The Brews of Tanzania

Tanzania - or East Africa for that matter - isn't exactly known for it's alcohol. There's not much in the way of native brews, but what they do have tastes alright and tends to be cheap.

Kilimanjaro
This is a lager, and most East African beers are. Really not the climate for a stiff IPA or a stout. I wasn't that impressed the first time I had it, but it seemed to get better with each bottle.

The Brits and I slammed down 3 of these at The Arusha Hotel after the climb. Damn if it didn't taste good then, and a 500mL bottle of 4.5% ABV felt pretty good too.

Safari

Yet another lager. I liked this one more than Kilimanjaro. It's stronger too (5.5% ABV).

I had one of these while watching World Cup at Mang's in Nungwi. I don't know if it was just a special for the game, but local beers were only 2000 TSH each (about $1.40). Screaming good bargain.

Tusker
This is actually a Kenyan beer, but was readily available everywhere I went. It's alright.

Castle

The label says "Premium African Lager" and it's actually from South Africa. It's a SABMiller brand, so with that kind of muscle behind it it's not hard to find either. (The ads were practically inescapable during World Cup coverage.)

The waitress at Z Hotel's lounge pronounced it "KASS-tull" which I thought was kinda cute.

Again, this wasn't bad. Not my favorite, but I did have more than one.

Konyagi

I bought a small bottle of this at a market near Z Hotel. I didn't know quite what it was, other than that it was a.) liquor b). local, and c) 70 proof. The back label is in Swahili and all I can make out is "watanzania" (of Tanzania) and "citrus" is in quotes. The shopkeeper seemed amused that a mzungu would buy it.

A 200ml bottle was 5,000 TSH ($3.50) so definitely a cheap thrill. There are flames on the label. Hmmm. Tanzanian white lightning?

I had a sip in the room and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I was bracing for something that could strip varnish, and it was actually pretty decent.

It's a hard tipple to classify. It's made from molasses, so it's technically a rum, but it's flavored a bit like gin. Konyagi calls it a "specialty liquor." I've read where others describe it as tasting like a tamer version of Captain Morgan spiced rum. It mixes reasonably well with Coke, so it's earned a place in my liquor cabinet. There is supposedly a distributor in DC, so I might be able to get more.

The Physical Aftermath

It's been two weeks to the day since I summited. Hard to believe it was only two weeks ago. But now I'm back in the land of reliable electricity and tap water I can actually drink.

Climbing a mountain isn't easy. Neither is flying 7000-plus miles. I've been feeling the effects of both. I'm just happy I missed out on a lot of other maladies.

Jetlag
This was probably the biggest ailment, particularly on the return. That 32hrs in transit wasn't much fun, and I had a pretty full day of tours before I even left Zanzibar. It didn't take long for my body clock to start winding itself back, but for about two days I wasn't sure what time zone I was in. Now I seem to be back on EDT.

Kili Cough
I can't take credit for the phrase, but I got it: a dry, unproductive cough. It hit after a few days - can't remember exactly when - and still lingers. My guess its caused by the dry dusty air. It was the worst right after the summit, due to all the dust that gets kicked up on the way down. It eased after I descended and the sea air on Zanzibar seemed to help.

Weight
Not my bags this time... me. The Irish guy in the back of the plane jokingly said I'd lose two stone (28lbs) on my trek. So how much did I lose? I don't know for sure. I was 5lbs lighter when I finally got home, but this was after a week of fattening up and drinking like a fish on safari and the trip home (hey, drinks were included and I got my money's worth). The britches I left at the hotel were noticeably looser after the climb, so I'm guessing closer to 10.

Sunburn
Had a bit of this too, mostly from safari and Zanzibar.

Sinus Congestion
I developed a runny nose on the second day, and somehow that turned into sinus congestion. Lacking a proper neti pot, I snorted a little bit of salt water at Sheffield. It worked for a few seconds... until I got a nose bleed. I average 2 or 3 every winter from the dry air, so this wasn't too much of a surprise. 12-hour pesudoephedrine (PE) helped a lot, but I can't help but wonder if it clashed with my sleeping pill. Which brings me to...

Lack of Sleep
I didn't sleep well the entire trip. Usually 4-6 hours, and Ambien didn't get me a full night on the mountain. The PE/Ambien combo led to very little sleep at Sheffield one night, so I gave up on the Ambien. I'm beginning to wonder if skipping the PE in favor of Ambien in the evenings would have been the better choice.

Malaria and Other Insect-Borne Nastiness
So far, nada. Insects didn't bother me nearly as much as I expected. Come to think of it, I seldom used my bug spray and I never got bit. Didn't see very many mosquitoes, and the flies seemed more interested in my SLR (which is black, one of the favorite colors of the tsetse fly). Still have to finish the Malarone. Speaking of which...

Malarone
I had previously mentioned how $$$ this stuff is, and on that basis alone I'd finish the scrip. Several on the trek said they were experiencing vivid dreams. I did too early on, but not anymore. Altitude might have played a part there.

Diamox
Yeah, this stuff will make you want to pee. And breathe faster. And supposedly help if you're psychotic. I went with 125mg once I was up to ~11,000ft and upped it to 250mg once I got to Sheffield. I think it helped... my Ox readings went up after I started and remained in a good range. (No comment re: psychoses.)

Gingko biloba
There's evidence that this will - or will not - ease the symptoms of AMS. I concur. I took 120mg twice a day at the start, but was down to once a day by Lava Tower mostly out of forgetfullness. I can't say for sure if this played any role in my AMS after Arrow Glacier.

Intestinal Upset
Fearing the worst, I took a considerable supply of pepto-bismol, imodium and two short cycles' worth of cipro, and mercifully didn't need most of it. The guy at the travel clinic suggested I take pepto every day, but I only needed it three times to deal with breakfasts that were a little greasier than I'm accustomed.

Getting Home

Cunard Cruise Lines had a tagline back in the day: getting there is half the fun.

I think this is because getting back clearly isn't. From the curb at ZAN to the curb at DCA: 31hrs 47min.

ZAN
Small little airport. It has three "gates" which are really just three sets of double doors that open on to the same patch of pavement. This was the only place where the domestic baggage weight limit was enforced. Precision charged me 15,000 TSH (a bit over $10) for being 6kg over. Two pretty decent souvenir shops considering. Everything is marked in dollars but gladly accept shillings at pretty close to the exchange rate. Prices were about what I had haggled for in Arusha.

DAR
A bit bigger. This is where the trip was most uncomfortable. I arrived several hours before KLM started checkin, so had to wait outside. It's kinda hot and nothing to do. Someone from Leopard Tours (big safari operator here) offered a place to stash bags and take me into Dar for dinner. I declined, but some other passengers took them up on it and they seemed happy with it.

There are a few shops outside, but having seen the post-security shops I wouldn't waste time here souvenir hunting unless you want to stuff it in your checked bags. ATMs helpfully have a 10,000TSH minimum (~$7) for getting snacks or, in my case, a souvenir note.

