Sunday 28 September 2014

Kilimanjaro....Hakuna Matata!

Jambo!
Jambo bwana!
Habari gani? Mzuri sana!

Wageni, mwakaribishwa!

Kilimanjaro? Hakuna matata!


What do you write about a trip so different from any of our previous ones, such a culture adaption, such nice people and such (in our eyes) strange ways of climbing a mountain? Hmmm.... Well, the Internet being swarmed with day-to-day descriptions of the Machame Route on Kili, I guess that does not bring a lot of news. So therefore I decided to give a little insight into the things that really made a big impact on us and that we remember the most about our trek:





The amount of people
Here we mean both the amount of tourists venturing up this mountain as well as the amount of people working for you in your team.
Whereas we usually trek just by the two of us with about 13-15kg in our backpacks (even did so the other weekend, works just fine!) and being totally self supporting, here we really had to get accustomed to the thought of having a crew of 9(!) with us up the mountain. Apart from the mandatory guide and assistant-guide, our team comprised of a cook, a waiter (who is also a porter) and 5 more porters. All with various roles and responsibilities and hence their own spot in the pecking order.


The Rubbish
A place that’s crowded with people, both Mzungu and guides & porters, is bound to be prone to littering. Even though everyone has the obligation to also take everything down to the gate with them, in practice this appears hard to enforce. Most campsites are littered with plenty small items, like batteries, bottle caps, chocolate wrappers, plastic bags etc. What is at least as disturbing is actually the toilet paper alongside the route. Off course, few people would ‘survive’ a day long of trekking without having to make a ‘pit-stop’. However, every time we would retreat behind a stone by the side of the path you would find heaps and heaps of toilet paper all over the place. Now I hear you thinking: “isn’t it rather difficult and/or awkward to take your toilet paper with you after use?” Our firm answer to that is: No.
For example a very simple and hassle-free method for us has been to pack one of these thin sanitary plastic bags (the ones you would use to wrap and throw away ladies sanitary towels) into your trouser pocket every morning. After every pit stop along the way, you use as little paper as needed and put it straight into the bag. Tie a knot in the bag at the end of the day and put it with your camp’s garbage (your crewmembers will usually help).

Keep Kili clean!

The Food

 As our crew had told us that we should eat a lot because at altitude we would lose appetite, we took advice to hand and enjoyed all the food that was catered to us.
Can you believe that on a mountain in Africa, every day when you arrive in camp there is tea waiting for you with popcorn and biscuits. After a little rest you then can enjoy your 3-course dinner. And of course, the next morning, the mountain version of a full English breakfast! (At least with porridge, sausage, egg and toast). 
 
We never quite figured out when that loss of appetite would or should have taken place as we kept on happily stuffing our faces with all the goodness served to us while day after day we were being told: “It will come, you will lose the appetite”. In the end, on the last day on our way down we decided that the stuffing could stop as we'd only have to walk down to the gate, which was nearly misinterpreted by our team as that we were either not feeling well or disliking the food! (whilst all we were concerned about was the possible extra kilo's we put on our waists...)
High-altitude dinner-for-2 

The Altitude
It feels almost a tad bit arrogant to say that the altitude hardly bothered us at all. Largely due to our whole travel scheme being geared towards acclimatisation (having gone first on Safari to Ngorongoro (rim alt 2600m) and Mt. Meru after that (4565m)). On Meru we really felt the altitude going to the summit, but on Kili it was actually merely the last hour of walking from Stella Point to Uhuru Peak that felt heavy.
Walking at altitude is difficult to describe. In a way you feel a bit like a zombie: your limbs feel really heavy and sluggish making walking and keeping your balance quite a challenge. So you really need your mind to want to continue and keep you going, step by step. In a way it looks (and feels) as if you were to walk home after a very cosy night at the pub with one too many beers...;-)


The People
Within just a few days, you already really start to know the people in your team. And actually, honestly: it is the PEOPLE that make all the difference in the world. It is the memory of playing card games with them, joking around, talking and getting to know them in camp and them trying to teach us some Swahili (mainly food related). Learning about their ways of life, their families and why they climb this mountain. I will remember singing songs together in the dark during our summit night and swinging and dancing our way down to Stella Point again:

“poa kichizi kama ndizi ndani ya friji!”
Cool crazy like a banana in the fridge

Off course, Kili is so much more than that! The experience is really hard to describe. How magnificent the sunrise and sunset is at around 4000m and higher, how incredibly close you feel to a bright starry sky at night. The secret feeling of satisfaction when leaving all the other headlamps behind you on the summit push; the utter exhilaration when you finally see that bloody signpost “Uhuru Peak”, regardless of how smooth and fast or hard and gruelling your ascent has been. Oh my, what a mountain. I will dwell on this experience for some time to come and will forever be grateful for having met such nice, energetic and warm people as there.


