Zanzibar

28.09.2005 31 °C

After 2 weeks of roughing it between Kili and being on safari, some R&R was well due, so after a long bus ride to Dar, I caught the ferry across to Zanzibar, the Spice isle.

Having never been to the West coast of Australia (disgraceful, I know), this was my first trip to the Indian Ocean, and not a bad introduction to say the least. Upon disembarkation from the ferry, I arrived in Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar, and its cultural heart - a little piece of Arabia off the East African coast.

For the past few thousand years, Zanzibar has been an important stop on the trade routes of the Arabs, Portuguese, and Indians, and was part of Oman until the 1960s. The Omani influence is obvious with the town's minarets rising above the whitewashed medina, women dressed head to toe in their traditional "bui bui", ornately Arab carved doors at every turn through the winding medina, and the early morning call to prayer every day. Peak tourist season was equally apparent with throngs of mzungus (white people) meandering about the centre in their kaftans and funky jewellery, being haplessley preyed upon by the local "papasi" (Swahili for "ticks"), the horribly obnoxious touts that just don't go away!

After visiting the House of Wonders (the former palace of a Zanzibari Sultan), the Palace museum and the old fort, I took a spice tour of the nearby villages to learn a little about the sorts of spices cultivated in Zanzibar and their ongoing importance to the island's economy. It was also a good opportunity to taste a load of different spicy food, local fruits (manky papaya, coconut, jackfruits, pineapple, passionfruit) and watch crazy Mr Coconut climb up a palm tree whilst singing and dancing a tres tacky song (Jambo...Jambo bwana.....habari....mzuri...yadda yadda yadda).

Unable to bear the papasi any longer, I took a matatu down to Jambiani to chill on the beach for a few days. Aside from the kid who so boldly demanded "Give me your shoes", it was blissfully peaceful, with little to do but lie on the shaded (of course mum) deck-chairs, read books, walk along the white sandy beach, and swim in the impossibly turquoise ocean. A little bored of the whole relaxing thing, I took a dhow (local boat) out a little way and did some snorkelling, and also visited the nearby Jozani forest, to see the red colobus monkeys - very cool and endemic to Zanzibar.

From here it was back to Stone Town and all my papasi buddies (I learnt that if you call someone "papasi sana", i.e. big tick, they get very annoyed!). I went to a big posh hotel to listen to Taarab music (the local Zanzibar style) on the sea front, and also did some scuba diving, before finishing up my time in Zanzibar at the Forodhani gardens night market.

And then to Uganda......and tomorrow Rwanda, hopefully to see some mountain gorillas!

Ciao

Belinda

Twende - Let's Go!

Arusha, Tanzania 25 °C

After having the day to rest my legs in Arusha, I set off on safari with Michiel and Roos (from Holland like everyone else travelling East Africa!), our driver Youssef, and Charles the cook.

Upon arrival at Twiga (Swahili for "giraffe") campsite, we set up our tents, and had some lunch before setting off on a game drive to Lake Manyara National Park. At the right time of the year, the alkaline Manyara Lake is purportedly aflutter with millions of flamingoes, though in the dry season (now!), the Lake largely disappears, as do the flamingoes. I guess when there is no yummy algae in the lake, they migrate to find pond scum elsewhere....yum-my! Still, the parched saline basin provided a nice backdrop to the surrounding scrub and woodlands and the park was a good place to start our safari....we saw (skanky) baboons, giraffes, dikdiks (miniature antelopes) zebras, elephants, lions, and hippos - but no tree -climbing lions (which are sometimes spotted around Manyara).

The next day we set off for the long drive out to the Serengeti National Park, first skirting our way around the rim of the chilly, mist-laden Ngorongoro crater, before hitting the "rock-and-roll" roads into the Serengeti. We crossed the endless savannah plains for what seemed an eternity, before arriving out our rustic bush camp, next to a rocky hill, and entirely exposed to the surrounding wilderness. When we asked about the possibilities of animals coming into the campsite, our guide reassured us by saying that sometimes the lions will drop in overnight, and frequently hyenas drank from the water supply! Ah....the prospect of being Simba's (= "lion") midnight snack never fails to put ones sleepy mind at ease.

