here in Africa. We also drove across a bridge that had everyone on the truck nervous, boys included. The structural members of the bridge were constructed out of steel (thank goodness), but the top deck was laid out with timber, which over time had rotted...and the river below was a fair distance away. Luckily, we made it across no problem but these are the little things that really make you appreciate the wonderful roads we have back at home and at no point in my life in Canada have I crossed a bridge fearing for my life.
On route to our next camp site we were informed that we would be passing through yet another market :) but prior to arriving at the market, we stopped in town to purchase our 'fancy dress' for our house boat. We were limited to one hour so we made a beeline for the start and hurried through all shops. There were a couple of items that caught our eye but we promised ourselves to look at all of the shops before we made any 'rash' decisions. Jeremy spotted this beautiful hand carved table that I immediately fell in love with. Unfortunately for us, it was already sold to a Over land truck driver who was stopping by the following day to pick it up. We informed him where we were staying (60 km away) and that if anything happened, we would buy it in a heart beat. Since we couldn't get our hands on the table, I was really wanting to buy this Fisherman that had caught my eye. I showed Jeremy and he agreed that he was pretty cool. The only thing that caused doubt in my mind was his weight...he was going to cost a fortune to ship home. In the end, we purchased him for what we thought was a fair deal to both parties. I was so excited that I hugged the carver and told him I would cherish it forever (seriously...he is so damn cool!). He was really touched and told me he was honoured that I appreciated his work. He then told me that because of this sale, he could feed his family. Can you imagine living day to day on so little income that making that one sale could mean the difference of being able to put food on your families table for supper that night - ??? Again, we are so lucky and fortunate to be living where we do and for Jeremy and I, it took us travelling across the world to realize this. Will we forget this when we get back, definitely not...travelling has opened our eyes and given us so much insight.
When we pulled into our camp-site, again, for the second night in a row, the sun was starting to set. We had quickly set up our tent in what little light we had left and then both went our separate ways. Jeremy was on cooking duty so he went to prepare supper while I literally headed to the washing up sink where I carried a garbage bag full of laundry. We had not done laundry since before the Gorilla trekking in Rwanda. Since we had left Rwanda, we had stayed at every camp-site for one night only which made it impossible to do laundry. Then, when the group went off to Zanzibar for the 4 days, we headed to Kili. So, you can imagine just how much laundry there was to do. I washed and scrubbed for a solid two hours, which coincidentally was perfect timing as when I finished, supper was just being served (Mexican night...yummy!). After supper, Jeremy took over for me (as I was on dish duty) and hung the clothes on our 200 foot line...the line was completely filled which gave everyone in our group quite the chuckle.
The following day (Day 36) Jeremy and I awoke bright and early to clouds and overcast (not ideal for our clothes). I had just said goodbye to the group of girls that had opted to go on a beach horse ride when Jeremy came running back to me grinning ear to ear. He informed me that he was heading out with 'the boys' to go and collect our pig for supper. As a treat, the group had decided to buy a pig and have a traditional pig roast for supper – this made all of the other overland groups in our camp-site very jealous of us. When the boys finally returned, 2 hours later, they were proudly carrying their pig on a stick. I was quite horrified to see it there but was even more horrified when I found out that Max, one of the young-ins in our group, had fatally stabbed the pig in the heart. I felt really bad for Becky, who was the only vegetarian in our group. I still could not seee Jeremy and I asked one of the guys where he was. Turns out, my little social butterfly was in town with the locals, learning how to play a new board game called boa. When he returned, he told me he had purchased a game which was being hand carved at the moment and would be finished that eveing (and again, I say he thinks he is not a shopper).
The remainder of the day was spent just chilling out. Jeremy tackled the job of washing our towels and our zip ups and I caught up on some reading and blog writing. Rhesa, Clair and Anna went into the village and all had their hair braided. This followed with all of the boys heading into town to get their hair 'twirled'. The locals apparently tried on Jeremy's hair too but sadly for him, it was just too short. Rhesa came back beaming with excitement as she was swarmed with the local kids. One of the ladies let her hold her three month old baby girl and Rhesa was sold...she wanted to keep her. The locals had a great sense of humour too as they then started calling her 'Madonna'- lol!
As I was relaxing on a hammock, Grace came over and informed me that there was a man with a table looking for me. I could not believe our luck, I raced across the camp-site and when I saw him, I went straight in for the hug. It turned out that the owner had informed the truck driver earlier that day how much we had wanted the table. The local truck driver graciously told him to give it to us and have a new one ready for him the following month when he would be passing through. And then...this amazing man hopped on the local bus with the table in arms and travelled 60 km (one way) to see us – we were so grateful and appreciative that we tipped him for his efforts.
Towards the end of the day, Jeremy and I cooled off by having a swim in the lake...and we made sure we did the 'Heisler Plunge' when entering! We joined in on a volley ball game and watched the sun set over the beach. When we all headed back to camp, we checked on the pig. Moses had been tenderly watching over it the entire day and believe it or not...the pig was ready to be eaten. We all gathered around the table like school children as Moses and Robert began to carve. The crackling (which is the skin of the pig and apparently very popular everywhere in the world besides Canada) was a huge hit and everyone was savagely munching on it as the grease spilled down their chin – kind of gross. Jeremy and I tried it and both of us were not that impressed with it...which was good for the others as they fought over our portions. Actually, the pig was not what I was expecting and I was quite disappointed. Jeremy would disagree with me on this one as he easily finished his massively sized portion given to him by Robert. Poor Becky stayed at the bar and chose not to partake in our festivities...I don't blame her. All in all, the pig was a great way to get the group together and celebrate our much too short time together in Malawi (I say short because I could have shopped for many more days on end!).
The following morning (Day 37) we packed up our still not dry laundry and jumped in the truck for yet anther long day of driving, where by the end of it, we would be in yet another new country called ZAMBIA!
Mount KILIMANJARO
After Abraham picked us up he escorted us to the bank first thing...I guess he was a little anxious to get his money. We then headed to the hotel where he tried to squeeze more money out of us for rentals and all sorts of shit. He even tried to change the exchange rate so that he could take more money from Glen and Rihannon. We had to fight to make sure that he didn't and when he left for the evening we were pretty pissed off and all very nervous. Kate and I both felt really bad too because we had talked Abraham up so much to Glen and Rihannon and then he goes and pulls the shit he did and acts like a complete crooked stranger to us.
The morning was worse because we still really had no idea what to expect because Abraham didn't really seem to have a clue about our climb and what we should expect...this became a lot more evident once we had left Arusha and were preparing for our climb. At breakfast Abraham almost destroyed our last string of respect when he found a random person in the lobby who wanted to come along with us. Instead of coming to talk to us he sent the newbie over to ask if it was okay . As you can imagine, it would have been very difficult to have said no to him. Katie made sure to ask him the price he was paying before he left and it turned out he was paying a small amount higher than us but he also had more equipment rental – WTF??? I think everyone was ready to kill Abraham and when we had the chance we pulled him over and reamed him out and demanded a discount. It was like pulling teeth and after getting told off by both Katie and myself (neither of us knew the other had said something). He agreed to pay for our transport costs to Dar es Salaam but Katie insisted on more. He then told us he would take off 50,000 Tsh from our fee only (which is ~$40 US). Katie argued with him until he relented and agreed to pay back the money to Glen and Rihannon as well. We couldn't waste any more time as we had already waited for Glen and Rihannon to reorganize their bags for about the fourth time in 24 hours and needed to get on our way.
The guides were super nice and the other 8 guys that were in our 'bus' were friendly to us too. We were still a little confused about what was going on and were even more confused as we continued to pick up more people on the side of the road as we headed towards Machame, the starting point of our climb. More often than not, when we picked up people along the road, we would barely slow down and the bus door would just open and someone would jump in. After a few stops for groceries and the passing of half an hour we had 4 times more people in the truck than there was of us...this definitely added to the confusion!! We later learnt that this was our team of cooks, porters and guides.
At the base of the mountain our guide Issa told us to gather what we needed to have on us in a small bag and give our big bag to our porter. Well this is where we first started to realize how poorly Abraham had misinformed us. He had told us that our porter would be with us the entire hike and so we could give him our day to day stuff and therefore, we left our two knapsacks behind. Not to mention we would not have anyone to carry our water and it turns out the only water they would have for us would have to be boiled at night. We had bought some water bottles when we had stopped but that was supposed to be for the drive not to be our bottles for the next week!! So now we had no knapsack and not enough water and we were seriously second guessing why we came to this mountain. Issa managed to find somebody to loan us a knapsack but they wouldn't do so unless we bought it for a ridiculous price or rented it for the price of a new one in town.
After realizing that there wasn't much we could do, we grabbed our rented knapsack and headed on our way – it was now 1:30pm (Day 26) and Katie was really starting to panic about the late hour and the six hours of climbing that lay ahead. After registering with the park Issa told us to get climbing and that they would be right behind us after they loaded up all of the stuff. As we were climbing, majority of the men from our bus started passing us carrying the largest loads on either their head, back or neck. Although, it was impressive, we didn't really think twice about it because the climb itself was fairly easy with nice defined paths and smooth terrain.
It was nice to see Rhiannon so excited because we had figured that she wasn't really that excited to come and was just doing so for Glen's sake. We did the first part of the days journey in under half the time we should have. Once Issa had caught us he purposely slowed us because he said that if we did not we would be tired the next day. This was the first of many times that we were told to go 'Pole Pole' (slowly slowly in Swahili) and the first of many times that we would hear it. We started to ask Issa a million questions about the trek. This is where we really started to realize how many lies Abraham had told us. First of all rather than hiking for 6, 5, 3 and 2 hours to make it to the top of the mountain as promised by Abraham we were going to be hiking for 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7 and 6.5 hours respectively – WTF??? Not only would be hiking for about four times the amount of hours that we had been told but the last day 7 and 6.5 hours would be within an 18 hour time period. Secondly there would be no showers so the whole idea to leave behind our knapsacks in exchange for shampoo, conditioner and towels was stupid. And last but certainly not least, there would be no fires allowed on the mountain to warm ourselves which is what Abraham had told us. When we asked Issa about the fire and how we could keep warm, he laughed nervously and then said... “tent” - we were in for a real treat!
The first days trek was through a thick jungle type area and at the end of the day of hiking we had reached the clouds – it was both beautiful and stunning scenery! When we reached camp, it was surprisingly very cold and so we decided that to keep warm during the night, it would be better to sleep with both couples in the same tent (in a three man tent). Unfortunately for the straggler Simon, he would have to bunk it on his own. Luckily, he had borrowed a sleeping bag from Abraham which was much better than our own personal ones we had brought along with us so although he was cold, he managed to get through the night. Our last disappointment of the day was that at the end of the hike, we went to change into warmer clothes only to find out that our porters carrying our personal bags had not reached camp yet. So...Katie, Glen and Rihannon huddled close in a tent having what I can only presume as a major bitch session while I visited with the porters and cooks.
Once we had changed into warmer clothes our spirits perked up a bit. Then was supper and it was almost identical to the setup we had received while doing the safari with Abraham months before. After a little popcorn and hot drinks we were all a little more impressed and although we still hated Abraham for his lack of information, it was hard not to love the cooks, guides and porter...they were fantastic and it is sad to think that it is them who get screwed out of the deal when they do all of the work while Abraham, who lies and steals, makes all of the profit.
With the exception of Katie (who encouraged me to bring one of my own books) the remainder of us soon realized that when you are climbing a mountain you should bring books! So much of our time was spent in the tent trying to stay out of the cold when we were not climbing. Not only do you get cold, but after a good hike you just need somewhere to lie down and rest your sore aching body. The first day hadn't been too bad but it wasn't warm enough outside for us to hang out there so we headed to bed. Although it was a little tight in the tent with all four of us sleeping, it got nice and warm quite quickly. We all had a pretty good sleep the first night even though we were sleeping on thin little mats rather than the nice mats which we had been promised by our lovely friend Abraham.
On the morning of the second day (Day 27) of our hike we awoke to clear skies. The temperature was still cold but all that changed when the sun came out. Once the sun came over the peak of Mt Kili, things got hot...and quick. We all could not help but comment on how close the Mountain looked. We were laughed and mocked by the guides who were probably thinking “stupid mzungu's”. Days and hours of climbing later, we looked back at hat moment and laughed at our naivety.
After another delicious meal we headed out for the days climb. Before we left we glanced at the size of our team – five climbers and 15 support staff (guides, cooks and porters). Until then, we hadn't really grasped the enormity of our group. As we ventured onwards, we noticed that the slope of the terrain had increased quite a bit from the previous day. The scenery was just as beautiful as before only now we were climbing throughout the clouds. It was really hard to complain about the difficulty after seeing all of the guides, cooks, and porters, walk with us or run ahead of us carrying at least 25 kg each. Some were carrying bags with their own belongings and our bags at the same time. Some people, who worked for the park, were passing us carrying parts of buildings. They would pass us then come back empty handed and twenty minutes later they would pass again carrying another section of the building.
Rihannon and Glen were still in great spirits along with the rest of the group all throughout the hike. We made it to our next camp in 4.5 hours and by the time we had got there had picked up another straggler, this time an American girl named Becky. We were so grateful to have Glen and Rihannon with us because they were great company on a hike that could have been monotonous when the beautiful views were covered by the clouds. We jokingly called ourselves the 'Mzungu's in the Mist' after the movie, 'Gorilla's in the Mist'.
Our second camp was much warmer although we were now nearly a thousand meters higher than what we had been the day before (4000m vs 3100m ASL). It was quite cloudy when we reached our second camp but within twenty minutes the temperature and skies had changed 4 times with it remaining quite sunny in the end. Issa figured it would be good for all of us if we hiked for an hour and a half in a slightly upward direction before dinner to help us acclimatize. We all agreed quite readily but were a little concerned about our decision once the American's guide said she was not allowed to tag along with us in case it started to rain. There was also another trio of American tourists who we had ran into along the way who were interested in coming with us as well. They also were told that they could not come with us??? The hike turned out to be fine with sunny conditions all the way.
We spent the rest of the evening before dinner outside of the tent enjoying the sun, the view and not sitting in a cramped space eating. After dinner we once again tried to fit all four of us in the tent but this time we were not successful. Glen had originally fallen asleep in five minutes after jumping in the tent but when one of us awoke to go the bathroom he decided that he was not comfy and stormed out of the tent to go sleep in the other one. It was obvious that he wasn't happy about it because he told Rihannon that he did not want her to come so I volunteered to go. It was an unwise decision because Glen was probably the only one with a really good sleeping bag. The loss of me in the girls tent made them cold and being in the other tent with only Glen and I made me cold.
I did manage to fall asleep but it was obviously not enough sleep when we awoke in the morning. Katie told me she tossed and turned and finally at 4:30, started to read. The morning (Day 28) was bright, clear and beautiful and again, we had a great view of our Mountain.
We had been told that the third day was going to be easier but longer than the previous day. It was definitely a longer hike and we felt it didn't seem much easier. It was on this day that we ran into the Scottish man named Steven. When we first met him he seemed okay but when we ran into him later in the day he wasn't feeling too hot. Halfway through the hike the American girl, who was now part of our extended group, also began to get quite ill. At about 4200 meters both of them started to get ill. Steven was losing his lunch on the slopes as we hiked and had lost all of his energy but was determined to keep going. We soon lost him because he had to walk at a turtle's pace. When we were nearing the end of the day, Issa guided us on to a higher route than what was necessary to help with the acclimatization Becky had to sit this one out as she got really ill and had to take the shortcut. The hike we took wasn't much more difficult but after a long days hike and the changing altitude you could see things were going to keep getting worse.
We managed to make it to our camp without any sickness in our group. However, after a quick biscuit and hot drink, Katie began to get sick. Issa made up a hot cup of lemon and tea and gave her some pills for her head. After about thirty minutes Katie was feeling better, but still not her perky happy self.
We were now are the hardest leg of our trek and it was obviously so as there was no straight paths to be seen. Jimmy, who was one of the porters and could speak only very little English, was always filling us in on what we had done and what we were to do. He had described the last couple of hikes as quite tame slopes but when we mentioned the next morning's hike his arm went vertical and he laughed. We were now becoming a bit weary again about what was in store for us and why we chose this over retutrnng to the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar.
That night, although best we tried, we could not convince Glen that four to a tent would be a good idea. But, because Katie was not feeling great, they offered to swap one of their really good sleeping bags (down filled) for one of ours (definitely not down filled). Although we had had another horrible and cold sleep, we were both grateful and appreciative for their gesture of kindness.
I think I had begun to feel the altitude sickness but in a different way. When I would fall asleep it was as though I would begin to suffocate. I would jolt awake and try and catch my breath back. This greatly affected my sleeping pattern and as a result, I would never get more than an hour of solid uninterrupted sleep. This only added to the exhaustion and fatigue that I was already feeling from the climb.