Ahsante!

P.S. these and more pictures can be found on Facebook


Sunday 14 September 2014

Safari - Hey babe...take a walk on the wild side



Having waited almost a year for this trip, it was great to finally set foot in Tanzania and what an experience it was going to be... here the story of our 5 day safari (and yes, bear in mind that we already tried to be brief..)

Our ride for the coming 5 days
 1: Moshi – Karatu
The animals we saw were fantastic but the surroundings and people we saw en-route to Tarangire NP left the greatest impression. The contrast with our daily life couldn’t be bigger. During the day there are lots of people around the main road of which a large portion seems to do absolutely nothing but lean back on their parked motorcycle taking a casual nap.
Bizarre is also the difference between the Maasai cows grazing on the dusty shoulder of the road and the well-nourished animals of the National Park often surrounded by lush vegetation.




2: Karatu – Ikoma
Started at 08:00. Today was our transfer to Serengeti with game drive on the way. Our driver warned us that today would be a long drive. It took some 3 hours to drive to the gate of Ngorongoro park, drive up to and over the crater rim in order to go down again at another side of the crater. Then over a very “bad bad bad” (our driver’s words) bumpy road before we finally entered Serengeti National Park. After which it took another hour and a stop for lunch and some more paperwork (registration) at the park entrance, to at last get to a less arid portion where animals appeared in abundance we hadn’t expected.

'Pumba'

Male lion digesting his lunch..
Some of the highlights of today’s game drive: two male Lions resting some distance from their half eaten Buffalo-lunch; driving through plains covered with Zebra as far as the eye could see; and our favorites: Hippo’s residing in their “pools”, bathing, farting and making odd noises. These animals are gigantic but in some strange way also a bit cute...
Ikoma tented camp 


3: Maraa River- the Great Migration
Eating dust :-)
Michiel woke up with a Frankenstein-like eye: all swollen eyelids and a bloody red eye. (we’ll spare you the details about his eyelids sticking together with yellow mucus..;-) Turned out that standing with your head out above the jeep (the safari jeeps all open their roofs when in the parks) when driving 70km/h in a dusty  place like the serengeti does not neccesarily do your eyes much good, especially not when wearing lenses....

Anyway, today we would keep our head down a little more and set off on the search for “the great migration”. Our drive to the Maraa river takes us past Serengeti park offices at the old Ikoma military base, then further over a shear endless “bumps road” to Mugumbu where we turn right towards the gate of the Park. After passing the gate and driving another 30 minutes, we finally arrive at the Maraa River.
After an entertaining stop to help out a Land Rover stuck in the mud, we quickly find what we are after: Tremendous herds of Wildebeast waiting to cross the river. We watch in awe! The spectacle of the animals crossing the river took at least half an hour but felt like an eternity.

One Wildebeast lost it after failing to scramble up the other bank. After trying several times in vain, he turned back and crossed the river again. Back on the side where he had started he encountered the same problem and again turned. Reaching the middle of the river the Wildebeast seemed to ponder the situation, looking at both sides and eventually chose to give the bank he had initially come from another shot. At last, he climbed up on the bank and ended up exactly where he had started and had made the treacherous journey for nothing...  

Today I asked Isaac, our driver, about the Tanzanian school system. He told us a little about Foundation School, Secondary School and University. The first has school fees, with government support, of 150 Shilling/year ($0.10); the second 300 000 Shilling/year ($175) for public school or 700 000 shilling/year ($410) for private. As a result, he told us, most people do primary school. If your parents are poor, it probably stays at that. If your parents can afford it you will be able to finish secondary school. However, even though you might attend public secondary school, $175 is still a lot for a poor Tanzanian family. This started to explain the sight of so many people doing nothing in the villages; they just don’t have the knowledge or skills to do work or think of some enterprise.


4: Ikoma – Ngorongoro
Mesmerised! Not primarily by the animals today, rather by our visit to the Maasai. The welcoming visit we had, although commercially very attractive to them, gave a great insight into how these people live, even today in 2014.


The Maasai live a polygamous life. Each wife builds her own house, which the husband visits upon invitation. When I say house, I mean a clay hut no higher than 1.5m with two “bedrooms” (fitting just a bed of twigs) a central open fire and vented walls to let out the smoke. Male Maasai live a life most men only dream of: a diet of only meat (as they believe that vegetables should only be food for their cattle) and lawfully having several wives.
 
