Dar Redux

A bit of rejiggering of the timeline is necessary to pull off this entry. We have been to Dar es Salaam a total of three times in the past month, but we decided out of laziness to wait until the end to write an entry. Pretty sneaky, eh?

In any case, Dar is often spoken about as a haven for pickpockets and a denizen of the unscrupulous. Having spent some time here, we may have gotten lucky, but Dar has been a wonderful place filled with cheap South Indian eats and nice people. It may have helped that a guy we met in Hong Kong hooked us up with his friend James, who picked us up when we got into town and took us around for our first night out, as well as our first taste of the national dish, Ugali. Note to any Tanzanians who are reading this: move to the US and open an Ugali joint. We need it.

We felt really lucky to meet James and friends for an early introduction to Tanzanian culture and politics. Thus we were able to learn the two most versatile greetings in Swahili and accept that we'd spend the next month perfecting the important art of greeting people.

We spent much of our time in Dar winding our ways around the old city and enjoying the tightly packed streets of merchants, mosques and intricate mosaic work that can be seen on the most mundane apartment buildings. Perhaps the most striking element of our time in Dar was our coming to grips with what 'rainy season' actually means. At least twice daily, the skies would open up and turn all of the streets into raging rivers and seemingly spawn hundreds of young men selling umbrellas. As far as touts and street vendors go, umbrellas in the rainy season seems downright sweet. And, so too, Dar. Sweet.

-d

Narrow Streets, Sandy Beaches and Golden Fleeced-Rats

As a reward for making it to the top of Kili, we decided to spend a few days in Zanzibar enjoying Stonetown's streets and the beautiful beaches. The only downside is that Zanzibar is not exactly a haven for hard-bargaining, budget travelers. It is, in fact, a haven for some touts who may or may not be on doctor-approved drug cocktails. The effect is that when you emerge from the ferry into the terminal there are a host of guys with various twitches all representing the "official" tourist board of Zanzibar. They all work for "free" and they all would love to be your guide/hotel-finder. After some cunning duck and weave maneuvers we found a hotel and set out to tour the city.

Stonetown is a a strange labyrinth of narrow streets, crumbling buildings and the most ornate doors we have ever seen. The effect of walking around the old city is that you constantly feel lost and disoriented while simultaneously always finding your way. To add to the atmosphere of the streets there seem to be infinite small Arabic Schools where you can here children practicing their lessons or doing the call to prayer. Without a doubt, Stonetown is our favorite neighborhood so far on our trip. Plus, we were able to end our evening having a seaside drink at the bar named after (I would hope) Zanzibar's favorite son, Freddy Mercury.

As amazing as Stonetown was, the real goal of Zanzibar was to sit idly on the beach and stare at the water. In order to do this we had to by enough food to get by and screw up enough courage to attempt to bargain with the most reticent hoteliers that we had encountered so far. After a fit of haggling and attempting to grasp the concept of price increases for the low season, we settled into a simple room at Kendwa Rocks resort. As advertised, the beach is pristine and the water perfectly warm and clear. Things were looking good with our first afternoon's hammock time.

But, as readers may have come to expect, there is always another shoe waiting to plummet. This time, that shoe came in the form of an extremely large, very real, golden colored rat who crawled into our room through a hole in the ceiling. Luckily, his entrance was less than graceful and I was able to snatch our meager rations from him/her prior to losing our lunch and dinner for the next few days. A small game of chase and the rat left our room. The rest of the night was spent building makeshift traps to keep the rat's buddies from coming back for our carrots and tomatoes.

The next day we moved into the less stuffy, more affordable and seemingly rat-less dorms. The next 3 days became a wonderful muddy blur of hammocks, swimming and getting a bit sunburned. Quite a nice reward and a wonderful way to say farewell to the African leg of our trip. We hated leaving the beach but it was back to Dar es Salaam for 2 days and off to London.

-d

Lushoto, It's Rift-tastic!

After a brief stay in the quieter tourist town of Moshi, K and I decided not to make the immediate dash to the golden sands of Zanzibar and instead to take a quick trip to the small village of Lushoto in the Usambara mountains at the edge of the continental drift. Our Kili climbing compatriot Willa-Lee was on her way in that direction and we decided it sounded too good to turn down.