Got checked in and through immigration - they'll take your picture, so try not to look too annoyed. Upstairs is like a whole other world. Several souvenir shops, a cafe (with cold beer), and air conditioning that seems to work. Everything up here was priced in dollars, but they take shillings at a fair rate (1400:1).

Very late boarding the flight ... I think some folks didn't realize they were in DAR and had to get off the @#$% plane. I had switched to a window seat near the back of the airplane since it appeared I would have a row to myself. This was not the case.

AMS
Got here a little late. Cursory passport check at the gate by the Dutch authorities. Got up to the KLM Crown Lounge and put my name on the wait list for a shower and had second breakfast. (First breakfast on the plane wasn't bad ... KLM does a decent job with food.) Surprisingly good croissants and plenty of champagne and vodka. On hour (and two screwdrivers later) it's shower time. Believe it or not, the shower access was the main reason I got club access, and it is well worth it.

Looked around the terminal a bit (branch of the Rijksmuseum was closed for renovation; casino next door is small and unremarkable; purportedly awesome observation deck is actually after security) then went to the gate.

Huge line. Just like last time, it's the full-on document and x-ray check. Since I flew in from Tanzania, I got a bit of special attention re: my checked bags (the old "did you pack your bags yourself?" they used to ask everyone a few years ago). The magnetometer was a joke: everybody set it off, not just the idiot that went through it wearing a metal watch and 6-8 rings on his hands. I'm convinced they had it on a setting to detect anyone with a pulse which gives them an excuse to pat down everybody. Then again, this was the flight of the infamous "crotch bomber."

Flight over was very long, but that happens when you don't sleep. Saw a few movies. DL's in-flight entertainment system < KLM's system. And some DL dummy didn't think to put English copies of the US Customs declaration form on the flight over. I almost filled out the Dutch version, but a few questions I couldn't figure out, so I'd just hastily fill one out when I got there.

We finally land. We're all up and ready to go when the stews tell us to sit down. Two CBP officers walk on board. Uh oh. They call for one fellow to get his stuff. It was a south-asian looking male (Indonesian or Indian or something like that) with an Islamic-sounding name. They take him off the plane, and then they let us off.

DTW
Clearing Customs was uneventful. Rescreening at the transfer point. Is airport security so bad that we have to be rescreened every time, or do they just have so little faith in somebody else's screening abilities? (FWIW, I didn't set off the magnetometer here, reaffirming my suspicions of the one at AMS.)

Up to DL's Sky Club. I will never underestimate the restorative powers of hummus, chocolate chip cookies and cuba libres.

Moseyed to the gate. Flight to DCA is mostly full. And Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) is on the flight... in coach! I thought he'd be taller. And flying business class.

Flight to DCA also uneventful. Though I will note that outside of Detroit, short-track oval racecourses outnumber baseball/softball diamonds 3:1.

DCA
Look, it's DCA. Not a whole lot to say. Felt like someone left the heat on in the jetway, but it's really just 100F outside. Baggage was a minor clusterfuck: Nobody knew for sure which belt our bags were on. Lady at luggage office said 2... skycap said 3... monitors above the belt said nothing. 20 minutes later my bags arrived, on belt 3.

Long hot wait at taxi rank. Stopped my stopwatch. Nearly 32 hours in transit. Wow. Ride home was surprisingly quick.

Left glasses in back seat. At least I managed to lose them at the very end. Arlington Blue Top cabs not all that helpful in tracking them down. So a trip to the wilds of Falls Church to see if the driver left them at their offices.

Elephants Fart (And Other Things I Learned on Safari)

Kili was the impetus behind this trip, but seeing as it takes 20-24hrs to get here, I might as well stay as long as my money and sanity allow. My apres climb activities inclueded a safari (2 nights each at Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti) and Zanzibar (3 nights).

Here's what I discovered on safari:

Ngorongoro is convenient but don't expect solitude. Ngorongoro is more accurately a caldera, and specifically the largest unbroken one in the world. It's about 9 miles wide, 10 miles long and about 600ft deep. I don't know for sure, but I think that's almost as big around as the Capital Beltway. (Edit: it's not. But for my DC friends, imagine the area bounded by the Beltway, 395 and 66 was a giant hole in the ground. For my NC friends, it's about as big around as the Beltline.)

It has a nice concentration of wildlife - including the seldom seen black rhino - but it's proximity to Arusha also makes it popular.

So popular that the Tanzanian government has been jacking up the access fees. My guide Dennis told me that last year it was $50/vehicle/day. This year it's $200, mostly to control the crowds. Even then, I counted maybe 20 vehicles one day. This is a lot, esp. when they're all in one place looking at the same thing... like a black rhino.

Seronera is much the same. It's a bit further from Arusha, but probably the most accessible part of the Serengeti. It also has a lot of wildlife thanks to two rivers in the area (they look more like creeks, but nevermind). This also means crowds whenever someone finds something interesting, like a leopard in a tree or lion cubs. But there's no annoying crater rim fencing you in, so it's not hard to completely escape the madness.

Elephants are the most fun to watch. I never could get close to them in Ngorongoro, but they're almost unavoidable in Seronera. Elephants are great because a) there are usually several of them together, b) they're slow-moving, and c) they're usually doing something. I've seen them nap, eat, bathe, play in the mud and even get into a tussle, all within 100ft of the Land Cruiser.

Leopards are rare... and really damn lazy. There's nothing more boring than a well-fed cat. A housecat will spend up to 18hrs a day sleeping if it's getting enough to eat, and I think leopards are the same way. I only saw one in the Seronera, and that lazy bastard was sleeping in a tree.

Elephants fart... very loudly. This isn't much of a surprise, considering their bulk and their flatulence-inducing diet of grass. Mercifully, I never found out what they smell like.

The birds are very colorful.  I was surprised to see so many colorful bird species in such a drab environment. Bright green, iridescent blue, red, yellow.

Elephants are mostly right-tusked. Elephants, like people, favor one appendage over another. Pachyderms prefer to use one tusk for digging and scraping, and this one is the shorter one due to wear. For most pachyderms, this is the right tusk.

Thompson's Gazelles are everywhere in Seronera. So much so that you get sick of seeing "Tommies." If you've gone more than 5 minutes without seeing one, you're asleep.

Lionesses do most of the hunting, but it's not some gender inequaity thing. Female lions do the hunting because they are not encumbered with a mane and other showy markings. This makes it a lot easier for them to sneak up on prey. Male lions can and do hunt, but aren't nearly as successful.

Summit Day

According to the calendar it was only 6 days ago, but from the warm shores of Zanzibar it feels like a month.


The trek was going very well. I was the only one of the seven to carry his own daypack (but my porter carried the tripod, just so he didn't feel unused) and I kept up with everyone step for step right up to Arrow Glacier (just a bit under 16,000ft). I had been feeling the altitude since Shira 2 (which was about 11,000ft) but I started low-dose Diamox (125mg twice a day). The rest day at Sheffield Camp (a stone's throw from Lava Tower) was good and the hike to the top of the Tower itself was all hakuna matata. Two Kiliwarriors hikers on the same route the previous week had to descend from here due to AMS.


Then we got to Arrow. I felt alright that day - it was a relatively short hike - but that night I hardly slept, opting to breathe (pseudoephedrine for a stuffy nose) than snooze (Ambien). At least the insomnia allowed me to get some kickass night exposures.


The next morning we were up at 4am so we could take on the Western Breach in relative safety. Frozen ground means lesser chance of rockslides. (Three American climbers died here in early 2006.)


I felt awful. It took me a while to get going.  My oxygen level (the ox in pulse-ox) was down to 74 - several points below the dinnertime reading, but i figured it was because of a cold finger. (Unscientific testing amongst ourselves revealed that a cold finger could produce a pulse-ox reading as much as 10pts lower than a warm finger. So, warm up those digits first!) I could only manage a few spoonfuls of porridge, which I knew was definitely a bad sign.



I finally got my pack on and slowly caught up to the others.

An hour ahead of us was another team that stayed at Arrow. We had heard that they were struggling - one member who had previously summited had to go down at a mere 10,000ft and the rest were dragging.


My hands were freezing as they gripped the trekking poles. The guides helped warm them, then suggested I simply give up the poles and walk with my hands in my pockets. I used the poles sparingly so far, so why start now?


Before long I fell behind. Asst. guide Hosea and my porter Ephet stayed with me. Pole pole. I warmed up after a bit, then I was too warm. I could feel my base layers getting damp. I can change at the top, I thought. At some point I gave up my pack. I can't remember if it was their idea or mine, but I was OK with it.


...


The others were maybe 10min ahead of me at a snack stop. They knew I was hurting and did their best to cheer me up. They took off as I waited for my tea to cool. (I don't care how cold it is outside, tea can still be too hot to drink.)


The porters dumped the remaining warm water into my camelbak and gatorade bottle, so at least I could get those warmed up. The bite valves had been frozen for a while. After 15 minutes of rest, I was at it again.


The rest were pulling away... and not far from catching the other team. But for me it was pole pole and very agonizing. The chronic shortness of breath felt awful. I was getting dehydrated and hungry.  And the porters started singing (actually, warbling) Celine Dion:


"Neee! Faaa! Whereeeeeeeveeeerrrrr you aaaaahhhh!"


"Oh hell no!" I yelled. "If they don't stop I'm gonna climb up there and throttle 'em!"


But I did find some nice rocks.


Sidebar: I'm turning into a bit of a rockhound, and Kili has lots of interesting rocks around it. When you're doing step-breathe-breathe-step-breathe-breathe, you have a lot of time to look down. The wretched feeling was tempered by some nice rock finds, including some a'a lava with olivite crystals in it. 

Even at high altitudes, I'm still a nerd.


Right, back to the pain and misery. I felt awful, but somehow I was still able to crack a few jokes.


"Pole pole, Alex."

"'I can't! You took em away!!"


There's still hope if I'm still a wise-ass.


...


Hosea and Ephet are gently pressing me. Hosea smiles about two-thirds of the way up and says there's no turning back. "No really, from here we'd have to carry you up and over instead of down." Great guide, but he's no Tony Robbins.


I'm still recovery stepping and looking at rock when, maybe 100 vertical feet from the crater rim I see a single red gummi bear on the trail. I wanted to eat the damn thing, but that would require bending over and getting really dizzy. The ravens can have it.


The rest of the team had reached the rim and I could hear them cheering me on. At this point I was on the verge of breaking. This was the most difficult thing I had ever done, and I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with it. I went with step-breathe-breathe and saved the emotional and psychological ramifications for later.


I got to the rim, but no one was there. Just me. Hosea, Ephet and a big hunk of ice known as the Furtwangler Glacier. Camp was 10min away, and the rest of the team was there.


I staggered in to camp sometime after noon. The others were sitting outside in chairs, waiting for lunch. I told them that they weren't half the tossers I thought they were since they were nice enough to wait for me before summiting.


...


Into the mess tent for lunch. I down some soup and a few nibbles of fruit - eating better but not shoveling it down like I should. We start talking strategy. Before I arrived, the others decided that a night at Crater Camp would be miserable. It was frigid and windy. I had hit the wall, and I think some of the others didn't think they'd be any better after a night at 18,800ft.


The weather was great otherwise, brilliant sunshine and hardly any clouds. What if we summited that day and descended to another camp? The Ash Pit was a distant second to summiting. I kinda wanted to see it, but I knew that wasn't wise in my current state.


We got head guide Faraja in for his input. The park permit had some flexibility to it - we didn't have to stay at Crater. We could summit after lunch then take the long scree-filled descent to Kosovo Camp at 16,000ft. Only problem is Kosovo is a dry site and the porters would have to bring water down.


I'm leery of summiting - hell it was a struggle just to get to Crater - but I'm clearly outvoted. It seemed to have a perverse logic to it anyway. A little more suffering now would save a lot more suffering later.


I had to get down, but just after another 600ft of up.


It's settled. We're going. Holy shit.


We set off, with me trailing from the get-go. They could've put me in front - slowest person leads in search-and-rescue - and I was getting a bit miffed about being left in the back, but I digress.


Step-huff-puff. For 600 god-damned feet. Ephet packed some toast and fruit left over from lunch and implored me to eat. The pineapple was like eating a wad of tin foil dipped in vinegar, the toast was like buttered sawdust.


The others let out a cheer when they get to the top of the mount. They wait for me.


The last bit is more or less flat. Just a slight dip and rise over maybe 200m of rock and snow. They slow down a bit so we can get to the summit together. The team we followed up had already reached the summit and were moving away.


Finally, we're here.


Hugs and handshakes all around.


I wept.


No seriously, I wept. I left everything I had - and a few things I didn't know I had - on that trail and I just didn't know how do deal with it right then. (A week and several hundred miles later, I still don't. This is what some psychologists call a "typical male emotional response.")


I held it together as best I could for the photos. Now you know why the shades stayed on.

...


The up bit was over, now time for the down.


For a while I was just trudging along, with everything focused on moving. I had even abdicated my photo-taking to Hosea, who was actually pretty happy to play with my D80. He got some good shots too.


We started down near Stella's Point and it wasn't long before we encountered uphill traffic on the Machame Route. A lot of them looked terrible, a few I thought were even worse off than me. One asked which route we took. One of the Brits said Western Breach, and she said "wow, that's crazy." After a few minutes on the scree and soft sand of the route, I think the Machame hikers are the crazy ones.


We're almost skiing down, but that's not easy. Miss a step and you faceplant. Have a loose rock tumble under your foot and you're in ass-over-teacups trouble.


It's dusty and painful as we use muscles we hadn't needed up to that point. We could see Kosovo pretty much from the top of the descent, but it's little encouragement when those little orange dots stay little for hours.


At around 4:15pm, I get to camp. Several of the porters greet us. I get to my tent, open it and collapse on the mattress. And weep.


...


