Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro

Jambo! This is the traditional Swahili greeting between trekkers and porters on Mt. Kilimanjaro.

One of the "must-do" adventures for us on this trip was to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain.

We chose to climb the Umbwe route, which is much less popular than the standard routes on Kili. In fact for the first two days, until we joined the Machame-Mweka route, we saw nobody else on the mountain. It's mandatory to climb Kili with a guide and porters; this was a luxury for us as we normally climb big mountains with heavy packs containing all our gear and food. Our guide and five(!) porters were excellent and made for a very enjoyable experience. They carried all of the gear and cooked super meals for us.

The first two days we climbed steeply up through tropical forest, and higher up through forests of giant groundsel. We saw colobus monkeys with their black faces and bushy white tails, who showered us with rainwater as they leaped from tree to tree.

The next three days we spent acclimitizing at around 4000m as we traversed eastwards around the southern side of the mountain in desert-like terrain. By now we had joined up with the main route, where there were a LOT of people, but it was all part of the experience, and we enjoyed exchanging "jambos" and thumbs up with the porters and guides. On average there are 3-4 porters per trekker, so the majority of people on the mountain are actually Tanzanians!

Although we had more high altitude experience than 99% of the other trekkers on Kili, we opted to take seven days to climb the mountain, rather than the usual six day, so as to be better acclimitized for summit day. This proved to be a very wise decision, as we felt excellent the whole trip, and moved much faster than any other trekkers on the mountain. We had several comments from other trekkers about how fit we looked, and we worried about leaving our guide in our dust!

We got a very early start to Canada Day, getting up at midnight on July 1 for our summit attempt. After a quick breakfast we were heading up the steep scree slopes at 1 a.m. Fortuitously, there was a full moon that night, which meant that we didn't need to use our headtorches at all. Even in the moonlight we could see Kili's sister peak, Mt. Mwenza and the classic volcano-shaped Mt. Meru over 50km away. We started at Barafu Camp at 4600m and climbed slowly but steadily for 4.5 hours to Stella Point on Kili's crater rim at 5700m. Once there, the hard part of the climb was over, and it was just a matter of traversing around the crater rim on hard-packed snow for 45 minutes to the highest point, Uhuru, at 5895m. We did this traverse in the pre-dawn light, watching a spectacular orange sunrise. We reached the summit at 6:24 a.m. On one side of Uhuru Peak we looked down on what remains of Kili's glaciers, a still impressive ice cliff. On the other side was the snow-filled crater. And most spectacularly, as the sun rose, we could see the pyramid-shaped shadow of the entire mountain silhouetted on clouds 3000m below us.

It was an extremely rapid descent, scree running all the way back to Barafu Camp, arriving in time for a second breakfast at 8:40 a.m. From there we descended down to a lower camp for the night, making for a 3000m descent, which our knees certainly knew about it!

The 7 Summits are the highest points on each of the seven continents. After topping out on Kili, for us it's 3 down (Kosiosko in Australia, Aconcagua in South America, and now Kili in Africa) 4 to go. Not that we're planning to do any of the other four!!

The next day we finished our descent from the mountain and returned to Moshi for a well deserved rest from our "vacation!" There was only one place in Moshi to celebrate our successful climb. We went for lunch at a restaurant called, believe it or not, Chrisburger, and had a Kilimanjaro Lager.

Zoe on a bridge in the tropical forest on our first day ascending the Umbwe Route.

Zoe amongst the giant groundsel

Zoe and Chris at the top of Barranco Wall, 4200m, with Kili summit behind us, while traversing around the southern slopes.

Chris at breakfast at Karanga Camp, 4000m up Kili, with the summit looming high above.

Zoe with the crater of Kilimanjaro behind her and the highest point, Uhuru Peak on the left-hand edge.

Climbers on the crater rim approaching Uhuru Peak at dawn.

Proof that we reached the summit. Certificates issued by the director of Kilimanjaro National Park.

If it's Tuesday, this must be Tanzania

Hello from Moshi, Tanzania. We're in our fourth country within a week. That's Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania if you're keeping track.

