G's Africa Travel Journal

The Baranco Wall, Jump Shots & it starts to get cold!

grahammac — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 19:50:00 GMT

30^th August Day 4, The Baranco Wall, Jump Shots & it starts to get cold!

Altitude: Start at Baranco Camp @ 3840m, ie 485mmHg of O₂, 63% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 84%

Finish at Barafu Camp @ 4550m, ie 444mmHg of O₂, 58% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 83%

Max Altitude Reached: 4550m with my exercising SPO₂: 76%

Distance walked: ?? km

Total time: 7 hrs 48 mins with stops

After an early breakfast everyone was keen to get walking to warm up from the chill. Baranco camp is in the shadow of the mountain and it is a while before it receives its warming morning sunlight. After a short walk to the base of the wall we began to climb steeply. This was the steepest climb of the journey so far. I was really enjoying the little bit of the scrambling. We often had to stop to let porters go past. A couple in our group were a bit nervous about the height but if the focused on the looking at the wall and climb rather than down or back to Baranco camp they were fine. With the effort of the climb we were all soon striping off all the layers we had put on for the early morning cold. At the top of the wall we had a bit of a rest and water break. A perfect place to take a few “jump shots” with nothing behind us but the cloud base approx. 500m below us. Jen, Wavy Dong & I took a few too many pics and were a little close to the edge for Mo’s liking. It took us 1:33 to the top of the Baranco Wall.

After the wall we set off again with a bit of descent. We all began to despise descending as we knew we would have to climb all the descended meters again at some point. About 30 minutes after reaching the top of the wall poor Richard began to vomit. He had been struggling to eat and drink enough and that is tha last thing he needed. Nuru took his day pack with Mo carrying some of his water and we set off again. Marc had started to feel a bit better and was no longer needing toilet breaks as often. Again every meter of height gained, every meter further revealed another stunning vista. Too many beautiful places to stop and photograph all of them. We stopped for lunch at Barafu hut where the mess tent was set up. The hot soup was welcome as it was starting to get cold. Poor Richard once again ate nothing, he was losing a bit of weight and Kim was worrying she was going to go home with a scrawny wretch as a partner. Cuddling Richard would be like cuddling a bicycle, pedals, handlebars, spokes and all.

The climb after lunch was a slow drag up a gradual slope through the Alpine desert onto Barafu camp. Unfortunately on this stretch the evidence of previous climbers was there for all to see. “White flowers” of discarded toilet paper everywhere. And you had to tread carefully at every pee stop to avoid the piles of human excrement. After a while the walk leveled out for a approx. 1 km. We could now see Barafu camp in front of us with its long drop toilets perched on the edge of the cliffs. To our left was Kili herself, but hiding away behind a white table cloth of cloud. We slogged up the side of the cliff with Wavy Dong and Jen driving the pace. When we got to what we thought was the top, it was a false summit. Just like the nursery rhyme; “The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain and what do you think he saw? He saw another bloody mountain.” Davy struggled on that last few hundred meters which was very unusual for him as he had been so strong all trip. I felt good with the occasional bit of a headache, but as soon as I had a small sip of water from my Camelback it went. We reached Barafu Camp and were relieved to find our campsite near the Camp office where we signed in. We saw other groups climbing up to the office to sign in and then descending back down, perhaps 150 meters that they would have to re-climb on their way to the summit.

It was very cold at Barafu. Cold and desolate. We moved into our tents that the porters had already set up, put on lots of warm gear and had a rest before dinner. Good hot soup again for dinner with fried chicken and chips. After dinner we had a short briefing about our next stage – the trek to the summit which would begin that night. You could sense the excitement and the nervousness amongst the group. We agreed to make sure we were all on time for the 11pm start of the climb so we could set off immediately without standing about in the cold. We all went to our tents and did the final packing of our day packs for the assault on the summit.

I decided not to take my tripod for pics and use my daypack as a cushion/ tripod to save weight. I had 4.5 liters of water, spare gloves, energy gels, camera and 2 lenses, a can of Kilimanjaro beer and a miniature of Famous Grouse whisky which were for celebratory drinks at the summit. I had wrapped my 1.5 liter bottle of water in my Ocean Free & Freedom tee-shirt to stop it freezing. The tee-shirt was for pics at the summit – some free advertising for the boss. Davy & I went to sleep about 7:30 but I think we both just lay there and rested rather than slept. It was too early for bed and we were both excited about the summit attempt. I also had that feeling that I was going into a vital/ high profile rugby match or before a race. You knew you had a huge physical challenge in front of you.

Higher and Higher and “don’t shit in our toilet”!

grahammac — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 19:49:00 GMT

29^thAugust Day 3, Higher and Higher and “don’t shit in our toilet”!

Altitude: Start at Shira Camp @ 3840m, ie 485mmHg of O₂, 64% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 91%

Finish at Baranco Camp @ 3840m, ie 485mmHg of O₂, 63% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 84%

Max Altitude Reached: 4648m with my exercising SPO₂: 76%

Distance walked: 11 km

Total time: 7 hrs 30 mins with stops

We awoke early, again. I was feeling really good and the upset of yesterday was gone. It was a crisp clear morning and it reminded me of when I first moved to Scotland and getting up early with XV Para for training weekends. The morning just had that feel. I managed to get a couple of sunrise pics with the sun just catching the top of Mt. Meru as she poked through the clouds. Every day before breakfast and before dinner we were provided with a small bowl of warm water to wash. T was nice to wash face and hands but in the dust on Kili it was futile to try keeping clean. We all tried to keep clean to some degree but in the end accepted we would all smell as bad as each other and we wouldn’t actually notice the smell.