After a bit. I pull myself together. I take off my boots - this takes a long time at altitude, even when you're not completely spent - and slip on my sneakers. I limp into the mess tent and throw myself into a chair. The others congratulate me on my feat. They said it was hard on them, but for me to drag myself up and over after I had clearly hit the wall was something else. One of them even called it "heroic."


We start dinner, but the nausea of AMS has a firm grip on me. One spoonful of soup and I feel like I want to hurl. I pull the hood of my insulated "hefty-bag" jacket down over my eyses because even the sight of food makes me ill. Nevermind the headache.


...


After a miserable sleepless night, I hobble out to see the sun rising next to Mawenzi, one of Kili's three peaks. At this height, we're above most of the weather, so below us we see a sea of clouds. The sun appears orange as it climbs above the horizon to the surface.


It's stunning, And I'm too sick and tired to take a picture.


Andy asks me how I'm doing. I say not much better than yesterday. My nose had been runny for a while, but it was into full-blown congestion. I had also picked up a cough that I thought might be a cold. The headache was neverending. I was still spent. I told him I was thinking about just leaving the mountain and getting into Arusha that night. I summited, and I didn't think it was worth screwing up the rest of my vacation by staying out there any longer.


I didn't mention it at breakfast, but Scott gamely raised the possibility to Faraja for me.

The short answer: No.

The longer answer: The closest a vehicle can get is Mweka Gate, which was the end of our trek. (I knew a helicopter was out of the question.) If I wanted to get to Arusha that night instead of the next day, I was going to have to walk. Besides, dropping a few thousand feet would cure me.

We set off. I start feeling better. At around 14,000ft the headache was gone.

At a water stop, I ask Faraja about my episode. He says he was surprised I got ill. He thought I was the strongest hiker in the group - humping my own pack had made an impression - but altitude sickness isn't predictable. Sometimes you conquer it, sometimes it conquers you.

I think I won on a split decision.

Done

Just a quick update, with more to follow later, but I summited. :)

We went up a day early - June 25 - since Crater Camp was absolutely frigid and AMS was starting to kick in. I was suffering at Arrow Glacier (16000ft) and Crater would've done me in.

I went from Arrow Glacier up the Western Breach to the Crater, then the summit, then down to Kosovo Camp (up a bit from Barafu) in 12 hours 15 minutes. It damn near killed me, but somehow I made it.

East African Hotel

Kiliwarriors put me up at the East African for two nights. It's an extended-stay suite hotel geared mainly for business travelers. One of my guidebooks made a passing mention of this place, but said a tour operator isn't likely to put Kili trekkers there. And here I am.

It's actually a pretty decent place. The staff is friendly and helpful. Rooms are spacious, if oddly furnished. I have a burgundy leather chair next to what I'll call an orange-creamsicle leather loveseat. The beds are really firm - more like a boxspring with an inch of foam on top - but I like that. The pool is small. The Wifi is free, but a little pokey since it's via satellite.

The TV gets 15 channels, including:

• CNN
• Express 24/7 (the Indian equivalent of CNN)
• Al Jazeera (the Arab equivalent of CNN)
• something called ITV that shows a mix of public affairs and other networks' feeds.. including CNN and Al Jazeera
• a South African version of ESPN
• a South African version of the Starz movie channels
• an African channel with acting as wooden as the figurines I bought in town 
• one channel that's all sound and no picture (still not sure what it's supposed to be), 
• and one I call the Screen Saver Channel, because all it shows is "Screen Saver" jumping around the picture.

Food is reasonably good, provided your expectations aren't too high. They make an effort to prepare Western food, but it's not quite what you'd get in the States. The eggs at breakfast were good. The croissants were bleh.

I had spaghetti bolognese for dinner, which was well prepared but heavy on the cilantro. I asked for Parmesan cheese to put on my pasta. The befuddled waiter said he would ask in the kitchen, then came back with a small bowl of grated swiss. Tasted fine though.

I called room service at 2am to get a chocolate milkshake. The first gal understood the chocolate part, but not milkshake. She got someone else on the line who understood, and it was on its way. A little thin to be a proper shake, but this is East Africa.

Prices are pretty fair too. A 300g grilled steak goes for roughly 14,500 Tsh ($10). A shot of Jameson's was only 2,500 Tsh, a bit less than a milkshake (3,000 Tsh).

It's been a pleasant stay. I don't know if I'd come back to Arusha anytime soon, but if I did I'd certainly consider the East African.

Haggling in Arusha

I should be asleep now (just after 2am) but I'm not, and it's way too late to pop an ambien. So why not write about my little excursion to downtown Arusha?

The East African is just a few hundred meters east of the Clocktower, which is considered the tourist heart of town. Old Moshi Road is two lanes of blacktop with a wide shoulder and something that passes for a sidewalk. It's kinda dusty but not a bad stroll.

Any mzungi that gets within a stone's throw of the Clocktower will certainly get a pitch from a local. The first one offered me a German newspaper. I'm not that Teutonic, am I?

The next one offered something, can't remember what. Then another one greeted me. I got the usual litany of questions one would expect from a tout trying to sell something, and I lied all the way.

Been on safari? yes
Climbed Kili? yes
What route? Lemosho (Ok that part is true.)

I politely tried to ignore him, but he was persistently friendly. So I'll call him Friendly. I ducked into the tourist board's office to pick up a free map (which some other guy tried to sell me), then slipped into the Africafe just a few feet away.

I'll say quickly that this is a nice place. Clearly run by Westerners, and it was the first (and only) place in town I saw any white people. I had a nice double latte for 5,500 Tsh or thereabouts.

After I finished I went into a small curio shop next door. By small I mean it looks like someone put a roof over an alleyway. And whaddya know, Friendly reappears.

I look at some stuff then check out some bracelets. I'd seen bracelets like that before, so why not. I ask the shopkeeper for a price. He tells me 10,000 Tsh (roughly $6.50) and he swears that's the "african price," not the higher "mzungi price." Uh-huh.

So I counter with 6,000. That of course is too low. Friendly gets involved somehow... I can't remember exactly, but it becomes a two-fer. Shopkeeper says 2 for 17,000. I counter with 15,000 (about $10.50). Deal.

Odds are I got ripped off a bit, but it was cheaper than in the States. (Update: Same bracelets at ZAN for $5 each, so not bad.)

I leave, with Friendly in tow. He's like a kid or a damned puppy. He wants to know more about me (I'm a financial reporter from Missouri). I said he must be really bored if he's following me around. He can't earn a fat commission on a safari or trek, so he must want me to buy trinkets.

He mentions tanzanite, and I act indifferent. We get closer to the Clocktowner when he says his sister's shop is nearby and asks me to check it out. The skeptic in me thinks she's no more his sister than mine, but what the hell.

He leads me to a souvenir shop on India Road. There's an old guy standing outside keeping guard with a side-by-side shotgun. 12- or 14ga. I don't know if the coot is strong enough to control that piece, but I digress.

The shop has plenty of wood carvings, some postcards, items made out of bottlecaps, Masai spears, fabrics, woven handbags and so on. Three ladies sat towards the back. (I never did find out which one is his sister.)

