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!