Just before we set off, we had a strange encounter with a Japanese lady. As we were standing there, rucksacks on, waiting to go, this lady marched up to Mo and said. “That is our toilet, don’t you shit in it!” Surprisingly for Mo he was lost for words. He just stood there, nodded, looked at her blankly and she marched off. None of us had any idea what that was all about? Each group of climbers had a little toilet shelter with a bucket in it for urination during the night. If you had to do a “number 2” or “drop a deuce” as the Canadians put it, you used the long drops at each camp. We had our own toilet and certainly no one had used theirs. However, we were to find out later after a confession that Richard had walked passed their toilet tent, and out of interest he had looked into it over the top. To his surprise, and that of a Japanese lady who was sitting there, it was occupied. So although we hadn’t used it, we had a peeping tom in our midst – Richard! As we walked, we passed or were passed by that Japanese lady’s group; they never said a word to us again. Oh well.

It was a beautiful walk this morning, a slow gradual slope up to a peak of 4600m. This was to expose us all to a bit more altitude before sleeping at Baranco camp at approx. 3900m. Not long in to the walk we had to stop for Marc. Unfortunately he had a bad case of D & V. That was the last thing anyone needs when climbing Kili. As we continued on we moved from the Heather & Moorland to the Alpine desert. There were no trees, minimal plant growth, just dust and rocks. We had lunch not far from the Lava Tower; a remnant from Kili’s volcanic past. I had made a plan that after feeling unwell at lunch yesterday, not to eat as much in one go. So, I had alreadyeaten half my lunch at the mid-morning break. I had the rest for lunch. I even managed to get a swap for my banana, as I don’t like them, for Elisa’s orange. A good trade in my view. Poor Marc was looking rough and couldn’t eat. Mo was doing his usual and lying down in the dirt at every opportunity. The weather was clear now and we could see the top of Kili as we walked. We could see some of the Glaciers and the ice on the sides of the peak. We stopped at the base of the Lava Tower and saw our first bit of wildlife of the walk, a 4-stripped mouse rat according to Issa.

After a brief break at the Lava Tower, our peak altitude for the day, 4668m, we set off again. A new experience, DOWNHILL! We had a leisurely walk down to our camp for the night at Baranco. As we descended we past more of Kili’s unique vegetation, Lobellia & Senecio kilimanjari. You can google them if interested as I cant get my pictures to load - I am writing this in Dar es Salaam.

Camp was another Beautiful location with Kili behind us, a cloudscape to the fore and on the side, the shear Baranco wall which we would have to climb in the morning. It was cold today at the camp, partly I think because it was sheltered and the sun was not on it for long during the day. We had a treat in this camp, a tiled toilet block. Still squat long drops but much cleaner than the previous. Only issue was not slip on the wet/ soiled tiles.

During dinner I took some stunning pics of the Milky Way above Kili. I kept nipping out during the meal to take another long exposure. Early to bed with the thought of the Baranco Wall to wake us up in the morning.

Kili reveals herself and First Taste of Altitude Sickness.

grahammac — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 19:44:00 GMT

28^thAugust Day 2, Kili reveals herself and First Taste of Altitude Sickness.

Altitude: Start at Machame Camp @ 2980m, ie 538mmHg of O₂, 71% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 94%

Finish at Shira Camp @ 3840m, ie 485mmHg of O₂, 64% O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 91%

Max Altitude Reached: 3905m with my exercising SPO₂: 87%

Distance walked: 6 km

Total time: 6 hrs 23 mins with stops

I had a relatively poor sleep as woke at 3am feeling slightly nauseas, but wasn’t sure if it was the altitude or the side effect of the doxycycline anti-malarials. But the feeling passed after half an hour. We rose at 6 am, had a wash and I had an interesting and energetic visit to the long drop. The door didn’t shut so holding it shut while squatting and the door swung backwards & forwards mid-squat made for a good quadriceps exercise first thing in the morning. After breakfast and we set off at 08:37 – not bad for us! Only half an hour late.

I was on doxycycline as an anti-malaria prophylactic. There are a large number of malarial prophylactics on the market and choosing the right one for depends on a large number of factors. The best one for my trip was Malarone, but it is approx. A$7 per tablet in Australia so prohibitively expensive. Also in Australia it is only licensed for 30 days use so as I was going for 4 months it was not an option. Another possibility was Larium but this has common psychotic side effects and you can’t dive whilst on it so that ruled that out. I chose doxycycline, which is an anti-biotic, often used for acne, but is also, a malaria prophylactic. It’s cheap and you can take it for up to 2 years. Unfortunately it has the side effects of intestinal upset/ nausea and skin hypersensitivity to light. Time would tell if I suffered from these. I had wanted to take the anti-malarial I took wen I lived in Zimbabwe – Deltaprim but it is not licensed outside Southern Africa after 1 death from an overdose. I thought to myself I may change my meds whilst in Africa but time would tell. Some people had suggested not taking any prophylactics and just treatingthe malaria if you get it. To me this is naïve madness! Firstly I didn’t want to ruin my holiday by catching malaria and secondly; malaria is commonly for life – you get relapses regularly. So this was not an option for me. NB Later I found that Malarone was radially available in Nairobi and worked out at A$3 for 12 tablets – much cheaper than Aussie. Maybe the best option to wait to buy your anti-malarials in Kenya. If you want more info then click here.