I picked up some postcards ($1 or 1000 Tsh each... and that's why you should deal in local currency when you can. The exchange near the tourist office will at least give you 1,100 to change a single dollar bill.)

I looked at some woodcarvings of various safari animals - lion, hippo, etc. I picked up one that looked like ebony and asked if it was real, commenting that some try to pass off stained wood as ebony. He says it's real, and proves it by making a small cut on one piece. Well, either it's ebony or stained really well.

I pick out four small ones that are roughly 3" long. He picks up a calculator and says lets deal. He asks shillings or dollars. I blew the few TSH I had at the coffee bar, so I said dollars. He says $60, and he'll throw in the postcards for free. I counter with $20, knowing damn well he wouldn't bite.

We're back and forth for a bit - 55, 25, 49, 30. I'm making progress, but I'm getting resistance. Then I realize I'm not sure exactly how many dollars I have. I think for a bit then tell him I need to count my money. I really did, and it gave me an advantage.

I come back and we start again. I say I'm not that interested in one carving, so I ask how much for three. He offers $35. I counter with $30. Deal.

They wrap up the carvings, even making a point to show me that yes they're wrapping them all up and not trying to pull a switch.

I probably got ripped off a bit at $10 a piece - hell, I expect to overpay - but better than the $15 each he first offered. And it was kinda fun. (Update: The carvings were colored with polish which is rubbing off already, so definitely a rip-off. The shops at ZAN and DAR had larger carvings for quite a bit less. So avoid this place or don't pay more than $3-5 each.)

I had to wave off a few more peddlers and taxi drivers on the way back, but once I was past the roundabout at the Clocktower they gave up.

Tanzania

First Impressions of Arusha

If you don't feel like reading a long post, here's a quick summary:

Arusha reminds me a lot of Jamaica, minus the beach and reggae.

And now the longer version...

Even at night, you can get a feel for a place. Quite literally.

I hadn't even left JRO property when I got my first "African massage." For those of you with dirty minds, please retrieve them from the gutter. This massage comes from riding down a rough and bumpy road. A bit like a vibrating massage chair, except it's diesel-powered and doing 80kph.

Believe it or not, it actually felt good... for a few miles anyway.

A few things I noticed:

1. It's dark. I know... duh. But JRO is practically the middle of nowhere and Arusha isn't exactly awash in light either.

2. TZ is a poor country. I knew that beforehand, but even if I didn't it is obvious enough in many ways.


I saw almost as many pedestrians as vehicles on the road from JRO to Arusha... at 9pm.  you do that when gas is nearly $5/gal.

Most of the stores I saw along the road were small, dimly lit and brightly painted. Windows were heavily barred, if they weren't bricked up. This is what reminded me of Jamaica.

Speaking of dimly lit, the outdoor lighting of choice is the 48" fluorescent tube. Sometimes it's two on a pole forming a Y shape, but it's just as likely to be attached to a tree. The more well-off shopkeepers had colored tubes (purple, red, green, etc). The ones with mercury vapor are really in high cotton.

3. The British influence is apparent, particularly in road signs.

4. The highway department REALLY loves speed bumps. In some places they lay them down narrow in groups of three that'll rattle your fillings.

5. The drivers here are crazy. Really. 

JRO

We landed on time at JRO, which for some reason was shown on the in-flight tracker a good 100mi SE of where it actually is.


Anyway, now that I was in the back I thought it wold take some time to deplane. But one of the FAs said we could go out the back door. Sweet!

I was on the tarmac in a blink and was the third person into the termina. More importantly, I was the first person to the visa window, which is straight ahead and a bit to the left. (There are three booths for immigration, or those already with visas, to the left.) A quick stamp and $100 later I was officially in TZ. 

It was also a short wait for my bags - both arrived intact and otherwise unmolested - and I was the first passenger out of the terminal. Wasn't even stopped for a bag check by customs. Waaay faster than I thought. So fast I'm sorry I didn't time it.

My thoughts/observations:

For KLM 571 at least - the very back is as good as the very front.


I imagine the yellow fever rules are still in force (must show proof of innoculation if coming from a "yellow fever endemic country"). My flight came straight from Europe, so I didn't need one. I had my yellow book in my shirt pocket - for all my other pokes - but they didn't even ask. Henry Stedman in his 3rd edtition of Kilimanjaro said it was almost compsory, noting that immigration sometimes asks, whether a passenger requires it or not. I thought his warning was a tad alarmist.

From my vantage point in baggage claim, I'd say the majority of the people deplaning at JRO got their visas in advance. I chatted with a Canadian who sat right behind me and he said he wished he hadn't gotten his in advance. (Getting it ahead of time means mailing your passport, two pictures and some documentation to a TZ embassy or consulate. For the added expense of the pictures and express postage both ways, you get a slick full-color visa printed in your passport.) So a lot of those folks paid more for a convenience that never really materialized.

He was surprised I got through so quickly since I had to buy my visa. Well, it's always fast when you're first in line. :)

Well, I'm here!

Lots to catch up on, but I finally have as comfy chair and decent internet service.

Flying over

Generally uneventful. Flight to DTW was a half-hour late but more than enough for my connections. The  headDL flight attendant - who was told by another pax that some of us (not me!) might be a bit surly - kept the jokes coming. After asking us to turn off "anything battery-powered that's not keeping you alive," she told us the pilot was a former Blue Angel and that "he'll fly it like he stole it."

Upon landing she said if we liked the flight, they are a Delta crew out of Orlando. If we didn't, then they are an Eastern crew out of Seattle. On the way out, I grinned at the attendant and said "Eastern out of Seattle, right?"
That got me a "Hey now!" and a playful slap on the arm.

DTW-AMS was likewise uneventful. No one was sitting next to me so I had some space. Ambien was much appreciated on this leg.

AMS-JRO was also nice, but not sleeping (intentionally) made this flight seem quite a bit longer than it was. I paid extra for a Premium Economy seat, which is still cattle class but with a bit more seat pitch and recline. I was wedged between a nun and a teenage British girl. It wasn't terribly comfy for any of us. 3-4-3 layouts seldom are. The gal said there were plenty of open seats in the back. I took a look and sure enough, there were probably 30-40 empty seats in the back section, enough room for several to actually lie down. I plunked myself down in 61D (next to last row). While it lacked the recline of the PE seat, I had a lot more room. I was right by the galley so easy access to mid-meal snacks and - surprisingly enough - got served first.

There was aside from what I'd call moderate turbulence as we approached the Swiss Alps. You know it's not good when the captain tells the cabin crew to sit down and buckle up.

Sidebar: We flew over the Sahara and it's as tan and desolate as you think it is.


I thought it would take forever to get off the plane from the back, but they wheeled up a second set of stairs to the rear. More in the next post...

Delta Sky Club

If you're going to do a fair amount of flying in a short amount of time - and happen to be on DL or one of the SkyTeam airlines - it's well worth your while to spring for a 30-day club membership. It's $90 and well worth it. The DCA and DTW clubs are nice, comfortable and quiet. Only one club at DCA so it can get crowded. DTW has four of them. I went to the one at the center of Terminal A. Very spacious with plenty of seats, showers, and a self-service bar.

