Mount Meru

We just returned from a 4-day hike of Mt. Meru, which is Tanzania's 2nd highest mountain - also known as 'Baby Kili'. The stats for the hike:
-E & P's crew: 7 people (ranger, guide, waiter, cook, 3 porters).
-Ascent Start: 12noon, July 30.
-Descent End: 10:30am, August 2.
-Summit (P): 7:50am, August 1.
-Total time spent in hot shower after hike: 30 min each.

The synopsis of the hike is as follows:

Day 1: Hike from Momela Gate to Miriakamba Hut (2500m) where we spent the night. Sounds fine enough...but TIA, and we had delays from the outset and didn't get going until noon. And it was raining...all day. So we hiked for 5 hours in the rain (not the last time on this hike either!)



the hike was through a dense forest, and it made for a very dramatic scene:


one of the porters was a Detroit fan!!


Day 2: Hike from Miriakamba Hut to Saddle Hut (3500m). Still raining, and all of our stuff is cold, wet, and muddy. Why didn't they tell us to bring MORE CLOTHES?!!?!?


trying to enjoy the miserable weather.


Day 3: P woke up at midnight to ascend to the summit of Mt. Meru (4566m). Elaine opted for Rhino Point (3800m) to catch some awesome views and the sunrise over Mt. Kilimanjaro. P summited at 7:50am and it took 6.5 hours - after which there was a 4hr descent back to the huts, a quick lunch, then another 3 hours back down to the first hut to spend the night.

a Tanzanian flag at the summit.


P at the summit:


the rocks P had to scramble up near the end, all covered in ice and wet from the mist:


Mount Kilimanjaro peaks out of the clouds:


Day 4: Descend from Miriakamba Hut (2500m) to Momela Gate...again, in the rain!!! Here is us with our guides after the whole thing was over:


After the hike, we checked into a nicer hotel to treat ourselves, and proceeded to hand over the smelliest pile of laundry ever (thank goodness this place has a washer/dryer!!). We then scrubbed 4 days of mountain (and 7 weeks of hostel) off of ourselves in nice, long, hot showers. Tomorrow (Aug 3) we head to Zanzibar for a long, well-deserved 9 days on the beach...and then to Zambia for the wedding!

We'll write from Zanzibar...until next time!
-P&E

TIA, part 3 - the EXCELLENT (Tanzania 6-day Safari)

Hello everyone. This is the 3rd TIA (This Is Africa) post, and the first two we posted yesterday and you can find them below. Sorry for the barrage of postings.

Just so you're updated, these are pictures (we won't write too much except to caption the pics) from our Tanzanian 6-day safari, July 22-27. (Yes, even though we are wearing the same thing in every single picture, this was a 6-day safari. What can we say, we're backpacking.)

Tomorrow, we start our 4-day mountain climb! We are going to climb Mount Meru (aka Baby Kilimanjaro) and we're very nervous/excited. We're treating ourselves to a nice(r) hotel to relax when we get back, and will report back on the hike at that point. Enjoy our safari pictures! Many more (quality) pictures to come once we're back in the states with faster internet.

~
1) LAKE MANYARA NATIONAL PARK:

(what an African scene...the pink tint in the back is hundreds of flamingos along the lake).


(there were approximately 1 billion baboons all over the place)


(a fair warning. good to know they bite)

2) SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK

(the drive there was so foggy and terrifying!)


(us at the entrance to the Serengeti)


(our first lion sighting!!!!!!) In all we saw 28 lions, and they were all about as boring to watch as this one. (we did see babies too!!)


(us having a Serengeti beer in the Serengeti, to celebrate our first lion sighting)


(one lion...14 vehicles)


(probably the most beautiful things we witnessed - a herd of elephants taking a mud bath!)


(twigas!!! Twiga is the Swahili word for giraffes, which were also plentiful in the Serengeti)


(a massive pool of hippos. We estimated about 100 were in here!)