The next morning (Day 29) we found out that both Becky and Steven had spent the remainder of their day and night puking. But, sick or not, there was nothing keeping them from reaching that mountain top and so they started hiking with us in the morning. Just as Jimmy had mentioned, we were walking, or should I say scaling, straight up the face of the mountain. It was steep but not too physically demanding because of our 'Pole Pole' pace. In some areas it didn't seem that the porters should be able to make it so easily but without sticks or help they would leap up spots that we would need help on.
After seven hours of climbing, we finally reached camp. It was hard to imagine that we were going to rest for only eight hours before we would start on the last leg of the trip, the mountain, and then start hiking again at midnight – WTF were we thinking doing this??? Although, Katie had felt okay during the day shortly after tea she began to get ill. This time the medicine and lemon did nothing to soothe her stomach and it was not long before she was puking. I managed to get her to bed but was taken from dinner a couple of times to help her out of the tent. In total, she had puked 6 times in a 4 hour time frame...which meant she got no sleep before the summit– poor girl!
Needless to say we didn't need much food before we started (now the morning of Day 30). Although, I hadn't thrown up I felt like I had. It was pitch black when we started hiking and this time we only had our one additional friend Becky with us (Steven was too ill and would wait until morning to start the climb). The hike started off good and it was almost comical how slow we were walking. However, even at this really slow pace we had managed to lap the American trio yet again (this made Katie feel really good – haha!)
At 5200m, things started to change and no longer was the majority of the group fine. Actually the only ones who didn't feel bad were Rihannon and Simon (our fifth member). Every time we walked it felt like I was going to puke and Glen said he felt the same. Katie felt like someone was scrunching up her stomach. It didn't feel like I was going to be able to make it and at around 5600 meters I had to bend over and just empty my stomach. At one point our guide had to give Katie and I a gentle push, literally, because we didn't think we could force ourselves to go on. It just never seemed to end. We would meet one check point and then we would be told there was another hour and a half and then once we got to the next one it would seem the same way. However, despite our cries and pain we finally made it. At roughly 6:30 am we made it to the top. It could not have been any more of a perfect day. Issa had told us that during the rainy season it was never certain to have a cloud free day...but here we were, at the top of Kili, above the clouds, watching the sun rise into a beautiful and brilliant clear sky.
The view of the other mountain tops, surrounding glaciers and constantly changing colors was breathtaking. Everyone snapped as many pictures as possible as we knew we had a 20 minute time frame before our guides (Issa and Henry) insisted that we head back down to more normal altitudes. We made sure to also get a couple of phone calls in to both of our mom's saying WE DID IT!!! However, the climb down wasn't going to be that easy as we would have to hike for 3.5, take a 2 hour rest and get ready for 3.5 more hours of fun! By the end of the day I think we were all ready to cry or at least collapse and when we finally reached our camp for the day we all passed out by about 8 pm or earlier (we calculated that in a 27 hour window frame, we climbed for 19 hours of it – crazy-crazy-crazy!!!). Our last day was much easier but we were so tired that it felt like it was never going to end.
Once we managed to reach the bottom and hiked to our car (Day 31) we were so happy. It wasn't just us whom were happy as most of the porters were happy to be off the mountain. In town it was almost impossible to think straight and it was almost painful trying to figure out how much we were going to tip all 16 members of the group. To give us a bit of time we stopped and bought the guys all a beer. When we did finally give everyone their tip they applauded for each other. When all was done they sang for us a local Kili song, although, it could have been about how these stupid Mzungu want to climb high mountains...well at least we were thinking we had been pretty stupid to do it. I think they were all just very happy that we had made it to the top and honestly we couldn't have and wouldn't have wanted to do it without all of them!
Katie and I can both honestly say that climbing Kili was one of the hardest things we have ever done in our lives. It was not that it was the most physically exhausting thing I have ever done but it was also mentally exhausting and I have never tried so hard not to puke while doing something physical for a period of about 8 hours. I think everyone felt the same about the climb and felt the same about the shower...best ever!!! That night we managed to find an awesome Indo-Italiono restaurant where we gorged on good food and liquor to try and repair some damage.
The next day (Day 32) was perfect because we got a lot of rest on the bus ride from Moshi to Dar es Salaam. It was by far the nicest bus we have been on so far in Africa with free beverages and really comfy seats. The only thing that didn't make sense was how the bus drivers would just take the garbage bin and dump it outside the truck whenever we stopped for a bush toilet.
We arrived painlessly in the evening to a great welcome from the entire group that we had left behind 7 days earlier. Not only did we get a great welcome back, but within a minute they were all singing Happy Birthday to me. It was great to be back not to mention the cake that had been prepared for me. Katie had also managed to sneak in a few minutes along our travels in Moshi and got me a Birthday present...an awesome water bottle with Kili on it and a coffee cup. She somehow also managed to sneak in a birthday cake under my nose as well. I think everyone had had a little too much fun on Zanzibar because almost everyone was asleep by 10 oclock despite wanting to have a Birthday celebration for me. I am so glad because all I wanted to do was go to sleep – I wonder...is this a sign of maturing or a sign of growing old???
The next morning (Day 33) we were up and gone way too early for everyone but we had to leave early because we had a hell of driving day ahead of us. It was probably okay that everyone was so tired because most people slept away the morning of the drive. By noon we had covered 6 hours of our drive but were still no where near we were supposed to be. It was getting hot and people were restless. When we stopped in the valley of the Baobob trees barely anyone even got out of the truck to take pictures. At roughly six in the evening we arrived at the camp at Iringa. Again we had climbed into the mountains and the humidity we had felt the night before was gone. Although, most people had thought it was cold, to me it felt warm after having to sleep on Kili and I had another great sleep. Iringa was a nice campsite with some of the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted. I will be bringing this recipe home to share with all the folks of cold Saskatchewan.
The next morning (Day 34) was a painful one for everyone. I think most people were still reeling from too many hard days of partying on Zanzibar. Katie and I couldn't wait for the next day to be over so we would have some time to do our 70 L bag of laundry so we could have a shower and change into something clean!! Goodbye Tanzania and thank god that we were able to make it to the top of Mt. Kili...but better yet thank god it is over!!!!
The morning was worse because we still really had no idea what to expect because Abraham didn't really seem to have a clue about our climb and what we should expect...this became a lot more evident once we had left Arusha and were preparing for our climb. At breakfast Abraham almost destroyed our last string of respect when he found a random person in the lobby who wanted to come along with us. Instead of coming to talk to us he sent the newbie over to ask if it was okay . As you can imagine, it would have been very difficult to have said no to him. Katie made sure to ask him the price he was paying before he left and it turned out he was paying a small amount higher than us but he also had more equipment rental – WTF??? I think everyone was ready to kill Abraham and when we had the chance we pulled him over and reamed him out and demanded a discount. It was like pulling teeth and after getting told off by both Katie and myself (neither of us knew the other had said something). He agreed to pay for our transport costs to Dar es Salaam but Katie insisted on more. He then told us he would take off 50,000 Tsh from our fee only (which is ~$40 US). Katie argued with him until he relented and agreed to pay back the money to Glen and Rihannon as well. We couldn't waste any more time as we had already waited for Glen and Rihannon to reorganize their bags for about the fourth time in 24 hours and needed to get on our way.
The guides were super nice and the other 8 guys that were in our 'bus' were friendly to us too. We were still a little confused about what was going on and were even more confused as we continued to pick up more people on the side of the road as we headed towards Machame, the starting point of our climb. More often than not, when we picked up people along the road, we would barely slow down and the bus door would just open and someone would jump in. After a few stops for groceries and the passing of half an hour we had 4 times more people in the truck than there was of us...this definitely added to the confusion!! We later learnt that this was our team of cooks, porters and guides.
At the base of the mountain our guide Issa told us to gather what we needed to have on us in a small bag and give our big bag to our porter. Well this is where we first started to realize how poorly Abraham had misinformed us. He had told us that our porter would be with us the entire hike and so we could give him our day to day stuff and therefore, we left our two knapsacks behind. Not to mention we would not have anyone to carry our water and it turns out the only water they would have for us would have to be boiled at night. We had bought some water bottles when we had stopped but that was supposed to be for the drive not to be our bottles for the next week!! So now we had no knapsack and not enough water and we were seriously second guessing why we came to this mountain. Issa managed to find somebody to loan us a knapsack but they wouldn't do so unless we bought it for a ridiculous price or rented it for the price of a new one in town.
After realizing that there wasn't much we could do, we grabbed our rented knapsack and headed on our way – it was now 1:30pm (Day 26) and Katie was really starting to panic about the late hour and the six hours of climbing that lay ahead. After registering with the park Issa told us to get climbing and that they would be right behind us after they loaded up all of the stuff. As we were climbing, majority of the men from our bus started passing us carrying the largest loads on either their head, back or neck. Although, it was impressive, we didn't really think twice about it because the climb itself was fairly easy with nice defined paths and smooth terrain.
It was nice to see Rhiannon so excited because we had figured that she wasn't really that excited to come and was just doing so for Glen's sake. We did the first part of the days journey in under half the time we should have. Once Issa had caught us he purposely slowed us because he said that if we did not we would be tired the next day. This was the first of many times that we were told to go 'Pole Pole' (slowly slowly in Swahili) and the first of many times that we would hear it. We started to ask Issa a million questions about the trek. This is where we really started to realize how many lies Abraham had told us. First of all rather than hiking for 6, 5, 3 and 2 hours to make it to the top of the mountain as promised by Abraham we were going to be hiking for 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7 and 6.5 hours respectively – WTF??? Not only would be hiking for about four times the amount of hours that we had been told but the last day 7 and 6.5 hours would be within an 18 hour time period. Secondly there would be no showers so the whole idea to leave behind our knapsacks in exchange for shampoo, conditioner and towels was stupid. And last but certainly not least, there would be no fires allowed on the mountain to warm ourselves which is what Abraham had told us. When we asked Issa about the fire and how we could keep warm, he laughed nervously and then said... “tent” - we were in for a real treat!
The first days trek was through a thick jungle type area and at the end of the day of hiking we had reached the clouds – it was both beautiful and stunning scenery! When we reached camp, it was surprisingly very cold and so we decided that to keep warm during the night, it would be better to sleep with both couples in the same tent (in a three man tent). Unfortunately for the straggler Simon, he would have to bunk it on his own. Luckily, he had borrowed a sleeping bag from Abraham which was much better than our own personal ones we had brought along with us so although he was cold, he managed to get through the night. Our last disappointment of the day was that at the end of the hike, we went to change into warmer clothes only to find out that our porters carrying our personal bags had not reached camp yet. So...Katie, Glen and Rihannon huddled close in a tent having what I can only presume as a major bitch session while I visited with the porters and cooks.
Once we had changed into warmer clothes our spirits perked up a bit. Then was supper and it was almost identical to the setup we had received while doing the safari with Abraham months before. After a little popcorn and hot drinks we were all a little more impressed and although we still hated Abraham for his lack of information, it was hard not to love the cooks, guides and porter...they were fantastic and it is sad to think that it is them who get screwed out of the deal when they do all of the work while Abraham, who lies and steals, makes all of the profit.
With the exception of Katie (who encouraged me to bring one of my own books) the remainder of us soon realized that when you are climbing a mountain you should bring books! So much of our time was spent in the tent trying to stay out of the cold when we were not climbing. Not only do you get cold, but after a good hike you just need somewhere to lie down and rest your sore aching body. The first day hadn't been too bad but it wasn't warm enough outside for us to hang out there so we headed to bed. Although it was a little tight in the tent with all four of us sleeping, it got nice and warm quite quickly. We all had a pretty good sleep the first night even though we were sleeping on thin little mats rather than the nice mats which we had been promised by our lovely friend Abraham.
On the morning of the second day (Day 27) of our hike we awoke to clear skies. The temperature was still cold but all that changed when the sun came out. Once the sun came over the peak of Mt Kili, things got hot...and quick. We all could not help but comment on how close the Mountain looked. We were laughed and mocked by the guides who were probably thinking “stupid mzungu's”. Days and hours of climbing later, we looked back at hat moment and laughed at our naivety.
After another delicious meal we headed out for the days climb. Before we left we glanced at the size of our team – five climbers and 15 support staff (guides, cooks and porters). Until then, we hadn't really grasped the enormity of our group. As we ventured onwards, we noticed that the slope of the terrain had increased quite a bit from the previous day. The scenery was just as beautiful as before only now we were climbing throughout the clouds. It was really hard to complain about the difficulty after seeing all of the guides, cooks, and porters, walk with us or run ahead of us carrying at least 25 kg each. Some were carrying bags with their own belongings and our bags at the same time. Some people, who worked for the park, were passing us carrying parts of buildings. They would pass us then come back empty handed and twenty minutes later they would pass again carrying another section of the building.
Rihannon and Glen were still in great spirits along with the rest of the group all throughout the hike. We made it to our next camp in 4.5 hours and by the time we had got there had picked up another straggler, this time an American girl named Becky. We were so grateful to have Glen and Rihannon with us because they were great company on a hike that could have been monotonous when the beautiful views were covered by the clouds. We jokingly called ourselves the 'Mzungu's in the Mist' after the movie, 'Gorilla's in the Mist'.
Our second camp was much warmer although we were now nearly a thousand meters higher than what we had been the day before (4000m vs 3100m ASL). It was quite cloudy when we reached our second camp but within twenty minutes the temperature and skies had changed 4 times with it remaining quite sunny in the end. Issa figured it would be good for all of us if we hiked for an hour and a half in a slightly upward direction before dinner to help us acclimatize. We all agreed quite readily but were a little concerned about our decision once the American's guide said she was not allowed to tag along with us in case it started to rain. There was also another trio of American tourists who we had ran into along the way who were interested in coming with us as well. They also were told that they could not come with us??? The hike turned out to be fine with sunny conditions all the way.
We spent the rest of the evening before dinner outside of the tent enjoying the sun, the view and not sitting in a cramped space eating. After dinner we once again tried to fit all four of us in the tent but this time we were not successful. Glen had originally fallen asleep in five minutes after jumping in the tent but when one of us awoke to go the bathroom he decided that he was not comfy and stormed out of the tent to go sleep in the other one. It was obvious that he wasn't happy about it because he told Rihannon that he did not want her to come so I volunteered to go. It was an unwise decision because Glen was probably the only one with a really good sleeping bag. The loss of me in the girls tent made them cold and being in the other tent with only Glen and I made me cold.
I did manage to fall asleep but it was obviously not enough sleep when we awoke in the morning. Katie told me she tossed and turned and finally at 4:30, started to read. The morning (Day 28) was bright, clear and beautiful and again, we had a great view of our Mountain.
We had been told that the third day was going to be easier but longer than the previous day. It was definitely a longer hike and we felt it didn't seem much easier. It was on this day that we ran into the Scottish man named Steven. When we first met him he seemed okay but when we ran into him later in the day he wasn't feeling too hot. Halfway through the hike the American girl, who was now part of our extended group, also began to get quite ill. At about 4200 meters both of them started to get ill. Steven was losing his lunch on the slopes as we hiked and had lost all of his energy but was determined to keep going. We soon lost him because he had to walk at a turtle's pace. When we were nearing the end of the day, Issa guided us on to a higher route than what was necessary to help with the acclimatization Becky had to sit this one out as she got really ill and had to take the shortcut. The hike we took wasn't much more difficult but after a long days hike and the changing altitude you could see things were going to keep getting worse.
We managed to make it to our camp without any sickness in our group. However, after a quick biscuit and hot drink, Katie began to get sick. Issa made up a hot cup of lemon and tea and gave her some pills for her head. After about thirty minutes Katie was feeling better, but still not her perky happy self.
We were now are the hardest leg of our trek and it was obviously so as there was no straight paths to be seen. Jimmy, who was one of the porters and could speak only very little English, was always filling us in on what we had done and what we were to do. He had described the last couple of hikes as quite tame slopes but when we mentioned the next morning's hike his arm went vertical and he laughed. We were now becoming a bit weary again about what was in store for us and why we chose this over retutrnng to the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar.
That night, although best we tried, we could not convince Glen that four to a tent would be a good idea. But, because Katie was not feeling great, they offered to swap one of their really good sleeping bags (down filled) for one of ours (definitely not down filled). Although we had had another horrible and cold sleep, we were both grateful and appreciative for their gesture of kindness.
I think I had begun to feel the altitude sickness but in a different way. When I would fall asleep it was as though I would begin to suffocate. I would jolt awake and try and catch my breath back. This greatly affected my sleeping pattern and as a result, I would never get more than an hour of solid uninterrupted sleep. This only added to the exhaustion and fatigue that I was already feeling from the climb.
The next morning (Day 29) we found out that both Becky and Steven had spent the remainder of their day and night puking. But, sick or not, there was nothing keeping them from reaching that mountain top and so they started hiking with us in the morning. Just as Jimmy had mentioned, we were walking, or should I say scaling, straight up the face of the mountain. It was steep but not too physically demanding because of our 'Pole Pole' pace. In some areas it didn't seem that the porters should be able to make it so easily but without sticks or help they would leap up spots that we would need help on.