A bit of backgroun on Lushoto and the mountains... Germans did quite a little number to the region a bit over 100 years ago in an attempt to turn the hills into a combination coffee plantation/hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music-style alipine pasture land. The one problem was that the clay soil didn't really stand up to mass deforestation. So, basically, in a short decade the the entire region had been devistated.

Today there is some small scale farming that supports small villages, but there is a concerted effort to replant some of the endemic trees of the region and return the area in part to it's forested past. For us, this balance between village life and eco-tourist-y hiking opportunities was difficut to resist. Plus, when we arrived, we found a farmhouse with the greatest front porch/kitten combo we have perhaps ever seen.

So over the course of the 2 days, Willa-Lee, Kristi and I ducked the tourist office's (and miscellaneous local children's offers) of guided tours and proceeded to hike the local waterfalls and hills. Our first day bought us to the top of Irente hill and a spectacular view of the Continental Rift Escarpment and the Masai plains stretching out below. Spectacular doesn't begin to describe the view. But, in case the view wasn't enough, we treated ourselves to a picnic lunch at the nearby Irente Farms where we ate some of the best cheese and rye bread we have had in quite some time. Plus, our first taste of a cheese-ish spread called quark. If you are a physics junkie, please insert a particle joke here...

The second day was less successful than the first. The three of us took a wrong turn early and ended up far away from the intended Kisasa Falls. Luckily, an elderly man we asked decided to show us the way. We thought he would point us in the direction and go on his merry way, but instead he began bounding down shortcut trails while we stumbled after him. Following a good hour of accidental guide services, the gentleman pointed the falls out to us and explained, in broken English, that he had to go back and give his wife her lunch. We felt bad to have kept him from his rounds but truly appreciated the fact that he saved us from getting hopelessly lost in the mountains. God speed you agile man, you.

After a lunch of leftover cheeses and bread and a chat with the local "Hello-give-me-money" children's chorus, we ambled back to our porch to while away the afternoon rainstorms. Lushoto was just the out-of-the-way destination we needed after the tourist towns that separated our safari and Kili experience. Plus, with a few extra hikes we felt less guilty about sitting on the beach for 5 days staring at the Indian Ocean.

-d

Just Like Kilimanjaro Rising from the Serengeti, or How We Bumbled our Way to the Roof of Africa

Day 1: After a fitful night of sleep in which I dreamed that our porters were going to be evil, we were picked up by our team and taken to the office where we met our wonderful 11th hour addition to our hiking team, Willa-Lee Reid, a Canadian from Vancouver, by way of Edmonton. After intros and final formalities, we were off to the Machame Gate to start the climb.

One of the problems with researching, waiting and building the expectations for an event is that you start to believe the thumbnail sketch of how the hike will progress. So, when we started, I expected the first day to be a leisurely stroll up a gentle incline-a sort of warm-up for the difficult days. And, while the day did not turn out to be a monster, it was a little steeper than expected. The environment is absolutely stunning on this stage; lush rain forest with hanging moss off of every tree. In keeping with a hike through a rain forest in the beginning of the rainy season, it took only an hour of hiking for the rain to begin.

Day one also also served as an immersion in one of the central experiences of the climb. Hiking Kili is not like any other hike. You don't hike alone, you hike with 100-odd tourists and 600-odd porters/cooks/guides. The effect of this massive entourage going up a mountain is that you loose that intimate "commune with nature" vibe but gain a "we are all in this together" brotherhood vibe.

Day 1 Group: Day one we were joined by a group that would be known by our trio as "the Kathmandu-ians," but officially the Hollander family-Judy, Brian and Jesse. Though Americans living in Kathmandu, the three won the award for most inventive way to meet up for a trip with (if I remember correctly) Judy coming from Goa, Jesse from Laos and Brian from Rwanda. We had a wonderful chat going up the hill comparing all of the omens that seemed to align for our trip-though there was some debate as to the possibility of a full moon being on tap for our summit day. Put simply, Judy was of the opinion that whatever day we were to summit was the day that it would not be a full moon. Our group has to admit that we did razz Judy a bit for her anti-Pollyanna phrasing. But we kept up the optimism, believing the confluence of leaving on St. Paddy's Day, shortly followed by Good Friday, with a full moon thrown in for good measure would keep the gods on our side throughout the hike.