Membership also gets you into some partner airline lounges, which for me includes KLM's Royal Crown Lounge 52 at AMS. It was a wee bit of a rush, but I managed to get a shower, a shave and a reasonable breakfast in a 1.5hr layover. It was a little busy when I got there, but was pretty quiet by 10am.

KLM Premium Economy seats

Long story short: If you're thinking about this upgrade, check to see how booked the flight is first. If I had known this flight had so many empty seats, I would've saved myself the $150 and sat in the back.

Weighty Concerns

I finished packing and weighed everything. I prefer to travel light, but it's hard to do "light" on Kili. Even harder when you have to drag your Kili gear for a week after the climb.

I was up til 1:00am weighing and figuring things. What will stay at the hotel and what will go up the mountain. What will be given away or consumed. What has to stay with me at all times. What I can really leave out.

My two duffels weigh 27lbs and 24lbs. Yeah that's a lot. But that includes 6-7lbs of stuff I'm taking over to donate to a school: markers, chalk, pens and - since it's World Cup season - a youth-size soccer ball with an air pump. I took out a fleece, a vest and an extra t-shirt. Only 2lbs or so, but that's progress!

My daypack, which I'm carrying on, is around 18lbs. This includes most of my camera gear and my netbook.


My mountain weight is probably OK. The guide will shake out my gear the day before, so if I need to shed stuff he will definitely let me know. I have a personal porter who can carry my daypack for me, but I'll probably have him carry my tripod (9lbs, with a not-very-light panoramic head) most of the time. If the pack gets to be too much, he gets the pack and I'll get the tripod.

Oh yeah, there's also a 33lb baggage limit on internal flights. I will have shed some weight by then (the donated stuff, snacks, gifts) but I'm going to be over that limit by a weighs. (ha!) 

Carol from Kiliwarriors says there's no scale at the bush airstrip and it's pretty much an honor system. It's also ultimately up to the pilot whether to take excess baggage in the first place. She said previous clients have been over the limit by a little bit and it hasn't been a problem. I will find out firsthand just how strict that rule is.

The Little Things

As departure gets closer, the things I have to deal with get smaller. Airfare, clothing, insurance and luggage were taken care of months ago. Doctor visits and shots were not too long ago. But the last two weeks have been chasing down the little things, like small bottles to keep pills in, a moneybelt, SD cards, permethrin to treat my safari clothes. And there are chores, like eating up the food that won't keep while I'm gone, paying bills and holding the mail.

For instance, this afternoon was spent cashing in my change jar ($93!), buying some brightly colored cable ties (for securing bag zippers), dropping off a tote for my CSA sharesitter (and getting some intel on Delta's Sky Club locations - thanks Jodi!), buy some of the aforementioned pill bottles, and waterproofing my boots.

The boots (a solid pair of old-school all-leather wafflestompers made by Alico) feel pretty well broken in. I filled the large seam around the sole with a thin liquid wax. It seemed like the best way to fill the stitch holes. Then a generous helping of Sno-Seal, which I think is the end-all be-all of waterproofing products. It's a lot easier to apply if you have a hairdryer to melt the beeswax. And I bought a hairdryer expressly for this reason. Not enough hair to need it for its intended purpose.

I still have to permethrin-ize my safari clothes, find some Gatorade powder, count my vitamins, charge and recharge all my toys, buy a circular polarizer for my new lens, get a haircut, put Picasa on my netbook... I'll need a vacation just to recover from preparing for this vacation.

The "Hidden" Medical Costs of Kili

It didn't dawn on me until fairly recently that the medical costs of getting ready for Kili are substantial. It pales compared to the trek cost, the safari and even the cheapo coach airfare, nevertheless it was more than I expected. Especially when you have a high-deductible health plan.

The shots aren't necessarily cheap. Twinrix will probably run $300-400 by the time I'm done with it. Meningitis was $130. (And I still have a bruise from that one.) Oral typhoid was $90 (or $22.50/dose). If I had gotten it, yellow fever would've been $180. H1N1 flu was a bargain at $15.

The pills can be pricey too - and on my insurance I'm paying for these out of pocket. Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Diamox (acetazolamide) and Ambien (zolpidem) are available as generics (yaay!) and the most expensive of those was just over $30. Target practically gives away Cipro (just $4 for 18 pills). As for Malarone (atovaquone/proguanil) ... no generics there. $193.07 - and that's the one that doesn't make you crazy. At that price I'd take it even if I didn't really need to. Funny how the one I really hope I don't use is the cheapest.

So my travel-related preventative medical care will cost around $1000. Insurance is picking up a lot of it, since the shots are much cheaper than the disease. Nevertheless, international travel can cost more than you think.

Home Stretch

Just a few days left and I'm getting all the little things taken care of. Wash and waterproof the boots. Hold the mail. Accumulate relatively new US$ bills. Get someone to "babysit" my CSA share.

Oh, and update this blog. :)


Amazon.com finally let me down. I tried to order a few more camera bits for the trip. They'd gladly sell me a SD card, a thumb drive and a new lens, but it wouldn't ship for nearly two weeks, and wouldn't arrive until after I leave.  Boo hiss!

But I'll tell you who came through on the camera gear... Staples.

Yeah, the office supply place sells camera lenses! Cost about the same and I got it shipped to my door the next day! OMFG!

I got a Nikon 55-200 zoom with vibration reduction. It's basically a kit lens and it's kinda slow, but it's great for travel and will give me a bit more reach than my 18-135 zoom. I took it on a local photo safari today (through Washington Photo Safaris - David Luria is a great instructor) and it seemed to work pretty well. He thought I should rent a larger lens - I could probably get a 300mm or longer glass for $150 shipped. Not a bad idea, but I'd have to hump it up Kili first and it won't be of much use there. I'll save it for next time.

Oh the Pain...

Went to travel clinic for some more shots. It was painful... and that was just the @#$%! hour-long wait.

• Yellow fever - nah! you don't really need it.
• Meningitis - ow
• H1N1 flu - ow
• Polio - mmm, ow? 
• Typhoid - gulp
• Written cipro scrip - $12? oy! wtf?
• Malarone pills - $197.20 (@#$%*&@%^!! ... but better than malaria!)

Poles and 'Pole pole'

I put in a few miles on the C&O Canal towpath and Billy Goat A earlier today... 6.7, but who's counting? I packed all my photo gear (12lbs worth) and 3L of water to see how my daypack would manage, and it did pretty well.

I also wanted to try out my Komperdell trekking poles. You can use them to keep your balance, but they're really good for using your arms to help propel you up a hill. When the trail is not terribly uneven, they're great. It's not a huge power boost - I've seen estimates of around 10% - but it's making use of muscles that would otherwise be along for the ride and save a bit of strain on your legs.

I was pulling them out of my pack at the end of section A - they're more trouble than they're worth on really rocky paths like that - when a hiker points to em and says "Those things are pretty good, aren't they?"

