Home Sweet Home

Well after 2 days of air travel, > 20 hours flying time, one missed flight (not my fault, honest!), I arrived back in Halifax late on March 26. Jocelyn and I had a good but quick visit there, trying to recover from jet lag while indulging in all of our favourite foods we missed (Dad didn't seem too impressed by the sushi!).

Our time was short, and we were packed up and headed off early thursday morning. My plans to take our time driving accross and visit with everyone were not realized, and we drove the 44 hours to Winnipeg straight through. Jocelyn left me there to continue on my own the next day, and I found myself checking in to the beautiful scenery above for another fire season. The picture is some friends and I out flying a kite and taking advantage of the southern Alberta winds (note, when Marty and I launched in stronger winds the next day, I came to realize the mistake I had made as I was dragged across the field... Note to self, a 3 meter kite in 50 km/h winds = trouble)

I'll still update this site periodically, and post any good pics I get. Now I'm looking forward to exploring this park and trying to avoid bears and cougars!

Take care!

Only a few days left

Okay, so I just typed a lengthy entry, and it all just disappeared. Maybe that's the computer's way of telling me it was too long. I'll try again, we'll see if it works this time.

So we went on safari! 9 days total, 4 days driving 5 days trekking. The driving was awesome, saw tons of animals, had hyenas come into our camp at Serengeti and try to get into the food shack, had our truck rear wheel pass us while driving down a bumpy road (which led to an unplanned night camping in the serengeti!). Very cool time, the animals were amazing.

The treking was great too, walked with a local quide and spent one night camped in a local village. Visited their mud huts or 'bandas', identified the mysterious odour as cow dung, the innovative construction material!

The mountain in the picture is Ol Doinyo Lengai, or 'the mountain of the God', the only active carbonite volcano in the world (yes, that's straight out of the guidebook!). We climbed up that beast, and what a climb it was. Started at 22:00 (so no sleep), because we wanted to reach the summit by sun-rise (otherwise it would get uncomfortable hot). The top was clouded but cool, volcanic ash, cracks spewing sulfur gas, dried lava. Tough climb but worth it.

We've spent the past few days in northern Zanzibar, hanging out on the beach, swimming, snorkeling. The picture below is Jocelyn and I geared up for our second dive yesterday, just before we rolled over backwards into the water. Great visibility, warm water, lots of fish around the reef, fun times.

I'm almost out of time, so I'll post this quick, hope it works this time. Back to Canada within a week, talk to you soon!

Can't see writing, pics first...

a

uhk.

Pole Pole

So this was our first glimps of the mountain, flying from Ghana to Tanzania.  We landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport on the 18th.  A cool little airport, in between two towns.  For anyone whose impressions of Africa were based upon the Lion King, this area delivers.  Although I havn't seen the wildlife (yet), we were well removed from the city feeling.

Pole Pole (slowly slowly) is the climbers mantra for Kilimanjaro, and for life in Tanzania (or Africa) in general.  Swahili is a very different language to Twi, so I'm having to learn that.  We stayed in a place before climbing with a great view of the mountain (www.kilicam.com).

The climb took 7 days, summiting on the 6th.  I'm glad Canadian winters prepare us for the cold, as we were above the treeline after day two.  Our high camp was 15 000 ft., and we left at midnight for our summit.  A storm hit that night, and there was lightning below us all around.  The winds were incredible, they sucked the air from your lungs and pushed you around, freezing you to the core.  At 19,000 ft. I'm told the oxygen level is 1/2 that of sea level, and although I havn't confirmed that yet it is damn hard to exert yourself.  We kept passing groups turning around, but our guide pushed on, and we reached the true summit around 07:30.

We climbed together with Jocelyn's uncle Ken from Winnipeg, but unfortunately the summit picture with all 3 of us is on his film camera (my batteries died), so I'll post it once I get a copy.

Now we're back in Moshi, resting for a few days before carrying on.  We've changed our minds about heading to Kenya for a bunch of reasons, and have decided to explore this area more.  We plan on doing a safari, and then we might be able to do some more volunteering around the town here with the porters from the mountain.

Hope all is well with everyone, I'll keep updating...

Leaving Ghana

Well our time in Ghana is almost done, and we're back in the capital making some last minute departure arrangements before heading on the next part of our trip. We fly to Ethiopia on Saturday, and then to Tanzania on Sunday.

We won't get much time to rest though, as Sunday night we get a trip orientation and Monday we start our Kilimanjaro trek. In total we'll spend 7 days on the mountain, we're heading up the Umbwe route. I'm looking forward to some cooler temperatures, though I'll see if I'm saying that once we reach 19 000 feet!

The picture was taken last night at a local spot or club, a live band played everything from Bob Marley to Louis Armstrong. Once again I realized that white men can't dance, but a good time was had none-the-less.

Our last week in Swedru was uneventful, but enjoyable as well. Accra is much busier, and it's tiring just getting around in this heat!

Other than that not much I can think to mention, and I probably won't update until after the climb. Hope all is well, I'll be in touch!

Beach Getaway

So the time in Ghana is coming to a close, and we're lining up our next adventures. We decided to take friday off to head north, had a big plan to go north to Kumasi. Left thursday afternoon, 4 hour bus to Takoradi, showed up at the train station for the overnight train and no lights were on. Someone said "the train runs everyday...but not today. Come back tomorrow". The next day we went, no train, no bus, had to change our plans. (Incidentally, apparently we're not the first to fall for the train the guidebook talks about, and it hasn't been running for over a year!)

Oh well, we were on the coast, took advantage of it. Went to a beach guesthouse, and relaxed all weekend. Swam in the ocean, no one else around, good times. A nice getaway.

Works been slow, so I've been jumping around between other projects. Started doing some stuff with a local orphanage, got swarmed by kids when I visited. Went yesterday to two schools to teach HIV / AIDs awareness, got some interesting questions. It got hotter this week, didn't think that was possible, and am having a hard time adjusting!

I'm almost out of time, I'll write more later. tata!

Air conditioning....it's great but I'm frozen!

well I found a computer spot just out of town that has a fast(er) internet connection, so I thought I'd try to upload some photos well I can. This one is Accra, and a line of tro-tros next to market vendors.

This one is from my first day arriving in Swedru, when we went to a small village outside of town to watch a ceremony that I didn't understand at all! Once I pulled out the camera, kids started gathering, and I had a hoard around me in no time!

"You're camera is beautiful, give it to me". That was the second thing the kids sitting beside me said to me, following a pause after "where are you from?" I'm getting used to that around here.

Went to Cape Coast this weekend, lots of history but a busy city. Cape Coast Castle was one of several forts housing slaves before they were shipped overseas. We joined a tour through the fort, hard to imagine..

Highlights, hmm... saw a crocodile! Beside a restaurant, thought about wrestling it but when I saw how fast another one jumped I changed my mind. Walking back to our guesthouse around 7:00 pm a man came up and said "sir, please, get inside, it's night" It was more friendly advice then a warning, but made me think, especially since we were in a group! Taking some traditional drumming lessons, that's fun.

I'll try to post some more pictures later, as it's slowing down now...