The contrast could not be bigger when we arrived at our lodge for the night: Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge, perched on the rim overlooking the crater, our room giving a full view of the crater below. Having seen the Maasai still living happily, more of less like they did centuries ago, the frills of a luxurious hotel seem completely ridiculous. The thought occurs to me that it would be interesting to live with the Masaai for a week of so... On the other hand, the hotel also has it’s basic side: in the evening the temperature in the lobby is 12 degrees C and the Japanese are having dinner in their down jackets...




5: Ngorongoro Crater
Got up early and met Isaac at 07:00. Driving down into the crater gave a magnificent view and we had a Jackal running in front of the car for several minutes... not the brightest animal.

Goal for today was to see a Rhino. Unfortunately we did not get to see one. Even though we spent quite some time staring at what might be a Rhino (or was it a Buffalo?) through binoculars, we decided to call it a day and enjoy some of the other animals in closer range

After four days we are getting noticeably blasé about the animals. Before Isaac gets the chance to ask “It’s OK?” we usually indicate that he can drive on. 
Guess it's time to return to the Logde and start preparing for our treks...
elephant with an itch

I scratch your back...you scratch mine?



Friday 18 April 2014

ijskonijnen goes dot com!

dear followers, we've got a new domain, a new layout but the same nut cases will continue blogging there. please go to:

www.ijskonijnen.com



Monday 10 February 2014

Venabu 9 Feb 14 - Trabeliafjellet

Sunday: low visibility and snow. One more small peak we haven't conquered: Trabeliafjellet. After the approach on the tracks it's difficult to see where exactly we need to head off onto the wooded slopes as the top is not visible from our current position. Once on the wooded slopes, immersed in deeeeep powder snow, it takes a good hour full of laughs to get to the top edge of the woods. 
Leaving the woods, the rest of the climb is easy but the weather is putting up a fight: extremely bad visibility. On reaching what apparently seems to be the top we are forced to track back on our own tracks down to the treeline. There we take a different route back, once again great fun: weaving over, under and around the snow laiden trees, a Fantasy Forest.


An Oger





Saturday 8 February 2014

Venabu 08 Feb 14 - Veslefjellet

Back at Venabu once again for a weekend of snow fun (it's raining in Oslo). The last few times we have collected quite some peaks around Venabu but until this morning we were still missing Veslefjellet. 

First few km's were cut after which we started plodding through some fresh snow. It turned out that Veslefjellet was not all that challenging to conquer but the views were none the less great! 

view from our room at Venabu

ascent to Veslefjellet

The Summit


Ice sculptures on the summit


sunset


Thursday 30 January 2014

Local Powder sugar

FINALLY It's been snowing quite steadily over the past week and a half  result: powder-sugar covered neighborhood and....Oslo marka. Recon mission last tuesday: 
Thickness: good (new skies on, only a very little twig here and there)
Consistency: loose (like beach sand)
Glide: mwah outside the tracks
Stickyness: mwah inside the tracks;)
Fun: huuuuuge! :-)


Tuesday 21 January 2014

Happy 2014!

Best wishes for 2014 to everyone! 


Kickstart of the new year with a weekend trip up to Venabu. We took a lucky guess to wait one more week before we drove up, which proved to be a good choice as the past week had steadily brought in new snow. Little or no wind made sure it was all still there, loose and powdery. Guarantee for knee-deep plodding, burning legs and breathtaking views.
saturday: the sun is giving it a try
Our sunday was an even more unexpectedly surprisingly fun and rewarding day. Deciding agains a posh-alpine resort we stayed around and had 2 unexpected outings. First we took along a group of guests of the hotel on one of their first round of cross-country skiing of their vacation. Surprisingly, even though their experience skiing was little, it did not take long before their pace actually made us break a sweat! Great, rewarding experience. 
The afternoon sort of escalated from a possible short round with our friend Robert, to a 'topptur' to Dynjefjellet. We made the hours and minutes of daylight left in the day count and plodded our way up (thank god for the short skins under our skies) and quickly down again. The descent was truly magical as we came down to a forest, with trees covered in a really thick layer of snow. Almost as in a fairytale. So quiet, so beautiful.  
See pictures below and some more under the links at the bottom of this post
sweat is weakness leaving the body, right?
Keep on rising....up to Dynjefjell
Dynjefjell - but nearly running out of daylight

fairytale forest

and deeeeep powder:)
See for more pictures and video: