Where Do I Even Start

So, lets just say that the past few days have been amazing to the n-th degree. Leaving Zanzibar was difficult indeed, but right off we arrived in Malawi at Kande Beach along the shores of the massive Lake Malawi. Beautiful white sand beaches, palm trees, amazing locals to visit and stroll around with, i.e. a repeat of Zanzibar. But, the people were so much more open and friendly and we got to enjoy a local meal by candlelight on grass mats, out in front of a farmers house, completely surrounded by corn. Singing and dancing followed the meal of soup, meat, ugali and vegetables. Afterwards we all went out at a local dive bar. An African dive bar is quite different from one in the US, to say the least. Only males are "allowed" out at night, the bar pumps out extremely loud African/reggae/rap music to which people dance outside in the dirt. After becoming even more tan than I was on Zanzibar, we moved on to Lilongwe for a few days and then on to Zimbabwe, starting off with a bush camp experience that was so miserable I can barely talk about it. Basically, it is real hot here. But, there must be an alien mineral in the soil here that absorbs heat and somehow doesn't release it, even after the sun sets. In the tent, the ground radiated heat to the point that it felt like I was sitting on a hot plate. I basically turned myself like a rotisserie the entire night so that I wouldn't burn whatever side was touching the ground. Harare was next, and it was a full-on city with everything that you would expect from a European or American city... except supplies. Hundreds of stores, most with nothing on the shelves. A product of the countries poor political and economics. What we saw apparently was much better than in recent months, where there was absolutely no bread nor meat nor vegetables to be found. Yet, these guys are so laid back that there is no violence to be seen nor talked about. There isn't a more accepting and resilient people that I have seen than Zimbabweans.

And then there was Antelope Park. I walked along side 3 massive lions as they rubbed against me, held their shoulder blades in my hand as they oscillated up and down next to me and watched them stalk antelope and zebras. I also went on a long horseback ride through the bush, seeing wild game along the way, trotting and cantering my way through grass like in Gladiator. Then I moved on to riding an elephant into a lake and held on as they thrashed left, right and back at the behest of the trainer. Went for an advanced horeback ride through the bush at full gallop, also riding it into the same lake for a swim as with the elephant before racing it against the other riders. That was day one. Later, I played with lion cubs, took a canoe around the lake, went on informative walks and finally ended with another lion walk.

Yesterday, I jumped off a 111 meter (333 foot) bridge facing Victoria Falls with a little springy rope tied to my ankles. Thankfully, it made me bounce up again. My first bungee jump was the 3 rd highest in the world, the Vic Falls Bridge Bungee. Then I did it again, but facing backwards.
Today I will fly over the falls in a helicopter and then follow that tomorrow with more jumping off of high places, doing a gorge wing across the massive gorge carved out by the Zambezi River below. Hopefully, the rope is shorter than the drop...

I have an intense facination with jumping off of things. Of this, I am sure.

Serengeti and Zanzibar

Lions, cheetahs and elephants, Oh My! About a week ago now, we set out to the Ngorongoro Crater for a game drive in the twilight of the morning. As we wound our way up to the edge of the crater, the African sun started to brighten the landscape. Switchbacks led to the top and our first glimpse of the crater floor was ethereal through the mist and morning light. Specks of black littered the floor; our game. Along the trek to the other side of the rim, where the descent was to begin, we were teased with a view out to the west of the vast Serengeti plains. But, that would have to wait. We were on the floor, and when I say there was a concentration of animals, I mean concentrated. We saw a rhino, elephant, zebras, giraffes, and about 5-7 lions. Quite literally, a lion strode past our Landrover, 2 feet below my hand and camera! You can see the grains on the hairs of its head in one of my pictures. Absolutely amazing. After the aotted 5 hours on the floor, we began our drive into the Serengeti. Oh, ho hum, we stopped briefly at the excavation site of the bones of the oldest human anscestor known en route. Then, the reason for Serengeti's fame became apparent. Immensely vast plains as far as the eyes can see, sometimes full to the brim with mingling packs of zebras, wildebeast, griaffes, cheetahs, birds, etc. etc. The drives to the game drives, became my favorite part of the trip. Just resting my head on the roof of the safari vehicle or out the window, I fixed my eyes on the horizon but kept aware of the plains grass whipping by me in the periphery. The immense feeling of being small in this "land of endless plains" was so overwhelming, so indescribable, that tears flowed.