Apart from Victoria Falls, there wasn't anything else in Zambia that we wanted to see, so we had a long journey to northern Tanzania for our next adventure.

From Livingston we took a bus to Lusaka, Zambia's capital, a rather uninspiring place, we have to admit! Then we chose to take the train from Lusaka to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. It would have been quicker to take the bus, but travelling First Class in a sleeper compartment on the train was much cheaper and far more comfortable. In fact, we lucked out and had a four-berth compartment to ourselves for the entire 48-hour journey. The train ride proved to be a good way to see northern Zambia and southern Tanzania. We even got to ride through one of Tanzania's premier parks, the Selous game reserve. It was pretty neat to spot giraffes, wildebeasts, impalas and warthogs from the train. The train moved slowly and stopped at many stations, where there was lots of activity with people and goods moving on and off the train; women in brightly coloured dresses balancing huge loads of bananas, sweet potatoes, and all kinds of vegetables in trays on their heads, which they sold to passengers on the train. A truely memorable experience.

We spent one night in Dar es Salaam before catching a bus to Moshi at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. Dar is very different from the rest of Africa as it has a strong Arab and muslim influence, we heard the call to prayer from our hotel room. It's also much more humid; we had our first rain since arriving in Africa - a tropical downpour.


Our home for 48 hours, a First Class, four-berth compartment on the Lusaka - Dar es Salaam "Express" train. This train ride covered close to 2000 km (that's an average of roughly 40 km/hr!) and took us from central Africa to the Indian Ocean.

Travelling through the 'Z' countries

We're in Livingstone, I assume! Livingstone, Zambia, that is, site of the popular half of Victoria Falls.

Just before we went to Zimbabwe, we took a game drive and a boat cruise in Chobe National Park, our final stop in Botswana. We saw a plethora of animals; hippos, crocs and even a few lions snoozing in the mid-day sun. There were hundreds of elephants playing in the river; they looked so majestic. We thought we'd seen all the ungulates we could but we saw three new ones in Chobe: the sable antelope, the puku and the red lewche. We finally saw herds of African buffalo, so now we've seen "The Big 5"; Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Black Rhino.

From Chobe we crossed over the border into Zimbabwe. We weren't sure whether we'd visit Zim, but talking to the few travellers we met who'd been there it sounded pretty safe, especially around the country's premier tourist attraction, Victoria Falls. From our campsite we could hear the thunder of the falls. We spent a very wet morning viewing the falls from all angles; the spray was tremendous and totally soaked us. The power and amount of water cascading over the falls is amazing! In the afternoon we indulged in a little bit of nostalgia, by taking Afternoon Tea at the very plush, colonial-era Victoria Falls Hotel. Then it was back to reality and our $8/night campsite!

To cross into Zambia we walked over the 100-year-old Vic Falls Bridge. We were transported back in time as there happened to be a test run of the Vic Falls safari steam train going over the bridge the same time we did. This afternoon we're going to visit the falls from the Zambian side.

That's all for now. Our next posting should be from Tanzania. We've got a long journey ahead of us to get to Mt. Kilimanjaro for our climb there. If things go as planned we should be on the summit of Kili on Canada Day.

Grrrrr - Lions in Chobe Park, Botswana.

Mum & 1yr old baby elephant crossing the Chobe River

Hippos cooling off in the Chobe River.

A "Small" (according to our guide anyway) crocodile on the banks of the Chobe River. But more than large enough for us!

Just a tiny part of Victoria Falls, taken from the Zimbabwe side but all I could fit on the camera!

What Ho - High Tea at Victoria Falls Hotel.

A bit of nostalgia pith helmeted stewards on the steam train

Rainbows galore from the Zambian side of Vic. Falls

Botswana - Land of Hippos and Baobabs

Hello from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe! Thanks for all the comments on our blog - great to hear from everyone.

First, here's an update on our travels through Botswana. Since we last posted in Windhoek, we took an overnight bus to Divundi in the Caprivi Strip of northern Namibia. We enjoyed a restful day on the banks of the Okavango River, drinking Windhoek Lager while viewing crocs, hippos and elephants. At night we were lulled to sleep by bellowing hippos.

