Sorry I haven’t been on here in aaaaaages…I’ve become a bit lazy of late and really can’t be bothered when it’s a 35 degrees inferno outside :(
From the title of the blog, you can guess it’s about Kili. That slogan is EVERYWHERE and is an advertisement for Kili beer…they’re obsessed with it! We started climbing to the roof of Africa (Kili if you don’t know!) on the 5th May I think…6 days of absolute hell in which many of us wondered what the hell we were doing up there – but totally worth it for those immense views at the top. There were loads of glaciers everywhere and you could see right into the big crater as well as across to Mawenzi peak which looks much scarier and more jagged than Uhuru peak. Our guide, Jerry, tried to climb it when he was 18 with NO climbing equipment – made it 3 quarters of the way up but had to abandon it because it was too dangerous…he’s absolutely crazaaaay. Most of the days we climbed it didn’t really feel like we were climbing Kili, just a jaunt in the park really (well I say that now). Then on summit night we had to get up at 11pm and leave at midnight in the pitch black to go up a gigantic, massively steep scree slope which I thought we were certain to fall to our death on. Because there was hardly any light around us the sky was really clear and you could see all the stars properly, shooting stars being really quite frequent – totally out of this world. The path was quite zigzagged so at each corner we all thought – this must be the last one! But of course, there were about 200 other turns after that. It took us 5 and a half hours to get to Gilmans Point which is at the top of the steep slope – after that it’s much less steep but a bit more scary because of the sheer cliff face to your right which plummets into the crater. Nerve racking much?! At this point, my torch ran out of charge (makes a really annoying mosquito like noise when you charge it up and it may have cause a bit of annoyance!) so I kept falling over and had to be hauled up by Whitey and Joseph, our porters. We all felt dead at this point too and extremely sick from the altitude and making yourself walk up higher is just so mentally and physically exhausting. Enough of the bad stuff though…we made it to the top at 6.40am which was about 10 minutes after sunrise. Only spent like 10 minutes at the top because it was so cold and we just wanted to get down…did the obligatory photo and all that – I leaned against the sigh and one of the posts fell down. Oops! Was pretty awesome being able to say you were at the highest point in Africa (5895m), though I was too tired to appreciate it fully at the time.
You would think that coming back down would be a relief but I would say it was one of the worst parts. All we could think about was getting to the top but once that’s done, you realize you have to walk all that way again – quite soul destroying though we were all on quite a high. It was fun coming down the scree slop initially because you just kinda ski down it with your hiking poles, falling over quite a lot I must admit. Coming down we also met a woman we spoke to earlier, called Olga, who is the last person you’d expect to be climbing Kili. She had bleach blonde hair and great big long extensions, false nails and all that…but she was a complete daredevil. She was on business in Dar and just decided on the spur of the moment to do it all by herself…crazy I think and pretty admirable. She was quite a character and pops pills like nothing on earth – I think she kinda overdosed on the diamox (altitude pills) a bit too much, though she felt absolutely fine. All the way up on summit night though she was being sick and she was still going when we had got to the top and were coming back down. We never did find out if she made it L I reckon she may have, or perhaps just made it to Gilman’s Point which is pretty impressive in itself. It was rather nice coming back down and seeing people on their way up (not being mean or anything!)…just nice to be on the other side of the boat kinda. I feel really really sorry for those poor porters though climbing up with about 3 gigantic bags on there back and some of them with them on their heads! They are complete machines and utterly amazing. It’s a shame because they get paid hardly anything :(
Oh I forgot to say, our bus broke down on the way there and started emitting black smoke everywhere. We thought we were going to have to start the trek early but half an hour later, after it had cooled down, we got it started again. I was convinced it was going to blow up…luckily it didn’t. How many times have we broken down now? Like 5 or something!
When we got back down we had a biiig party for us Kili lot, Kira’s birthday and Dipesh’s graduation. In the afternoon we watched the goat we were eating being slaughtered and skinned and all that…not for the squeamish that’s all I can say. Believe it or not, they actually eat the goat’s balls and we tried some…revolting! Libs liked them..dunno how – they were all pasty and pretty tasteless. Not nice at all. Then, for some odd reason, we were each fed cake by a man and I got it all over my face, as did the others. Dunno why, but it was fun! Then we all had speeches and it was all a bit too emotional, never mind that we had climbed a mountain. Konyagi was much needed.
On to Dar es Salaam…..the journey took like 10 hours and gradually got hotter and smellier as we went. Dar is gigantic and the road is far to narrow for the traffic…it is like one gigantic traffic jam! There’s just people everywhere and it’s veeeeery dusty and like 35 degrees C. I have never sweated so much in my life. Lucas and Fidel (the cooks) seemed to have made their cooking much saltier…probably to make up for the buckets of sweat we have lost.
For the 1st week we were painting at an orphanage called Don Bosco. The manager of the place seems to have a lot on his mind and far too little money to fund the place. There are a couple of permanent volunteers there though who teach English which is good. The kids there are amazing…there is a particularly cute girl called Asinati who always has a pretty dress on every day and is always smiling or laughing :) And then there’s Micky who knows he is like the cutest kid ever and milks it for all it’s worth. Oh I miss them :(
Caught a daladala for the 1st time in Dar the other day..was absolutely crazaaaaay! Had to cross a gigantic road and find the right bus in the middle of like 100 other buses, not helped by all the men following you around trying to sell you stuff. We made friends with John, the bus conductor, who sat down next to my smiled and raised his eyebrows – creepy! Then said, “Telephone number”. His English wasn’t up to much but he did try. We got off to early so got drenched in the rain then he picked us back up and dropped us off right next to the house…so sweet.
Almost forgot! Drum roll please…..we saw Sean Kingston in Bilicanas Club the other night, at his after party after a gig. He stood eating a steakburger then proceeded to dance (or perhaps waddle) along to a few of his songs. He is like, the coolest man on this planet :P
We also went to a pub across the road where there was a Heineken beer promotion going on and there was a dance off between loads of women where they basically flaunted everything they had and had money thrown at them….slightly uncomfortable for us :S
Oh I cam down with Malaria on Sunday - was all quite exciting...not sure if that's the right word. We had a fun excursion to the hospital to have a blood test...it was quite basic but clean nonetheless. I didn't really feel that bad - just a fever. I kept my test paper to put in my diary haha! Just used it as an excuse to eat lots and lots of chocolate :) Can’t believe we only have 2 weeks left then Zanzibar then home! It’s gone so quickly but I suppose these things always do.
Miss you all,
Kwaheri xxxxx