(oh, look who else was in the Serengeti...hehe)

3) Olduvai Gorge:

(this is the site where Homo Habilis, the predecessor to Homo Sapien, was discovered).

4) NGORONGORO CRATER:

(what a natural wonder...there are no words!)


(another classic Africa scene...hippos and zebras in the Crater)


(zebras here were not skiddish at all, and hung out right near the roads)


(our sad attempt to put an M hat on a wildebeest)


(awww....mommy and foal)


(CHEETAH!!!)

5) TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK:

(the scene of tons of baobob trees, which is about all we saw there. This was day 6 of the safari and we were pooped out!!)


(a stop at a local women's cooperative to buy some souvenirs. Note the drooping baby on P.)

'Asanti San', Everest, for driving us around for 6 days!!!

TIA, part 2 - the GOOD (Kruger Park 2-day Safari)

This is part 2 of our 3-part This Is Africa series, a bit out of order chronologically (part 1 below, part 3 we are working on). After deciding we couldn't 'self-drive safari', we went on a 2-day 2-night safari in S. Africa's Kruger National Park (July 15-17). We left our hostel at 5:30am to reach the park gates by 6:30am. After a short morning drive, we arrived at our campsite (nice but no pics of it as the pics were on E's stolen camera). We had breakfast and then departed for the day with our driver, Henri, who we learned was also the owner of the safari company that we were using (Funky Safaris - www.funkysafaris.co.za). MAN we were in for a treat, as it was probably the most educational day we'd had so far!! This is Henri - while we don't have a proper picture of him, this pretty much sums up how chill he is (yes that is a joint and a beer):

While the animal sightings weren't remarkable, we learned SO much during our first day with Henri. Below are pictures and then a couple of facts underneath each one.


The male white rhino marks it's territory using 'middons', literally toilets - they use the same spots to crap in, and then they scuff their heels in it and walk around. Evidently, their dung holds an insane amount of information for other rhinos to sniff out- everything from their age, gender, 'status', and reproductive information. Other rhinos then sniff out this information, then leave their own craps - but not in the middon. They leave 'doorbells' or craps near the middon, so that the male can then tell who has been around his territory. We witnessed all of this occurring and it was fascinating!


Zebras are pretty skiddish, so we had a tough time getting good pictures. However many zebras you see standing around stand as such. This serves multiple purposes. They wave their tails back and forth to keep flies out of each other's eyes. They rest their heads in the afternoon heat. And they are able to keep a lookout for predators while the rest of the herd munch on grass and the like. And it's true - a zebra's stripes are as unique as a human's fingerprints!


Impalas are, according to Henri, 'the McDonalds of the Bush'. They are extremely plentiful and they are the prey of all the major predators (lion, leopard, hyena, etc). Their butts even have black markings that kind of form an 'M', hehe. They're not easy to catch though - they can leap 10m forward and 3m high!!


Giraffes (extremely graceful and beautiful btw!) have no voicebox, so they only make vibrating sounds to communicate. They are also the only animals to use all 4 legs at once (we witnessed one almost trip and fall, and all 4 of it's legs buckled at once). When they walk, they don't use one front and the opposite hind leg; instead, they'll use both right legs, then both left.


Elephants!! They eat up to 250kg PER DAY - and they are vegetarians! I guess when you eat 18hrs per day it adds up... Also, males can sometimes be seen alone. This is because the female-led herd has rejected them for some reason (they can't fight, for instance). Males actually keep growing throughout their lives and the only reason they die is that their teeth wear out.


a sunset at Kruger Park.

A couple of other things we learned:
-The Big Five is a hunting term, not a safari term. It refers to the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt on foot (in order: buffalo, elephant, lion, rhino, leopard)
-Hippos are responsible for more human deaths per year then any other animal in Africa (they hate it when you're in their way to get back to water). They can run faster than man.

A couple of other things about the safari.
-Funky Monkeys is an excellent operator that caters to backpackers and shorter safaris. We highly recommend them!!
-A shout-out to the camp cook Nonic - we lovvvved the food!!
-Kruger Park is FREEZING in the morning! :)
-We did not see any cats in Kruger Park :(
-Night drives SUCK! Don't do them, you can't see shit!

Our next post will be photos from our 6-day safari in Tanzania (July 22-27). As there are so many photos it may take a while - and we won't be writing much besides captioning the photos.

TIA, part 1 - the BAD (Johannesburg, Apartheid, Travel to TZ)

Hello everyone and sorry it's been so long. Slow internet combined with us being quite busy, has led to this lag in posts. As noted above this is the first in a series of 3 posts (we hope to upload all 3 today, but we may not be able to).
For those that didn't see the movie 'Blood Diamond', TIA is a phrase they use to encapsulate Africa - it means 'This Is Africa' and really is self-explanatory. So this first post will be all the crappy things about Africa that we've had to deal with - some funny, some not at all...

After our short safari in Kruger National Park (will be in post #2), we headed to Johannesburg for the last couple of days in South Africa.


We thought it'd be fun to spend the first of our two nights in the city, so we ponied-up for a nice B&B in the 'nice' part of town and had a fun time in Melville, bar-hopping and eating too. Here's where we had dinner - The Loft - excellent food!


Despite all the warnings we had heard about JoBurg, we were having a delightful time, and ended up in a fun bar with good music, and were chatting it up with some funny dude from Durban. Then, out of nowhere, we suddenly found ourselves victims of a mugging IN the bar! Long story short, someone started a fight as distraction as someone else cut open E's pocket and P's purse. E's camera was stolen; P was lucky.


So the next day we ended up here, our 2nd visit to a police station on this trip.


After getting the necessary paperwork so E could claim her travel insurance, we headed to the Apartheid Museum and learned about the struggle that has come to define South Africa. It was a very interesting museum with a LOT of information. We had to enter in separate entrances, because P isn't white:

A plaque from the inside of the museum:


After swearing off JoBurg forever, we headed to our hostel near the airport as we had a morning flight the next day to Tanzania. And then, our best activity yet...dropping off the rental car!!! Goodbye Avis, thanks for an awesome vehicle!


Ending km-age...we started at 20,900 km!!


Our departure from JoBurg was without fanfare, and surprisingly all of our bags made it to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, where we had a long layover to get to Arusha. We had a couple of drinks and a snack:

when all of a sudden P realized that Tanzania was an hour ahead of South Africa, and we had to rush to pay our bill and head to check in for our flight to Kilimanjaro Airport.
And of course, another TIA adventure ensued as we learned that our flight to Kili was full (after waiting in the wrong line for 20 min). After some arm-flailing and yelling, we got ourselves on another flight through a connection that everyone got off except us:


Upon arrival at Kili airport, the following TIA sequence of events:
1. Our driver sent by the hostel had a flat tire on the way to pick us up.
2. The Air Tanzania shuttle to Arusha was waiting for an hour to depart.
3. We finally get a taxi to our hostel.
4. Taxi stops mid-route, to meet a car going the other way, the driver of which hands a sketchy package to our driver. (drug deal, anyone?)
5. We arrive at Arusha Backpacker Hostel to learn that the hostel is full for the night and they've "rebooked us" at a hostel across the street.
this is at 11pm, by the way.
6. We head to "other hostel" to learn it is also full!
7. 20 minutes of broken English later, we are taxied to ANOTHER place (a B&B) where there is finally a room for us to crash in. We collapse, exhausted from the frustrating day of travel.

The next day was entirely spent trying to make arrangements for the rest of our trip, including attempting to book a bus/train/whatever to Zambia only to learn that it's virtually impossible for us to do this and actually get to Emily's wedding on time! (later resolved by eating it and booking a flight).

So there you have it...This Is Africa, friends!!