After seven hours of climbing, we finally reached camp. It was hard to imagine that we were going to rest for only eight hours before we would start on the last leg of the trip, the mountain, and then start hiking again at midnight – WTF were we thinking doing this??? Although, Katie had felt okay during the day shortly after tea she began to get ill. This time the medicine and lemon did nothing to soothe her stomach and it was not long before she was puking. I managed to get her to bed but was taken from dinner a couple of times to help her out of the tent. In total, she had puked 6 times in a 4 hour time frame...which meant she got no sleep before the summit– poor girl!
Needless to say we didn't need much food before we started (now the morning of Day 30). Although, I hadn't thrown up I felt like I had. It was pitch black when we started hiking and this time we only had our one additional friend Becky with us (Steven was too ill and would wait until morning to start the climb). The hike started off good and it was almost comical how slow we were walking. However, even at this really slow pace we had managed to lap the American trio yet again (this made Katie feel really good – haha!)
At 5200m, things started to change and no longer was the majority of the group fine. Actually the only ones who didn't feel bad were Rihannon and Simon (our fifth member). Every time we walked it felt like I was going to puke and Glen said he felt the same. Katie felt like someone was scrunching up her stomach. It didn't feel like I was going to be able to make it and at around 5600 meters I had to bend over and just empty my stomach. At one point our guide had to give Katie and I a gentle push, literally, because we didn't think we could force ourselves to go on. It just never seemed to end. We would meet one check point and then we would be told there was another hour and a half and then once we got to the next one it would seem the same way. However, despite our cries and pain we finally made it. At roughly 6:30 am we made it to the top. It could not have been any more of a perfect day. Issa had told us that during the rainy season it was never certain to have a cloud free day...but here we were, at the top of Kili, above the clouds, watching the sun rise into a beautiful and brilliant clear sky.
The view of the other mountain tops, surrounding glaciers and constantly changing colors was breathtaking. Everyone snapped as many pictures as possible as we knew we had a 20 minute time frame before our guides (Issa and Henry) insisted that we head back down to more normal altitudes. We made sure to also get a couple of phone calls in to both of our mom's saying WE DID IT!!! However, the climb down wasn't going to be that easy as we would have to hike for 3.5, take a 2 hour rest and get ready for 3.5 more hours of fun! By the end of the day I think we were all ready to cry or at least collapse and when we finally reached our camp for the day we all passed out by about 8 pm or earlier (we calculated that in a 27 hour window frame, we climbed for 19 hours of it – crazy-crazy-crazy!!!). Our last day was much easier but we were so tired that it felt like it was never going to end.
Once we managed to reach the bottom and hiked to our car (Day 31) we were so happy. It wasn't just us whom were happy as most of the porters were happy to be off the mountain. In town it was almost impossible to think straight and it was almost painful trying to figure out how much we were going to tip all 16 members of the group. To give us a bit of time we stopped and bought the guys all a beer. When we did finally give everyone their tip they applauded for each other. When all was done they sang for us a local Kili song, although, it could have been about how these stupid Mzungu want to climb high mountains...well at least we were thinking we had been pretty stupid to do it. I think they were all just very happy that we had made it to the top and honestly we couldn't have and wouldn't have wanted to do it without all of them!
Katie and I can both honestly say that climbing Kili was one of the hardest things we have ever done in our lives. It was not that it was the most physically exhausting thing I have ever done but it was also mentally exhausting and I have never tried so hard not to puke while doing something physical for a period of about 8 hours. I think everyone felt the same about the climb and felt the same about the shower...best ever!!! That night we managed to find an awesome Indo-Italiono restaurant where we gorged on good food and liquor to try and repair some damage.
The next day (Day 32) was perfect because we got a lot of rest on the bus ride from Moshi to Dar es Salaam. It was by far the nicest bus we have been on so far in Africa with free beverages and really comfy seats. The only thing that didn't make sense was how the bus drivers would just take the garbage bin and dump it outside the truck whenever we stopped for a bush toilet.
We arrived painlessly in the evening to a great welcome from the entire group that we had left behind 7 days earlier. Not only did we get a great welcome back, but within a minute they were all singing Happy Birthday to me. It was great to be back not to mention the cake that had been prepared for me. Katie had also managed to sneak in a few minutes along our travels in Moshi and got me a Birthday present...an awesome water bottle with Kili on it and a coffee cup. She somehow also managed to sneak in a birthday cake under my nose as well. I think everyone had had a little too much fun on Zanzibar because almost everyone was asleep by 10 oclock despite wanting to have a Birthday celebration for me. I am so glad because all I wanted to do was go to sleep – I wonder...is this a sign of maturing or a sign of growing old???
The next morning (Day 33) we were up and gone way too early for everyone but we had to leave early because we had a hell of driving day ahead of us. It was probably okay that everyone was so tired because most people slept away the morning of the drive. By noon we had covered 6 hours of our drive but were still no where near we were supposed to be. It was getting hot and people were restless. When we stopped in the valley of the Baobob trees barely anyone even got out of the truck to take pictures. At roughly six in the evening we arrived at the camp at Iringa. Again we had climbed into the mountains and the humidity we had felt the night before was gone. Although, most people had thought it was cold, to me it felt warm after having to sleep on Kili and I had another great sleep. Iringa was a nice campsite with some of the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted. I will be bringing this recipe home to share with all the folks of cold Saskatchewan.
The next morning (Day 34) was a painful one for everyone. I think most people were still reeling from too many hard days of partying on Zanzibar. Katie and I couldn't wait for the next day to be over so we would have some time to do our 70 L bag of laundry so we could have a shower and change into something clean!! Goodbye Tanzania and thank god that we were able to make it to the top of Mt. Kili...but better yet thank god it is over!!!!
TANZANIA!!!
Our first day (Day 20) in Tanzania was spent as guinea pigs for Absolute Africa. Normally Absolute Africa would take a different route when crossing the border into Tanzania but they had decided that rather than to enter further South they would try enter in the Northern part of Tanzania – they did this for two reasons. One was to bypass the wet and boggy roads and the second was to try and catch some of the migration from the Serengeti into the Massai Mara in Kenya.
We left very early from Rwanda on our last day because we were explained by our guide that it was crucial that we crossed in Tanzania during the day and made it to our campsite hopefully before nightfall. He said that it wasn't really anything that we should be worried about but there had been some security issues at the border between the two countries and we just didn't want to take any chances that could be involved. After an uneventful yet long day of travelling we arrived in Tanzania in a place called Nyagikinazi. We were all pretty happy that we were there and what made it better was that no one had to cook dinner that night...it was being cooked by the campsite. The campsite was also in an area that was a possible security risk but was owned by a local policeman. Because we were rich 'Mzungu's' and we were generating a lot of money for the local area, we were guarded by some of the off duty policemen.
One of the officers took us to town and gave us a tour. The place that we were in was much smaller than most of the other towns we had previously stayed in so a large group of tourists walking down the one and only main street was quite a sight for the locals. Not only did hundreds of little children swarm to the roads to watch us and talk with us but so did the older crowd. When we got back to the campsite, there were so many children hovering around the gates that someone decided that it would be good if we played games with them.
It was a little hard to explain frisbee to a group of small kids that spoke very little English but after a couple of seconds of throwing the frisbee, most of them had it down pat. A large group of us played with the kids just outside the camp gates. The group continued to constantly grow and soon we had two to three large groups playing. Rhesa had a group of the kids laughing hysterically as they tried to mimic her dance moves. They were even more pleased to watch themselves after from Claire's video camera (2 cool Aussie newbies that joined us in Rwanda).
As more and more kids joined in on the frisbee circle, things inevitably got a little messy. Some of the kids had not been shown yet how to throw it – so this meant that some of them would use all of their force to throw it to the person one foot next to them.
We played until it was dark with the group continuing to grow. It ended when the children's mothers came to collect their kids but not before one of the mothers roused them all into singing some songs for us. They sang one in English and then sang for us 'God Bless Africa' although there was no hand gestures in the second one. The songs got ended abruptly by one of the police officers as he told us politely but sternly we had to head back to the campsite because it was too dark. The policeman then proceeded to get really drunk and got into a fight with a local right next to us while we were eating – crazy, crazy, crazy!
The local woman did an excellent job of cooking our supper. We had the freshest chicken imaginable. When we were on our way to town, we passed by 3 locals all carrying two live chickens in each of their hands. We thought nothing of them until we were waiting to be fed and our stomach's were grumbling...you know the old familiar saying, “What is taking so long...are they killing the cows or chickens in there???” Well, yes, in this case they were and after they killed the chickens, they had to pluck and prepare the chickens. So although it did take a bit of time, we understood why. What really amazes me about the African woman are the way they bend. As we sat back to let our food digest, I couldn't help but notice the way they were washing up. They had a perfectly good and empty table in front of them but yet they still continued to wash and clean all of the dishes from the ground. And they do not bend they way we North American's would bend (basically kneeling on the ground hunched over in pain). No, their legs are perfectly straight, their butts are protruding outwards and their upper half is bent at a 45 degree angle. We continue to see this all of Africa and it never ceases to amaze me.
Our meal was great and shortly after we all headed to bed...well that was until Tom and Katie (not my Katie) found a condom in their bed. The place had looked a bit sketchy but I don't think anyone had thought it was that bad. Shortly after Katie (my Katie) searched our room and what do you know...she found a condom as well, now what are those odds??? Ours wasn't nearly as bad as the other because our condom was only opened and not yet unravelled. It was kind of ironical because when we showed up at the hotel there was a briefcase in our room and Katie asked the staff if it had been used – probably should have asked if it had been cleaned!
We decided that it would be funny to play a practical joke on a couple of the other newbies and some of those who were a little less liked (with the exclusion of Michael) and after getting them to open the door we hid a condom in their room. The prank didn't work very well but it was funny watching them check every inch of their room. Glen had them convinced that Katie and I had found our condom inside the pillow case so they were literally ripping their entire room apart. The last finding was a well used container of petroleum jelly right beside Glen's bed – what was this place???
We left pretty early in the morning (Day 21) to get to Mwanza by a decent time. Mwanza was a fairly dodgy looking campsite on the side of Lake Victoria. It was quite tempting to go and jump in the water by the time we had our tents setup but Kanyo shied us away from doing so by telling us that the lake is known for its crocodiles. It seemed weird that we were setting up our tents so close to the water if there was the possibility that a crocodile could jump out of the water and take one of us! I think maybe he was having a piss with us because he didn't seem to concerned or maybe he was angry at some of the lazy people and was hoping they got dragged away...jk. That night we also celebrated the one year marriage of our new Canadian Friends Mel and Brendan...they popped open a couple bottles of champagne purchased by the kitty and we all drank and toasted to them.
The next morning (Day 22) we decided to go for a run with Laura, Bilsey and Tom. I am not sure it was a great idea considering it was six in the morning but I think I always feel that way before a run (and actually, Katie had to drag me out of the tent). We had some trouble keeping up with the marathon runners and Tom and Billsey were actually running down the hills we had just come up so they could sprint up them again – crazy, crazy, crazy!
We headed from Mwanza to Ikama Camp in the ____ game reserve. Like usual, we arrived in the game reserve later than we were supposed to so we had to rush to set up our tents before nightfall. Kanyo had arranged for us to have a game walk with a couple of local guides. I am sure that everyone else was a little surprised when the guide showed up with two other people and no weapons. Well that is not exactly true, they had weapons but nothing more than a couple of clubs and bows and arrows. I am sure they were pretty experienced and knew what they were doing but I sure wouldn't have wanted to run into a pride of lions without any armed guards.
Our first stop on the game walk – which was literally a trek through the tall plains of grass – was to a tree that, “despite it looking dead was actually alive and only pretending”. This really cracked Micheal up and after that everything that looked dead was only pretending to be alive. The walk was too late in the day and I think everyone wanted it to be over once it started. That being said, our guide did manage to find a black Mambo (also known as a 'five stepper' because of their highly poisonous venom) hiding out in a small rodent hole. We tried to get above it to take pictures but once the guide told us that it was quite the jumper we were a bit timid, with the exception of Will who put his camera two inches from the hole. We also spotted some massive Safari Ant colonies and some extremely creepy looking spiders. We were surprised that the spider didn't get pissed off and try to bite somebody as four or five us tried non stop to take pictures of it from point blank range. Probably one of the highlights was shooting the security man's bow and arrow. The guide shot it first and then about six of us tried to see if we could match him. Jeremy did an amazing job (as usual) and beat out all of the other members ten fold. The guides could not believe that this was Jeremy's first time shooting a bow – all the girls were jealous of me...I was so proud. Jeremy, my hunter/gather fiancé! The game walk ended perfectly as the sun was setting with rainbows in the background.
Kanyo treated us to a traditional Kenyan meal of Ugali, beef stew and spinach (Katie was extremely lucky as it was her cooking night). I am not sure why it was such a funny night but I think Michael made it funny because he refused the traditional spinach (anything green and healthy was disgusting in his eyes) and when Rihannon put some on his plate he nearly lost it. His supper experience was then topped off when he got to the end of the line and there was no meat left (keep in mind that he was responsible for dishing out the meat servings...so, when he dished out the last of the meat, warning bells should have been going off in his head as he knew he had not yet been served - ???). Although we probably shouldn't have laughed at it him, it was hard not to. Sadly enough, this has happened on more than one occasion. When everyone goes to eat he is usually hanging back being lazy so when he finally gets there the food is gone or people are on having seconds. The worst case was one morning when he was too lazy to get food. By the time he mentally prepared to get up, the dishes were nearly done and the remainder of the food was thrown out – he got into a pissy mood that he was going to starve and that no one announced breakfast was over. I guess he did not hear the 1st or 2nd 'last chance' for food calls that the cooks do every meal. Yep...this was our Fitsy...but despite all this, we absolutely loved him!
After an uneventful night with no animal sounds we awoke (Day 23) and made our way (ten minutes) to the Serengeti National Park. We spent the full day driving around the park. In the afternoon we spotted a carcass out in the open sahara where shortly after we spotted the lions who had taken it down. It looked to be a Wildebeest but the lions were not eating...must have been either too tired, too full, too hot, or just didn't want us crowding around watching it eat. We stayed as long as we could but they barely popped out their heads and only did so when we pulled away. We headed further down the road and spotted hyena, jackal and a bunch of other smaller animals and then turned around to see if the lions were going to be more daring and show themselves. When we got back one of the lions was feeding but was staying very low to the ground so we couldn't see all that much. After giving up and making it maybe a half kilometer down the road the truck got stuck in some super deep mud...this seems to happen pretty often. Because of the angle of the truck (it looked like it was going to tip) we got out and tried to help rock it. After pushing from several angles, lots of digging from Robert and Kanyo, and some people getting seriously covered in mud, we managed to get lose. I have been stuck plenty of times in my life but never have I had to get out and push and at the same time watch out for animals that could munch on me for supper.
Our evening was a bit more eventful staying in the Serengeti park. We stayed at the Serenora camp site which was originally named camp six. I say this because at one point they changed the name of the campground because safari guides would come early and pay the park officials (bribe) so as not to have to stay in that camp. Supposedly, there is two different prides of lions that call that surrounding area home and at night tend to get very close and snarl at eachother...Kanyo once had 16 lions roaming around the tents.
After dinner and just as it started getting dark, Kanyo gave us the low down on politics in most of the Eastern African countries that we had visited. It is easy to see how perfect Kanyo is for this job after spending this much time with him. He can speak eight languages (most fluently), knows quite a few details regarding the traditions of quite a number of tribes, knows a lot about the politics in each country, knows the names and habits of most of the animals in the park, can name the vegetation and to top it off is an excellent cook (seriously...an excellent cook). The great thing about his talks is that they are not boring and they keep everyone around the fire interested the entire time (which very few of us can do). After about an hour of Kanyo talking we were interrupted by lights darting towards the bathroom. We all jumped up just in time to spot either a water buffalo or something of similar size walking around just in the bushes adjacent to us. This frightened a lot of our members and so every one worked together and cleaned up the campsite for the night. Kanyo ensured us that it was safe to come back to the fire once we were done. There was but a small few that were daring enough to settle back around the fire despite the sounds of the lions roaring in the distance. Because of the volume, it didn't seem possible but Kanyo reassured us that they were miles away. However, throughout the talk the lions continued to get closer and closer and started coming from both sides of the camp. Katie had not been feeling great and had went to bed a little earlier than myself but I stayed a little later listening to stories around the fire. When I finally went to bed I had intended to do some typing on the computer. I remained diligent for about twenty minutes but when I began to hear the sounds of lions through my headphones I figured it would be a good idea to turn off my lights. I didn't want to be that one stupid guy that gets talked about later... “so we had this one guy that was typing on his computer when a lion came and”.... you get my point.
You could tell that everyone was a little more fearful at this campsite because in the middle of the night it seemed that people were waking up because they had to pee but just waiting for others to do the same. When we woke up we heard a couple of others talking and figured it was Rihannon and Glen. We turned our lights on and it was immediately followed by the others. We were like a pack of Impala's because we all watched intently and shined our lights looking for the slightest danger while we were going pee. Unlike how slow we had been to actually get out to go pee, we were back in tents seconds afterwards we were finished.
Our morning game drive (Day 24) was cut short because shortly after we started we ran into another overlander truck stuck in the mud (go figure!). After getting them free from the mud we ourselves were then stuck in the mud and spent an hour and a half trying to get free. The men went to work at first and there was a wall of us rocking and pushing the truck. We laughed as we looked over our shoulders and watched as all of the girls sat there, laughing and taking pictures (with the exception of my Katie, who was feet deep in the mud with all of us). We were very squished for room and at one point, Alberto (newbie from Chile who did not like to get dirty) started to push on the back of my head. So...here I was, in my groove, rocking the truck to my own rhythm when all of a sudden, I feel this force from behind. I think he actually was more of a detriment to me then a help but he sure did give the entire group a great belly hurting laugh. Once we got free, we changed directions so as not to get stuck again and besides some lions in the distance and a very long line of zebras crossing the road we never managed to see many animals. We are always learning new info and found out that Zebras and Wildebeest are good friends because the zebra can see well and is complimented by the good sense of smell of the Wildebeest. However, the Wildebeest is one of the stupidest animals followed closely by the warthog. They both will run into danger and escape only to forget about the danger five minutes later and walk right back to where they came from...easy food as Kanyo would like to say.
Our next stop was the Ngorogoro crater where Katie and I had had our best animal sightings thus far. Katie and I were a little scared about the temperature at night because the last time we had been there it had been very cold and now it was officially winter here in East Africa. It was nothing less than we expected and five minutes after getting there everyone was wearing their long gear, long underwear, hats and mitts...and that is a bit strange for Africa. Katie was one of the first to go and shower and she was hoping she would have a hot shower but sadly for her, it was freezing cold! For those of you who know Katie, she is a complete 'freeze chicken' and apparently she was screaming to Jemma (in the shower next to here) as the water was hitting here. I had the luxury of having a hot shower as there was another set of showers on the opposite end of the camp that Katie was unaware of. I think she was ready to kill everyone when they were complaining about how hot their shower was. Our biggest concern and highlight was getting the fire started until Glen and Rihannon let us know that they were going to be coming along to climb Mount Kili with us. We had been working on them for so long and had only got a yes out of Glen. We were practically jumping around with excitement and immediately called Abraham about our new recruits. We hadn't been worried about the short notice of one day because it meant more business for him and we definitely knew he would find a way to make it happen.
After a cold night we awoke at 4:30 in the morning (Day 25) to even worse conditions than what we had had during the night – fog obscured all of our view. The conditions upon the top of the crater didn't seem to matter because as we descended into the crater in our small safari jeeps, we passed through the fog. The crater was by far the best game viewing we had done while on the overland tour. We got a great look at a cheetah lying in the grass no more than twenty feet from the truck, we witnessed Wildebeest's having sex, hyenas running past us with a bird and close spottings of lots of other animals. By 11:30 we left the crater and were all happy to do so because we were super tired from our early morning. Our jeeps met up with the overland truck and after a quick lunch we were on our away to Arusha to look at some Tanzanite. I don't think Katie and I had been seriously considering buying any Tanzanite but after a speal by the dealer and a look at the stone we were sold. Supposedly the only place in the world where this blue Tanzanite has been uncovered is in Tanzania and only near the city of Arusha. Also it is of limited supply so in less than twenty years they predict it will be gone and the price will rise higher than that of diamonds. Katie and I decided that it would be nice to have it put in her engagement ring as it would always be reminder of our amazing and life changing trip (and engagement) while in Africa.
When we arrived at the campsite we met up with the new truck that we would joining for the rest of our journey to Cape Town and our new guide...but Robert, our driver, would still be with us. We didn't have much time to enjoy meeting the new recruits our learning about the new truck. All of our stuff had to be located, organized (had to arrange what we needed for Kili and what would be kept in the new truck) and be ready to be picked up by Abraham, who was picking us up a couple of hours later. Although, it was painful, we managed to finish with an hour left to relax. Because of the short notice of the climb, we had not been able to organize warm clothes on our own – I mean...this is Africa! Luckily, everyone on our trip were super helpful and donated socks, long underwear, sweaters, toques, mitts and anything warm they had. After a delicious BBQ, we had to say “see you later” to majority of the group members and our “goodbye's” to a special few that we would not be travelling with again such as Michael and Kanyo.
We left very early from Rwanda on our last day because we were explained by our guide that it was crucial that we crossed in Tanzania during the day and made it to our campsite hopefully before nightfall. He said that it wasn't really anything that we should be worried about but there had been some security issues at the border between the two countries and we just didn't want to take any chances that could be involved. After an uneventful yet long day of travelling we arrived in Tanzania in a place called Nyagikinazi. We were all pretty happy that we were there and what made it better was that no one had to cook dinner that night...it was being cooked by the campsite. The campsite was also in an area that was a possible security risk but was owned by a local policeman. Because we were rich 'Mzungu's' and we were generating a lot of money for the local area, we were guarded by some of the off duty policemen.
One of the officers took us to town and gave us a tour. The place that we were in was much smaller than most of the other towns we had previously stayed in so a large group of tourists walking down the one and only main street was quite a sight for the locals. Not only did hundreds of little children swarm to the roads to watch us and talk with us but so did the older crowd. When we got back to the campsite, there were so many children hovering around the gates that someone decided that it would be good if we played games with them.
It was a little hard to explain frisbee to a group of small kids that spoke very little English but after a couple of seconds of throwing the frisbee, most of them had it down pat. A large group of us played with the kids just outside the camp gates. The group continued to constantly grow and soon we had two to three large groups playing. Rhesa had a group of the kids laughing hysterically as they tried to mimic her dance moves. They were even more pleased to watch themselves after from Claire's video camera (2 cool Aussie newbies that joined us in Rwanda).
As more and more kids joined in on the frisbee circle, things inevitably got a little messy. Some of the kids had not been shown yet how to throw it – so this meant that some of them would use all of their force to throw it to the person one foot next to them.
We played until it was dark with the group continuing to grow. It ended when the children's mothers came to collect their kids but not before one of the mothers roused them all into singing some songs for us. They sang one in English and then sang for us 'God Bless Africa' although there was no hand gestures in the second one. The songs got ended abruptly by one of the police officers as he told us politely but sternly we had to head back to the campsite because it was too dark. The policeman then proceeded to get really drunk and got into a fight with a local right next to us while we were eating – crazy, crazy, crazy!
The local woman did an excellent job of cooking our supper. We had the freshest chicken imaginable. When we were on our way to town, we passed by 3 locals all carrying two live chickens in each of their hands. We thought nothing of them until we were waiting to be fed and our stomach's were grumbling...you know the old familiar saying, “What is taking so long...are they killing the cows or chickens in there???” Well, yes, in this case they were and after they killed the chickens, they had to pluck and prepare the chickens. So although it did take a bit of time, we understood why. What really amazes me about the African woman are the way they bend. As we sat back to let our food digest, I couldn't help but notice the way they were washing up. They had a perfectly good and empty table in front of them but yet they still continued to wash and clean all of the dishes from the ground. And they do not bend they way we North American's would bend (basically kneeling on the ground hunched over in pain). No, their legs are perfectly straight, their butts are protruding outwards and their upper half is bent at a 45 degree angle. We continue to see this all of Africa and it never ceases to amaze me.
Our meal was great and shortly after we all headed to bed...well that was until Tom and Katie (not my Katie) found a condom in their bed. The place had looked a bit sketchy but I don't think anyone had thought it was that bad. Shortly after Katie (my Katie) searched our room and what do you know...she found a condom as well, now what are those odds??? Ours wasn't nearly as bad as the other because our condom was only opened and not yet unravelled. It was kind of ironical because when we showed up at the hotel there was a briefcase in our room and Katie asked the staff if it had been used – probably should have asked if it had been cleaned!
We decided that it would be funny to play a practical joke on a couple of the other newbies and some of those who were a little less liked (with the exclusion of Michael) and after getting them to open the door we hid a condom in their room. The prank didn't work very well but it was funny watching them check every inch of their room. Glen had them convinced that Katie and I had found our condom inside the pillow case so they were literally ripping their entire room apart. The last finding was a well used container of petroleum jelly right beside Glen's bed – what was this place???
We left pretty early in the morning (Day 21) to get to Mwanza by a decent time. Mwanza was a fairly dodgy looking campsite on the side of Lake Victoria. It was quite tempting to go and jump in the water by the time we had our tents setup but Kanyo shied us away from doing so by telling us that the lake is known for its crocodiles. It seemed weird that we were setting up our tents so close to the water if there was the possibility that a crocodile could jump out of the water and take one of us! I think maybe he was having a piss with us because he didn't seem to concerned or maybe he was angry at some of the lazy people and was hoping they got dragged away...jk. That night we also celebrated the one year marriage of our new Canadian Friends Mel and Brendan...they popped open a couple bottles of champagne purchased by the kitty and we all drank and toasted to them.
The next morning (Day 22) we decided to go for a run with Laura, Bilsey and Tom. I am not sure it was a great idea considering it was six in the morning but I think I always feel that way before a run (and actually, Katie had to drag me out of the tent). We had some trouble keeping up with the marathon runners and Tom and Billsey were actually running down the hills we had just come up so they could sprint up them again – crazy, crazy, crazy!
We headed from Mwanza to Ikama Camp in the ____ game reserve. Like usual, we arrived in the game reserve later than we were supposed to so we had to rush to set up our tents before nightfall. Kanyo had arranged for us to have a game walk with a couple of local guides. I am sure that everyone else was a little surprised when the guide showed up with two other people and no weapons. Well that is not exactly true, they had weapons but nothing more than a couple of clubs and bows and arrows. I am sure they were pretty experienced and knew what they were doing but I sure wouldn't have wanted to run into a pride of lions without any armed guards.
Our first stop on the game walk – which was literally a trek through the tall plains of grass – was to a tree that, “despite it looking dead was actually alive and only pretending”. This really cracked Micheal up and after that everything that looked dead was only pretending to be alive. The walk was too late in the day and I think everyone wanted it to be over once it started. That being said, our guide did manage to find a black Mambo (also known as a 'five stepper' because of their highly poisonous venom) hiding out in a small rodent hole. We tried to get above it to take pictures but once the guide told us that it was quite the jumper we were a bit timid, with the exception of Will who put his camera two inches from the hole. We also spotted some massive Safari Ant colonies and some extremely creepy looking spiders. We were surprised that the spider didn't get pissed off and try to bite somebody as four or five us tried non stop to take pictures of it from point blank range. Probably one of the highlights was shooting the security man's bow and arrow. The guide shot it first and then about six of us tried to see if we could match him. Jeremy did an amazing job (as usual) and beat out all of the other members ten fold. The guides could not believe that this was Jeremy's first time shooting a bow – all the girls were jealous of me...I was so proud. Jeremy, my hunter/gather fiancé! The game walk ended perfectly as the sun was setting with rainbows in the background.
Kanyo treated us to a traditional Kenyan meal of Ugali, beef stew and spinach (Katie was extremely lucky as it was her cooking night). I am not sure why it was such a funny night but I think Michael made it funny because he refused the traditional spinach (anything green and healthy was disgusting in his eyes) and when Rihannon put some on his plate he nearly lost it. His supper experience was then topped off when he got to the end of the line and there was no meat left (keep in mind that he was responsible for dishing out the meat servings...so, when he dished out the last of the meat, warning bells should have been going off in his head as he knew he had not yet been served - ???). Although we probably shouldn't have laughed at it him, it was hard not to. Sadly enough, this has happened on more than one occasion. When everyone goes to eat he is usually hanging back being lazy so when he finally gets there the food is gone or people are on having seconds. The worst case was one morning when he was too lazy to get food. By the time he mentally prepared to get up, the dishes were nearly done and the remainder of the food was thrown out – he got into a pissy mood that he was going to starve and that no one announced breakfast was over. I guess he did not hear the 1st or 2nd 'last chance' for food calls that the cooks do every meal. Yep...this was our Fitsy...but despite all this, we absolutely loved him!
After an uneventful night with no animal sounds we awoke (Day 23) and made our way (ten minutes) to the Serengeti National Park. We spent the full day driving around the park. In the afternoon we spotted a carcass out in the open sahara where shortly after we spotted the lions who had taken it down. It looked to be a Wildebeest but the lions were not eating...must have been either too tired, too full, too hot, or just didn't want us crowding around watching it eat. We stayed as long as we could but they barely popped out their heads and only did so when we pulled away. We headed further down the road and spotted hyena, jackal and a bunch of other smaller animals and then turned around to see if the lions were going to be more daring and show themselves. When we got back one of the lions was feeding but was staying very low to the ground so we couldn't see all that much. After giving up and making it maybe a half kilometer down the road the truck got stuck in some super deep mud...this seems to happen pretty often. Because of the angle of the truck (it looked like it was going to tip) we got out and tried to help rock it. After pushing from several angles, lots of digging from Robert and Kanyo, and some people getting seriously covered in mud, we managed to get lose. I have been stuck plenty of times in my life but never have I had to get out and push and at the same time watch out for animals that could munch on me for supper.
Our evening was a bit more eventful staying in the Serengeti park. We stayed at the Serenora camp site which was originally named camp six. I say this because at one point they changed the name of the campground because safari guides would come early and pay the park officials (bribe) so as not to have to stay in that camp. Supposedly, there is two different prides of lions that call that surrounding area home and at night tend to get very close and snarl at eachother...Kanyo once had 16 lions roaming around the tents.
After dinner and just as it started getting dark, Kanyo gave us the low down on politics in most of the Eastern African countries that we had visited. It is easy to see how perfect Kanyo is for this job after spending this much time with him. He can speak eight languages (most fluently), knows quite a few details regarding the traditions of quite a number of tribes, knows a lot about the politics in each country, knows the names and habits of most of the animals in the park, can name the vegetation and to top it off is an excellent cook (seriously...an excellent cook). The great thing about his talks is that they are not boring and they keep everyone around the fire interested the entire time (which very few of us can do). After about an hour of Kanyo talking we were interrupted by lights darting towards the bathroom. We all jumped up just in time to spot either a water buffalo or something of similar size walking around just in the bushes adjacent to us. This frightened a lot of our members and so every one worked together and cleaned up the campsite for the night. Kanyo ensured us that it was safe to come back to the fire once we were done. There was but a small few that were daring enough to settle back around the fire despite the sounds of the lions roaring in the distance. Because of the volume, it didn't seem possible but Kanyo reassured us that they were miles away. However, throughout the talk the lions continued to get closer and closer and started coming from both sides of the camp. Katie had not been feeling great and had went to bed a little earlier than myself but I stayed a little later listening to stories around the fire. When I finally went to bed I had intended to do some typing on the computer. I remained diligent for about twenty minutes but when I began to hear the sounds of lions through my headphones I figured it would be a good idea to turn off my lights. I didn't want to be that one stupid guy that gets talked about later... “so we had this one guy that was typing on his computer when a lion came and”.... you get my point.
You could tell that everyone was a little more fearful at this campsite because in the middle of the night it seemed that people were waking up because they had to pee but just waiting for others to do the same. When we woke up we heard a couple of others talking and figured it was Rihannon and Glen. We turned our lights on and it was immediately followed by the others. We were like a pack of Impala's because we all watched intently and shined our lights looking for the slightest danger while we were going pee. Unlike how slow we had been to actually get out to go pee, we were back in tents seconds afterwards we were finished.
Our morning game drive (Day 24) was cut short because shortly after we started we ran into another overlander truck stuck in the mud (go figure!). After getting them free from the mud we ourselves were then stuck in the mud and spent an hour and a half trying to get free. The men went to work at first and there was a wall of us rocking and pushing the truck. We laughed as we looked over our shoulders and watched as all of the girls sat there, laughing and taking pictures (with the exception of my Katie, who was feet deep in the mud with all of us). We were very squished for room and at one point, Alberto (newbie from Chile who did not like to get dirty) started to push on the back of my head. So...here I was, in my groove, rocking the truck to my own rhythm when all of a sudden, I feel this force from behind. I think he actually was more of a detriment to me then a help but he sure did give the entire group a great belly hurting laugh. Once we got free, we changed directions so as not to get stuck again and besides some lions in the distance and a very long line of zebras crossing the road we never managed to see many animals. We are always learning new info and found out that Zebras and Wildebeest are good friends because the zebra can see well and is complimented by the good sense of smell of the Wildebeest. However, the Wildebeest is one of the stupidest animals followed closely by the warthog. They both will run into danger and escape only to forget about the danger five minutes later and walk right back to where they came from...easy food as Kanyo would like to say.