-d

Day 2: After a good night's sleep, and by that I mean the "going to bed by 8 pm in a wet tent to escape even more torrential downpours" variety of good night's sleep, we awoke ready for a solid 6 hour day of hiking. Day two was a bit more difficult of a hike--with much more scrambling up boulders and rocky ledges than day one's stroll through the rainforest. We also saw the terrain change on day 2 from lush rainforest to hardier cactus-like vegetation and the beginning of colorful ever-present mossy boulders.

Although we took our time--"pole pole," or "slowly slowly" in Swahili being the oft-repeated mantra of guides and porters as we made the steady ascent--we started to feel the difference that altitude can make. Even moving slowly, you begin to feel like you're not getting all of the oxygen you need and getting your breathing and heartbeat down to resting levels takes a bit longer than on a usual hike. And "pole pole" roughly rhyms with "Wooly Bully" which can get stuck in your head and drive you a little crazy. As a group, we tried to break up the "Wooly Bully" theme repeatedly, but it kept on coming back! I guess Sean Kingston isn't powerful enough magic...

Day 2 Group: Today we met Steve, a nearly 50 year-old Kiwi who had been planning the Kilimanjaro climb to coincide with his 50th birthday for as long as he could remember. At the end of day two, he was looking sunburned and worse for wear, but determined to make the summit on his birthday. Steve's birthday became another good omen for us all. His trials and tribulations of sharing a tent with a snoring South African who managed to keep not only Steve, but half of the campsite awake on night one, also gave us something to laugh about.

-k

Day 3: Day three was set to be the first of the hard days of the climb with an accent from 3100 to 4600 meters at "Lava Tower" and then back down to 3900 meters for acclimatising. The hike took us through the most varied terrain yet, starting with alpine scrub , passing through a lunar-like landscape up to some austere rock outcroppings and back down into a valley full of the most bizarre giant cacti that I have ever seen. Willa-Lee, Kristi and I were downright cocky after the 6 hours of hiking. While it wasn't an easy hike, we were told that this was going to be one of the hardest days of the 6. We finished without any of the altitude sickness that we were warned about, save for Willa-Lee's occasional headache. (Stay tuned for day five to see the three of us get our come-upance).

Day 3 Group: Okay, of the 100 odd tourists, we really enjoyed all of them. Well, all but a few. Needing an enemy, we (or maybe just me) decided on a group of 8 English university students who failed to say hi to us on a few occasions. Truthfully, they were fine people but I began to develop a somewhat imagined animosity for them. They would pass us in the mornings (often with there guide singing songs and seeming far too assured with the altitude and steepness of the climb) and we would spend the days passing and being passed by them. Stay tuned for day five when I rise above my pettiness and show what a big man I can be...

-d

Day 4: Day four saw the continuation of the lunar landscape and another day of mostly slow and steady climbing over varied terrain. Dennis showed he had the right stuff by scaling rock faces overlooking cliffs with grace and aplomb. Maybe he was delirious from the altitude, but his fear seemed to vanish and he might have even said it was fun! It was also the beginning of the truly slow shuffle uphill that would characterize the ascent day, where even the thought of moving your feet more than a few inches seems impossible. Ah, altitude.

After a stop-over for lunch, it began snowing, and we spent the next 3 hours battling the wind and snow to make it to our cold and rocky campsite at 4600 meters.

Day 4 Group: Today we met Dean, who like Willa-Lea was from Edmonton. Strange coincidence? Shortly after, we met Lindsay--yet another Edmontonian. We began seeing conspiracies and worried about the dissolution of our team, until Willa-Lee introduced a new team name, "BC/ DC," and thus our fear of abandonment and team spirit were restored! Plus, nothing builds team spirit like making an enemy out of a friend, which was easy when we saw that Dean was served a hot lunch instead of our cold boxed lunches! We decided to forgive Dean and since we kept about the same pace, got a chance to chat some more with him on the climb that day.

