It is morning, we are all packed and ready to go. Each one of us had been given a duffle bag, which we could fill with whatever we wanted and it would be carried up the mountain by a porter. The whole idea of having a porter to carry my stuff up the mountain, is kind of a personal defeat for Teemu and I already. I mean, come on, are we not big enough to carry our own underwear up the mountain? I should think so, but then it strikes me that we have had this conversation a couple of times and we already did the manly thing on the Machu Picchu in Peru a few years back. It was not at all impossible to carry our own stuff up, but it did take some fun out of the process. I did not want to admit it, but Hyunju's concept of "it helps the local economy" kind of is an easy to buy argument at this point. Also, we would not be carrying tents and food anyway, so if I had to piggyback my underwear along with the food, ok then.

Here we are, but nobody is coming to pick us up. I repeat the sentence given from the trekking company owner a few weeks earlier, "This is Africa, everything takes a little longer". They will come, just not right now.

We wait anxiously and almost 2 hours pass before our ride arrives. I guess, when venturing out on a 8 day trip, a 2 hours delay is not a big deal? Or is it a sign, that everything will be like this?
The vehicle is an old Chinese looking Toyota copy of a bus, kind of big for the 6 of us, I guess they are used to having bigger hiking groups.
Teemu and I take our time and get a few pictures before entering the bus. To my surprise the bus is full. I mean, full full. All the porters for our trip are here, our guides, the driver and the 6 of us. Altogether that makes it about 30 people, having 20 porters and 3 guides, give or take a few, not sure.
At this point, we still don't know who is who, except for the guy Mwinyi, which we met the day before as he checked our gear. I guess it does not matter and off we go. Some people are really excited, other people fight to stay awake, while others don't care too much about the whole thing and are sleeping! Different people, different experiences I guess
The bus struggles from the very first second, as the hotel where we are staying is at the end of a dirt road, which to say the least, could use some ironing. Huge holes and deep tires tracks already, but the skilled driver makes it out of there after a few minutes of cursing in Swahili. We are officially on our way. 3 hours driving we are told, African hours that is.
After a while, I flip up my Windows phone, which has been outfitted with a local Tanzanian SIM card and a 1 month unlimited data plan. I try to connect to the Internet, but only get very intermittent signal. The idea was that I could share the Internet to the other people, once I got service, but the phone did not want to share anything. Ok, that's the last drop, no more Windows Phone, ever. I put the SIM card in my Samsung phone, but what do you know, it was SIM locked. Ok, back in the Windows Phone and I went on the Internet and found a place where I could buy and unlock code. By the time of our departure though, 18 hours later, I had still not received and code, but it should be arriving soon. Maybe...
After an hours driving, the bus makes a pitstop. I guess this is the last spot to use a real toilet for a few days? Well, actually the guys are going to do some shopping for the trip, meat, rice, veggies and whatever they need. One of the guide buys some BBQ'ed beef, they put it in a small plastic bag to carry, different but practical. Without any expectations, I take a piece of meat, but I am pleasantly surprised about the taste, wow it is good. This can only be an indicator of how the next few days will be on the hike, great!
We get in the bus and we drive another hour or so, before we hit the official entrance to the National Park. Here the porters are weighing their bags to see if they have too much or not, if more porters are needed. Looks like the weighing is very precise, as the park rangers are taking out one orange at the time to see if the weight gets within acceptable limits.
Meanwhile we are having lunch and everyone are showing signs of a very good appetite. We have been given a lunch box, consisting of some kind of dumplings, veggies and spicy pork maybe, 1/4 of a chicken and a few more items. It is not too bad and everyone is munching happily and excited. Little did we know, the lunch box would be our friend, although a weird friend.
Stuffed and loaded with plenty of water, we get back on the bus, which is now going to take us to the actual beginning of the trail. It proves to be another hour of driving, but this time on a very soft one way dirt road. After passing a couple of trucks, that were laying down new material on the dirt road, yes, new dirt, the bus almost got stuck in a few soft corners. The driver ordered all porters out of the bus to walk instead. That changed things a bit and we were rolling again.
Some 20 minutes later, we are here. The real beginning of the trip, the actual Kilimanjaro climb. Just as Teemu got up from the seat, I felt something fall out of his pocket, his camera! It would suck to lose the camera at this point, especially if he didn't have another one. We prepared our backpacks and hiking poles, I remember that I saw an extra pair of hiking poles in the bus and walked back to pull them out. Nobody seemed to be missing them afterall and eventually they just ended up back on the bus.