Our next stop was the Ngorogoro crater where Katie and I had had our best animal sightings thus far. Katie and I were a little scared about the temperature at night because the last time we had been there it had been very cold and now it was officially winter here in East Africa. It was nothing less than we expected and five minutes after getting there everyone was wearing their long gear, long underwear, hats and mitts...and that is a bit strange for Africa. Katie was one of the first to go and shower and she was hoping she would have a hot shower but sadly for her, it was freezing cold! For those of you who know Katie, she is a complete 'freeze chicken' and apparently she was screaming to Jemma (in the shower next to here) as the water was hitting here. I had the luxury of having a hot shower as there was another set of showers on the opposite end of the camp that Katie was unaware of. I think she was ready to kill everyone when they were complaining about how hot their shower was. Our biggest concern and highlight was getting the fire started until Glen and Rihannon let us know that they were going to be coming along to climb Mount Kili with us. We had been working on them for so long and had only got a yes out of Glen. We were practically jumping around with excitement and immediately called Abraham about our new recruits. We hadn't been worried about the short notice of one day because it meant more business for him and we definitely knew he would find a way to make it happen.
After a cold night we awoke at 4:30 in the morning (Day 25) to even worse conditions than what we had had during the night – fog obscured all of our view. The conditions upon the top of the crater didn't seem to matter because as we descended into the crater in our small safari jeeps, we passed through the fog. The crater was by far the best game viewing we had done while on the overland tour. We got a great look at a cheetah lying in the grass no more than twenty feet from the truck, we witnessed Wildebeest's having sex, hyenas running past us with a bird and close spottings of lots of other animals. By 11:30 we left the crater and were all happy to do so because we were super tired from our early morning. Our jeeps met up with the overland truck and after a quick lunch we were on our away to Arusha to look at some Tanzanite. I don't think Katie and I had been seriously considering buying any Tanzanite but after a speal by the dealer and a look at the stone we were sold. Supposedly the only place in the world where this blue Tanzanite has been uncovered is in Tanzania and only near the city of Arusha. Also it is of limited supply so in less than twenty years they predict it will be gone and the price will rise higher than that of diamonds. Katie and I decided that it would be nice to have it put in her engagement ring as it would always be reminder of our amazing and life changing trip (and engagement) while in Africa.
When we arrived at the campsite we met up with the new truck that we would joining for the rest of our journey to Cape Town and our new guide...but Robert, our driver, would still be with us. We didn't have much time to enjoy meeting the new recruits our learning about the new truck. All of our stuff had to be located, organized (had to arrange what we needed for Kili and what would be kept in the new truck) and be ready to be picked up by Abraham, who was picking us up a couple of hours later. Although, it was painful, we managed to finish with an hour left to relax. Because of the short notice of the climb, we had not been able to organize warm clothes on our own – I mean...this is Africa! Luckily, everyone on our trip were super helpful and donated socks, long underwear, sweaters, toques, mitts and anything warm they had. After a delicious BBQ, we had to say “see you later” to majority of the group members and our “goodbye's” to a special few that we would not be travelling with again such as Michael and Kanyo.
RWANDA!!!
After crossing the border into Rwanda in torrential downpour, we ran into some vehicle problems – things were not looking too bright for the new country we had just entered. Rwanda is even more hilly than Uganda and while climbing one of the hills the exhaust brakes on the truck locked up – we all knew we were in trouble because the fumes were over powering on board. We decided to utilize the two hour hold up and eat our lunch to save time as we only had a couple of hours in the main city of Kigali. While waiting, Glen and Jeremy made an attempt to convince Mike (aka FITZY – totally useless but harmless and loveable guy – (to give you an idea about how useless he was, he did not know how to use a can opener, opened a can of kidney beans when I had asked for tomato sauce (a member in my cooking group) and never cut a zucchini or green pepper before in his life. To him, green food is useless and he will not touch!)) to run down a hill at full speed and back. We managed to fund raise $550 dollars for him if he would and although I think he was seriously considering it, he finally decided that he was going to break several bones if he tried...and by our rules any delay was going to end in no award being granted. To fill everyone in on why Mike? Well for the first week of our trip, Mike was this quiet English kid who just slept all the time because he was sick. After a visit to the doctor not only did his problems go away but he became one of the funnies t and most likable people on the trip. That doesn't really explain why we would make him such and offer but after meeting him you would understand.
Once the truck was operating we made it into Rwanda, with our first stop being the genocide museum in Kigali. This was a very eye opening but depressing start to our journey into Rwanda. Everyone I am sure has watched the movie “Hotel Rwanda” but you really don't feel the impact until you are there, in the country, staring at the faces of the people that lived through the ordeal. The downstairs part of the museum had the history and the awful statistics (over one million people were killed, the Hutu's targeted the Tutsi woman and the children to prevent future population growth and the “healthy young girls” as they called them were raped with HIV infected men to provide a slow and painful death). What is even wore is that when this was all happening, friends turned on friends, neighbors turned on neighbors and family turned on family. The upstairs had a memorial for all of the children and this was the toughest to see. In every room there were blown up pictures of the child and a summary board below indicating their name, age, favorite food, games etc. This was followed by, “Cause of Death”. This ranged from being macheted in their mothers arms to being shot in the head (humane way to die in comparison) to bludgeoned against a wall and so on. It was a very emotional time but something I think everyone, if given the opportunity, should see. Walking out of their we all felt depressed and shocked – it is so hard to imagine that all of this happened 15 years ago and when we look around at the locals, it is hard not to look at think – were they involved somehow? And which side were they on?
At the museum we met up with our final group of recruits which brought the grand total to 27 people on our truck. This meant the end of swapping seats and putting our feet and gear anywhere we pleased. It was worse because that night the truck problems we had experienced earlier occurred again. This time it was a little more unpleasant for Robert and Kanyo because they had to work and fix the truck in the dark on the side of the highway. This was also the first time we had not made it to our campsite before nightfall. It was little scary when we first pulled over because within minutes we were surrounded by heaps of people and some of the kids were carrying machetes. Luckily they were very pleasant and just were curious to see a bus full of Mzungu 's stopped on the side of the road. This is another weird thing about traveling here in Africa - whenever we pullover, no matter where we are, middle of the jungle or a deserted highway there is almost always a crowd of people who form around the truck.
When we finally arrived in Ruhengeri my cooking team and I whipped up spaghetti – we were all hungry and this seemed like the easiest thing to make for a crowd of 27+. We were all getting pretty pumped as we were now at the site where we would be trekking the gorillas...and it was starting the next day. After dinner we determined those people who would be trekking the gorillas the following day and the day after. We unfortunately had to wait until the second day for our chance to go. I was happy to trek on the second day because it was my Mom's Birthday (and I knew that would be a great omen) but when we saw how the groups were weighted out, I was a little disappointed. 19 members trekked on Day 1 and 8 members trekked on Day 2 and of course, by chance, the remaining 6 members to trek with Jeremy and I were the new additions. I did not bother to complain as I new it was luck and there was no chance in changing as the permits had been purchased months before. So before going to bed we let everyone know that although we wanted them to have an awesome day, we did not want to hear much about it (specifically see any of their photos) until we had all seen the Gorilla's.
The next morning (Day 18) we woke two hours later than the gorilla trekkers and casually did some laundry...again...for the third time hoping to once and for all get rid of the stink. After breakfast we met our guide for our trip to the local orphanage. This would be the second and last place we would make a donation to from our fund raising money (we had made the mistake of giving some money to a guide we had hired in South Africa named JJ. He was great! He was a single parent living with his mother and his two young daughters in a small village. He told us that he could not even pay for the tuition for his girls for the year and so Jeremy and I decided to help him and his girls out and pay a years fees. He was so grateful and thankful and sincere and we felt really good! As a thank you to us, he told us he would come and take us to an abandoned air strip the following morning free of charge where we could get a great lookout of the entire town. The following morning he came to us completely drunk and claimed he was robbed. He asked us for more money and we were so hurt. We made a vow to never give money out like that again and so that is why we have sticked to the orphanages and the NGO's). The guide was extremely helpful and he took us to the market to buy food and school supplies for the kids before heading out to the orphanage. When we arrived there we were greeted by thirty plus children who came straight to the door to give us hugs and to grab our hands. The kids led us by the hand to a small classroom where we sat down with all of the kids. Each kid or group of kid had taken claim to one of the six of us and we immediately had our own place to sit. Realizing that the class was much too small for all of us we were escorted to a larger classroom. It had started raining and it was cute to see the kids run ahead of us through the rain to our new classroom. Once we got there, Jeremy was immediately taken to a chair where he was told, using hand gestures, by three kids to sit down whom immediately jumped onto his lap. We were welcomed with several dances and songs and then helped to feed the whole group with the food we had bought. The seemingly moldy buns, bananas and sweets didn't seem like a gourmet meal but the kids were happy to have it. We also donated other vital ingredients like flour, rice, sugar, shelf milk and some money.
After lunchtime and some info from one of the workers we all went into the courtyard and played games with the kids. Jeremy, the Mzungu, skipped with the kids while I showed them how to walk on their hands (my only cool trick!). The kids loved to look at the photos and as soon as we took a picture, they would squeal with excitement when they saw themselves on the screen. Right before we were leaving, a little boy asked me if I had any parents. I was shocked...I did not know how to react to this question especially considering we were in an orphanage. I informed him that I did and I told them a little about them. The young boy then said, “cool” and it broke my heart because I didn't even need to ask him the same question as I already knew the answer. These kids were so well behaved and all they wanted was a little bit of love and attention. Unfortunately, we discovered their favorite thing as we were leaving. While walking back we had grabbed one of the kids by his hands and lifted him into the air. He immediately wanted more (and more and more!) and after the other kids heard his shouts of glee we had twenty odd kids lining up for more. The kids were devastated to see us leave and we wish we only could have stayed longer. We told them we would send our friends the next day to come and play and they ran down the road trying to chase us...too cute!
We arrived back to the campsite in the early afternoon, well before we figured any of the trekker groups would return. To our dismay, two of the three groups had already returned – they were completely filthy and seemed not all that impressed. The third group had opted to do the advanced difficulty level and trek the famous family called the 'Susa's'. It wasn't until supper was prepared that they had returned. Of all the groups that had gone that day, they were the only ones that were truly excited about their day/experience. This pushed us to want to do the same hike as them. However, being the last group, we had less people to pool with and were informed that to do different hikes, we would have to pay extra money for transport (always a catch in Africa). We discussed in a group and decided to split up into a moderate and an advanced group. We figured we paid so much for the Gorilla permits that an extra $20 US per person to trek the family and difficulty you wanted would be worth it.
Before heading to sleep, we passed the bar with all 19 members celebrating. It was really hard to see because we so wanted to be part of it and revel in the moment. Despite heading to bed early (so that we could be well rested before the big day of hiking) we did not fall asleep until 1:30am – 3 hours before we were to wake up. The following morning (Day 19) even though we were exhausted the groups energy helped to lift our own enthusiasm. When we got to the park we tried to split into our two groups but for some reason the driver tried his best to persuade us that going for the longest trek (the Susa Family) was pointless. Despite his efforts we did not cave and told him flat out that no matter the additional cost and distance, we were going to see that largest family in the park.
It took us much too long to arrange a driver and another hour driving before we got to the base of our hiking spot. Although, we had awoke at 4:30 and left at six it was 9:30 before we started hiking. The hike up the mountain was by no means physically difficult but was rather painful as the trails were crowded with Stinging Nettles. One of our members named Alberto had not brought enough water and was drinking all of ours. I thought this was crazy because how do you willingly go for a full day climb with a small bottle of water? This was obviously more common then I thought because the two girls who joined in on our group had not eaten breakfast and packed a small box of biscuits and small water bottle for their entire day trek – obviously not as smart as us Canadians. After three hours of hiking we ran into the first signs of the gorilla and our excitement peaked...any tiredness disappeared. After another twenty minutes we made it to where the group the day before us had left their bags before completing the final part of the hike. After four hours we were so close and begun to spot fresh gorilla dung. When our guide finally informed us that we were to leave our bags behind and bring only our cameras we were jumping with excitement.
We treaded quietly into their nest and the first glimpse we got was of a Silverback, facing away from us, eating. Without listening we started snapping pictures but were quickly told not to continue because if we upset him our trip was over. We were led into a section of rather dense trees where two females were pulling apart the bushes. I think we were all still in awe of the sheer size of the silverback, because we had trouble hearing him when he said you could start taking pictures. It was difficult to figure out the correct light settings on the camera (no flash allowed for obvious reasons) and while we were doing so a female charged towards us. The first ten minutes were a bit tense because we were all crowded into a tight section of trees and could barely move when they told us to. And no one wanted to be the person who got their arms grabbed by these females who were capable of snapping thick branches with barely any effort.
After we had loosened up a bit (our guides had a lot of laughs at our expense) we toured around looking at all of the different members of the group. The final count was seventeen with two or three silverbacks, the adult females, plenty of juvenile males/females and the most playful - the babies. We spent time with each part of the family but most of the time we watched the females as they ripped by us to keep us farther from their babies. The silverback just sat back and watched us without a care in the world. He would alternate from getting groomed, to scratching himself to laying down and just resting himself on his chin. The favorite of the group was the baby who would constantly come nearer to us and try and show off. At one point he was swinging on the branches and hanging upside down. While hanging down on the branch he tumbled to the ground as the branch broke. He gave us a seemingly embarrassed look and sauntered away only to fall off another branch 5 minutes later. The time flew and before we knew it the guide told us our time was up. None of us wanted to leave, I am sure this is normal, but after watching the group walk away into the jungle we finally made our way. The gorillas was truly an awesome experience. Not because of their size but because of how human like they were. They love to play, to be affectionate and to just relax which seems no different than what we like to do. The walk down the mountain was more painful than the way up (and slippery too) but I think we were all so high from our hour with the gorillas that we just didn't want to complain.
The following morning (Day 20) we were to head out of Rwanda and into Tanzania. The Gorilla's, which was the only reason for traveling into the country, had come and gone. The experience was over and all that remained was our beautiful photos and our memories that will last forever.
Once the truck was operating we made it into Rwanda, with our first stop being the genocide museum in Kigali. This was a very eye opening but depressing start to our journey into Rwanda. Everyone I am sure has watched the movie “Hotel Rwanda” but you really don't feel the impact until you are there, in the country, staring at the faces of the people that lived through the ordeal. The downstairs part of the museum had the history and the awful statistics (over one million people were killed, the Hutu's targeted the Tutsi woman and the children to prevent future population growth and the “healthy young girls” as they called them were raped with HIV infected men to provide a slow and painful death). What is even wore is that when this was all happening, friends turned on friends, neighbors turned on neighbors and family turned on family. The upstairs had a memorial for all of the children and this was the toughest to see. In every room there were blown up pictures of the child and a summary board below indicating their name, age, favorite food, games etc. This was followed by, “Cause of Death”. This ranged from being macheted in their mothers arms to being shot in the head (humane way to die in comparison) to bludgeoned against a wall and so on. It was a very emotional time but something I think everyone, if given the opportunity, should see. Walking out of their we all felt depressed and shocked – it is so hard to imagine that all of this happened 15 years ago and when we look around at the locals, it is hard not to look at think – were they involved somehow? And which side were they on?
At the museum we met up with our final group of recruits which brought the grand total to 27 people on our truck. This meant the end of swapping seats and putting our feet and gear anywhere we pleased. It was worse because that night the truck problems we had experienced earlier occurred again. This time it was a little more unpleasant for Robert and Kanyo because they had to work and fix the truck in the dark on the side of the highway. This was also the first time we had not made it to our campsite before nightfall. It was little scary when we first pulled over because within minutes we were surrounded by heaps of people and some of the kids were carrying machetes. Luckily they were very pleasant and just were curious to see a bus full of Mzungu 's stopped on the side of the road. This is another weird thing about traveling here in Africa - whenever we pullover, no matter where we are, middle of the jungle or a deserted highway there is almost always a crowd of people who form around the truck.
When we finally arrived in Ruhengeri my cooking team and I whipped up spaghetti – we were all hungry and this seemed like the easiest thing to make for a crowd of 27+. We were all getting pretty pumped as we were now at the site where we would be trekking the gorillas...and it was starting the next day. After dinner we determined those people who would be trekking the gorillas the following day and the day after. We unfortunately had to wait until the second day for our chance to go. I was happy to trek on the second day because it was my Mom's Birthday (and I knew that would be a great omen) but when we saw how the groups were weighted out, I was a little disappointed. 19 members trekked on Day 1 and 8 members trekked on Day 2 and of course, by chance, the remaining 6 members to trek with Jeremy and I were the new additions. I did not bother to complain as I new it was luck and there was no chance in changing as the permits had been purchased months before. So before going to bed we let everyone know that although we wanted them to have an awesome day, we did not want to hear much about it (specifically see any of their photos) until we had all seen the Gorilla's.