-k

Day 5: Summit day. So this is the day that seemed romantic in theory but sucks in real life. Essentially, we were supposed to catch a few hours of sleep, awake at 11pm and begin climbing at midnight by moonlight. Trying to sleep was impossible for me. Just the idea of the 4000 odd feet I had to climb in a few hours negated the restful state necessary for sleep. Plus, realizing that the constant rain-sleet-snow-ice-fog-icy rain of the four days had reduced all of my warm gear to various levels of dampness made me a bit panicky for a midnight, sub-zero trek.

But at midnight, sleep or no sleep, we set off for the summit. We all had our headlamps on but soon realized the full moon and the thin altitude combined to make the trail easily visible and quite beautiful. The opening few hours passed in a dream-like haze with the bluish light making it quite easy to stare at the feet of the person in front of me as we went up the trail. The only real memory I have of that stretch was a flurry of thunderstorms below us on the mountain lighting up the sky a freakish yellow orange. We all wondered if being on top of the tallest peak in Africa during a thunderstorm was the smartest thing in the world, but our guide, John, assured us it would be just fine.

All seemed to be going fine until about 3 am when we began the ascent to Stella's point. The hill does not seem to ever end. About half way up, I hit the first real freak-out of the entire trek. Trying to deal with the soaked layers of clothing, I decided (in a rush of supreme misjudgement) that it would be smart to strip off all of my shirts, turn them inside out and put them back on. Remember, it is well below zero, I'm having trouble breathing, and I am now shirtless. After throwing my clothes back on, my hands suddenly start to burn, then really burn, then really really burn then go completely numb in a manner of 10 seconds. I panic. Luckily, John and Richard (our assistant guide) do not panic and proceed to massage my hands and blow into them until I regain feeling. All the while, the two of then spoke in Swahili mentioning the nearest hut. I started to worry for the first time that I wouldn't make the summit. But pig-headedness may be my one saving grace. The idea of writing an entry and saying I was 1000 feet of the summit and had to turn around just pissed me off. So up we continued.

It's hard to exaggerate the absurdly slow pace of the hike to Stella's Point. The three of us were taking 6 inch steps in a shuffle pattern and getting ridiculously winded. After three hours of this shuffling, we got to the final bend and saw our first glimpse of the summit beacon. Here was when Willa-Lee had her first problem of the final day. As she described it, she could see the summit and thought that she was walking towards it but kept finding herself swerving off course.

Kristi, on the other hand recovered from being winded on the major accent and is probably single-handedly responsible for helping me make it to within sight of the summit as I had my second major setback. Seems that at nearly 20,000 feet the limited oxygen can make you hallucinate. And for me that meant small gold rodents darting all around me while I lolled my head like a drunken Stevie Wonder. Kristi, champ that she is, linked my arm and led me onward.

When we got to the final 500 feet, the critters went away and the adrenaline cleared my head. I have to admit with all of the dreaming, planning, frostbite, muscle aches, dampness, expectation and work, the only thing I could do was start blubbering, then laughing, then blubbering.

We stood at the summit for 20 of the coldest and proudest minutes of my life taking in the stunning blue glaciers, the view of all of the mountain and cities stretched out below us and the snaking lights of fellow hikers streaming up the ridge. We had finally made it and watched the sun slowly rise from the roof of Africa.

Group update: It was a full moon, and we loved mentioning it to Judy as we passed the Hollanders on the way down and gave them some encouragement.

Steve made it to the top with everyone we talked to agreeing that they got a little choked up when they saw him near the summit. Happy birthday, man!

The Eight English Students reached the summit 5 minutes after us but, as a big man rising above the petty animosity of small people, I would record in the ranger log that we reached the summit at the same time-6:15 am. Let those English naredowells believe that they can bask in the reflected glory of team BC/DC. But, we will all remember (with all due humility) that we reached the summit at 6:10am, now didn't we?!

Dean seemed to be planning to mug us just short of Stella's point as he stood trail side-unmoving in the shadows. Creepy, or maybe it was just the altitude. He did make it to the top shortly before us, even though he looked like he was about to pass out as we passed him on the trail.

Other friends of BC/DC: Collin, our Irish trekker who had some real problems on day four (headaches and vomiting) rallied and summited right behind us. We were really happy for him.