Now it was time for a group picture before starting in front of the Londorossi Gate. This was the real deal, the Kilimanjaro trek was about to start. We still didn't really know the names of anyone, but we were going to be on the mountain for 8 days with these fellows, so there was time enough.
Packed and ready we set off, and immediately there are hills steep enough to make me huff and puff. Oh crap, why am I already loosing my breath now, this is going to be one week of pure torture I think by myself. I search for my camera to take a picture of my face, but wait, the camera is nowhere to be found. Did I put it in the backpack somewhere? I had it on the bus just a few minutes ago.
I search all my pockets and everywhere in the backpack, but no, it is gone. I remember I had the camera just a few seconds before we took the group picture, before going to the bus for those extra hiking poles. I had put it on top of my backpack, maybe it had fallen down. We walk back down and search for it for a few minutes, but that thing is gone.
It is very difficult to explain how stupid I felt that moment. But it is gone for sure. Luckily it was not an expensive camera, but it was water/dust/freeze proof, it was made especially for this trip, and now it was gone. Oh well, no pictures taking yet, so nothing lost.
Not having to concentrate on taking pictures, I get plenty of time to get acquainted with our guides. The younger guy is called John, he is doing this part time only to earn money for his school. The older guy is called Jumba-Jumba, I cannot imagine that is his real name, but every porter on the trail, whether from our group or other companies, they call him that and he responds "Yo Yo Yo" to everyone. Interesting
The first day of hiking started at 7800 feet, took us through jungle and rain forest for around 6km, ending at 9500 feet some 4 hours later. Yes, very slow indeed, but that is the key to success here, go slowly, or as they say in Swahili, "Pole Pole".
When we arrived at the camp, it turned out that we were not the only ones taking the Lemosho route. All the porters have managed to pass us on the trail up there, but that was on purpose so they had time to set up my tent and prepare other necessities for my stay at the Forest Camp. Before we left on this mission, there was one thing that I put on the list that I was sure I would appreciate a lot: A toilet.
This is a mountain, a national park, with no sewer system, no roads to come and empty septic tanks. One person taking a shit in the nature, well, hardly nobody is going to notice that? 100 persons every day taking a shit around the same campsite, well, I think you get my point. The idea of me carrying my own poop around for 8 days, kind of did not sound very appealing. There was an option to pay for a toilet on this trip, that was my kind of luxury. I have to admit though, that sitting there on the first night, it wasn't really so joyful, but I guess we were still not needy enough to fully appreciate the wonders of a toilet...
Dinner was served and they had set up a tent that would serve as our dinning hall. There was hot water for tea and coffee, with some biscuits, while we were sharing today's exciting walk through the jungle. We were piecing together a lot of information with bits and pieces from everyone, trying to put together the bigger picture. Who was who, what did they look like and what did they do. Instead I think we just got more confused and we were saved by dinner being served.
It was a "3 course dinner", maybe not so impressive by rich people standards, but taking into account that someone had to carry all this food with them, while we only carried all our electronic gadgets and some water, the meals were really appreciated. Soup, rice and meat sauce and some fruits for dessert.
Surprisingly enough, the temperature dropped pretty fast after the sun set and after dinner, most people went directly to bed. After all, we still had a jet lag and had only been in Tanzania for 2-3 days, and since there were no bars in the vicinity anyways, we might as well call it a night, get some good rest and wake up next morning full of energy and with an urge to climb even more hills.

Arrived in Tanzania

Tanzania is far away from everything we know, that's why it deserves a visit.

We are fully aware that the Ebola virus outbreak is currently getting a lot of press, but to make it very clear, we are very far away from West Africa. There are many other illnesses that should be taken just as seriously here locally, malaria and dengue are just 2 I can think of. Malaria itself kills hundreds of thousands every year, even though treatments for it is available. Well, we are taking precautions not to get bitten by anything in the first place, so hopefully we should get through with only pictures and a lot of fund memories.

In Kilimanjaro airport we were greeted by some health workers, which would measure our pupil dilation and temperature. They do not want to introduce this very serious illness to the country of Tanzania. I can totally understand them, but do not understand people who think they can travel through the West African countries, just because they want to? That in my eyes, is an unnecessary risk for sure.

The last few weeks before the trip, we had tried to get hold of the trekking company with a bunch of questions, but received no response. I have to admit, I was starting to worry that we had been scammed. We had deposited 10% of the total amount of the trek to them a few months earlier. There was a problem with the transfer and I had to do a second one. That day the company representative went to the bank and had both transfers go through. Great... or?

I could just imagine that we show up in the airport and there is nobody there, no company by that name, nothing. Just 2 receipts for money transfers to a guy in Tanzania.

We paid for our visas in the airport, $50, at least those not being US citizens who had to pay $100. Oh, the price of being free, haha. Afterwards we found our luggage, everything was there, very good sign. We started to exit the airport building and then luckily my worries were put to shame and a guy was waiting in the airport with a sign "McSmarte", yeah.

We drove to our bed and breakfast in the near by town, Moshi, where we were going to stay a few days to get used to the time difference and recover from the traveling. The place was called Hibiscus and was located a few minutes away from the Moshi "downtown" area, but outside in a more jungle like setting.

I had not been sleeping at all on the flights, so as soon as we got our rooms, I passed out and slept until the evening. I was totally busted.

We got to meet with the trekking company owner, Evarist, he was a quite funny guy and everything seemed to be in order. We went out with him for dinner and called it a night pretty early.

The only problem now was that there was no internet at the Bed&Breakfast. Uh oh....

Tanzania, here we come

It has been a while since the last bigger trip, but yes, it is time again. Tanzania this time.

Teemu and I got a ride to the airport from Joni, who was going to leave the US in a few weeks due to the layoffs in San Diego. Must be a bitch to be caught in a visa situation and be forced to leave. Sorry man...
In the airport, after waiting for too long already, we decided to go through security and get a beer while waiting for Hyunju. She is no stranger to travelling, her ability to get lost or how confused she can be is known, but still she decided to go on this trip without a working phone. Brilliant plan.
Who do we find sitting in the airport drinking beer already? Yes, there she was with a cold beer in the hand. Starts good
We ordered some food and beers, went to the gate and took off for a transit night at a hotel in Washington, specifically handpicked for good reviews. We arrived at 21:50, and were pretty hungry. The hotel did not have a restaurant, but there were a couple of restaurants nearby that were open - open until 22:00. I was reminded why it has been more than 10 years since I last had Domino pizza, but it was the only food around.
I had to work a little before calling it a night and a few hours of clamping on the computer. This is a special working trip to test our equipment in the foreign parts of the world. That means I have to do the hard job of taking a flight around the world and do the dirty work.
The hotel had breakfast included, which was actually ok. I made my own waffles with a little help from an older lady. They were really good. Except that a few hours later I could start tasting them again. We had a flight to the biggest continent, from Dulles DC to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, where we would change the flight after a few hours. I felt the trip was pretty fast at least getting to Europe, but on the map when we were over Nice in France, we were only half way. Africa is BIG!
The airport in Addis Ababa looks very old and what looks like temporary installations is actually permament ones and have been for many years. There were praying rooms for people, but it seemed like only men were using it, have to investigate that a little closer.
We went to the best restaurant we could find. Teemu and I ordered two unknown menu items, just to try it, while our culinary expert went for some fish fillets. Turned out that the 2 dishes we ordered were actually really good, while the fish thing was below the standard the princess requested.
The woman in the restaurant came with the bill and Teemu asked if we could pay with dollars. Yes, she said, it would be the price divided by 10. Quick math from my side, showed it would be $56. Not even in an American airport would we be charged 56 USD for this meal, so we started doing the math ourselves. We roughly added it up to $40 with tip, looking at the menu they had prices in dollars and local currency where the exchange rate was about 20. She tried to get the rate down to 10?? Signs of some interesting weeks ahead of us, haha