And then there were the game drives... To see the big 5: elephants, buffalo, lions, leopards and rhinos is rare, due to the sneaky leopards. It sometimes takes people a lifetime to see them. We saw all five in one day, and we saw a total of 3 leopards, 20+ lions, 50+ elephants, multiple rhinos and 100's of buffalo. Not to mention cheetahs and giraffes. Mind-boggling to see these things in the wild.

We moved on from there back to Arusha, where the difficulties of shipping to Africa became very apparent. I had to jump off the tour and head to Dar es Salaam, to the airport to get my music. After doing that, fairly painlessly there, I met back up with the tour to head to Zanzibar. I am now sitting in Stone Town after 4 days here. It is paradise in its purest form. White sand beaches opening up to the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean. Dhow's, ancient arabic sailing vessels, dot the horizon, and the breeze never seems to stop. We had perfect weather the entire time here and I am pretty tan, even for African standards. I may have to explain myself at immigration due to not looking like my passport anymore. Nevertheless, beach volleyball, beach bars, and beach everything was the call of the day each day. We did the Spice Tour yesterday which was immensely cool. Wee were taken to a proper spice farm and given leaves of each of the spices, so we could try to guess which spice it was. Cloves, cinammon, everything, was so aromatic as to confuse the sense altogether. One of the boys climbed a 30 meter palm tree to knock down some fresh coconuts for us which the chopped open and from which we drank. Also, I had my first liche, which was so good, I just can't believe I had never tried nor heard of it.

Now we are on to Malawi, where I might be getting PADI certified so I can dive in the Seychelles and Red Sea. Bush camping and no electricity for the next few days/weeks...

Catching Up...

It certainly has been awhile... Back in Tanzania, awaiting tomorrow's journey into the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, I have become a bit reflective. It seems my want for adventure, excitement and the need to be enraptured by all things around me has come true to the extreme. Immense wealth of spirit and faith was gained by volunteering, followed by the lows of true fear and worry for life that civil war encroaching around you and your caretakers brings gave such a polar dichotomy of emotion. That was the first two months. The stress from having to escape a land I had immersed myself in, really just made me numb to exactly how "off" I felt. Subjecting my body to the physical stress of climbing a 19,000 foot mountain seemed to be a good tonic for the ill-will I was feeling to the world. Amazing how 10 days can be such a vacillating roller-coaster of thought. Joining the tour and eliminating all of the daily craziness of planning and, more importantly, implementing travel from country to country certainly has been the right choice. After the pinnacle of adrenaline was summited rafting Grade 5 rapids on the Nile, the fear of drowning on the craziest rapid, Silverback, was a slippery slope in which the bottom was only narrowly avoided. Having since acquired that as my nickname on the tour, I am even more confident that humor can heal almost any situation. It also proved to be foreshadowing something great. Being face to face with a real silverback gorilla deep in a Rwandan rainforest should be a requirement for all. The feelings that you envision having during the $600/hour are so lacking in what becomes an overwhelming sense that the world has stopped. To stare into the eyes of a 800 lbs animal that could rip you in two, at only 3 to 4 feet from yours is beyond description. The cost turns out to be one of the best bargains on the planet, and a memory that no souvenir could possibly match. Still mesmerized by the thoughts of standing in the middle of 38 mountain gorillas of the Rwandan clan "Sousa," we moved on to Kigali where walking through the Rwandan Genocide Museum took me on another immediate change of feeling bordering on despondency and shame. For as much as I had pawned it off as "just another example of African tribalism" so recently experienced first-hand in Kenya, I realized that history writes a vastly different picture of the root causes. Leaving that aside, the atrocities that were committed were every bit as grotesque and abhorrent as "the" genocide, yet it isn't even on the map of our conscience. Guess it is "just" Africa. There is something about seeing things for yourself, live and in vivid color that changes you and your views so greatly and abruptly.