Adie, the snoring, loud-mouthed South African who shared a tent with Steve (and had a birthday the night before the summit) made it to the top after his guide (who had endured Adie's taunts throughout the hike) relished goading him on for the final kilometer.

The Norwegians, who were quite nice throughout the hike, also made it.

-d

Day 6: I guess it's not surprising that we didn't mention the rest of day 5, because everything after the thrill of the summit seemed to pale. Plus, the days bleed together when you wake up at midnight! It did turn out to be a 12-hour day of hiking, including a three hour straight descent through almost fluffy volcanic ash, which was a pretty thrilling, ski-like experience. We followed that by a one-hour nap and some soup, and then another three-hour descent--this one much less ashy, and much more toe-crushing.

After a well-deserved night of sleep, we set off for our final, day 6 descent. The entire day served as a reverse order review of all the landscapes we had seen. The only difference was that the way up took 5 days, while the downhill took 6 hours. We finished day 6 with a comfortable walk through the rainforest down to the main gate where we received our "diplomas" for reaching Uhuru peak. After a small lunch and bottle of Champaign provided by the company, we went to the nearest hotel for a long awaited shower and and an even longer awaited dry and warm bed for sleeping.

Day 6 Group: We got to say goodbye to the Hollanders and got to continue hanging out with 2/3s of the Edmontonian crew, Dean and Willa-Lee for another day in Moshi. Sadly, we did not see Steve to wish him a happy half-century.

We finally had to say goodbye to our crew, or our "entourage" as we affectionately referred to them. Other than our guide, John, and our assistant guide for summit day, Richard, without whom we literally would not have made it, we were rolling with a crew of 6 porters and our amazing chef, Joachim. It should go without saying that doing a 6 day mountain climb requires a lot of preparation and equipment--and fortunately for us, our entourage took care of all the details and allowed us to just think about the climb one day at a time. We were constantly amazed by how the porters on Kilimanjaro were able to balance heavy loads on their backs, heads, and shoulders, and nearly run past us every day, managing to have camp and meals set up as we hauled ourselves up the mountain. In short, they're the reason that rank amateurs like ourselves were able to succeed on this climb--thanks guys!

-k

Safari: Episode 4

After so many different types of landscapes, from lava fields and deserts to lush rain forests and swampy lakes, to grassy plains, we were shocked at the beauty of the massive caldera. After a 600 meter decent down muddy roads, we emerged into the crater's emerald green landscape. The first thing we noticed was the dense pink line of flamingos that were arrayed along the edge of the lake. The green grasses make it easier to spot wildlife, and it wasn't long before we spotted one of the elusive 'big 5'-- a black rhino. We saw three rhinos that day of only nine that stay in the crater. We saw a solo male lion that was causing some disturbance among the grazing wildebeest and thompson's gazelle. And we saw some sacred ibis and hippos on land, as well as solo male elephants, a phenomenon that only happens in the crater.

We had a hair-raising drive out of the crater trying to beat the worst of the afternoon rains, with lots of sliding along the narrow and recently packed clay roads. Safaris are supposed to be an adventure, right?

On the drive back to Arusha safe and sound, we stopped at the world-famous archaeological site Oldavi, one of the most significant sites for tracing human evolution. Pretty cool. After all the excitement, we decided to rest for a couple of days before part two of our big African adventure--climbing Kilimanjaro. We start the six-day climb tomorrow--wish us luck!

-k & d

Safari: Episode 3

We woke very early in the morning for a drive through the Serengeti. Although we weren't optimistic about seeing many animals because we were north of the great migration, we still saw thousands of grazers. We came across a huge herd of zebra, slowly cuing and winding their way south. We also saw wildebeest (oddly cute), who like to co-mingle with zebras to enhance security. Apparently wildebeest have the good hearing and zebras have the good eyesight in the relationship. We were really excited to see three female lions roaming around the bush in search of some shade. They seemed pretty non-plussed by the vehicles and the tourists snapping photos as they wandered about. Later in the afternoon, we saw a second group of three female lions. We miss our cats.

In late afternoon, we drove out of the Serengeti to the adjacent Ngorogoro Crater conservation area to set up camp on the rim of the crater (technically a caldera). This campsite was overrun with giant stork, who look like creepy old men. It also seemed a favorite spot for elephants and zebras to walk through.