After a late afternoon game drive, where we spotted many Twigas, Tembos (elephants) and impalas (deer), as well as a lion resting atop a rocky hill (just like the one in our campsite!), we returned to our campsite for the night....didn't hear any simbas or hyenas, thankfully.

We started at the crack of dawn the next day for a long drive about the Serengeti, and spent the first hour or so cruising about in the jeep without much success....until we spotted some cheetahs in the distance and stumbled upon 2 leopards lounging on the lower branches of tress! Every Tom, Dick and Harry was stopped at a particular tree which supposedly had some "leopard kill" in it, though no matter how long we looked for it, it eluded us. We did however manage to see a lion sitting smugly beside his catch - a fat (of course) hippo who must have been caught by the lion whilst on its daily jog through the park. Upon returning later in the day, the same hippo was being gruesomely devoured by 50 or so vultures, with revolting hyenas tucking in too. Hyenas, I must say, are the scummiest animals I've ever seen...I guess because I'm NOT a dog person, it's only natural their scavenging, bottom-sniffing ways don't at all appeal.

In the afternoon we went for a drive to a hippo pool, where we saw what must have been around 40 hippos bathing in a squalid pool of water, and belching happily as they did so. I never really thought of hippos as being particularly grotesque before then, however the stench was inexpilicably repulsive and the muck in which they were bathing, more like a sewage works. We survived the night again in the wilds, though a dinner time visit by a nasty hyena, its evil orange eyes glaring wickedly at us, did little to calm the nerves.

Another early morning start the next day for a long drive in the Serengeti brought us to a large herd of elephants, seemingly on a migration to cause more "elephant damage" to the trees around the park - i.e. uproot them by charging them or scratching their backs. However we caught sight of the nasty Serengeti Balloon Safari folk (royally kitted in their spiffy new khakis with lots of pockets and armed with $5000 binoculars) who had shunned us the previous day when we needed help with the "spare tyre pressure" (i.e. needed to use the loo), and figured the elephants were instead running away from the scary balloons and the khaki army inside of them. It seemed that whenever the balloon "engine" was fired up, the poor ellies became frightened and helplessly tried to charge the threatening UFOs whilst gathering around the young ones to protect them. We also spotted a running hippo (hilarious and suprisingly fast!), some hyenas taking a bath, a group of lions on the prowl, many girraffes, zillions of zebras, a few topis (a type of deer), loads of buffaloes, and countless impalas/gazelles. Then we made a quick stop at the Serengeti Visitors Information Centre, for a quick conservation lesson, and saw dozens of hyrax (similar to large guinea pigs) pottering about the rocks.

After an impressive lunch of quiche (! cooked on hot coals) and salad, we began rock-and-rolling across the savannah towards Ngorongoro....we left the Serengeti without seeing a single wildebeest (not that I can remember anyway!) - they are all in the extreme north of the Serengeti at the moment, or else across the border in Kenya's Masai Mara...so hopefully I'll get there before they up and migrate back to Tanzania!! We set up camp on the edge of the crater rim, with the crater and its profusion of wildlife awaiting us below.

The Ngorongoro crater is essentially the remnants of a collapsed volcano in a chain of volcanoes and calderas which lie along the Great Rift Valley (which extends along a geological fault line all the way from Syria to Mozambique!). The nearby Olduvai Gorge is where the oldest-known human-like footprints were found by Mary Leakey in the 50s. Consequently, many believe that this area of Tanzania is the "cradle of man".

Again we started the day with an early drive into the chills of the vast, mist-laden crater, being met by some touting Maasai when we stopped to pop the roof ("Jambo. Photo?" Photos with Maasai go for no less than US$1 these days!), stopping at the zebra crossing (100s of them heading for their morning drink), and catching sight of herds of great wildebeest pounding their way through the grasslands. We also saw some mad wildebeest (rolling about crazily like rabid dogs), fighting wildebeest and wildebeest taking a bath in a small stream.