Just as abruptly, however, is how fast this trip moves along and forces a shift in focus. No sooner than I completed wrapping my mind around what I saw than I realized I was on our tour bus staring at 40+ elephants grazing about Lake Manyara NP. If I was "checking off" things, I would need more boxes at this point. And, I have yet to reach the Serengeti.

Life has been a whirlwind. It is what I signed up for, expect and yearn for when its not happening. It is an amazing experience when you get exactly what you want. And more...

Kili, Kenya, Cathy, and Silver Back

Well, I am glad that the internet computers, and all other electricity, went out during my blogging 2 days ago. That is because yesterday was absolutely amazing. And, painful.

But, first, Kili. Well, I certainly got exactly what I bargained for. I was expecting one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I got that and more. The 6 day hike began with our "team", which consisted of our porters/cooks/servers, 3 to a climber, and then Wilson, our guide. Our porters put our packs, their packs, the food, water, tables, chairs, and I'm sure a sink somewhere in there as well, right up onto their heads and/or upper backs and literally ran up the hill. We were paced by Wilson, to help our acclimatization. Wilson is a 60-year old, senior guide, who has been climbing Kili for over 18 years. He claims we were his 902nd group he has taken up the mountain. As, he was huffing and puffing just minutes into our walking, we had our doubts. All of us actually looked at each other and asked if he was going to make it up the mountain. He did. We camped at proper camp sites, in tents, and were fed "gourmet" meals of chicken curry, fresh fruits (esp. mangoes...), porridge, tea, coffee, etc. etc. Quite a bit above what I was expecting. There were hard days and then there were harder days, but with Wilson pacing us, I felt pretty fresh at the end of every day. Mark and Tracy were the other two people in my group, and they experienced headaches and a bit of nausea and appetite loss; signs of altitude sickness. Thankfully, they were only mild. We arrived at the last camp and prepared for our summit push, which would start at about 11:00 PM to allow for a sunrise on the summit. Well, we did exactly that, but were immediately caught in a major blizzard. January is summer and "the best time to climb Kili". We found about 80+ mph winds and major snow. We battled for about 4-5 hours, but due to the extremes, we had to turn around or we would have come back with fewer appendages. I had minor frostbite on my fingers, basically just really rough skin, that has since flaked off. We got back to camp at around 6 or 7 and fell into our tents. We woke up at about 09:00 to crystal blue skies and sun. I asked what the chances of getting Wilson to try it and he agreed pretty easily. Mark was spent, so he declined, but Tracy decided to give it a go. We all set off. Mind you camp was about 15,000 feet, higher than anything in North America. We plodded up the slopes at Wilson's pace. Around16,500 or so was the level where I started to really feel the altitude. By 18,000' I was literally using accessory muscles, gasping as deeply as if I had just popped out of a pool in which I had held my breath for 2 minutes... every 5-10 steps. We made it to Stella's Point, the second highest peak on Kili, just 300' feet or so below the true peak. We took pictures and got congrats from every one there. But, Tracy started to vomit horribly and she definitely had to get down. I waffled about going the extra 45 minutes to the peak, but decided knowing I could make it was enough. We all went down as quickly as we could manage. Tracy stopped vomiting the next day, and in all, it was one of the best things I have ever done, and certainly the most physically demanding. Knowing what high altitude does to me, I have my doubts about Everest... 19,000'+ will be enough for me.

As for Cathy and Kenya, I am sure you guys know that there is still violence happening. I have not been able to get in touch with Cathy or her family for some the past couple of weeks. I will obviously continue to try for updates. Prayers will suffice for now.