After dinner, we were honor-bound to buy Julius a drink for being the first of us to spot lions that day (of course, we didn't argue his advantage in having the radio where guides are cluing each other in about where the animals are). We drove to a local bar that caters to drivers and rangers and had a beer after a long and dusty day. After a fun conversation about American politics--George W recently paid a visit to Tanzania and every African we've met is really excited about Barak Obama even if they don't really consider him black-- we drove back to camp. This was the impromptu night safari part of the trip where we saw water buffalo really close for the first time (we almost hit one in the road), as well as zebra, giraffe, elephant, and mongoose. Did we mention there are a lot of animals to be seen?

-k & d

Safari: Episode 2

On the second day's drive to the Serengeti, Julius gave us the option of taking the direct route, or the longer route through the great rift valley and past an active volcano and many Masai tribe settlements. We decided on the second route, and to our surprise the active volcano decided to erupt just as we passed it. What was wondrous to us just seemed to disappoint the villagers near the volcano who have lost a lot of grazing land and tourist business because of the volcano. Volcanoes: cool but inconvenient.

Anyhoo, the drive was long but worth it. We arrived at the gate of the Serengeti in late afternoon, and made the slow game drive south to our campsite. Serengeti is the Masai word meaning "endless plains." It's hard to describe how vast and endless the Serengeti seems. With the exception of a few acacia trees, it seems like you can see the curves of the earth at the ends of the tall grasses that surround you. It's perfect grazing land for many antelope. New varieties we saw included grant's gazelle, thompson's gazelle, topi, hartebeast (unofficially the ugliest antelope), waterbuck, and steenbok. We also saw herds of zebra and wildebeast, stragglers in the great migration, which was mostly south of where we were this time of year. We also saw some warthogs--strangely endearing, as well as Julius' favorite animal.

After a long day's drive, we pulled into the campsite, which was the most primitive of all the campsites. Shortly after the sun set, we realized the reason for all the signs warning people not to stray past the camp circle, as we glimpsed jackals and heard lions roaring not far away. Strangely, falling asleep wasn't difficult, but Dennis did hesitate about getting up to pee in the middle of the night.

-k & d

Come on and Safari with Me: Episode 1

We spent two days in the small city of Arusha, dodging people who were desperately trying to sell us safaris, batiks, gems, or whatever else in the low season. In short, Arusha has all the lack of charm of that other tourist town, Siem Reap, but none of the delicious fruit shakes. But rather than focus on the glue sniffers, touts, dusty streets, and other negatives, we should focus on the wonderful four-day safari that we booked in Arusha.

Day 1: We drove from Arusha to Lake Manyara National Park, which is famous for its migratory birds and lions that sleep in trees. When we started the safari, we had no expectation of how many animals we would be able to see, so we were ecstatic when we first saw a troop of baboons. Slowly driving through the park, we soon saw vervet and blue monkeys, impalas, giraffes, and hippos. Our driver and guide, Julius, was really great at spotting animals from a distance and then driving up for a closer look. We got very close to some families of elephants, which was really exciting. We also caught a glimpse of an animal we never knew existed--the dik-dik- the smallest and likely the cutest antelope, which we would see many more times along the safari. Although we're not hugely excited about birds, we saw several beautiful varieties of birds, including many herons. We didn't see any famous but rare lions in the trees, but we did see another rare sight--giraffes laying down. From a distance, they look a lot like Loch Ness/ Lake Champlain monsters.

At the end of the day, we drove back to our campsite (did we mention we did the cheapest camping safari possible?), where our amazing cook, Zacharias, had a great vegetarian meal prepared for us. Though we chose the most budget safari option available, we were continually surprised by the variety and creativity of the food and the general comfort of the camping experience. From what we could gather from other, more expensive tour groups, the only difference between our tour and a 'luxury' camping safari is that they get flutes of champagne as they drive around, which generally makes someone look pretty foolish anyway.

-k & d

Riding the Tazara Rails

When planning our trip through Africa, we had always kept a little gap in the 'how are we going to get from Zambia to Tanzania' column. The information online is scant at best with a combination of horror stories about busses, chicken buses and trains. The basic gist of our earlier research into the (in)ability to get from Lusaka to Dar Es Salaam was the each mode of transport would breakdown or crash. Every time.