The next morning (Day 18) we woke two hours later than the gorilla trekkers and casually did some laundry...again...for the third time hoping to once and for all get rid of the stink. After breakfast we met our guide for our trip to the local orphanage. This would be the second and last place we would make a donation to from our fund raising money (we had made the mistake of giving some money to a guide we had hired in South Africa named JJ. He was great! He was a single parent living with his mother and his two young daughters in a small village. He told us that he could not even pay for the tuition for his girls for the year and so Jeremy and I decided to help him and his girls out and pay a years fees. He was so grateful and thankful and sincere and we felt really good! As a thank you to us, he told us he would come and take us to an abandoned air strip the following morning free of charge where we could get a great lookout of the entire town. The following morning he came to us completely drunk and claimed he was robbed. He asked us for more money and we were so hurt. We made a vow to never give money out like that again and so that is why we have sticked to the orphanages and the NGO's). The guide was extremely helpful and he took us to the market to buy food and school supplies for the kids before heading out to the orphanage. When we arrived there we were greeted by thirty plus children who came straight to the door to give us hugs and to grab our hands. The kids led us by the hand to a small classroom where we sat down with all of the kids. Each kid or group of kid had taken claim to one of the six of us and we immediately had our own place to sit. Realizing that the class was much too small for all of us we were escorted to a larger classroom. It had started raining and it was cute to see the kids run ahead of us through the rain to our new classroom. Once we got there, Jeremy was immediately taken to a chair where he was told, using hand gestures, by three kids to sit down whom immediately jumped onto his lap. We were welcomed with several dances and songs and then helped to feed the whole group with the food we had bought. The seemingly moldy buns, bananas and sweets didn't seem like a gourmet meal but the kids were happy to have it. We also donated other vital ingredients like flour, rice, sugar, shelf milk and some money.
After lunchtime and some info from one of the workers we all went into the courtyard and played games with the kids. Jeremy, the Mzungu, skipped with the kids while I showed them how to walk on their hands (my only cool trick!). The kids loved to look at the photos and as soon as we took a picture, they would squeal with excitement when they saw themselves on the screen. Right before we were leaving, a little boy asked me if I had any parents. I was shocked...I did not know how to react to this question especially considering we were in an orphanage. I informed him that I did and I told them a little about them. The young boy then said, “cool” and it broke my heart because I didn't even need to ask him the same question as I already knew the answer. These kids were so well behaved and all they wanted was a little bit of love and attention. Unfortunately, we discovered their favorite thing as we were leaving. While walking back we had grabbed one of the kids by his hands and lifted him into the air. He immediately wanted more (and more and more!) and after the other kids heard his shouts of glee we had twenty odd kids lining up for more. The kids were devastated to see us leave and we wish we only could have stayed longer. We told them we would send our friends the next day to come and play and they ran down the road trying to chase us...too cute!
We arrived back to the campsite in the early afternoon, well before we figured any of the trekker groups would return. To our dismay, two of the three groups had already returned – they were completely filthy and seemed not all that impressed. The third group had opted to do the advanced difficulty level and trek the famous family called the 'Susa's'. It wasn't until supper was prepared that they had returned. Of all the groups that had gone that day, they were the only ones that were truly excited about their day/experience. This pushed us to want to do the same hike as them. However, being the last group, we had less people to pool with and were informed that to do different hikes, we would have to pay extra money for transport (always a catch in Africa). We discussed in a group and decided to split up into a moderate and an advanced group. We figured we paid so much for the Gorilla permits that an extra $20 US per person to trek the family and difficulty you wanted would be worth it.
Before heading to sleep, we passed the bar with all 19 members celebrating. It was really hard to see because we so wanted to be part of it and revel in the moment. Despite heading to bed early (so that we could be well rested before the big day of hiking) we did not fall asleep until 1:30am – 3 hours before we were to wake up. The following morning (Day 19) even though we were exhausted the groups energy helped to lift our own enthusiasm. When we got to the park we tried to split into our two groups but for some reason the driver tried his best to persuade us that going for the longest trek (the Susa Family) was pointless. Despite his efforts we did not cave and told him flat out that no matter the additional cost and distance, we were going to see that largest family in the park.
It took us much too long to arrange a driver and another hour driving before we got to the base of our hiking spot. Although, we had awoke at 4:30 and left at six it was 9:30 before we started hiking. The hike up the mountain was by no means physically difficult but was rather painful as the trails were crowded with Stinging Nettles. One of our members named Alberto had not brought enough water and was drinking all of ours. I thought this was crazy because how do you willingly go for a full day climb with a small bottle of water? This was obviously more common then I thought because the two girls who joined in on our group had not eaten breakfast and packed a small box of biscuits and small water bottle for their entire day trek – obviously not as smart as us Canadians. After three hours of hiking we ran into the first signs of the gorilla and our excitement peaked...any tiredness disappeared. After another twenty minutes we made it to where the group the day before us had left their bags before completing the final part of the hike. After four hours we were so close and begun to spot fresh gorilla dung. When our guide finally informed us that we were to leave our bags behind and bring only our cameras we were jumping with excitement.
We treaded quietly into their nest and the first glimpse we got was of a Silverback, facing away from us, eating. Without listening we started snapping pictures but were quickly told not to continue because if we upset him our trip was over. We were led into a section of rather dense trees where two females were pulling apart the bushes. I think we were all still in awe of the sheer size of the silverback, because we had trouble hearing him when he said you could start taking pictures. It was difficult to figure out the correct light settings on the camera (no flash allowed for obvious reasons) and while we were doing so a female charged towards us. The first ten minutes were a bit tense because we were all crowded into a tight section of trees and could barely move when they told us to. And no one wanted to be the person who got their arms grabbed by these females who were capable of snapping thick branches with barely any effort.
After we had loosened up a bit (our guides had a lot of laughs at our expense) we toured around looking at all of the different members of the group. The final count was seventeen with two or three silverbacks, the adult females, plenty of juvenile males/females and the most playful - the babies. We spent time with each part of the family but most of the time we watched the females as they ripped by us to keep us farther from their babies. The silverback just sat back and watched us without a care in the world. He would alternate from getting groomed, to scratching himself to laying down and just resting himself on his chin. The favorite of the group was the baby who would constantly come nearer to us and try and show off. At one point he was swinging on the branches and hanging upside down. While hanging down on the branch he tumbled to the ground as the branch broke. He gave us a seemingly embarrassed look and sauntered away only to fall off another branch 5 minutes later. The time flew and before we knew it the guide told us our time was up. None of us wanted to leave, I am sure this is normal, but after watching the group walk away into the jungle we finally made our way. The gorillas was truly an awesome experience. Not because of their size but because of how human like they were. They love to play, to be affectionate and to just relax which seems no different than what we like to do. The walk down the mountain was more painful than the way up (and slippery too) but I think we were all so high from our hour with the gorillas that we just didn't want to complain.
The following morning (Day 20) we were to head out of Rwanda and into Tanzania. The Gorilla's, which was the only reason for traveling into the country, had come and gone. The experience was over and all that remained was our beautiful photos and our memories that will last forever.
UGANDA!!!
The first thing we noticed when we crossed into Uganda was the greenery. Everything all around us was so lush and green and jungle like…it was so beautiful. We stopped immediately after crossing the border to exchange some money and take a quick pee break. When we got off of the truck, we were immediately surrounded by about a dozen workers who wanted to exchange our money. I was immediately caught up with a very adorable boy who was maybe 7 years old. He asked me if I would support his business – he was selling water and banana’s…none of which I wanted. I told him if he had some pineapple, I would be interested in buying some of that. He quoted me a price but I told him I wanted to see it before I bought it. With that being said, he told me to wait for 5 minutes then took off running. When he came back sweating and panting, I asked him where he went and it turns out he ran across to the Kenyan side to fetch these small pineapple cubes for me. I paid him what he was asking (although I knew it was too much…but I appreciated the effort he put in and I admired the fact that he did not just ask for the money straight up...and the pineapple was so delicious and sweet).
We drove to the main city center called Jinja, which is where the source if the White Nile originates . We were very pleased with our campsite as it 1) was directly above the river and thus had an AMAZING view; 2) had cheap beers and ciders (<$1 per bottle); and 3) had free internet.
After pitching up our tents (Jeremy and I have now gotten very good at this) we relaxed with the odd few going for a swim in the river. Christine and I went to treat ourselves to some traditional Uganda food called Chiapatti’s. They are very delicious and I would compare them to a crepe. I had ordered a banana and peanut butter Chiapati and Chrsitine had ordered an egg and veggie. My wrap was ready first so I started to munch away. On about my third bite I felt something small but hard in my mouth. I pulled out a rusted old industrialized staple – I have no idea how it got there, it must have been from the newspaper that it was wrapped in because I saw him cook the chiapitti and peel the banana right in front of me. I did not want to embarrass him so I slyly pulled the staple from my mouth, continued to eat my meal (it was so delicious) and then told Christine and the others about my experience – we all had a good chuckle. But hey, I guess when you pay less than $0.50 for a meal, you cant complain when you get a little more than you were bargaining for – right??! And, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
That same night we had numerous people come to talk to us about all of the activities we could do over the next few days – this ranged from white water rafting to horse riding to quad tours to volunteer work. Jeremy and I were very excited about the white water rafting (looking back at it now, I have no idea what I was thinking) and the volunteer work. We had talked with our guide Kanyo and he informed us that this would be a great opportunity to donate some money that we had raised back at home. So, the next day (bright and early – Day 9) we were up and ready to go Volunteer for the ‘Soft Power Education’ Program. Soft Power was started by a female Overlander Truck Driver (our version of Robert) in the late 90’s. Soft Power specializes in educational development by helping the community construct schools and getting individuals involved who are able to help with maintenance, running the program and educating others. We first were given a brief tour of the main headquarters where we got to see some of the key people in the foundation. We then also got to see and hang out with some of the local kids in the area. Jeremy was a huge hit with the boys as he taught them tops with a spare coin he had –they loved him. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit a preschool as the kids had just started their one month summer holiday.
We then all hopped in the back of a truck and drove to a nearby building which was being turned into a school for the local community. Our job for the day was to apply a second coat of paint to one room and a first coat in another. We flew on the first room but had a lot more troubles on the second one. There were cob webs galore and posters that were stuck to the walls. So, before we could paint, we had to mop the room and scrap off all of the posters (not an easy task). We had a nice lunch break where some local woman had cooked for us some noodles, spinach and potatoes. We resumed back to work and started painting the room. When we were finished and it was all said and done we were exhausted!
We headed back to our campsite and decided to cool off in the river below. We were a little hesitant to plunge right in because we had no idea if the river had any crocodiles. We saw some locals swimming so we figured we must be safe – right??? Well, although the water was very refreshing and no one got hurt, we did later find out that their was a family of crocs that leaved upstream from our camp…we were also told they were vegetarians (WTF???) A bunch of people wanted to try and swim one of the rapids nearby…I even was caught up in the moment because I was inching my way over the rocks to join in as well. Luckily, my senses got the better part of me and I knew there was no way I should be trying to swim down a rapid. Anna, Christine, Glen and Jeremy made it down safely although from my point of view there was a couple of close calls. I jumped in to catch up with them downstream but the current was too strong and I could not get to them. Jeremy came to my rescue and helped me get back to safety.
The following day (Day 10) was our White Water Rafting Day. We all had signed up for half day rafting and half day river boarding (which is essentially riding down the rapids in a boogey board). Jeremy and I ended up in Group 2, which rafted first. We had a really cool South African Guide named Kirk who seemed very knowledgeable and experienced. Before we hit our first rapid, we did a ‘practice’ roll over…I should have known I was in trouble at this point because even knowing we were going over, I was nervous and panicked under water. We started off with some grade 2 rapids and then went into some grade 3 and 4’s. By the time we approached our grade 5 rapid, I felt sick. We had successfully remained inside the boat and we made it through this rapid safe and sound. When we reached the ‘Silverback Grade 5 Rapid’, our guide told us this is the one we really needed to hang on to as swimming down it would not be fun. He then proceeded to tell us that this rapid was, “terrorizing but fun”- WTF??? I did not know those two works could be used in a sentence like that. The Silverback was different than all of the other rapids because instead of one, it had four consecutive rapids – F**K ME!!! We went into the first rapid fine, but by the time we hit the second, we had capsized. I was pushed under by our damn raft and could not grab hold of it…everything was happening too fast. Before I knew it, I had a mouthful of the Nile and was back under water. I continued to stay under water until all of the waves had broken up downstream of the rapids (I don’t know how long I was under water but it seemed like eternity). When I surfaced I remember seeing the sky and I knew I could breathe again. A kayaker picked me up and took me to the nearest raft (which just happened to be other members from my Overlander). I had cried when he was transporting me but I had managed to toughen up by the time I made it to the raft. There I found Anna, another member in my raft, and we exchanged our experiences (she also had consumed a large amount of the Nile Water). By the time we met back up with our original raft I had composed myself but when I caught my first glimpse of Jeremy, I started crying. He looked so worried and I knew he would be. When we capsized, he managed to hold on and I guess he panicked the entire time looking for me. I felt reassured when Glen told me that that was the scariest rapid he has ever gone down and he couldn’t imagine swimming it. Next was lunch and some much needed R&R. We were served delicious pineapple and biscuits and took some time to swim in the Nile. It was here that our guide informed us of the family of crocs in the water…he then proceeded to tell us that snakes too can be seen in the water. We thought he was pulling our leg but then one of the Kayakers alarmed all of the guides about a snake that was in the vicinity. Although it was small, it still made us think twice before jumping back into that water.
Our next rapid was called 'Overtime'. Our guide told us that there are two outcomes, 1) we could go down backwards on the far left or 2) we could go down a waterfall. We were told we had no choice and it was all up to the waves and the way they reacted with our raft. We were the last group to go through this and wouldn’t you know our luck…we were destined for the waterfall – F**K ME!!! The waterfall was only 10 feet high…but that didn’t matter – it was still a waterfall. When we went over and contacted the water again, the front end of our raft essentially crumpled under the pressure and I flew into the back of Glen’s helmet. I chipped a tooth in the back of my mouth, had a couple small scratches on my chin and of course had a very large poofy lip. The pics of the rafting our priceless. Countless times our raft team looked so eager and excited except for me who looked terror stricken…kind of funny now but definitely not at the time. For the next few rapids, we were lucky enough to make it out untouched. I was reluctant to jump out of the raft and try river boarding but since our group had signed up for it, I thought I better not back down. Jeremy was excited, as was the rest of the group. We started with a Grade 4 Rapid and it turned out it was my only one. I was too scared and basically wanted the whole experience to be over. Jeremy was in heaven and on his last rapid (Grade 5), he head butted a massive rapid and came out safe and sound on the other side (my crazy man).
We finished off our experience with some complimentary drinks and a BBQ back at the campsite. The best part of this was that it meant no cooking and when there is no cooking, there is no dish flapping (the method we use to dry our dishes to reduce the spread of germs).
That same day, Glen’s girlfriend Rihannan had hitched a ride into town and purchased a birthday cake for Fysh. We were all very impressed because the transport into town was via a small 2 seater bike…and of course it goes without saying that the roads were the usual narrow and bumpy African roads. That same night our group played a new game to Jeremy and I called Shit Head. It is a very popular game in England and Australia…I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on in Canada but whatever the case, we will be playing it when we get back. The great thing about this game is that you can have as little as two people or 10+ people play.
After numerous drinks and rounds of cards, Micheal decided to give Fysh an extra special birthday gift which involved him singing. Although he wasn’t gifted with his singing, we both admired the fact that he got up in front of everyone and sang his heart out. It was funny because he also attracted some local stranglers from the pub. They pounced as soon as he finished and the entertained us with some traditional Ugandan singing, dancing and rap. Everyone enjoyed themselves except for Michael who wanted to continue and sing for his new found audience.
That should have been the end of the night but of course it was not. Rihannan kept finding Ants in her tent and they were biting her…she could not figure out where they were coming from and assumed they came in from her laundry out drying earlier that day. She finally had enough of them and got up to head to the bar to get Glen when she realized that there were hundreds of them surrounding her tent. She basically had to drag Glen from the bar to come and investigate as he assumed it was just a small annoyance. Glen could not have been more surprised when he saw what he called the ‘Army’. He then proceeded to wake neighboring tents up ensuring they did not also have the same problem as he. Jeremy jumped at this chance to go out and explore with Glen and even though we had a small number of ants, Jeremy wanted to relocate uphill…closer to Glen and Rihannan’s. I unwillingly agreed because I was comfortable in bed and moments before was sleeping. When I got out to move the tent, Jeremy got caught up in the excitement with Glen and before you knew it, they were proclaiming that they had found the “motherload”. Glen was not satisfied with this and continued in search for what he called the “Queen Bee”. He said if you killed her then you killed them all – haha! I was still patiently waiting for Jeremy to help me move our tent but I knew I was going to have to find other help when I saw Glen, Jeremy and a couple of other guys spraying deet at the ‘army of ants’ and lighting them on fire – I was just relieved Jeremy wasn’t using (or should I say wasting) our precious bug spray. It was a hilarious site to see and all the girls kind of just sat back, laughed and watched in awe as the guys continued to feed off each other's energy. One of my fondest memories is of Will standing in the center an ant pile in shorts and sandals getting bitten. He was hollering to his girlfriend Grace to help him as he was being bitten (they bite pretty good too). She looked at him and very calmly told him to then “get the f**k out of the ant pile”. I got a few of the girls to help me move our tent and went back to bed. Jeremy stayed out with the guys for another fifteen minutes reveling at the events that had just transpired. When he came in I thought it was finally over but he then proceeded to talk to Glen (our neighboring tent buddy) about the ants from inside the tent. I am not sure how long they held this conversation for as I totally and completely laughed myself to sleep.
