Africa: Kenya, Tanzania (Climb Mt Kilimanjaro), Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sth Africa

Arrival at Nairobi, Kenya

6am, Jono (brother) and I arrived in Nairobi the place I looked forward too, made infamous by the Sydney Morning Herald, as on the day tickets were booked an article was printed "Nairobi and other good place to get shot" referenced throughout the article as Naroberry we were ready, it only took 36 hours to arrive as well!

Immediately on arrival the search for transport began, even having booked accommodation at one of our layovers.  Negotiation began and we managed to bargain down from 14,000 to 8,000 of what at the time was called thingys due to a lack of knowledge, but there is no doubt that 8000 is better than 14000. A message left for Chris (brother) and Donnie (mate) at the airport to take us to the same hostel.

On arrival it turned out the booking did not matter as they took us to the wrong place anyway, still an hour later the other two arrived and day one in Africa was about to begin. We booked our self a driver and arranged for a tour round Narobbery. An elephant sanctuary first where baby elephants were raised to be re-released into the wild, fed giraffes next, a guide kindly guide showed us how to kiss them, only have to hold a pellet in your mouth and they are all yours, 5 foot tongue and all. 

Just to see if Narobbery lived up to the name, we stripped of all our valuables, armed ourselves with everything from pencils to toy Kolas and ventured into the slums. Nervous at first the slums house over 1M people who are living well below the poverty line, with dirt floors and tin huts, however they are some of the happiest people and have a great affection for pens and kolas! We only spent about 45 minutes there on recommendation from our driver (who would not come as he didn't want to leave the truck) the biggest surprise of all was when train tracks we assumed long abandoned due to the stalls, chickens and cows that seemed to have taken up residence was cleared by the horn of a 30 carriage freight train.....Final place of the night was a restaurant called Carnivore, a eating establishment that gives you the opportunity to eat any of the animals that you happen to see that day. A big BBQ, waiters bring round various meats on a skewer cutting a piece of when you find one you like.

Rising on the second day it was straight on the bus to Arusha, Tanzania, the town at the base of Kilimanjaro. A six-hour drive we spent most of it looking at the window at an enormous snow capped mountain hoping that this was not what we had elected to climb. On the bus a really friendly Tanzanian guy, Neils, who helped knock off two thirds of the price of a bottle of water at a stop, confirmed it was..........shit.

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Arriving in Arusha we were put up in a nice fancy hotel, we were all somewhat surprised and after we finished rolling on the beds and removing the petals, Neils took us out. Right into some nice dogey little African pub where we watched a dance off between the 12-14 years olds of the neighbourhood and ate food with our hands. Traditional Tanzanian apparently!

A day early for our hike, we spent the next day on our first safari. Neils organised it for us, it is called Ngorongoro, and is a national park in an enormous creator. Highlights of this were being right up close to elephants, giraffe, lions, hippos, water buffulo and being able to drive real fast in four wheel drive with our heads sticking out the top, fantastic!! It was an incredible park, we also saw a Mushi tribe who were having a little ceremony doing their jumping up and down. The only way to even come close to describing the park is it was like Jurassic park. On the way back we had a game of football with what seemed like 100 kids on an oval, they were everywhere, kicking our shins, and taking the ball. Goodbye to Neils and it was to be a change of pace.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

The climb to Kiili is six days starting at around 1800 meters, the peak is at 5895 meters, and when you drive the additional 3 hours from Arusha it just gets bigger. We decided on the Rongai Route, apparently one of the harder ones, but we are all fit right!! Days 1-4 are mainly about acclimatisation, spent walking through beautiful rainforest, watching as vegetation disappears, walks which see lunch reappear and dinner a very unlikely prospect indeed. Jono was the first one sick.  

Each day Libera our acclimatisation guide and just one of the 19 people on the mountain specifically for us, who was the coolest man alive would take us up for a two hour, "acclimatisation's walk," done to allow your body to adjust to the altitude, it is a walk up and back down.  Originally thought to be a way to show a good return on investment, watching Jon curled up on his ground sheet  throwing

up every so often we soon realised it was not. Chris and Donny were hit hard with headaches, thus the second night was....well memorable, all the while the Kiili peak looked down, way down, on us. 