And now on to Silverback and my tour. I have started my overlanding tour, which is basically a huge 4x4 trucks specially outfitted to carry a bunch of people to all the sights of Africa. Mark and Tracy are still here, as well as another 12-13 people from Canada, NYC, Britain, Japan, Cyprus/Turkey. Others will join in a few weeks. Our first stop, after our starting point re-routing from Kenya to Uganda, was Jinja. Jinja is Uganda's adventure sports mecca, and it is well-deserved. Here is the beginning of the Nile. Here is major white-water rafting. Oh yeah!
Grade 6 is the most extreme and can only be done non-commercially. Grade 5 is over-the-top nuts, done to Grade 1 which is like the log ride at an amusement park. In a raft of 6, plus our river guide, and numerous kayak rescuers, we set out for a full day of rafting the White Nile. We hit a couple of Grade 2 and 3's and we were primed, excited and fully oblivious to what awaited. The first two 5's were awesome, huge crests, whirlpools, and crazy speed. Super-thrilling. Then came SilverBack. Each graded rapid gets a name, and this one was appropriate. There were 4 consecutive parts to this section, each crazy by itself. We made it upright in our boat through the first 0.3 seconds of the first wave before being shot out of our boat as it flipped crazily. I was sucked under the water for what felt like about 15 seconds, though I was told beforehand, that the max recorded time ever was only 12 seconds. While underwater, I met that big hairy gorilla's fist about 20 times, being spun end over end and then around and around, being sucked this way then that, all in pitch blackness with no end in sight. Then, just as they said, I was shot out of the water. I gasped for a breath and was met with the next wave. After asking what I did in life to deserve all of this, I then realized my kayak safety guy was there to save me. He pulled me to the waters edge, where it was calm and I slowly recovered my breath. It was then that I noticed I couldn't hear very well. When I banged my head to the side, water came from my nose. As I thought that peculiar, I tried the other side. Normally if I have a problem that is symmetrically bad on both sides, I feel better thinking that, as a set, it must have been there all along. But, with river Nile exiting my nose, I concluded that this was bad. After SilverBack we had an easy 6 km on the water to eat lunch and relax with no rapids. My right ear cleared mostly, but my left ear still had a bit of residual muffled-ness. So, I carried on with a couple more 4's and one last 5, in which of course, we flew into the water again. It was on this one that I got smacked by the boat across my nose. I only am scrapped a little, nothing big. At that point it started to hurt, so I abandoned the last Grade 5 and walked to the truck. Today, there is no more nasal-Nile thing going on, but I am still muffled in my left ear. I think it is going to heal fine after a few days, and this is what all of the professional rafters said. Something like severe swimmer's ear. Anyway, all of the rafting was videoed by a professional on the shore, and we got to watch it last night at the camp. It is absolutely nuts, the water we went through. It is absolutely one of the most fun things I have ever done. Added cool factor, is the fact that NO ONE will ever get to do it again after this season, as they are damning this section of the river for power. So, I am banged up, but smiling from ear to ear! We move on from here to Rwanda to meet a real Silver Back. I am really hoping this one treats me better than the first. We will also get to see the genocide museum, which I am really looking forward to...

Finally, though a bit vulgar, something that we laughed so hard at...

Our river guide would tell us and prep us before each wave, telling us what to expect and what to do, like "I will need you to paddle really hard to get to the wave" "the wave will take us this way" and "I want you to lean to this side of the boat" then "I will scream 'HOLD ON'" etc. etc. David, one of the brothers from NYC, said for SilverBack, the only orders should have been "paddle hard towards the wave, then stand up turn around bend over and grab you ankles..."

Kili

Well, this will be my last blog for a while, as I will be heading up Kilimanjaro's slopes tomorrow!!! I have no idea how being at that altitude will effect me, but if it comes down to will, I will see the top! I am pretty excited to say the least. I am viewing it as a great way to focus on the here and now of a difficult task, eliminate all of the worry and negative images of the past few weeks. I can NOT WAIT to see the sunrise at the summit. It really was/is one the main things I looked forward to before I started out. Talk to some of you from the top!