Our climb followed a well-worn path, increasingly rocky and onwards and upwards. Initially we were climbing through the clouds although it was relatively warm as long as we kept moving. There were plenty of other groups on the climb and we yo-yoed past each other, all the time with porters racing past us carrying ridiculous loads. Gradually as we got higher the cloud got thinner and thinner and suddenly Kili revealed herself. Kili is big. Very big! And although Kili is magnificent, she looked intimidating. What had I let myself in for?

We had all carried our packed lunch and stopped at a fantastic viewpoint for lunch. There were plenty of ravens around keen to help us with our lunch. Lunch consisted of fried chicken, sandwiches, fruit, fruit juice and peanuts. It was filling and full over energy for our climb. We set off again after lunch but within 5 minutes I was feeling horrendous. Nausea, headache and generally unwell. Was it altitude or lunch? I felt slightly unco-ordinated too. I dropped my camera whilst putting it away; it landed on a rock, but luckily on the battery case so survived without any damage. I was thinking if this is how altitude sickness is and I am only at 3700m I am in for a rough ride.

However, after half an hour the rough feeling past and I felt good! As we got higher and higher the views got better and better. We were above the clouds and the vistas were stunning. You could stop every minute of climbing for a better picture of another stunning landscape. We got to our max altitude of the day at 3905m before a slight descent to our camp for the night – Shira Camp 2. It was a beautiful location with views south to Mt Meru, which is near Arusha, South West over Mt. Shira and extinct volcano and northwards to Kili herself. We had some time to relax but now we had stopped walking and we were at altitude we could all feel the cold, make worse by a strong wind. After a little rest we all went for a small walk up to Shira cave for a photo and to expose us to a little more altitude. We all washed, and toileted before an excellent dinner. Richard was feeling a little sick and didn’t eat too much. The rest of us weren’t too bad, apart from the regular “Diamox breaks”. I took a few more sunset pics and star pics. I tried to do a time lapse of the Milky Way, which worked out ok, but I only took 20 shots as I was worried that I would not have enough camera batteries for the trip. This was even though I had taken a Goal Zero Nomad 7 solar charger to try and keep my batteries charged whilst up the mountain. I had it fixed to the back of my rucksack so it would charge on the way. It was a fairly early night and I was soon asleep.

Machame Gate & First Day of the Climb

grahammac — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 18:52:00 GMT

27th August Machame Gate & First Day of the Climb

Altitude: Start at Springlands @ 800m, ie 694mmHg or 91% of O₂ available at Sea Level, My SP0₂: 97%

Machame Gate @ 1800m, ie 641mmHg or 84% of O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 97%

Machame Camp @ 2980m, ie 538mmHg of O₂, 71% of O₂ available at Sea Level, My SPO₂: 94%

Distance walked: 10.77km

Total time: 5hrs 28mins with stops

We were all up early and excited to start the climb. Once we had had breakfast, organised our gear, packed the minibus, checked out the hotel - we were off. We meet our third guide that morning - Nuru who was going to be with us alongside Big Issa & Little Issa.

The minibus was taking us to our start point, Machame Gate where we would sign in on the mountain and begin our climb. On the way we stopped in Moshi at a convenience store for some last minute shopping. I needed some toothpaste, but also bought a miniture of "The Famous Grouse" to drink at the top. I also bought a packed of cashews for a snak later. US$15!! Bloody hell - ripped off or what! Marc & Dennis also bought a 6 pack of Kilimanjaro Beer so we could each have one at the top. On walking store, one of the ever present hawkers looking for business from "Mazungus" shouted to me:

Hawker: Where are you from?

G: Zimbabwe

Hawker: Aaah! You are my african brother from another mother!

G: Laughs

Hawker: Mr Mugabe is a great man! I like Mr Mugabe! Do you want to buy this shirt? I give you a good price my brother.

G: No! (There ended our fraternal relationship as we dont share the same political allegiance!)

We drove on to Macahme gate, climbing 1000m from Moshi up to the gate. My ears popped a couple of times on the way up. You could also see the change in the vegetation & scenery with the altitude. Moshi, dry & dusty. Machame, green, tropical and rain forest. Outside the gate there were hundreds of potential porters all queuing for the opportunity for work. We climbed out the minibus and waited as the Issa's organised the porters, our permits and generally everything that needed to be transported up the mountain. While we were waiting we took various photos, had last toilet stops, loaded up our pre-packed lunches measured our O₂ saturation.

Having done a degree in Sports Medicine and having worked in Intensive Care as a physio I was very keen to see what happened to my oxygen levels (O₂ saturation) as I went to altitude. As you go to altitude the percentage of oxygen within the air remains the same at 21%, but the number of availble oxygen molecules decreases. That is, less oxygen for you to breath. A normal, non-smoking, healthy individual at sea level saturates the haemoglobin molecules within thier red blood cells to 97%. To measure this I took a portable O₂ saturation monitor with me on the trip. With 3 other medical types on the trip everyone was keen to see what there saturations were - so we had a mass measuring of saturations. All were normal! If you are interested in reading more then click here.

We started our walk at 11:29am once all the admin side was done. I had heard how slow we would walk but was surprised at just how slow it was. I had done all my training at high speed to try and fit the distance and climbing in so it was nicec and easy to be going so slowly. The aim of going slowly is not to give yourselve Altitude sickness and we constantly heard "Pole Pole", which in Kswahili is "Slowly Slowly". As we walked we were chatting and gradually got go know each other and our guides. Mo, from the States was and Anaesthiologist who was climbing in his surgical scrubs! A strange look! As we slowly walked up we were passing through the rainforest on the lower slopes of Kili. We were all on the look out for monkeys but failed to see any. We did see some of the unique flowers of Kili including the "Passion of Kili" which grows nowhere else in the world.

As we walked on we were constanly overtsaken by a string of porters. All of them carrying huge loads. Often 20 - 30 kgs on their backs and then the same on their heads. They all walked quicker than us and were trying to get to the campsite to set it up for us before we arrived. A hard job! As porters approached from behind us there would be a shout of "porter on the right" and we would move to the left or vice versa. Often we didn't know left from right and it resulted in some interesting collisions/ dances as porters went around the slow tourists. A typical interaction with an overtaking porter woiuld be something like this.

Tourist: "Porter on the right".

We would move to the left.

Porter: "Jambo" (or "Hi" in Kswahili)

Tourists: "Jambo"

Porter: "Mambo" (or "How are you doing")

Tourists: "Poa" (I am well) or "Mizuri" (good) or "Poa kachisi kama ndisi" (cool like a banana)

Our Kswahili was going to improve on this trip. We also frequently heard "Twende" or "lets go" after every rest stop or if we were distracted and had stopped to chat.

There were frequent stops to pee. We were all on Diamox®, a diuretic originally designed to treat Glaucoma but had been found to assist with acclimatisation to altitude. It does not allow you to climb higher, just that you acclimatise to the altitude you are at faster. But, oh my god do you pee on it! Most of us were peeing 4-5 times per day and the same again at night. You had to drink a lot of water just to keep hydrated. We were all peeing so much that we soon knew each others pee/ bladder habits intimitly. In fact, we soon all knew each others bodily functions well. You could almost predict who needed a pee next. If you want to read more about altitude sickness then click here.

We had lunch in the rainforest. It was nice to stop and chat. Lunch was made up of sandwhiches, fruit, fruit juice, peanuts and a boiled egg. While we were eating anothert group of climbers stopped next to us. Little did we know we were going to have some interaction with them in a couple of days time.

We sauntered on through the afternoon arriving at our campsite, Machame Camp, late in the afternoon. The camp was already set up and we were 2 to a tent. I was sharing with the Wavy Dong. There was a mess tent or dinning tent set up too. This was for all our meals. Dinner was excellent. Good soup as a started followed by fish with some of the best roast potatoes I had ever eaten. Incredible that they were cooked in a camp kitchen - or were they carried up and reheated. We all went to bed early about 9. Before I went to bed I managed to take a few photos when the cloud cleared in the night sky. The Milky Way was absolutely magnificent and I could see the Southern Cross in the sky! It was good to be in Africa again.

Travel Tips

You can leave your valuables in a safety deposit box at the hotel in Moshi. This is safer than taking your passport and money up Kili. There are some larger ones that can hold an iPad/ small laptop.
You can leave all your possessions that you are not taking up the mountain in a storage unit at the Springlands hotel. It is safe and secure.
Learn some basic Kswahili before you climb Kili.

To Tanzania, first sight of Kilimanjaro & the Wavy Dong!

grahammac — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 22:39:00 GMT

26th August Nairobi to Moshi (Kilimanjaro Launch Pad) & the Wavy Dong!

Altitude: 800m, ie 694mmHg or 91% of O2 available at Sea Level (although the percentage of O2, 21%, remains the same)

My SP0₂: 97%

Woke up at 3:45am. Body still on Queensland time I think? Either that or excitement?! Didn't need to be up until 5:45. A quick breakfast and surprisingly my taxi was there waiting for me. Another hair-raising taxi journey through the chaos of the Kenyan capital followed. There are police at each set of traffic lights - otherwise no-one stops on the red. A good thing they have is a big countdown clock above each traffic light, so when its red you know how long you have to wait until it changes - not that anyone waits anyhow. I will try get some video footage of my next journey through Nairobi and get it on You Tube!

As you walk into the airport building you have your luggage scanned. So I had to load 2 bags, jacket, camera and carryon into the scanner. Can't wait until I get there as it is a pain having so much stuff. Checked in, got my boarding pass and then a did a quick count. I always count how many bits of stuff I have when I am flying so I don't forget anything. Found I only had 2 pieces instead of 3. Shit! Where as my camera? Thought it must have been nicked off my trolley when I was loading the scanner! But no, after a quick search I found it lying on the floor next to security screening and everyone ignoring it. Phew!! All those camera lenses I am carrying are no use without a camera body! Amazed it was still there but I think that everyone was so busy trying to check in, clear immigration etc etc they just ignored it. In the chaos I must not have picked it up. A lucky escape! Went to the departure gate and sat and waited thinking how lucky I was to still have camera.

Went through security to the temperary waiting room, a marquee to find out the flight was delayed by 45 minutes. When we finally got going for the half hour flight it was a hell of a flight. Did a half loop around Kili, but unfortunately the wrong side of the plane for me. Stunningly beautiful! Huge! Imposing! Intimidating almost. Cannae wait. It was an hour and a quater taxi ride to Springlands hotel in Moshi. The roads are worse than in Zim and Moshi is very dry and dusty. The road to the hotel through Moshi is horrendous and I thought I was being taken off down into a remote area to be robbed. I was determined if that happened the driver would get it first - but thankfully I was being too suspicious. Probably due to my Southern African roots.

Springlands hotel is basic to say the least, but functional and serves one purpose. A base to launch your trip to the top of Kili. Once checked into the hotel I met my room mate for my shared room & as it turned out - tent mate for the climb. He introduced himself as Davy Wong, a Canadian Banker, recently made redundant and taking a long holiday whilst on gardening leave. Davy said the best way not to forget his name was to swap the initial letter of both his names, that is: "Wavy Dong"! You are right Wavy, I wont forget that one! Hopefully I don't see the dong waving too much! Same age as me. Not only doing Kili but also doing a 71 day overland after Kili, not the same one as me though. Same rucksack. Same everything! A tad un-nerving. But good that it was someone I could get on with as that was one of the things I was worried about on the trip. Spending a week climbing & living in each others pocket in a small tent on the highest mountain in Africa with someone you dont get on with would be a challenging time and an unpleasant trip.

For the rest of the afternoon Wavy Dong and I spent our time repacking our day packs, packs for the porters and the bag of kit we were leaving at Moshie and generally organising. Trying to get all the things we wanted in, debating what to take, what to leave behind? We must have each repacked about 3 times.

Later that day at 4pm we had a meeting with the rest of our climbing group an the lead guide of our tour. Our lead guide was "Issa", an experienced guide with many successful summit trips to his name. The rest of our group was a good mix and I was confident we would all get on.

Myself

Wavy Dong - Banker (Canadian)

Mo - Anaesthesiologist (USA)

Jennifer - Travel Co-ordinator and USA level Triathlete (USA)

Kim & Richard - Banker & Water Engineer Respectively (Both English)

Laura & Dennis - Paediatric ITU Nurse & Salesman (I think) (Both Canadian)

Elisa & Mark - Paediatric ITU Nurse & Salesman (Both Canadian)

Sorry Dennis, I cant remember what you do? With Laura and Elisa being sisters. So, 3 couples and 4 singletons making up a group of 10. We were all excited, touched with a little nervousness but we were all keen to get going. After Issa's briefing we had a bit better idea of what was going to happen. No trip notes or books can give you the full information. The main point Issa wanted to get across was "Pole Pole" (Slowly Slowly) was the key to success. After our briefing we set about hiring gear, repacking (again!) and had dinner. Early to bed but I did't sleep too well - not sure whether it was excitement or the Wavy Dong snoring?

Travel Tips

Pre-organised Taxi from Jomo Kenyatta Airport Nairobi to Heron Portico Hotel was KSh 2400 one way. Found out that if you book the hotel's own minibus its only KSh1800. About US$1 to KSh80 - so I was out of pocket about A$7. Book through your hotel before you go if you can.
I had to travel through Nairobi to get to Kili as I couldn't get the correct connecting flights. My advice is fly straight there if you can and avoid Nairobi airport if at all possible.. Taxi's to & from the airport. Clearing immigration and customs twice. Not worth the hassle and best avoided. Although it may be better once it is re-built.
Dont use G Adventures to book your transfer to Moshi from Kilimanjaro Hotel, its cheaper booking through Zara Tours. G Adventures subcontracts its Kili trips to Zara tours.
Springlands Hoitel is basic.
Lots of Mountain Gear to hire at Springlands hotel - but check it before you use it!

Nairobi & a Naked Chinese Man

grahammac — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 00:26:00 GMT

Sunday 25th August Dubai/ Nairobi

I had a 5 hour wait in Dubai Airport. For those of you who have never transitted through Dubai, it is a seething mass of humanity. Despite their new 3rd terminal there is a huge number of people and a bit of a shock to the system after living in sleepy Cairns for a couple of years. Managed to get a free meal courtesy of Emirates as I had a long wait. The free meal was good but apart for 1 thing. There was some bread with a dip as a side dish. It looked like a green Duhka with some olive oil. I dipped the bread in and soaked it in the Duhka and munched away. Holy shit! My mouth was on fire.! Some sort of chilli puree! Not Duhka at all. You know its bad when your eyes and nose are streaming and you have a whole body sweat on! I think the inside of my nose was sweating! Jeeeeezus! After tthat the flight from Dubai was pretty uneventful.

However, the arrival at Nairobi was chaotic to say the least. If you dont follow the news, Nairobi Airport suffered a major fire a couple of weeks ago. The entire building is practically unusable. The plane parks next to the aerobridge, but you can't use it. So you use a set of stairs that are about 18" too low for the plane, so all the elderly and children have to be lifted down. Immigration is in a large marquee and quite efficient if you already have a visa. Luckily I already did. But for others who didn't it was a bit of a nightmare. Then onto baggage collection - OMG!! A small tiny part of the building that is left standing and has a bit of a baggage carousel running is all that is available. 2 or 3 flights worth of luggage are on it with luggage handlers taking pieces of luggage off the carousel and putting it on the floor. There is a horrendous resultant human, luggage and trolley combined traffic jam. You couldn't really see the carousel, so you had no idea if your luggage was on it. There were lots of angry frustrated people. I must be relaxed. I just stood there and smiled to myself and thought "Oh Africa! I have missed your chaos!" It took ages and also overwhelmed customs in their tiny marquee, so I got passed them without any trouble.

Despite the chaos it is fantastic to be back in Africa! The sights, smells, dust, colours and so on! First time back since 2004.

I took a taxi on a pre-agreed fare to the hotel. While sitting in the cab I noticed chains screwed into the wing mirrors and attaching them to the car. With the driving I thought it might be to stop them hitting the ground when they get knocked off in the Nairobi traffic. But no, according to the driver it is to stop the street kids stealing them at the traffic lights! The driving in Nairobi is horrendous! They are worse on round-abouts than you Jas! Interesting going through Nairobi, it reminded me of the industrial areas of Harare, just dirtier and busier.

When I got to the hotel, I checked in and went to my room. Unlocked my room door and walked in to find.................an almost naked, very startled, Chinese gentleman. It was like a seen out of the Hangover when the guy jumps out the boot of the car, except this guy didn't attack me with a crowbar. "What the f**k is going on?!" I just started laughing and the bellboy was mortified. All for the good though, they upgraded me to a suite after that trauma.

Went for dinner in the hotel. Not haute cuisine, but good wholesome food which reminded me of eating at hotels in Zimbabwe in the '90s. I had Madagascan Peppered Steak with chips and 2 tuskers to wash it down. Back to the room and watch the cricket while doing some last minute admin and an early night.

Now, I have been asked for some "Travel Tips" over the course of this journey, so here you go:

Travel Tips

1. Avoid Nairobi Airport until it is re-built.

2. Avoid Nairobi Airport until it is re-built.

3. Get your Kenyan Visa BEFORE you travel - I did.

4. Have Kenyan Shilling for the Taxi - I did.

5. Have some single US$1 notes for tips.

Perth to Dubai

grahammac — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 14:14:00 GMT

Saturday 24th August (Perth)

Got up feeling slightly delicate after last nights excesses with all the ex-zimbos. Made worse by the fact that my body is still on Queensland time and I woke up at about 4:30am wide awake. Had a few things to do before I left so just got up and got on with them. First was setting up this journal on line while I am away & various other online things. I also wanted to re-pack my back for the 50th time, so that I could decrease some of the weight and re-organise a bit. That took most of the day with one small trip to the shops to buy a travel adapter. Not the one I wanted but the only one for Africa I could find.

Paula cooked a great dinner or Chorizo & Peas and then after saying good byes to everyone Andrew gave me a lift to the Airport. On checking in I said to the lady that I had some Emirates miles that were expriring ad want to use them as an upgrade to business class. No such luck! I had less than half the points required and business class was sold out. On the plus side my luggage was under weight, I had 29.9kgs with the limit being 30kgs.

Having flown all over the world, on many different airlines over the years I always seem to sit next to some idiot. Even got drooled on by an old granny once. Today I was hoping that it might be an exception and I would sit next to someone normal that I could chat to! But no! Just the usual senario! A total idiot who spent the flight opening and closing his legs about 60 times a minute and could not keep his arms by his side. I got dug in the ribs everytime he ate or talked - he was an Italian from Scicily and did a lot of gesticulating! He was soon educated on where to keep his elbows etc. Hopefull, one day in my next life I will sit next to someone who is normal! Not a total muppet. There is always the flight from Dubai to Nairobi to have another dose of sitting next to a total muppet............again! Rant over.

First time in my life on a plane that I have slept well. Only watched 1 film on a 10hr 55 min flight and that was .......wait for it............Finding Nemo! Didn't fancy anything too serious.

Photos: Kilimanjaro

grahammac — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 11:17:00 GMT

Perth & American Missionaries.

grahammac — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:34:00 GMT

Friday 23 August (Perth)

I woke up at 5:30 am - my usual wake up time, but on Queensland time not Perth time which is 2 hours behind and struggled to get back to sleep! How can you get jet lagged over 2 hours. Anyway, I had a few things to do including visit the Tanzanian consul in Perth to get my visa. Early trip into Perth, managed to get my camera cleaned and visa application submitted. I had to wait for 4 hours for the visa. I spent my time wandering around Perth killing time. While sitting with a coffee on a bench in Hay Street I watched and overheard the following conversation.

There was an old Aussie bloke siting on bench just relaxing. A young woman walked up to him and introduced her self:

Missionary: "Hello there, I am American Christian Missionary studying at bible college in Perth before going to Nepal on missionary work."

Aussie: "Hello".

Missionary: Can I interest you in coming to our church? Are you a Christian?"

Aussie: "I am half Jewish on my mothers side."

Missionary: "And on your mother's side?"

Aussie: "Wanker! Total wanker!"

Graham: Laughs hysterically!

Missionary: "Whats that? I haven't heard of that before."

Aussie: makes an obscene hand gesture.

Graham: Laughs even harder!

Missionary: "Oh" and walks off.

Brillant bit of entertainment for the morning. After collecting my passsport and a little bit of shopping met Andrew in Joondalup for lunch before heading home. Great evening BBQ! Thanks for the meat Paula and thanks to the girls for all the salads. Great to see all the Zimbos Den, Ali & Sean, John & Vicky & brood, Steve & Ivone and cousin Steph!

The start - finally!

grahammac — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:19:00 GMT

Thursday 22nd Aug D-Day - The Start & Flight to (Cairns/ Perth, Australia)

1:45am - home from the pub! Jonny Marshall you are a bad influence. Jeezo my head is pounding this morning! Up at 6:30, missed saying goodbye to Sez as she went to work before I staggered up - see you in 4 months Sez! Started finishing off the packing, cleaning of my room, doing the washing and numerous other little things you have to do when you go away for 4 months. Stressing over my bank card in which the chip died about 3 weeks ago and the replacemnt still hadn't arrived. A mix up and the bank didn't order me a replacement. A replacement was supposed to arrive today by courier - but turns out it will only arrive tomorrow. DOH! 4 months travelling without a properly working bank card! Great! Have been feeling sick all day - not sure if it is a hangover, nervousness, excitement or something else. Likely to be a combination of all of them. Was feeling really tense about everything but went for a fantastic lunch with Jas at Dundee's. Great food & great chat and not feeling sick anymore. Last minute rush to get some padlocks for my bags - combination word padlocks. Thanks Jas for setting them to "Tuna" & "Toad". Hopefully I don't forget that. Then a lift from Jas to the airport. As usual when a passenger with Jas you do alot of involuntary braking at round-abouts. Nothing like a little adrenaline rush before your holiday! Only joking - thanks Jas and see you in 4 months.