Night three was my turn, once again following Liberas, cool coast up the altitude walk with hands in pockets offering to carry all our packs, I came down, was sitting with Jeno, Chris and Donnie curled up with headaches in their tents, suddenly I turned white announced my stomachs feelings and was out the dinner tent sharing their contents with the ground.  Still the days made it all worthwhile, spectacular scenery, we spent from day 2 above the cloud line, looked all the way out to Kenya with the beautiful sun shine and the spectacular mountain in front of us.

Just as things are coming together, it is time for day four and five. A four hour hike to Kibe Camp, at 4700 metres it is from here that we make our summit attempt. 11:O0pm our guides come and wake us, all our gear on, it is time to ready for what has been the goal, the summit Uhuru Peak.

12:00 Briefed, the first step taken, its into the -10 degree weather, all of us are with head torches on, I have rigged up my iPod with speakers to provide us with some inspiration as we climb. There is no flat bit, it is straight up in the pitch black, only the odd torch light ahead of you seems to provide any reference point, but sometimes these look so high you think them stars. 12:30 iPod stops. Our first two hours are hard real hard, following a steep zig zag path the altitude is complete hell, a feeling of Nausea sets in, your body needs food and water but you  just can not stomach it. 1:00 managed to get the iPod going again by warming it deep in my layers of clothing. Every time a rest came we would all curl together in a ball for warmth, pleading not to continue until a quick 1 hour nap is had to reenergise.  1:04 iPod stops....again..............

2:00 Hard to believe but is just kept getting harder, the zig zag path that was hard stepped itself up a level, dirt before, slipping underfoot, this went to a new level, stones meant that every time you took a step your foot would slide backwards, meaning two steps were like one, still dark and the temperature dropping it seemed we were going nowhere, some type of suspended animation or joke.  

3:00 we lost Donnie, he had thrown up at the previous break, Han Myer Cave 5182 metres, and has a splitting headache, managed to revive him once but he can longer go on. Toshi the chief guide takes him down.  The rest of us were round 10 meters above him but can not manage to walk down to him, just yell words of encouragement. Somehow it just kept getting worst. Now I was semi yelling at Abraham and Liberea, "Why are we doing this at night?" "Why did we not camp half way up?" " Where is breakfast?" I do remember they came up with some pretty good answers, can't remember what they were or do I believe did I really care. Each foot just kept going one in front of the other, " 1 hour to..." it no longer mattered. Every so often I would have a burst of energy and try to get my iPod working.  

4:00 Jono went  down, his hands freezing we tried to warm them up, I pepped talked him, "if Kochie (from Sunrise, a morning breakfast show) can make it up, so can you!" Chris was feeling bad but still going. Managed to get Jon going again. 4:30 reached Jamaica Hut, called a hut but like all the others a f&#kin pile of rocks named so as one of the few discernable land marks. Apparently we had just done the hardest part and its only an hour to go to Gillimans the certificate summit. Only an hour, if I had the energy I would have punched him, instead I attempted to film Chris and Jono passed out together .........however my video camera no longer works .......iPod is still not  operational.

5:00 Still have not found the easy bit, it is still straight up, the only thing I can see that is even slightly different is the tiny pebbles that make your foot slide when you walk have been replaced by real big rocks that we have to climb over. Poly, poly (slowly, slowly) Abraham and Liberea tell us, we have just managed to stomach a small cup of hot water, 45 minutes, 1hr 20 minutes, 20 minutes they keep telling me times to things, they are now singing African songs to keep us going .........then pop....we see a small sign which we light dimly with our head lamps. Congratulations Gillmans Peak, 5735 metres.

Round 5:30 I look at Jono he looks completely spent, absolutely finished. Looking over to Chris he seems alright, I ask him if he wants to go to Uhuru Peak the true summit. He responds yes, to my surprise so does Jono. Feeling revived I let Abraham and Liberea know we are ready to go, Chris gets up, immediately his throws up, Jono struggles to his feet and of we go. It is incredible, poly (slowly) we walk through the snow along a 40 cm wide path on the edge of a creator, which drops 60 metres to the bottom, however the fact that it is relatively flat adds to make it a heavenly walk. Small peaks around us huge glacial walls, 6:00am the sun starts to rise above the clouds lighting up the spectacular surrounds, all the more so as we have earned it. 5 people can be seen coming back down from the peak and at round 7:00am WE MAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everybody hugs each other and offers congratulations. My video camera still does not work, Chris produces a well nestled camera and we manage five or so shots before his battery freezes up. 15 minutes are spent at the top enjoying 5895 meters the highest free standing mountain in the world. Up there all by ourselves, the rising sun providing a spectacular light show of the ice and snow.