After a full day of rafting and late night birthday celebrating, we needed a day of rest and that is what we did on Day 11. We really didn’t feel like doing much of anything. In the morning we got up and washed our clothes which turned out to be a group activity because soon everyone in the camp was out washing their clothes. For any of you who have washed your clothes using a bin and cold water, you will attest to how 'unfun' this can be. I think probably one of the things you start to realize while traveling is that you take so many things for granted. You never realize even how special your washing machine and dryer are until you have to do all the work yourself. When we get home, we are going to hug them both dearly. Not only does your washing machine make life easier but your clothes love you for it to. Constantly scrubbing and wringing out your clothes does a number on the material and they end up changing sizes. They don’t shrink but rather they become about six sizes too big.
Anyways after we washed our clothes we decided that it would be nice to go down and go fishing again. The little kids that we had fished with before had been waiting for two days already for us to fish with them again. That morning they were waiting at the fence for us. We met them down at the water and Katie, Glenn, Michael and I went for a quick dip while the kids played around. After our swim Katie headed back up to the camp to catch up on some well deserved reading while we stayed to catch some minnows. The kids truly enjoyed fishing with us because we supplied a reason for constant laughter as we, the Mzungu's, could not catch any fish at all. We would throw the line in the water thirty times and the only thing that came of it was that we lost all of their bait. Each time they threw the line in they would pull out a fish within seconds.
After we, okay they, had caught thirty fish they decided that they should show me what they do with the fish. I had pestered them so much about what they were going to do with such small fish that rather than laugh at me any more they were just going to cook some for me. Without any means of fire or cooking supplies I was a little curious. I ran back to the campsite to get a lighter and by the time I arrived they had scavenged a ton of small sticks for firewood and were hard at work getting things ready. Using a fishing hook they had ripped the guts out of all of the fish. They took small sticks and made skewers and rammed them through the mouth of the fish and out the back. They got the fire going on a rock that was out in the water and we sat around while the charred the fish. They enlightened us on how to tell when a whole fish is ready. When the skin bursts then it is ready to eat??? Hey...I guess you learn something new everyday. They had to help me eat the fish because I had no idea how to d-bone a fish that is only 2 inches long. They would also not eat the fish until I had my fill. I tried to persuade them that this was a bad idea because I had lots of food in the campsite but they would not take 'no' for an answer. I couldn't believe that the kids, who were sitting there half naked and in ripped clothes, wanted me to eat their hard earned catch. The fish was amazing especially considering it had absolutely no spices or any prep work done to it.
Once we had finished our meal I went back to the campsite to grab paper and a camera. I snapped endless pictures of them jumping of the cliff. They were delighted to view the pics and figure out who it was jumping off. It was a little slow getting their address because they all had to work together to figure out how to write their address and names in English. They asked again if we would go for a village walk with them, mini tourist guides already, and so I went and collected some recruits. I was only able to get Katie, and Michael to go on village walk but everyone else just missed out. These kids filled us in on how everything in the village works. Adam, who was obviously the leader of the pack, took us from plant to plant and told us everything from how it was planted to its nurturing process and then to how it was prepared. We truly learned a lot from these boys and we were all fascinated by the magic plants that closed up once we touched them. We even bought some raw vanilla that we planned to use for tea but we didn’t because we had no idea how to use it. The tour was just over an hour long and I would have hired these guys again over many of the guides we had already had. Not only was the tour great but we could easily play with them as though we were kids to. Katie exhausted herself playing tag with them and not once could she catch any of them – they were too fast! Near the end of the tour, we found a flat section of grass and Katie showed them how to walk on their hands. This inspired them to do somersaults and flips. What impressed us the most was how independent and knowledgeable these seven to eleven year old kids were…none of the kids I know back home could even cook macaroni let alone clean and cook fish with tree branches. It seems that kids here are the most responsive to tourists and Adam, Moses, Allen, Michael (Katie's favorite) and the rest of the boys showed us true Ugandan hospitality. We tipped them a little for their hospitality and thanked them profusely for our amazing experience – one that neither of us will ever forgot.
The rest of the night was pretty chill as we were all still reeling from our escapades the night before and just headed to bed.
In the morning (Day 12) we packed up and were on our way. From Jinga we headed to Entebbe which was no where near as exciting a campsite as we had just been at. Although, it may be a bit premature, it is hard to imagine that we are going to find a campsite that compares to Jinga with its beautiful river to swim in, the spectacular view from the bar and the adorable local kdis.
At Entebbe, we picked up two newbies heading to see the gorillas in Rwanda (McGill and Hannah). After eating some of the best steak we had ever eaten in our lives (so good that Katie ate her entire portion) we headed to the local bar to catch a glimpse of the local night life. The bar was filled with locals, ex-patriots, tourists and then the working girls. Everything was very similar to any pub that I have ever visited with the exception of the pool. Not only were the rules very different to back home but the game had its own security guards. If you wanted to play the next game you would talk to the security of the pool table and put your name down. It cost about 1 dollar. But if you really wanted to play you had to bribe the security and then hope that your bribe was the highest...otherwise you didn't play. Kanyo our guide managed to jump me into the line and I had to play the guy who had been running the game for the last couple of hours. I don't know how but I managed to beat him but rather than being upset he was super nice about it. The second guy that I played should never have beat me as he was one of the worst pool players I had ever been matched against but somehow he beat me...I think he scratched on an eight ball but it doesn't work like that. The bar was quite fun and eye opening. I had been told that there are very few women who go to the bar but working girls and I found this out at the end of the night. Mike had lured some girl over to our end of the bar, well she just kind of mosied on over to us, and when he went to the washroom I was left with her. I found her aggressiveness quite amusing and I don't think she liked that. Although, I don't think she would have remembered if I was rude in the morning because she was pretty tanked.
The next morning (Day 13) we had to redo our laundry because most of it still stunk from not drying fully at Jinja. It wasn't as nice as a setup as the other place but we managed to get it done. Despite the killer heat Jeremy ventured into town to see the sights, buy a new pair of sandals (as his birks were on its last leg) and check out the internet cafe . I was a bit more ambitious and went for a thirty minute run with the pro's Billsy and Laura, who had recently just raced in a marathon. It was a nice but definitely not a refreshing run as 2 minutes into it, I was dripping from the heat. I really enjoyed myself and I thought this was a great way to see the city....and the locals were great! They would holla at us, “Way to Go Muzungu's” and cheer us on. When we got back to the campsite, I convinced Billsy and Laura to finish off the excersize with my boxing circuit. It was nice to see the tables tun and watch them sweat a bit :) The remainder of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing followed by a chill movie night with the group.
The next morning (Day 14) we awoke and headed to the truck for a long day of driving. We were heading to Mbarara campsite which is located on the University campground. Like so many of our driving days it was going to be exhausting. The truck is fairly comfortable and it is great to have the company that we do. However, sometimes it would just be nice to be alone and I think we feel this the most after a long drive. The windows on the bus allow us to view the scenery with ease but at times when we are driving extremely fast it begins to dry you out and it can even be hard to read. The Ugandan landscape is very picturesque with rolling hills and mountains that are all covered in green. But unlike Kenya, the reception in Uganda has been slightly different. We have met extremely nice people and then we meet others who are not so kind. We have had teenagers and young adults pick up stones and in a somewhat joking manner make it look like they are going to throw it at the truck. When passing one of the small towns someone actually threw a stick at the truck. In one town a group of small kids tried to steal our small lock from the door of the truck as we left the supermarket. Thankfully someone had seen them and we got it back but this was after some of the passengers gave them food. They followed this by a middle finger dance. But for the most part, the people here have been great.
On our way to the campsite we passed through the equator and stopped for some basic information and to examine some basic physics...oh ya and don't forget shopping!! The physics I speak of is how the water drains on both sides of the equator and in the middle. Literally the difference of moving two feet from the North side to the center and then to the South was that the direction of draining water went from clockwise, to standstill to counterclockwise – so cool!!! We also passed into an area where the local cows are famous for their horns. Some of the horns were so big that it seemed impossible for the cows to pick up their heads...let alone move. But of course, to no surprise, these cows would slowly graze the fields like any other ordinary cow.
The following day (Day 15) we headed to the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Again it was a fairly long drive but we made good time for once and got there with a little time to spare before heading out on our hippo boat cruise tour. We were not excited about the hippo tour as the one in St. Lucia (South Africa) had been extremely boring. Much to our surprise, this one turned out to be great! The boat we were riding in was much lower to the water which allowed us to get closer to the animals. Immediately after beginning the tour we floated near two elephants bathing in the water....nearly submerged. They didn't like us around and made some fearsome looking mock charges but none of us were scared...we just wanted pictures. We got extremely close to hippos, and tons of other wildlife relaxing along the waters edge. Despite how dangerous the buffalo are, there were local village people around the park and people just sitting around while these large animals munched on grass right next to them. Another surprising thing was the people wading in the waist deep water with crocodiles, hippos, snakes and who knows what else lurking nearby.
That evening we had our first large group bonfire at our campsite inside the national park. The fire served two purposes – to gather around as a group and to keep the animals at bay while we were outside of our tents. We did a great job of getting the fire going as we had to keep moving farther and farther back as it picked up its pace – cooking marshmallows also entailed cooking your eyebrows!!! After dinner Kenyo sat us all down and filled us in on many of the various tribes from Eastern Africa and the traditions and customs they still follow. Kanyo was great at explaining how the traditions meld into today's society and why some of the olden day traditions are not as well accepted with changes in human rights - I.e. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).
After most people went to bed Kanyo filled some of us in on what crazy things have happened on past trips. The worst was a trip several years back where one guy was so lazy and selfish that all the members on the truck hated him. So, one night they decided to get him back. A bit of extra information is needed here first – in the parks you are not to bring food into the tents or leave any out of the truck because this will draw the animals to the campsite – mainly the wild dogs and the hyena's. So after this guy had gone to bed several people in the group took the chicken bones from dinner and spread them in between the rain cover for his tent and the tent itself. In the middle of the night a pack of hyenas wandered into the camp and started munching on the bones right under his tent window. The guy woke up and got so scared that he literally shit his pants. After removing them he threw them out of his tent. In the morning everyone woke to find shreds of his pants covered in shit everywhere as the hyenas had tore them to pieces. There were more stories but this was probably one of the worst. After being on a trip like this, you have more respect for the people on Survivor or Big Brother as it is so easy to get annoyed with certain things and certain people and keeping your mouth shut is easier said than done.
I think most of the campers were a little worried about sleeping the night in the park especially after hearing lions roaring approximately 2 km away (??? Kanyo informed us that we were safe because we still had a fair distance...but how he knew we had 2kms still puzzles me)and hippos grunting while we sat around the fire. What made it worse was that we spotted a hippo near the toilet just before dinner and the wardens, who arrived as a threesome on one small motorbike, had just run into two leopards on their way to our campsite. But everyone made it alive to the next morning despite their full bladders.
We started the day (Day 16) with an early morning game drive in the park but sadly enough, we didn't see a great deal of animals. We actually probably saw more vultures and Maribu storks than any other animals - the only real meat eaters around. However, we did get a great deal of practice dodging stray cactus trees that protruded into the open truck as we passed through the park...some people just aren't that smart or lucky.
We spent our last night in Uganda in a town called Kabale. When we got there Katie and I convinced Mike that he should join us for a workout circuit rather than venture out for a run (Our climb up Mount Kili was less than 2 weeks away and we thought it would be wise to get some sort of training in). He agreed rather more easily than we thought he would but I think he regretted it after he signed up because he cursed the entire workout and could barely stand on his own two feet by the end of it.
On Day 17, we stocked up on groceries in Kabale before venturing into the small country of
Rwanda – famous for its rolling hills.
We drove to the main city center called Jinja, which is where the source if the White Nile originates . We were very pleased with our campsite as it 1) was directly above the river and thus had an AMAZING view; 2) had cheap beers and ciders (<$1 per bottle); and 3) had free internet.
After pitching up our tents (Jeremy and I have now gotten very good at this) we relaxed with the odd few going for a swim in the river. Christine and I went to treat ourselves to some traditional Uganda food called Chiapatti’s. They are very delicious and I would compare them to a crepe. I had ordered a banana and peanut butter Chiapati and Chrsitine had ordered an egg and veggie. My wrap was ready first so I started to munch away. On about my third bite I felt something small but hard in my mouth. I pulled out a rusted old industrialized staple – I have no idea how it got there, it must have been from the newspaper that it was wrapped in because I saw him cook the chiapitti and peel the banana right in front of me. I did not want to embarrass him so I slyly pulled the staple from my mouth, continued to eat my meal (it was so delicious) and then told Christine and the others about my experience – we all had a good chuckle. But hey, I guess when you pay less than $0.50 for a meal, you cant complain when you get a little more than you were bargaining for – right??! And, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger!
That same night we had numerous people come to talk to us about all of the activities we could do over the next few days – this ranged from white water rafting to horse riding to quad tours to volunteer work. Jeremy and I were very excited about the white water rafting (looking back at it now, I have no idea what I was thinking) and the volunteer work. We had talked with our guide Kanyo and he informed us that this would be a great opportunity to donate some money that we had raised back at home. So, the next day (bright and early – Day 9) we were up and ready to go Volunteer for the ‘Soft Power Education’ Program. Soft Power was started by a female Overlander Truck Driver (our version of Robert) in the late 90’s. Soft Power specializes in educational development by helping the community construct schools and getting individuals involved who are able to help with maintenance, running the program and educating others. We first were given a brief tour of the main headquarters where we got to see some of the key people in the foundation. We then also got to see and hang out with some of the local kids in the area. Jeremy was a huge hit with the boys as he taught them tops with a spare coin he had –they loved him. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit a preschool as the kids had just started their one month summer holiday.
We then all hopped in the back of a truck and drove to a nearby building which was being turned into a school for the local community. Our job for the day was to apply a second coat of paint to one room and a first coat in another. We flew on the first room but had a lot more troubles on the second one. There were cob webs galore and posters that were stuck to the walls. So, before we could paint, we had to mop the room and scrap off all of the posters (not an easy task). We had a nice lunch break where some local woman had cooked for us some noodles, spinach and potatoes. We resumed back to work and started painting the room. When we were finished and it was all said and done we were exhausted!
We headed back to our campsite and decided to cool off in the river below. We were a little hesitant to plunge right in because we had no idea if the river had any crocodiles. We saw some locals swimming so we figured we must be safe – right??? Well, although the water was very refreshing and no one got hurt, we did later find out that their was a family of crocs that leaved upstream from our camp…we were also told they were vegetarians (WTF???) A bunch of people wanted to try and swim one of the rapids nearby…I even was caught up in the moment because I was inching my way over the rocks to join in as well. Luckily, my senses got the better part of me and I knew there was no way I should be trying to swim down a rapid. Anna, Christine, Glen and Jeremy made it down safely although from my point of view there was a couple of close calls. I jumped in to catch up with them downstream but the current was too strong and I could not get to them. Jeremy came to my rescue and helped me get back to safety.
The following day (Day 10) was our White Water Rafting Day. We all had signed up for half day rafting and half day river boarding (which is essentially riding down the rapids in a boogey board). Jeremy and I ended up in Group 2, which rafted first. We had a really cool South African Guide named Kirk who seemed very knowledgeable and experienced. Before we hit our first rapid, we did a ‘practice’ roll over…I should have known I was in trouble at this point because even knowing we were going over, I was nervous and panicked under water. We started off with some grade 2 rapids and then went into some grade 3 and 4’s. By the time we approached our grade 5 rapid, I felt sick. We had successfully remained inside the boat and we made it through this rapid safe and sound. When we reached the ‘Silverback Grade 5 Rapid’, our guide told us this is the one we really needed to hang on to as swimming down it would not be fun. He then proceeded to tell us that this rapid was, “terrorizing but fun”- WTF??? I did not know those two works could be used in a sentence like that. The Silverback was different than all of the other rapids because instead of one, it had four consecutive rapids – F**K ME!!! We went into the first rapid fine, but by the time we hit the second, we had capsized. I was pushed under by our damn raft and could not grab hold of it…everything was happening too fast. Before I knew it, I had a mouthful of the Nile and was back under water. I continued to stay under water until all of the waves had broken up downstream of the rapids (I don’t know how long I was under water but it seemed like eternity). When I surfaced I remember seeing the sky and I knew I could breathe again. A kayaker picked me up and took me to the nearest raft (which just happened to be other members from my Overlander). I had cried when he was transporting me but I had managed to toughen up by the time I made it to the raft. There I found Anna, another member in my raft, and we exchanged our experiences (she also had consumed a large amount of the Nile Water). By the time we met back up with our original raft I had composed myself but when I caught my first glimpse of Jeremy, I started crying. He looked so worried and I knew he would be. When we capsized, he managed to hold on and I guess he panicked the entire time looking for me. I felt reassured when Glen told me that that was the scariest rapid he has ever gone down and he couldn’t imagine swimming it. Next was lunch and some much needed R&R. We were served delicious pineapple and biscuits and took some time to swim in the Nile. It was here that our guide informed us of the family of crocs in the water…he then proceeded to tell us that snakes too can be seen in the water. We thought he was pulling our leg but then one of the Kayakers alarmed all of the guides about a snake that was in the vicinity. Although it was small, it still made us think twice before jumping back into that water.