Flight boarded on time - amazing for Jetstar and for the Perth flight there were actually some free seats at the back. This is when it got a little interesting. The cabin crew started moving people from the front of the plane to the rear. A bit strange? Then the captain came on the tannoy and said, "I apologise for the delay but there is a very strong head wind all the way from Cairns to Perth and we are carrying our maximum fuel load." A good thing I thought. Then he continued, "This means that we are at the maximum takeoff weight for the length of Cairns runway so we need to move passengers and luggage to the back of the plane to get the balance right so the nose will come up at take off." Never had that before and there were a few people looking decidedly ill after his announcement. But an uneventful flight to Perth, where it was a chilly 11 degrees on arrrival.

Great to see Andrew, Paula and the boys when I arrived but now the last few days had taken there toll and I was exhausted. Slept like a log.

Final preparations

grahammac — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 10:07:00 GMT

Friday 16th August D-day -6 (Cairns, Australia)

Last day at work. Why when you are leaving for 4 months does everyone need a letter or legal report or worksite visit or some other time consuming task that takes loads of time. Oh well no more patients for a while but in on Saturday & Sunday to finish off the paperwork.

Monday 19th August D-day -3 My Birthday (Cairns, Australia)

Had a bit of a lie in for a change before a quick chat with Mum & Dad in the UK. With all my training I had been getting a lot of foot pain. No blisters, no muscle pain, just really sore feet. Despite all my self treatment efforts and discussions with other physios there was no improvement. Eventually diagnosed with possible "metatarsal plate sprain" and thanks to Sarah Shipton - much better after one session and doing better each day. Should be able to walk up the hill now without grimacing in pain. Then out for a great Birthday lunch (and Dave's leaving lunch) at Vivo's in Palm Cove with the Cairns Innovative Physio Team. The Spanner Crab Linguine is amazing! Thanks for lunch Taryn, and Dave, a pleasure working with you. Enjoy the rest of your trip around Oz. And after lunch another walk around the Blue Arrow (a hilly rain forest walk in Cairns), with about 400mm of climb and descent and about 7kms. Just got home and my passport arrived back from the Kenyan Embassy - phew! Wouldn't have been going anywhere without that.

Tuesday 20th August D-day -2 (Cairns, Australia)

A day spent going around the Cairns shops, buying last minute items. Started packing in earnest - this is going to take some time!

Wednesday 21st D-day -1 (Cairns, Australia)

I spent all morning either packing and re-packing and repacking again to make sure that I had everything that I needed and that it all fitted into the bag. Stuff for Kilimanjaro was all packed together and easy to transfer to a rucksack once at the bottom of the mountain. Camera packed with good padding, medical kit packed, various drugs and letter from Dr packed, repair kit for all eventualities over 4 months packed, mask & underwater camera, diary, laptop etc etc! I also packed to Australia post large envelopes to post all my warm mountain gear back to Aussie so I don't have to carry it all across Africa. Don't think I will need thermal long johns on the beach in Zanzibar - unless I get a special request!? Nipping out to the shops to buy something that I forgot and tidying my room incase someone wants to sublet it. All that before the event of the year in the evening, Graham & Kel's joint 2st birthday party. Great night, with loads of people there and managed to not have too many shots of what ever that stuff was! Even managed to get Taryn to have a shot and think she may have been just a little tipsy? Surprised to see one of my patients there - MELISSA!

The Beginning.........

grahammac — Thu, 1 Aug 2013 09:39:00 GMT

Hi everyone!

Here is my blog or online diary of my trip of a lifetime to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania & altitude sickness allowing, a climb to the top. Followed by a short photographic Kenyan safari to the Amboseli, Masai Mara & Lake Nakuru game parks. Then an epic 71 day overland camping trip from Nairobi in Kenya to Cape Town in South Africa. The overland trip travels through 10 East & Central African and Southern African countries with visits to such places as the White Nile for whitewater rafting in Uganda, Rwanda to see the Mountain Gorillas, the Serengeti & Ngorogoro crater in Tanzania for the wildlife migrations, diving in Zanzibar, diving in Lake Malawi, the game reserves of Zambia, visit Vic Falls (again), down through my home land through Hwange (Andy the Lover will you be there?) and on to the "place of killing" (Bulawayo), before heading west into the kalahari desert of Botswana. The desert giving way temporarily to the inland oasis of the Okavango delta before on to the harsh but stunningly beautiful Namibia. Here there are visits to the Etosha National Park, the largest seal colony in the world at Cape Cross on the Skeleton Coast, before hopefully, walking up the highest sand dunes in the world at Sosussvlei and watch them change colour under a desert sunrise (eat your heart out Karrie Taylor!). From here the tour terminates in Cape Town where I hope to go Great White Shark Diving and just have a good look around Cape Town, a place I have always wanted to go. All these fantastic places and too many more to list. From here there are brief stopovers in the UK and Perth in W.A. before returning to work in Cairns - dreading it already. Not sure I will be in the best state of mind for work when I return.