Apparently mobiles phones have reception up here, my mobile phone is frozen so I neither confirm or deny.

Round 7:20 we begin our descent, with the light the small path and 60 meter drop no longer look to appealing, crawling along for the one and half hours back to Gilman's Point, Chris is sick three or four more times, I slip on my bum a couple of times. Then the descent from there down the sliding rocks takes another two and half hours. Exhausted, this is pain, some of it is done like skiing, the gravel so loose. 10:30 three of the walking dead walk into camp to the congratulations of staff and other climbers. This rejuvenates for a good 20 minutes as we tell of our stories, Donnie films it all on my now working camera.  Then we pass out in our tents.  An hour later we are woken for lunch, then pack up for another three and half hour hike to the next camp site where we will sleep for the night. 6:00pm all of us fall asleep till 6:30 the next morning.  This is when we celebrated our achievement, our crew porters and all sing a song about Kilimanjaro, and in return we thank them for dragging us  up.

It was an amazing experience and I am sure all will agree once they wake up, we are now back in a hotel at Marangu, tomorrow we will make our way to Zanzibar where it will be a few days on the beach and diving.

6th April 2007 - Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 

Our drive from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam did not disappoint, the bus managed new levels of space logistics, the normal 2 - 2 formation with an isle was replaced with a 3 -2 formation illuminating most of the isle, also at the front where the driver sits a conversion was made to a 1st class, well not really, it was just expanded to take 6 people, with two filling the engine with water as we drove along. Our driver, a Richard Pryor look a like, believed that the bus should be the dominate species on the road and drove at an average speed of 130km/h running down and taking over anything which threatened this dominance. Only stopping for breaks where we could watch and measure the Guinness world record attempt of how many people you can fit in a bus, as they poured out.

Negotiations at the ferry terminal followed the 2 hour search for a working ATM in the business capital Dar, and we were of to Zanzibar. The ferry ride took us across to the tropical island where Dolphins followed the boat as we made our way on the 1 hour ferry to the main town in Zanzibar, Stone Town. A small little town that looked like it was out of Aladdin, the streets were no more than 1.5 metres wide, the old sultan castle with its walls surrounding the tall stone apartment blocks that although only 4 stories high look huge due to the narrowness of the alleyways. Ready to relax from our climb and travel, we dropped our bags in a small hotel which on first thoughts looked about half a star above a flea ridden s*&t hole, the next morning however Jono told me he was bitten by fleas. Down to Stone Town's famous night market, fresh fish and other goodies are cooked by the islands locals, lobster on stick purchased for a pittance with a variety of other beautiful local cuisine.  Following our night here and a morning of negotiations it was time to find the true island paradise we had heard about, so we took a bus up to Nungwi, the northern most tip right on the  beach.

On entering the small village we were surprised at seeing the full brunt of Africa's waste disposal problem, a small town that was blue with plastic bottles and bags, so much so I thought that they may have even been one of the foundations of the buildings, however mere seconds away a beautiful beach and water opened up to us, crystal clear the sun shining, this is what was needed. 

Bungalow secure we swam across the shore line, where the restaurant's had balconies build on tree stump foundations, and floating across the water down the shore we were able to yell up and book the evenings dinner, securing a good price for the lobster, then book scuba diving and find a place to go out for the night!! A great afternoons work!! Thus the next few days were fantastic.  First, beautifully freshly caught extra large lobster, a bit of sun and some of the best diving I've done. Diving over two days saw at least 10 turtles many swimming with us as we explored the bottom of huge plate coral, that was home  to all soughts of fish and sea life. One surprise was the lobsters so cute as they scramble along the bottom diving into a rock at the slightest sign of danger, their eyes peaking out immediately surveying the situation. Almost made it hard to eat them.  Donnie was our beginner diver and managed a windmill type action that seemed  to scare other divers let alone the fish, however so amazed at the newly discovered world there was no wiping the smile of his face.