So, we figured we would wait to ask the locals for advice. Luckily, the word on the street was that the train, while slow, was actually pretty nice. So we booked passage on the Taraza 'express' line for a two-day ride on the rails. But, when we got to the train station, we were informed that Kristi and I could not stay in the same 4-person cabin. Seems the rule is that a brother and sister are the only mixed gender pair allowed to cohabitate. No aunts and nephew, No grandfather and granddaughter, No husband and wife. So we slept in seperate rooms with people not related to us. Thanks Zambia for keeping everything tidy.

Once we got on the train and settled in, we discovered what would be our home for the bulk of the 46 hour journey, the lounge car. The lounge car was appointed with red couches that would have looked at home in any college housing, fake wood paneling and the nicest bartender-waiter combo-team ever. After settling into the coed lounge car, we met up with some fellow travelers, Libby and Matt, who had recently been asked by the Peace Corps to kindly leave Kenya for their own safety. Glad we changed our tickets out of Nairobi. We spent the next day and a half playing cards, looking at the beautiful scenery and chatting about our travels. Seemed a lot better than a 50 hour bus ride with no A/C and our luggage on our laps, that's for sure.

During our research prior to the trip about the train, the chief advantage was that the rail line passed through one of the better game reserves in Africa. And so, on the day that we pulled into Dar, we got our free 2 hour safari. Watching eland, ibyx, antelope, aardwolf, water buffalo, warthogs, baboons and, Samango monkeys, without ever getting up off of the couch was pretty darn amazing.

-d

Lusaka, J-town, No Pictures Allowed

Lusaka, apart from being the capital of Zambia and containing the tallest building in Zambia, is the only place to get a guaranteed Tanzanian visa. Getting one on the train at the border seems, by all accounts, “difficult.” So, we decided to spend a few days here getting our paperwork sorted and exploring the city.

As we have discovered all along this trip, it helps to know a local to get out of the Lonely Planet rut. Enter Jonathan Kays from couchsurfing.com. He graciously invited us to stay with him for as long as a month . Although somewhat short of a month, we spent five days with the ever-busy Jonathan showing us around the city and even introducing Kristi and I to his family. We have had the opportunity to hang out in compounds with Jonathan, go to nightclubs, meet many new people and generally have a city experience unlike any yet on this trip. The opportunity to see the full range of the city experience, from ghettoes to shiny new shopping centers and feel welcomed everywhere has been quite heartwarming. Plus, in a strange turn of events, I ended up seeing a gentleman that I met playing pool in Linda compound the night before at the bus station (15 km away) the next day. So, even in a city with over a million people, sometimes it can still operate like a small town.

One note of caution for visiters to Lusaka, DO NOT try to take a picture of the tallest building in Lusaka from the parking lot of the Citibank building. A bullying, yet unarmed, man will drag you to a sweet man with a submachine gun to let you know (after perusing your goofy vacation photos) that pictures are off limits. Nothing like a grinning man with a shiny gun cutting you a break for photographing landmarks.

-d

Victoria Falls, It’s Outta Sight (or The Zim Zam Shuffle)

When planning this trip, one of the places both Kristi and I were most excited to see was Victoria Falls. I'll get one thing out of the way first, it is amazing. We were lucky enough to arrive in the middle of an especially bad rainy season upriver along the Zambezi. The upstart of this is that the experience of the falls is less about just looking and more about being in the falls. Any attempt to prevent a full soaking is a joke. The ponchos, they do nothing. The falls split Zimbabwe from Zambia which affords the opportunity to get two distinct views of the falls.

Zimbabwe Side: First off, Zimbabwe has not experienced the best political, social run in the last few years. Strong arm/corrupt leadership combined with a staggering 6000 percent inflation rate has made the town of Victoria Falls into a ghost town. What once served as the hub of tourism is now a crumbling small town with children attempting to sell or barter crafts with the few tourists who do come through. Not that there is a upside of political and fiscal turmoil, but one of the effects is that the park that contains the falls view is nearly empty allowing a particularly unhurried experience.