So where did I get the idea for such a trip? Well, every since I was 14 or 15 and in the Boy Scouts in Harare, Zimbabwe we did many camping trips away to loads of fantastic places such as; the Matusadona National Park (by road!), Chimanimani and many others. We always had great stories and experiences from these trips, such as being charged by black rhino in the Matusadona (sadly there are few left now due to poaching), close encounters with elephants etc etc. But there were always bigger & better and more epic stories of faraway places from guys who had been in the Scouts before me, before the war of Independence in Zimbabwe/ Rhodesia in the 70's put paid to any trips abroad. Stories of epic trips to the Mulanji Mountains in Malawi, road trips to Kili from Harare, expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori) in Zaire, now the DRC and so on. These stories sent my mind racing and thinking of all the places I wanted to visit. All the things i wanted to do. I soon had an African bucket list in my head. Combine this with a love of African wildlife, photography and a bit of hill walking it is my ideal trip! And hopefully, I will get to meet up with some old friends scattered throughout Africa along the way. Life is not a dress rehearsal! Do want you want to, when you want to (within reason) or you may never get around to doing it. It has taken me over 20 years to be in the position to do this trip, but I can do it now, so here goes!

So why a blog? Well I am unlikely to be able to do a trip like this in the future - as I will be permanently skint from now on, and I want to be able to look back on a diary of my trip and say "remember when I did/ saw that"! So many people have been interested in my trip and have been asking loads of questions (with little attempt to hide their jealousy - haha) that writing this may save me explaining loads of things repeatedly. I will try and include as much info as I can (especially for Mikaela & Narelle) and add in some links and photos. Not sure how it will turn out - hopefully my writing style is not too boring? I am sure some one will tell me if it is? If you get a mention, take it as a compliment. Matt de Lange - "feeling nervous"?

The beginnings. I made the decision in November 2012 I was going to do the trip and started looking different things up online for hour after hour. Trying to find a Kili trip that tied up with an overland trip, that were both cheap was a major problem. However, I eventually found 2. Firstly a trip with G-Adventures up Kili on the Machame route. They were the cheapest and came highly recommended. You are in trouble if they are rubbish KT! The overland trip is with Dragoman, 71 days from Nairobi to Cape Town, trip AUW on their website of you google it. That left me 5 days in between to find something to do. I looked at trips to Zanzibar, Tanzanian Safari's but all were too expensive. I eventually found a company, highly recommended on Trip Advisor called Kenya Espresso Safaris and planned a short safari with them. Once I had all my plans I then phoned the companies to book but found i was on a waiting list for the overland trip. Nightmare! They eventually emailed me one night saying that they had a spot and I had to book urgently before someone else took it! Unfortunately I had been having a few beers with the Freedom crew and was slightly worse for wear when making my booking. Thankfully the booking lady in London was very patient when I told her I was drunk and had to read out my credit card number 3 or 4 times! Matt Q, I blame you! Waking up in the morning with a hangover and finding you have booked the trip of a lifetime is an instant cure. Not sure if it was the excitement or the terror of what I had done that cured me?

A couple of weeks later - Bloody hell! While lying in bed after a big Paddy's Day & Night out session the sudden awful realisation hit me! I have to climb a big mountain later in the year so I better get fit! I consolled my self withe the fact that at least I wasn't as bad as Gordo G would have been that morning - haha! So started running, swimming, cycling and hill walking. Also trying to keep up with Sez (my flatmate) with her triathlon training & failing. But thanks to Sez & Kel for all the training, oh and to Robbie and Big John for their hardcore watching.

So many things to do and plan when you go on a 4 month trip. Money, insurance (with medical evac from altitude), equipment, camera gear, warm clothing, desert clothing, first aid kits, drugs, syringes, needles etc in case I am unwell in remote areas, mask & snorkel etc etc. The list goes on! Lots of things you don't originally budget for, for example A$600 on various vaccinations. Thermal underwear - not a normal requirement for Cairns. Sleeping bag for down to minus 20 degrees on Kili but you can use in the Zambezi valley in October in 40 degrees plus, then back to below freezing in the Namib desert at night! (I have 2 by the way.) And everything has to be light! Very light! That immediately means expensive. Light on Kili and light on the truck as you can only have 20kg for 71 days. By the time my camera gear was in I only had space for minimal clothing, so wear it until it rots, then replace it with some article of African high fashion. I will look good when I arrive in the UK. I think I am prepared???? I even have a big envelope to post some of mountain kit back to Cairns so I not have to take it all over Africa. Are post offices reliable in Africa - I think not, so we shall see if it arrives. Where ever possible I have tried to take things that can be used for 2 purposes, e.g. I have a small dive torch that can be used for diving obviously but also for day to day use. Carrying money in Africa is a big worry, so secret pockets sewn inside shorts & trousers. I am carrying an old mobile phone and an old wallet you can hand over if held up. Thanks Jas! Hopefully no muggers reading this.

For all you photo buffs (Mel, Kel, Karl, Kat, Paul M etc etc) out there I am taking a pile of gear, just not as much as I would like.

Sony A580 16.8mp DSLR, 17-35mm f2.8 zoom, 28-75mm f2.8 zoom, 70-400mm f4 SSM zoom, 50mm f1.4 prime, 50mm f2.8 1:1 macro with ring flash, 2, 4 & 8 stop ND grad filters, Polarising filters, Carbon Fibre tripod with pistol grip head, 6 batteries, Numerous SD & Memory Stick cards, Goal Zero Nomad 7 solar charger for camera batteries when off the beaten track, an intravalometer release and a Canon s100 with Fisheye FIX marine housing for when diving.

Obviously I can't take a camera bag when climbing Kili so I purchased a removable camera bag liner from eBay for $20 and can convert my Kili rucksack into a camera bag when i am off the big hill & on safari. No doubt there will be something I wish I had with me but there is only so much you can carry. Hopefully my photos turn out ok! Will let you know how the kit goes too.

So thats all the preamble out the way. I should have uploaded it weeks ago but not had the time.