Our next rapid was called 'Overtime'. Our guide told us that there are two outcomes, 1) we could go down backwards on the far left or 2) we could go down a waterfall. We were told we had no choice and it was all up to the waves and the way they reacted with our raft. We were the last group to go through this and wouldn’t you know our luck…we were destined for the waterfall – F**K ME!!! The waterfall was only 10 feet high…but that didn’t matter – it was still a waterfall. When we went over and contacted the water again, the front end of our raft essentially crumpled under the pressure and I flew into the back of Glen’s helmet. I chipped a tooth in the back of my mouth, had a couple small scratches on my chin and of course had a very large poofy lip. The pics of the rafting our priceless. Countless times our raft team looked so eager and excited except for me who looked terror stricken…kind of funny now but definitely not at the time. For the next few rapids, we were lucky enough to make it out untouched. I was reluctant to jump out of the raft and try river boarding but since our group had signed up for it, I thought I better not back down. Jeremy was excited, as was the rest of the group. We started with a Grade 4 Rapid and it turned out it was my only one. I was too scared and basically wanted the whole experience to be over. Jeremy was in heaven and on his last rapid (Grade 5), he head butted a massive rapid and came out safe and sound on the other side (my crazy man).
We finished off our experience with some complimentary drinks and a BBQ back at the campsite. The best part of this was that it meant no cooking and when there is no cooking, there is no dish flapping (the method we use to dry our dishes to reduce the spread of germs).
That same day, Glen’s girlfriend Rihannan had hitched a ride into town and purchased a birthday cake for Fysh. We were all very impressed because the transport into town was via a small 2 seater bike…and of course it goes without saying that the roads were the usual narrow and bumpy African roads. That same night our group played a new game to Jeremy and I called Shit Head. It is a very popular game in England and Australia…I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on in Canada but whatever the case, we will be playing it when we get back. The great thing about this game is that you can have as little as two people or 10+ people play.
After numerous drinks and rounds of cards, Micheal decided to give Fysh an extra special birthday gift which involved him singing. Although he wasn’t gifted with his singing, we both admired the fact that he got up in front of everyone and sang his heart out. It was funny because he also attracted some local stranglers from the pub. They pounced as soon as he finished and the entertained us with some traditional Ugandan singing, dancing and rap. Everyone enjoyed themselves except for Michael who wanted to continue and sing for his new found audience.
That should have been the end of the night but of course it was not. Rihannan kept finding Ants in her tent and they were biting her…she could not figure out where they were coming from and assumed they came in from her laundry out drying earlier that day. She finally had enough of them and got up to head to the bar to get Glen when she realized that there were hundreds of them surrounding her tent. She basically had to drag Glen from the bar to come and investigate as he assumed it was just a small annoyance. Glen could not have been more surprised when he saw what he called the ‘Army’. He then proceeded to wake neighboring tents up ensuring they did not also have the same problem as he. Jeremy jumped at this chance to go out and explore with Glen and even though we had a small number of ants, Jeremy wanted to relocate uphill…closer to Glen and Rihannan’s. I unwillingly agreed because I was comfortable in bed and moments before was sleeping. When I got out to move the tent, Jeremy got caught up in the excitement with Glen and before you knew it, they were proclaiming that they had found the “motherload”. Glen was not satisfied with this and continued in search for what he called the “Queen Bee”. He said if you killed her then you killed them all – haha! I was still patiently waiting for Jeremy to help me move our tent but I knew I was going to have to find other help when I saw Glen, Jeremy and a couple of other guys spraying deet at the ‘army of ants’ and lighting them on fire – I was just relieved Jeremy wasn’t using (or should I say wasting) our precious bug spray. It was a hilarious site to see and all the girls kind of just sat back, laughed and watched in awe as the guys continued to feed off each other's energy. One of my fondest memories is of Will standing in the center an ant pile in shorts and sandals getting bitten. He was hollering to his girlfriend Grace to help him as he was being bitten (they bite pretty good too). She looked at him and very calmly told him to then “get the f**k out of the ant pile”. I got a few of the girls to help me move our tent and went back to bed. Jeremy stayed out with the guys for another fifteen minutes reveling at the events that had just transpired. When he came in I thought it was finally over but he then proceeded to talk to Glen (our neighboring tent buddy) about the ants from inside the tent. I am not sure how long they held this conversation for as I totally and completely laughed myself to sleep.
After a full day of rafting and late night birthday celebrating, we needed a day of rest and that is what we did on Day 11. We really didn’t feel like doing much of anything. In the morning we got up and washed our clothes which turned out to be a group activity because soon everyone in the camp was out washing their clothes. For any of you who have washed your clothes using a bin and cold water, you will attest to how 'unfun' this can be. I think probably one of the things you start to realize while traveling is that you take so many things for granted. You never realize even how special your washing machine and dryer are until you have to do all the work yourself. When we get home, we are going to hug them both dearly. Not only does your washing machine make life easier but your clothes love you for it to. Constantly scrubbing and wringing out your clothes does a number on the material and they end up changing sizes. They don’t shrink but rather they become about six sizes too big.
Anyways after we washed our clothes we decided that it would be nice to go down and go fishing again. The little kids that we had fished with before had been waiting for two days already for us to fish with them again. That morning they were waiting at the fence for us. We met them down at the water and Katie, Glenn, Michael and I went for a quick dip while the kids played around. After our swim Katie headed back up to the camp to catch up on some well deserved reading while we stayed to catch some minnows. The kids truly enjoyed fishing with us because we supplied a reason for constant laughter as we, the Mzungu's, could not catch any fish at all. We would throw the line in the water thirty times and the only thing that came of it was that we lost all of their bait. Each time they threw the line in they would pull out a fish within seconds.
After we, okay they, had caught thirty fish they decided that they should show me what they do with the fish. I had pestered them so much about what they were going to do with such small fish that rather than laugh at me any more they were just going to cook some for me. Without any means of fire or cooking supplies I was a little curious. I ran back to the campsite to get a lighter and by the time I arrived they had scavenged a ton of small sticks for firewood and were hard at work getting things ready. Using a fishing hook they had ripped the guts out of all of the fish. They took small sticks and made skewers and rammed them through the mouth of the fish and out the back. They got the fire going on a rock that was out in the water and we sat around while the charred the fish. They enlightened us on how to tell when a whole fish is ready. When the skin bursts then it is ready to eat??? Hey...I guess you learn something new everyday. They had to help me eat the fish because I had no idea how to d-bone a fish that is only 2 inches long. They would also not eat the fish until I had my fill. I tried to persuade them that this was a bad idea because I had lots of food in the campsite but they would not take 'no' for an answer. I couldn't believe that the kids, who were sitting there half naked and in ripped clothes, wanted me to eat their hard earned catch. The fish was amazing especially considering it had absolutely no spices or any prep work done to it.
Once we had finished our meal I went back to the campsite to grab paper and a camera. I snapped endless pictures of them jumping of the cliff. They were delighted to view the pics and figure out who it was jumping off. It was a little slow getting their address because they all had to work together to figure out how to write their address and names in English. They asked again if we would go for a village walk with them, mini tourist guides already, and so I went and collected some recruits. I was only able to get Katie, and Michael to go on village walk but everyone else just missed out. These kids filled us in on how everything in the village works. Adam, who was obviously the leader of the pack, took us from plant to plant and told us everything from how it was planted to its nurturing process and then to how it was prepared. We truly learned a lot from these boys and we were all fascinated by the magic plants that closed up once we touched them. We even bought some raw vanilla that we planned to use for tea but we didn’t because we had no idea how to use it. The tour was just over an hour long and I would have hired these guys again over many of the guides we had already had. Not only was the tour great but we could easily play with them as though we were kids to. Katie exhausted herself playing tag with them and not once could she catch any of them – they were too fast! Near the end of the tour, we found a flat section of grass and Katie showed them how to walk on their hands. This inspired them to do somersaults and flips. What impressed us the most was how independent and knowledgeable these seven to eleven year old kids were…none of the kids I know back home could even cook macaroni let alone clean and cook fish with tree branches. It seems that kids here are the most responsive to tourists and Adam, Moses, Allen, Michael (Katie's favorite) and the rest of the boys showed us true Ugandan hospitality. We tipped them a little for their hospitality and thanked them profusely for our amazing experience – one that neither of us will ever forgot.
The rest of the night was pretty chill as we were all still reeling from our escapades the night before and just headed to bed.
In the morning (Day 12) we packed up and were on our way. From Jinga we headed to Entebbe which was no where near as exciting a campsite as we had just been at. Although, it may be a bit premature, it is hard to imagine that we are going to find a campsite that compares to Jinga with its beautiful river to swim in, the spectacular view from the bar and the adorable local kdis.
At Entebbe, we picked up two newbies heading to see the gorillas in Rwanda (McGill and Hannah). After eating some of the best steak we had ever eaten in our lives (so good that Katie ate her entire portion) we headed to the local bar to catch a glimpse of the local night life. The bar was filled with locals, ex-patriots, tourists and then the working girls. Everything was very similar to any pub that I have ever visited with the exception of the pool. Not only were the rules very different to back home but the game had its own security guards. If you wanted to play the next game you would talk to the security of the pool table and put your name down. It cost about 1 dollar. But if you really wanted to play you had to bribe the security and then hope that your bribe was the highest...otherwise you didn't play. Kanyo our guide managed to jump me into the line and I had to play the guy who had been running the game for the last couple of hours. I don't know how but I managed to beat him but rather than being upset he was super nice about it. The second guy that I played should never have beat me as he was one of the worst pool players I had ever been matched against but somehow he beat me...I think he scratched on an eight ball but it doesn't work like that. The bar was quite fun and eye opening. I had been told that there are very few women who go to the bar but working girls and I found this out at the end of the night. Mike had lured some girl over to our end of the bar, well she just kind of mosied on over to us, and when he went to the washroom I was left with her. I found her aggressiveness quite amusing and I don't think she liked that. Although, I don't think she would have remembered if I was rude in the morning because she was pretty tanked.
The next morning (Day 13) we had to redo our laundry because most of it still stunk from not drying fully at Jinja. It wasn't as nice as a setup as the other place but we managed to get it done. Despite the killer heat Jeremy ventured into town to see the sights, buy a new pair of sandals (as his birks were on its last leg) and check out the internet cafe . I was a bit more ambitious and went for a thirty minute run with the pro's Billsy and Laura, who had recently just raced in a marathon. It was a nice but definitely not a refreshing run as 2 minutes into it, I was dripping from the heat. I really enjoyed myself and I thought this was a great way to see the city....and the locals were great! They would holla at us, “Way to Go Muzungu's” and cheer us on. When we got back to the campsite, I convinced Billsy and Laura to finish off the excersize with my boxing circuit. It was nice to see the tables tun and watch them sweat a bit :) The remainder of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing followed by a chill movie night with the group.
The next morning (Day 14) we awoke and headed to the truck for a long day of driving. We were heading to Mbarara campsite which is located on the University campground. Like so many of our driving days it was going to be exhausting. The truck is fairly comfortable and it is great to have the company that we do. However, sometimes it would just be nice to be alone and I think we feel this the most after a long drive. The windows on the bus allow us to view the scenery with ease but at times when we are driving extremely fast it begins to dry you out and it can even be hard to read. The Ugandan landscape is very picturesque with rolling hills and mountains that are all covered in green. But unlike Kenya, the reception in Uganda has been slightly different. We have met extremely nice people and then we meet others who are not so kind. We have had teenagers and young adults pick up stones and in a somewhat joking manner make it look like they are going to throw it at the truck. When passing one of the small towns someone actually threw a stick at the truck. In one town a group of small kids tried to steal our small lock from the door of the truck as we left the supermarket. Thankfully someone had seen them and we got it back but this was after some of the passengers gave them food. They followed this by a middle finger dance. But for the most part, the people here have been great.
On our way to the campsite we passed through the equator and stopped for some basic information and to examine some basic physics...oh ya and don't forget shopping!! The physics I speak of is how the water drains on both sides of the equator and in the middle. Literally the difference of moving two feet from the North side to the center and then to the South was that the direction of draining water went from clockwise, to standstill to counterclockwise – so cool!!! We also passed into an area where the local cows are famous for their horns. Some of the horns were so big that it seemed impossible for the cows to pick up their heads...let alone move. But of course, to no surprise, these cows would slowly graze the fields like any other ordinary cow.
The following day (Day 15) we headed to the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Again it was a fairly long drive but we made good time for once and got there with a little time to spare before heading out on our hippo boat cruise tour. We were not excited about the hippo tour as the one in St. Lucia (South Africa) had been extremely boring. Much to our surprise, this one turned out to be great! The boat we were riding in was much lower to the water which allowed us to get closer to the animals. Immediately after beginning the tour we floated near two elephants bathing in the water....nearly submerged. They didn't like us around and made some fearsome looking mock charges but none of us were scared...we just wanted pictures. We got extremely close to hippos, and tons of other wildlife relaxing along the waters edge. Despite how dangerous the buffalo are, there were local village people around the park and people just sitting around while these large animals munched on grass right next to them. Another surprising thing was the people wading in the waist deep water with crocodiles, hippos, snakes and who knows what else lurking nearby.
That evening we had our first large group bonfire at our campsite inside the national park. The fire served two purposes – to gather around as a group and to keep the animals at bay while we were outside of our tents. We did a great job of getting the fire going as we had to keep moving farther and farther back as it picked up its pace – cooking marshmallows also entailed cooking your eyebrows!!! After dinner Kenyo sat us all down and filled us in on many of the various tribes from Eastern Africa and the traditions and customs they still follow. Kanyo was great at explaining how the traditions meld into today's society and why some of the olden day traditions are not as well accepted with changes in human rights - I.e. FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).
After most people went to bed Kanyo filled some of us in on what crazy things have happened on past trips. The worst was a trip several years back where one guy was so lazy and selfish that all the members on the truck hated him. So, one night they decided to get him back. A bit of extra information is needed here first – in the parks you are not to bring food into the tents or leave any out of the truck because this will draw the animals to the campsite – mainly the wild dogs and the hyena's. So after this guy had gone to bed several people in the group took the chicken bones from dinner and spread them in between the rain cover for his tent and the tent itself. In the middle of the night a pack of hyenas wandered into the camp and started munching on the bones right under his tent window. The guy woke up and got so scared that he literally shit his pants. After removing them he threw them out of his tent. In the morning everyone woke to find shreds of his pants covered in shit everywhere as the hyenas had tore them to pieces. There were more stories but this was probably one of the worst. After being on a trip like this, you have more respect for the people on Survivor or Big Brother as it is so easy to get annoyed with certain things and certain people and keeping your mouth shut is easier said than done.
I think most of the campers were a little worried about sleeping the night in the park especially after hearing lions roaring approximately 2 km away (??? Kanyo informed us that we were safe because we still had a fair distance...but how he knew we had 2kms still puzzles me)and hippos grunting while we sat around the fire. What made it worse was that we spotted a hippo near the toilet just before dinner and the wardens, who arrived as a threesome on one small motorbike, had just run into two leopards on their way to our campsite. But everyone made it alive to the next morning despite their full bladders.
We started the day (Day 16) with an early morning game drive in the park but sadly enough, we didn't see a great deal of animals. We actually probably saw more vultures and Maribu storks than any other animals - the only real meat eaters around. However, we did get a great deal of practice dodging stray cactus trees that protruded into the open truck as we passed through the park...some people just aren't that smart or lucky.
We spent our last night in Uganda in a town called Kabale. When we got there Katie and I convinced Mike that he should join us for a workout circuit rather than venture out for a run (Our climb up Mount Kili was less than 2 weeks away and we thought it would be wise to get some sort of training in). He agreed rather more easily than we thought he would but I think he regretted it after he signed up because he cursed the entire workout and could barely stand on his own two feet by the end of it.
On Day 17, we stocked up on groceries in Kabale before venturing into the small country of
Rwanda – famous for its rolling hills.
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