The Zimbabwe side allows more unobstructed views of smaller parts of the falls. But when I say smaller part of the falls, here that measns the equivalent of, say, half of the horseshoe section of Niagara Falls. The Zim experience of the falls is much more about short walks through the woods to various viewpoints. At least two of those viewpoints provide a royal soaking from the the falls spray. You would think that there is no real difference between types of soakings. But Zambia would teach us how wrong that is.

The Zim Zam Bridge Shuffle: So to get to the other side of the falls, you have to walk about 2 km across a bridge (with its own wonderful view) to get to the actual border. The experience is truly unique due to the line of trucks caught in limbo between the two countries for-we found out-up to 3 weeks. That's right. If you are transporting, say, a truckload of wicker lawn furniture from Zimbabwe to Zambia, you may be sleeping at the edge of a bridge for 21 days while officials decide whetther or not to allow your wicker bounty to pass.

For Kristi and I, this over-officiousness manifested in a rather protracted border crossing. Because of our country's recent ability to piss off the entire world and make it impossible for others to visit the US, other countries have begun to exact revenge by raising Visa fees by insane amounts. Entry to Zambia used to be free (mere months ago when we budgeted our trip) but is now $135. And, no matter what the Zambian information website says, they do not take South African Rand. They only accept payment in US dollars. We did not have enough US dollars to get both Kristi and I into the country. So, after briefly thinking of ditching Kristi at the border, I had to go into town and change money from South African Rand into Zambian Kwatcha and back into U.S. Dollars (the only way they will do it). Once I sprang Kristi we could make our way to Livingstone and later the Zam side of the falls.

Zambian Side: On this side of the falls, there are far more vantage points to see the entire falls. And, rather than going from viewpoint to viewpoint you walk along the edge of the falls. Because of your proximity to the edge, the spray is like being in a torrential downpour. Just at the point when you think no more water can possibly hit you, you come to a bridge that goes over a small portion of the falls to an island in the river. To give an idea of the insane spray, the water flowing down the incline of the bridge was at leat 4 inches deep and absolutely rushing past. There were moments on the bridge where I thought that the falling water would physically push me backwards. But honestly, the euphoria of being in the midst of such awesome natural power makes it all worth it. As Kristi said, it was like being in the most insane thunderstorm without the fear of being struck by lightning.

Either Zim or Zam, the falls have been one of the most amazing things we have seen on our trip. And unlike Niagara Falls (which has its own sleazy appeal), there's not a casino or laser light show in sight (and likely won't be for the forseeable future).

-d

South Africa: Electrofied, Poolside, Razorwire Delight

So the news from South Africa that peppered the main section of the paper we read on the way to Jo'berg was not the most reassuring. Page after page of luridly described crime reports were interspersed with political scandals. We weren't optimistic. Landing at the airport didn't exactly raise our expectations either. The airport is in the middle of, what appears to be, slapdash renovations with signs posted everywhere (including Customs) saying that the police were not responsible for your safety. Not optimistic.

But once we got out of the airport, the surroundings take on an entirely strange feel. My best analogy is that parts of the city looks like the fancy parts of Miami with the addition of electric fences and razor wire surrounding the manicured lawns and beautiful houses. Sun-drenched, post-apocalyptic architecture to be sure. But when we pulled into our compound, suffering jet-lag, we have to admit that the presence of a pool and the nicest room we had stayed in in quite some time was a pleasant surprise.

Since we were only in Jo'berg to connect to Victoria Falls, we were okay with just relaxing poolside for half of our time. It was nice to not have to run around and figure buses, etc out. But we did have one site that we were told was a "can't miss" and that was the Apartheid Museum. So we tore ourselves away from the compound lifestyle and went into town.

The experience of the museum begins when you purchase a ticket and are handed your identity card. Kristi was Non-White and I was European. So, we had to use separate entrances, received separate information, were treated differently. A powerful way to begin. The museum lives up to all of the good things we had read. It is informative and moving and the architecture is quite visually arresting.

After a brief tour of some of the poorer sections of town, including squatter settlements, we returned to our compound to finish off our South African sojourn by the pool. A tad schizophrenic, but I suppose that is one of the themes of the country.
-d

p.s. The photo is "Stretch," our poolside companion.