As soon as we crossed the border in Botswana and got on a local bus we felt welcomed by the Batswana people, they are so friendly, polite and honest. All the bus rides we took in Botswana, it felt like being part of a big family as we'd trade food and stories to pass the time. On one bus ride we had a quintessential African moment - as we were grooving to pulsating ju-ju music from the speakers, the bus had to pull over to the side of the road to let a herd of elephants cross the road! Even the locals were all excited at seeing the elephants.

We took an excellent two-day mokoro (dug-out canoe) trip through the Okavango Delta. We did a trip off the beaten path, through a community-run venture. It was just the guide and ourselves poling through the reeds and colourful waterlillies. The atmosphere was so peaceful and tranquil as we glided along, spotting elephants, hippos, zebras and a plethora of colourful birds including the jacana and bee-eaters.

We did take a break from local transport to rent a four-wheel drive truck to tour through the Makgadikgadi salt pans. Zoe had a blast at the wheel of this big vehicle careening through sandy tracks and flying across salt pans. These pans were amazing. We'd drive across the middle of them and see nothing but featureless landscape in all directions to the horizon. We camped on an isolated island on the edge of Sowa Pan. It was just us, granite boulders and baobab trees, in a surreal setting. We used our GPS to navigate around and were rather pleased to land dead-on, when we went to the remote Chapman's baobab tree, with it's 25m circumference.

A few words about how we're traveling. We're camping all the time and cooking for ourselves on our stove. In Francistown, in southern Botswana, was the first time we stayed in a hotel in 25 days, but it's so nice being outdoors all the time in this perfect weather. We're surrounded by animals and birds all the time. Also, we're constantly on the move. Vic Falls is the first place we've spent two consecutive nights for over two weeks. The other tourists we meet can be split into thee categories: 75% South Africans in their 4WD safari-mobiles; 24% overlanders in their huge overland vehicles on a two- or three-week tour, and 1% independant travellers like ourselves. We are almost always the only white guys taking local transportation.



Chris at the edge of Waterberg Plateau, Namibia. We hiked up into this 'Lost World' Plateau from the plains below.


Gliding through the reeds and lillies of the Okavango Delta in a mokoro.


Fish Eagle on the Okavango Delta.


Taking a motorboat deep into the heart of the Okavango Delta for our mokoro trip. We had a wild ride, hairpinning through the reed-filled waterway.


Zoe at the Swamp Stop Rest Camp overlooking the Okavango River, a cool place to chill out in the thatched-covered bar. Believe it or not, we heard 'O Canada' being played here, as the bar had satellite TV, and they were showing the F1 Grand Prix of Canada.


Zoe in our 4WD machine in the heart of the Makgadikgadi Park. That's as wide as the track got! The sand was so deep here that we barely moved, even in L4 mode.


In the middle of the salt pan - good job we had our GPS to find our way across.


Camping at Kubu Island. Just us, granite boulders and huge baobab trees.


Zoe in the middle of Chapman's baobab tree. This is one huge tree!

The Namibian Tour

First stop was the Naukluft Mountains which would be more aptly named Naukluft Canyons. We did 2 great hikes up & down canyons and across the plateau. We were lucky enough to see a heard of the rare Hartmann's Mountain Zebra while hiking.

We visited Namibias #1 tourist attraction the sand dunes of Sossussvlei. Hiking up the dunes was like climbing a snow arret in the mountains but hotter!

We drove across the Namib desert and down to Walvis Bay and saw pink flamingos in the lagoon, what a contrast from the desert!

From there we went to Spitzkoppe, a huge granite outcrop in the midle of the flat desert. It reminded us of Joshua Tree in California. Here we actually saw a Leopard! This is a rare creature to see especially outside of a National Park. We must have disturbed it from it's slumber as we hiked along the base of dome and we watched it climb up the dome.

Next stop was the Skeleton coast a very desolate stretch of coastline with no vegitation, water or wildlife what so ever. We saw more ship wrecks than cars the day we drove up the coast.