After a lunch beside a hippo pool, where large birds took delight in swooping down to scavenge food off the tourists, we set off again for a few hours, finally catching sight of our first black rhino in the distance. The black rhino is extremely endangered and only 15 or so exist in Ngorongoro, so it was very cool that we finally saw one. We finished the day by driving up the "heavy metal" road to the crater rim, where we stopped for a drink at one of the lodges overlooking the crater. And whadda ya know, peering through the binoculars there, we saw two more rhino....mother and baby! So 3/15 isn't bad at all Back at the freeeeeezing cold camp that night, we tucked into our dinner before retiring to our luxurious tents...only to be awoken in the middle of the night by a snuffling warthog.....it was trying to dig its way under Michiel and Roos' tent!! Cheeky monkey!

Our last day of Safari was spent watching a large family of lions gawk at a pack of terrified zebras, before deciding they'd rather go sit in the ditch, seeing some more running hippos, getting virtually attacked by a vervet monkey (who boldly jumped on the front and then the back of our jeep), and seeing the usual packs of zebras and wildebeest pounding the
yellow grass of the crater floor.

After a day of befriending all the touts in Arusha (not!), I bussed for 10 hours to Dar Es Salaam (the economic capital, Dodoma is the political capital), before making my way to Zanzibar....the spice island....and my first ever visit to the Indian Ocean! (I know, it's disgraceful!)

Gotta go

Belinda

Pole Pole

10.09.2005

Jambo from Tanzania!

After a quick safari in Nairobi National Park and a wander about town (without getting mugged! ), I headed to Arusha for the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.

At 5895m (above sea-level), Kili is the highest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world. To put it in perspective, it is about 2.5 times the height of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia - our national molehill.

Day One:
Was surprised upon meeting my crew to learn that a) I was the only one booked on the trip and b) I had a support crew of 4 (!) accompanying me up the mountain - my guide Ben, a porter, a waiter and a cook. Wow! Found out that this is quite normal though, and many hikers, had far more than my humble 4. Still, it seemed a little OTT considering my backpack only
weighed 10.5kg! I guess they had to carry my bag, their bags, food, pots/pans/cutlery/shower/port-a-loo/TV/jacuzzi etc.

After a quick drive to Marangu gate, I began the 7km hike to Mandara Hut, passing through thick, lush, rainforest en route to Mandara Hut, seeing a few mongoose (mongeese?) and vervet monkeys on the way. The rainforest, with its tall canopy of trees provided some cool respite from the relative warmth of the mid-afternoon sunshine. As we neared to Mandara Hut (2740m
ASL), the trees, made way for shrubs, and heathland, and the temperature began to fall - to around +8 celcius overnight. From Mandara, a quick hike up to the Maundi crater, afforded a tiny glimpse of Mawenzi and Kibo peaks (Kibo being home to Uhuru, the highest point on Kili), before the clouds moved in, and with them, the cool night air.

Was exceptionally well fed in the "mess hall", where I got to meet all my fellow hikers (an international bratpack of professional backpackers it seemed), before being sent to bed at 8pm! My guide, Ben, informed me that at altitude, one requires loads of sleep - my suspicions that the guides/porters had cable TV/jacuzzi/bar in their hut, proved wrong, and by
8.30, I was fast asleep!

Day Two:
After an early rise, and a quick Wet-Ones "shower", we began the 11km walk to Horombo Hut (3800m). The temperate forests around Horombo, quickly changed into vast moorlands, and the vegetation became more sparse. I took my guide's advice to climb "pole pole" (slowly slowly) up the mountain and after about 4-5 hours of hiking, arrived at Horombo, hot and dusty, but feeling really good. No headaches, light-headedness, nausea etc - I thought, a good sign. After a quick snack on popcorn (the locals must think we travellers are addicted to it cause it came with practically every meal!) and Milo (!! it's as popular as coffee here!), I wandered a little further up from the campsite through the palm like trees covered in mist, and got my first proper view of the snow-topped Kibo peak and the alpine desert which lay before it. Again, I was fed a huge meal of pasta (like 3x a normal portion) before heading to bed early 8pm! I was assured that a big appetite after a day of hiking at altitude was a good sign for the days to come, and slept well that night.