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to Victoria, Zambia by Train

Back to Dar Es Salaam following the R&R and a walk round the city, we saw the president of Tanzania drive by in motor convey.  Following this while exploring the city, it rained suddenly and it rained hard for about 15 minutes. The resulting chaos was of the like I have never seen. Drainage is not the strong point of east African cities thus when the rain came (which does happen often) the streets literally filled up. Mainly dirt streets, cars were now driving down the highway in 50cm high water, us and the many other pedestrians all walked through the traffic on the medium strip as casually as can be.  By now, naturally a self-appointed guide  had decided to help us navigate the highway and Dar's streets, really friendly guy he spent the rest of the day with us showing us the city before our once a week train to Zambia.

In Sydney the travel agent told us how it was impossible to navigate your way from Tanzania into Zambia  without either a tour or a couple of months. We managed to find a train that left once a week took between 30 and 40 hours, in fact it took 45 hours, we had thought it would be 30, anyway it was a most spectacular journey. The start was through our national park, where we saw elephants, giraffe and zebra across the beautiful African plains, this was later replaced by African villages where the whole village seem to come out and wave at the passing train. Again our also seemingly endless supply of pens and kolas were hoisted from the train, the village kids battled for them. Luckily we had a sleeper cart so some relative luxury was had, with our first class "reading lounge" and high pressure fire hose cold shower which had water intermittently throughout the shower. Arrival in Zambia met with negotiations with the immigration officials. Now our group had swollen to 12 with these being the other we met on the train.

The immigration office at the train station did not look like it had been opened for a few decades, even the immigration official was quite surprised a how much dust and spider webs can be accumulated over such a short period of time.  He debated whether he should go straight to a "fine" of 1,000,000 (somethings) which did not sound good at all or the normal rate. When I gave him one of our pens to write with his scrawl his face turned into a huge African smile and he was now our friend, he even gave a US$75 discount to the American in our group, all was well.  Negotiated a mini-bus for the 8 hour ride the Vic Falls and we were at our next destination.

Victoria Falls, Zambia - Chobe, Botswana - Zimbabwe - South Africa

Jolly boys was our hostel, things had changed we had now entered the tourist Mecca of Africa with most things catered for in a small compound. Our first day was a bit of overcoming the disappointment of not being able to go rafting due to high water. It opens again in June.  Bugger.  However down to the falls, one of the natural wonders of the world and it was best described as wet!! Glimpses of the falls through drenching mist, the falls at their highest point in 40 years. Still spectacular. A "booze cruise" was the afternoon activity. A cross-marketed cruise with a "sunset cruise" we had mustered up another 13 Norwegian and American girls to the boys joy, quite young. The cruise quickly dropped into a real binge, with the guides Tyrone and his accomplished local who had just been to Australia, pushed the drinking games early, the female guide even mooning the other boats, which surprised pretty much everyone. This cruise will be best described by video footage, but I have never seen a spiral to the bottom happen in such a short period of time, the cruise started at 5:00 finished at 7:30 and I am shocked to say the Norwegian's were by far the most pissed.  The bus ride home saw the lady like manners disappear as we watched shocked, yes shocked, as about 30% of the bus was sick.  But it was very good fun and very funny.

Most of the youngens went to bed, there is a phenomenon every full moon at Victoria Falls when rainbows are seen in the mist at night. Following the search for the passed out American girl, Tyrone, the master of disaster (the booze cruise guide, a local), Julia a German girl who has been travelling with us from Dar and I decided to go and see this show. Once there the park was shut, so the only option was to bribe our way in. This turned out cheaper than the normal entrance ticket and we were in. Only the three of us we walked round the magical falls with the knowledge that they were ours. By night the mist had dropped a bit and the viewing was great.

However for Tyrone this meant something different, when we reached the footbridge which is about a 30 metre bridge and possibly the wettest part being like a real heavy storm he announced his intention for us to streak across the falls! A little push and I was in, undressed leaving our clothes in a dry place, Julia had the camera and into the darkness of the bridge we ran screaming into the fall's mist and back, the park ours!  Two crosses of the bridge, convinced Julia, and the falls were then well and truly done! Tyrone assures us this has only been done once before!

On Safari in Chobe national park saw at least 100 elephants and our camp was visited by a Hyena, went gorge swinging, twice for some unknown reason, a 50 metre drop of a cliff, stomach still recovering and today a walking safari where we ended up trekking and spending an hour about 5 metres from two huge white rhinos, the only two in Zambia. Today we leave to Zimbabwe for a couple of days to see what is there before moving on to Cape Town!!