Etosha Park was our last stop, it's known for it's wildlife and we weren't disappointed. It was like a Noah's Ark procession at the watering holes! Some of the animals we saw were: Elelphants, Black Rhinos, hundreds of Zebras, Giraffes, Wilderbeests and Ostriches, along with many ungulates such as the rare Blackfaced Impala. We are now ungulate experts, we can tell Springboks from Gemsboks and Klipspringers from Kudus! On our way back to Windhoek we called into the Waterberg Plateau and hiked up the escarpment to the plateau. It is reminiscent of the Lost World series of books.

We're now heading up to the Caprivi Strip in north east Namibia and then to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Next update in a weeks time hopefully.
Zoe & Chris!

Zoe doing a chain assisted traverse above a water hole in a canyon in Naukluft Mountains.

Quiver Tree in Naukluft Mountains

Chris on Dune in Sossussvlei

Sossussvlei Dunes and salt pan

Flamingos at Walvis Bay

Walwitchis plant on Namibian Desert. This is a rare plant related to the pine tree believe it or not and only found in Namibia.

Our first Giraffe sighting at Palmwag in Damaraland

Road obsticals in Etosha Park, no zoom used here!

Burchell's Zebra in Etosha Park.

Arrived in Windhoek

Alright, we made it to Windhoek, Namibia! It was a 10-hr flight on a half-empty plane from London to Johannesburg, South Africa. We had 3 hours to kill at Joburg airport, so Zoe decided to see if she could track down an old friend who'd she lost contact with 15 years ago when she moved to Canada and he moved to South Africa. We found the only telephone directory at the airport and started calling all the "P. Middletons" listed. The third call was the luck one, and we found him! It was great to chat and catch up; too bad it wasn't a long enough stay to visit him.

Somehow we got bumped up to First Class for our 2-hour flight from Joburg to Windhoek and were royally treated. We even sat between two members of the Namibian parliament.

We're making a habit of leaving countries just before major sporting events. We left Ottawa just before the Sens reached the Stanley Cup final (I hope, they were up 3-0 when we left). We left England the day before the FA Cup final, and even passed by Wembley Stadium on the train on the way into London. And we left South Africa hours before the "rugby match of the century", the first all-South African Super-14 final between the Sharks and the Bulls. The Super-14 is contested between the best rugby clubs from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and an all-South African final would be like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between the Sens and Leafs, (if it were possible).

Windhoek is a pretty sleepy country town, not really like a capital city - even quieter than Ottawa. We've wandered around town seeing the oldest church and the Parliament buildings (photos to be added later). The weather is perfect - sunny and not a cloud in sight all day - a pleasant 20-25 deg C. It's very desert-like so it gets quite cold at night.

We've just finalized preparations for our two-week trip into the desert. We pick up our rental car at 9 a.m. tomorrow. We'll be out of contact for two weeks, but hope to have lots of good photos to share next time.

Longitude Zero: The Journey Starts Here

Where better to start our trip than at zero longitude at the prime meridian at Greenwich? We wanted to try out our new GPS that we had bought to help us find our way across the salt pans in Botswana. From Zoe's parents house we took a trip into London and visited the Greenwich Observatory. The photo is of us straddling the meridian one foot in both east and west hemispheres. By the end of this trip hopefully we will have straddled the equator too with one foot in both the north and south hemispheres!


With zero degrees longitude on our GPS we were 100m west of the Greenwich meridian, it's in the wrong place! The Greenwich Observatory needs to be moved!! We took a photo of our GPS to prove we were at zero degrees, zero minutes and zero seconds (see bottom line of the display)!



While at the Observatory we learnt all about the history of longitude and accurate timepieces not affected by the wave motion, so that seafarers could calculate their longitude and position at sea.


We also visited the maritime museum at Greenwich and walked along the Thames past the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.


We are flying to Windhoek, Namibia tonight. Because we'll be in the southern hemisphere tomorrow we'll wake up in winter but the weather network forecasts 20-25C and sunny every day in Windhoek! Just right for travelling! Next stop Africa!