Day 3
Ah, got to sleep in today - til about 7.30am, and after a big breakfast (can anyone really eat 8 pieces of toast in addition to eggs, fruit and Milo?!!?!?!?!) we began our acclimitization walk to the aptly named Zebra rock. Yes, that's right, it's a cliff-face striped like a zebra (I think from salt which leaks out of the rocks and streaks down its side) is rather peculiar. We scrambled up around it and down the other side to an altitude of approximately 4200m, where the views of Kibo and Mawenzi (a lunar-like dramatic mountain adjacent to Kibo) became clearer and the alpine desert and scree lay out ahead. Another ginormous meal was had, and I was delighted to be able to wash my hair in the afternoon warmth (probably no more than 14 degrees!) in a bowl of hot water - specially boiled by Dismis, my waiter (still seems weird to have had a waiter!) before chatting to fellow hikers about their journey thus far, having more food (pasta pasta pasta) and going to bed (of course early - but mostly cause it was so cold!!!). Still feeling good, legs with plenty of energy and optimistic of my chances.

Day 4
An early morning start today, with another big breakfast, before the hike to Kibo (4700m) began. Wandering from the moorlands towards the alpine desert, the landscape became more and more barren, and lunar, and jolly dusty - I think I ate more dust that day than popcorn! Unfortunately, it was also extremely windy today, so in addition to the powerful sun, I had to face the extreme cold of the mountain winds....Was glad that I had my Gore-tex jacket on and my beanie as it was bitter. The walk wasn't so hard today, much flatter than the previous day and I focused my attention the whole time on the peak, whilst heeding the "pole pole" advice of my guide and fellow trekkers. It was positive as I was going up to meet friends I had made on the hike report that they had made it to the top, and was optimistic that my remaining strength, determination and encouragement from fellow hikers and guide (he told me he thought I would find it "easy" because a) I was a woman b) woman are brave and c) I was strong) would see
me through. At around 4500m, I started to feel a little light-headed, and breaked for a while to have some lunch - all the while not losing sight of the peak. Wondering whether I should have perhaps taken diamox, the altitude prophylactic after all. The jury seems to be split on its use - it apparently masks the symptoms of AMS, which means it can make you feel better, but stop you from realizing you have pulmonary oedema before you're actually dead. So, yeah, I opted out. C'est la vie! (No pun intended).

From 4500m onwards, I progressed "pole pole", breaking frequently as my head went from being "light", to absolutely pounding, until at 4700m (at Kibo), I had to rest for 45mins or so, tortuously close to Kibo, and wanting to go on, but with a throbbing headache, dizziness and nausea setting in, knew I had no choice but to descend. Altitude sickness is serious stuff and I didn't want to mess with it. Frustrated and a tad upset, I began rapidly descending the 9km to Horombo, feeling horribly ill the whole way down, and technicolour yawning a few times too, passing others who had, like me, become ill and had to turn back. I had completely lost my appetite, and was now only focussed on getting down so the pain would go away.....(was also dreaming of hot showers!)

Thankfully it did, and by the time I reached Horombo, I was feeling great again, managed to eat my 10 course meal and got a good night's sleep!

Day 5
Kili is expensive to climb, so I was unable to pause a day and take a second, more gradual crack at the summit, so I descended all the way back down to Marangu gate, delighted to breathe real oxygen again and rapidly powering downhill for 19km in about 4.5 hours, before the drive back to Arusha and my first HOT shower in nearly 5 days....ah the simple things.....

Day 6
Back in Arusha, legs feel like 10 tonne trucks after the pounding downhill descent.....every step brings pain..... thinking about going back in a few weeks and trying again...not happy to let an oversized molehill beat me.

Kwaheri

Belinda