I said they were, and I had them out to see if I could get used to them. During the smalltalk, I mentioned I was going up Kili soon. "Ooohhh!" he said in an Aussie/Kiwi-sounding accent. "You'll really appreciate them there! They're great on an incline, especially when you get a good tempo going."

Turns out he had climbed Kili some time ago. I quipped that I was at least in good enough shape to go slowly. "Well, that's the secret to getting up Kili. The ones who rush it get into trouble. Pole pole."

Swahili for "slowly slowly" though the poles in my hands would help too.

I forgot about "pole pole" on the last half of Section A, and I was sucking wind. And getting a bit of heat exhaustion. In 90-degree heat. A few minutes rest (and slowing down after that) gave my second wind time to catch up.

Kili Weather Station

Some hardy UMass climate researchers parked a little weather station near the summit of Kili. It's been there just over 10 years now and apparently works like a charm.

While live or even daily data would be awesome, they only give last month's mean (average) conditions.

For April...
Air temp: -5.1°C (~22°F)
Wind:  20.4 km/hr (~12 mph)
Solar radiation: 948 W/m²  Woo! Feel the burn! ;)

Touristy Places ... in Heatmap Format

For the map nerds (and touristophobes)...
Worlds most and least touristy places

It's not hard to pick out Kili and the Serengeti, but good luck pinpointing Rome or Munich.

(Phrase)Book Review: Lonely Planet's Swahili

If you know two languages, you're bilingual.
If you know one language, you're American.

- Anonymous Foreign Twit

OK, the twit isn't entirely wrong. Many Americans only speak one language, and a lot don't have passports either. Look at a map and you'll understand why.

My American-ness notwithstanding, I can muddle through some German (took two years in undergrad, aber wer in Amerika Deutsche sprache?) and the dozen or so French and Italian words at least sounds nice. But most of that won't help in Tanzania.

So while I was dropping $$$ for a new camera lens on Amazon (at nearly $500 I better damn well get free shipping!), I picked up Lonely Planet's Swahili phrasebook. It was fairly inexpensive and I admit it's more than I bargained for.

A lot of phrasebooks are literally just books of phrases: Look up words and hope you don't massacre the language in the process. LP's guide does have plenty of phrases and a dictionary, but it's arranged by situation (dining, medical, sports, etc) and has a fair amount of cultural info to boot (it's considered good form to say hodi when you enter someone's home or office).

If you have the guts, there's also a short section on pronunciation, grammar and word order. (Unlike German, French and Italian, Swahili is more or less gender neutral.) And if you want to know what to say in, um, sexual situations, it's got you covered there too. (Tulia simba! = Easy, lion! ... there are no tigers in TZ.)

A few words and phrases I think will be useful:

jambo - hello

tafadhali - please

asante - thank you

ndiyo - yes

hapana - no

nataka - I would like 

kahawa - coffee

wiski - whiskey

asali - honey (I practically collect it)

poa - cool (as in how cool this trip will be)

pole pole - slowly slowly (as in how one should hike up Kili)

bwana - sir

Ni mei gana?- How much is it?

ghali sana - too expensive

elfu - 1,000 (very useful when it's 1,300 shillings to the dollar)

kutumia intaneti - Internet access

hatari - danger (also a John Wayne movie)

And a few I hope I don't need...

mwizi - thief

toka! - piss off!

mshenzi - bastard

mkundu - asshole

It's more respectful to tell off the locals in their language. ;)

A Shot In the Arm

Africa is home to many wonderful living things, and many that are not so wonderful. Some are a bit contagious and potentially lethal.

The CDC's Traveler's Health page for Tanzania reads like a hypochondriac's horror novel. Dengue fever, malaria, Plague (laying waste to humanity since 1347 ... and possibly longer), Schistosomiasis, African trypanosomiasis ... and many of these maladies don't have a vaccine. It's enough to make you want to stay home.

Many thousands of non-refundable dollars say I'm still going, so I'm getting a few more shots. The CDC suggests the following:

• Yellow Fever
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Typhoid
• Rabies (I'll pass on this one and just promise not to pet any critters)
• Polio (All those shots for school paid off)

Sounds delightful, no? I have to go to a travel clinic for typhoid and yellow fever, but my doctor was more than happy to start me on the Hep A/B series. Yes, I said series. It unfortunately is not a one-shot deal. Most of the others aren't either.

The first one hurt. @#$%! My arm's still a bit sore two days later. And in two weeks I get to relive the agony.

Places to Stay: Hotels

I've been looking over my itinerary and checking out where Kiliwarriors has booked me for the trip.

My first two nights in Arusha (pre-climb) are at the East African. The Stedman guide says this is primarily a businessman's hotel and said readers are unlikely to be put up there. Well, looks like I am.

Places looks comfy enough (and for what I'm paying, it damn well better be.) I'd rather be outside of town, since there's not much to do in Arusha, but oh well. After 20-plus hours in transit to get there, I probably won't care.

Coming off the mountain, I overnight in The Arusha Hotel, the only 5-star property in town. (I never said I was roughing it.) From the looks of it, I wish I was staying here first. If nothing else, it has a better website than the East African.

On Zanzibar, I'm racking out in the decidedly boutique-looking Z Hotel in Nungwi on the north end of the island. The Kiliwarrior folks like the place and it's a relative bargain compared to the other places. It's also where I'll be staying the longest.

Passport(s) Arrive

My new passport arrived last week. The inside pages are nicer than the old one (etchings of panoramas topped by quotes from famous Americans) but the first page is really slick.

Really. It's shiny and slippery. Instead of laminating the photo to the page, it's digitally printed on it. Nevertheless, I still look sunburned and unhappy.

The old passport arrived in the mail just a few days after that, with one of the passport photos I sent in stapled to the main page. They don't do much to invalidate the book for travel: just two holes punched in the machine-readable text. So fear not... all of your souvenir visa stamps are safe.

A Few Thousand (More) Reasons to Go...

I paid off the balance of my trip last night, right before Tax Day no less. The credit card is so warm now the numbers are starting to fade.

Renewing the Passport

My passport expires late this year, which was just on the edge of "must be valid for 6 months beyond your visit" most countries require. So, it was time to renew it.

The process seems a bit slower than it was in 2000. Back then I got it in 2 weeks, and that was standard service for a new passport. Now it took just a hair under 4 weeks for a renewal on "routine" service. The State Dept was estimating 4-6 weeks.

You can check the application status online, which is nice but not terribly informative. Anyone who has ever tracked a package through FedEx or UPS will find it lacking. All it told me was...

1. they received it (5-7 days after they physically get it ... and cash the check),
2. it's being processed, and
3. it's been mailed (with Priority Mail confirmation number)

I just saw the "it's in the mail" status this morning, so my snazzy new passport should be in my hands any day now. Now I've got to find a cover that will shield the RFID chip.

Seat Selection

by XKCD

Movie Review: The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Think about Kili in fiction and the first thing that comes to mind (and what everyone invariably suggests you read when you say you're going) is Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro. Well, I'm not exactly itching to read more Hemingway, but a movie is another matter.