Moshi Town and preparations

Here we are, in the middle of Tanzania, in a small town called Moshi. None of us had ever heard about this place, before we started to look at the possibilities to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Moshi is one of 2 "main gates" for doing Kilimanjaro climbs, the other being Arushua. Actually we are not in the middle of the country, Moshi, Arushua and Kilimanjaro are all located right on the border of Tanzania and Kenya. The altitude of the city is about 800m, which does not really matter too much in terms of having problems to breathe. However, considering the proximity to equator, I am very surprised it is this "cold", as I was expecting a more tropical environment.
People are dressed up in long pants and closed shoes, I seem a little out of the place with flip flops. After a day of walking around Moshi, I figured out why they wear shoes, it is so god damn dusty there, I was covered in dust up to the knees, even with long pants...
The city have roads, covering most of the city, but get just a little away from the main streets, the side walk is dusty soil and the road the same.
The second reason, is probably that the area is known to have malaria transmitting mosquitoes, preventing bites is better than medication. We came prepared with plenty of bottled DEET, which probably does not belong of the list of stuff you want to smear all over your body, but it is quite effective in the fight against mosquitoes. I will take the chance for a few weeks...
The bed and breakfast we stayed at, had provided us with a pretty good breakfast, but now it was time to take matters into our own hands and get our first Tanzanian meal. Since we were going to start the hike very soon, the general consensus was that there was no need to go totally crazy and risk a bad stomach already at this point.
I pointed at some random item from the menu in the local foods section, the woman taking the order translated the dish into English, beef tongue. Well, that didn't exactly sound like a cheeseburger to me, but this is one of the main reasons for traveling, trying out local stuff.
Hynju and Teemu went safe and got some regular chicken and beef dishes. The tongue stew was actually not too bad, but it seemed like Hyunju was surprised that the chicken was served on a piece of bone, not a white meat chicken breast. Welcome to the real world.
After dinner we browsed around a little more, being attacked by various sellers in the town, selling anything from old worn shoes to paintings with their initials on the canvas. Yeah right...
A lot of people speak English, or there is always someone within reach that does speak English. The main language in Tanzania is Swahili, whereas there are many tribes that have their own local languages and dialects. We have gotten hold of a basic English to Swahili cheat sheet, looks like people really like us greeting them in their own language. Nice
The remainder of the group finally arrived, Rebecca, Pehr and Fredrik. We spend the evening chatting away about things we discovered so far in this new country, having arrived 24 hours earlier than them we were so freaking clever already.
The next day we dragged them around the area we had already been covering, but then we ventured out on an expedition, until there were no more roads, no Muzungu in sight (Swahili for white man) and it got really local.
Looks like I found the local Dixie Line lumber yard. They have a lot of planks like any other lumber yard too, but also a few other items, I probably would have a hard time finding in the local store back in the US.
The local tire shop was also represented, everyone needs tires. There are a lot of minibuses transporting people around, often filled to the max and then a little more. They are all diesel and of course none of these vehicles have filters on the exhaust, so the air is constantly full of diesel fumes and dust. Delicious.
A lot of people drive motorcycles or bicycles, not exactly the same models as in South East Asia. These are 50-125cc motorcycles, Chinese or Indian models, looking very weak. They all have tubes in the tires which I guess is an indicator that things are moving a little slower here?
The bicycles look like something from an old 50's movie, with only very few newer looking bikes around. Maybe the old bikes are of a better quality than the newer "Made in China" bikes?
Back at the hotel in the evening, we prepared for the arrival of the head guide. He was going to go over some practical things for the upcoming hike, like checking our gear and tell us a few things that we ought to know.
The guys name was Mwinyi, took me a while to learn to spell that! He went over the program for the next few days, so we would not be too surprised of what was about to happen.
Since the climb would be taking us up close to the 6km limit, we would need some really warm clothes and sleeping bags. We all agreed to use their rental service instead of bringing a ski jacket and sleeping bag with us the entire way from the US.
He went through the gear of everyone of us, to see, if we were properly equipped for the hike. Of course we were prepared already, but it was kind of nice with a check from a professional. I think we had been reading a lot about this already, so there weren't exactly too many surprises.
Mwinyi left and the owner Evarist returned a few hours later with the rental gear and to settle the financial matters. Most of the money we pay goes to different government organizations and the park rangers, fees for this and that.
It is not that we are cheap or anything, but we wanted to use a locally owned company, which were on the cheaper side already, thinking that we could then tip the people involved in the hike the difference to some of the other companies. There are hundreds of companies arranging tours up the mountain, but only very few of them are actually locally owned companies. Many foreigners who have been here, want in on the deal and start selling complete packages from Europe or the US. They kind of contract the cheap locally owned companies to make the most profit or they open up their own company in Tanzania, charging very high prices, giving the traveler the impression that their service is so much better.
Well, we have paid, we have all the gear, we have been waiting for more than a year - lets just say that we are as ready as we can be!