Sure enough, The Snows of Kilimanjaro was made into a movie. Well, it and bits of a few other Hemingway stories and some of Hemingway's own life chucked in for good measure. The 1952 flick stars Gregory Peck as a writer whose life more or less flashes before his eyes as he struggles with an infected leg while on safari in Tanzania.

Blockbuster didn't have it on DVD, but Netflix did. Let me just say that the DVD is horrendous and clearly done on the cheap. The film may be 60 years old but I've watched much older films on disc that looked better than this. The picture is blurry and grainy, and the sound is muddy. I almost turned it off just for that. Plotwise, it was alright.

Verdict: Maybe worth a rental if you can stomach the crappy print

Biel on Kili

I sat down to watch The Late Late Show this evening, only to find last night's show was preempted by Letterman, which in turn was on late because of basketball.

I fast-forwarded it a bit, just to make sure Craig Ferguson wasn't completely pushed back. I see Dave holding up a photo of people trudging up a snowy peak... that looked a bit like Kili. The guest? Jessica Biel.

Rowr! Gotta watch this. (Note: The clip isn't up on the CBS site, or anywhere else that I can find, so use your imagination.)

Turns out, Biel was one of a gaggle of celebrities humping it up Kili to raise awareness for something (in this case, clean water). The whole ordeal was captured in a documentary for MTV (really). She said it was very hard ("I don't like walking.") but she summited. Well, if a softie like that can do it... :)


There is a website for the Summit on the Summit, but it's hideous. It's mostly a commercial for its sponsors (HP, PUR and Eddie Bauer, among others), nevermind the foul usability. Google it ... if you dare!!

Naturally, it didn't tell me what I wanted to know: who guided the trek. It took a bit of digging, but the company guiding them was Thomson Safaris. High-class outfit, which is what I expected, because all these beautiful people aren't the type to rough it, even for a good cause.

Kili Book Reviews, Part 3

Kilimanjaro - The Trekking Guide to Africa's Highest Mountain - 3rd Ed.
by Henry Stedman (January 2010) 
As I've mentioned before, I really liked Henry Stedman's Kilimanjaro. It had pretty much everything I wanted in a guidebook, written with a certain wit that made it informative and entertaining. I bought the 2nd edition right before I booked my trip. I prefer to have the latest edition (the 2nd came out in - eek! - Dec 2006) but I couldn't wait. 

The 3rd edition streeted on this side of the Atlantic about 3 weeks ago. In short, it is every bit as good as the 2nd, with lots of updated info on the park, trekking companies, hotels, etc. This remains a phenomenal guide. It is also the most recently updated of all the Kili books I could find. If you're going this year or next, this is a must-buy.

I e-mailed Stedman last December mentioning that the Swahili glossary was great, but how about a rudimentary pronunciation guide to go with it? He wrote back straight away (much to my surprise and delight) and he said he liked the idea, but the 3rd edition was just on its way to the publisher for printing. So sadly, my idea didn't make it to print this time. If he can slide it in the 4th edition - and I'm betting there will be one - it will be the best printed Kilimanjaro guidebook. 

Stedman's website is also very useful and worth checking out. It has some content straight from the book and space for updates between editions, so you can give it a look if you're on the fence about buying the book.

Kili Book Reviews, Part 2

Northern Tanzania: The Bradt Safari Guide with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar - 2nd Ed.
by Philip Briggs (Aug. 2009)
I really liked Henry Stedman's 2nd edition of Kilimanjaro and started looking around for a more safari-centric book on Tanzania. I found it in the Bradt Northern Tanzania guide. It's great for me because it covers where I will be going, including Zanzibar. As far as that goes, it's an excellent companion to the Stedman book.

The book is arranged by destination (Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Zanzibar, etc.) with excellent copy on each. It explains what you are likely to see and when. There are some great maps and a smattering of color photos.

The only real downside: ads. Seriously. I buy the book and there are @#$% ads in it too?! At least two of the full-page ads can be ripped out entirely without hurting the editorial content. I'm tempted to take a Sharpie to the rest of em.

Advertising notwithstanding, it's a great book.

Reason to Avoid JFK #3

As if being short a runway wasn't enough reason to avoid JFK International...

Child's play at air traffic tower sparks inquiry

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An investigation is underway into why a young child, apparently under an adult's supervision, was allowed to direct air traffic at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, U.S. authorities said on Wednesday.

In transmissions broadcast by local media, the young child -- whose age is unknown -- can be heard directing pilots for departure, apparently under the supervision of an adult. The incident reportedly happened two weeks ago.

At one point an adult voice can be heard telling a pilot: "This is what you get guys when the kids are out of school."

Reason to Avoid JFK #1 ... and #2

I'm flying to AMS via DTW rather than JFK. Sure, DTW has all the charm of a convention center, but I figured trying to connect through JFK on a summer afternoon wasn't a smart idea. There's reason #1.

Turns out, this decision was unusually prescient, since they're gonna be short a runway for a few months...

AP: JFK runway closure to rattle nerves, wallets 

With about one-third of JFK's traffic and half of its departures being diverted to three smaller runways, planes will wait on longer lines on the ground for takeoffs and in the air for landings. Delays at one of the nation's largest airports will ripple to cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando.

[snip]

JFK is already one of the nation's most delay-plagued airports. [emphasis mine] It ranked 28th out of 31 major airports in 2009 in on-time performance, according to the Department of Transportation. A delay at JFK, especially one early in the morning, can push back flights across the U.S.

The longest delays occur at peak hours — from about 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. ET and between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.

Apres Climb Is Set

After much pondering - and some hurried consultation of a few guidebooks - my post-climb is nailed down. I'm going on a 5-day/4-night safari in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, with the balance spent on the north end of Zanzibar.

It wasn't an easy decision. The safari would be solo and effectively private. It means maximum independence and flexibility in very comfortable accommodations (huge tents with proper beds and showers) but comes at a steep price: about $1000/day. That includes practically everything (from games drives to meals and possibly even laundry and drinks), but it's steep compared to the $150/day staying on Zanzibar would have cost.

But the extra day on safari seems like it will be money well spent as it will give more more time to move between camps and see more critters. And I'm the type to get board with the beach after a few days.

Stairs and Safaris

Seeing as it's now a bit less than 5 months before the trek, it seemed like it might be a good time to start my training.

So I started with stairs.

Not a stair machine. Actual stairs. The kind that can actually take you somewhere.

17 flights of them.

It didn't take that long to go all the way up, and naturally it was pretty quick coming down. And it didn't hurt much either... until the next morning. Ow.

While they rest, I'm settling on what to do post-climb. It'll be a safari in Ngorongo and the Serengeti, and time on Zanzibar. The real decision is between a 4-day or a 5-day safari. The safari will be solo, so I'm spending $$$ on it. Maybe they'll let me drive the land rover. :)

As for flying AMS-DTW....

That flight with the inept terrorist? DL/NW 243? ... Same flight I'm coming home on.

171 days to Summit Day

171 days until I'm on the "Roof of Africa." Might be a good time to break in the new boots...