7 First day of the Kili Hike- Londorossi Gate to Big Tree Camp

We finally began walking uphill through the thick and undisturbed montaine forest.  We saw colobus monkeys!  We were let out of the Toyoya 4 wheel drive van on the dirt road that led to the trail head.  We had been warned by Wilson that we would begin walking where the truck said it would go no further.  30 minutes on a nasty dusty road got us to the trail head and lunch.  The Thompson Safari group hogged all the shade, but we did fine with a vegetable cheese fruit lunch meal.  We then walked about three hours on a very maintained trail, through the rain forrest, to arrive at Big Tree Camp at about 5:30.  Big Tree Camp is a very crowded small village like camp which John described as a pit.  We took our first dinner in the mess tent.  The tent is a large Cabelas group tent which seats 8 around the dinner tables.  Each meal begins with a pureed soup, and this one was no different.  Kiplet is our chef.  So far, we've had cucumber, leek pea, carrot ginger, lentil and maybe broccoli.  One of our teammates, Amy, was spoken to by a ranger at 2:00am to turn off her white noise machine that she had running.

Porters being inspected at the gate for personnal gear

Men outside the gate hoping  to get a job as a porter.

Otis, John, Michelle, Allison, Amy, Kalai, Melissa and Honest.

Loading up for the trailhead

You can't see it very well, but the doors are marked Porters Toilet

Big Tree Camp.

6 Day at Simba Farm

Mbahe farm staff carrying duffles to the truck for our transfer to Simba Farm.

John catching a nap in the common room of the old guest house built about 1921.

Hike to the river to see black and white Colobus monkeys.  I slipped in the river!  From Left...Michelle, Allison, Melissa, Amy, John, Otis and Kaley (our Kili team)

Brahma bulls.  We visited Simba Farm and spent one night there prior to beginning our climb.  It is one of the few large farms from the original colonialists left in Tanzania, with 7,500 acres. Corrina, the daughter of the owners of the farm, has told us they grow various plants, sunflower and marigold for the seeds, under contract to the Netherlands, where they were originally from.  They grow wheat and barley.  They have commercial sized gardens in which they raise vegetables for the local lodges.  We saw cows and sheep, 2 pet horses and three dogs, a Rodesian Ridgeback, and African Ridgeback and a Jack Russel Terrier.  The current owners came to the farm as managers in the early 80's and eventually bought it to run as a family business.

Separating the babies from the moms, who go out and graze for the day.

Massai men guard the gate and take the sheep and cows out for grazing each day.

Corrina, the only dughter, who recently took over the hospitality end of the business.

Mt. Meru from the farm.

4 Walk up to Amameru Village

John and I walked out of Twiga Lodge up the dirt road through the forest to the Amameru village.  Twiga Lodge sits across the dirt road from the border of Arusha National Park.  The park service has hung string with black t-shirts soaked in something along with pepper spray designed to keep the elephants from crossing put of the park into the villagers maize and bananas and everthing else fields.  We saw at least two places where the elephants crossed through the string & t-shirts and we heard the villagers dogs both nights alerting to the elephants.  As we followed the dirt road it gradually swung away from the national park boundry which resulted in fields along both sides of the road.  Tanzanian farmers farm open ground as well as ground under a large stand of trees.  On our walk we saw farmers from very young to very old and they all had pangas.  They were cutting, spraying, bundling, weeding and hauling grass to their cows.  Girls and women, boys and men were all working equally hard and carrying heavy loads.  We practiced our Swahili by greeting everyone we passed.  Habariza ...hee is morning and it was morning.  We saw a troop of Colobus monkeys high up in the tree tops and one Sykes monkeys quickly cross the trail ahead of us.  We saw two 6-8 year old boys each carrying a large guinea pig sized rodent hung on a string which we suspect were heading for the cooking pot.  We reached the village at the top of the hill and turned around to go back.  We saw the church.  It was the hardest working village I'd ever seen.  On the walk home we took a short cut and went off the road through the forest.  Theyre were oodles of paths to choose from, I followed John, and he guided us right to Twiga Lodge, just in time for a great pizza lunch.

 

Three boys hauling leaves & branches home for the livestock

Moo

A line of African ants

3 with Godfrey around Kiboalone

Today I finally met Godfrey, a Facebook friend introduced to me by Judy (Lander friend).  He's a recent college graduate in finance & banking who is starting his own guiding company called Youth Adventures and Safari.  He is a certified mountain and safari guide.  Godfrey showed us a bit of Moshi, then we took a daladala (a public Toyota passanger van long past the age of retirement which carries about 27 people and is designed for 12) to his home village in Kiboalone.  Kiboalone, and the surrounding Kilomanjaro area is home to the Chagga People.  We walked a mile up hill to his Mother's house, and had a lunch that "couldn't be beat."I'm hoping that John, in his retirement, will learn to cook as well as Elizabeth and Alice, Godfrey's mother & little sister.  They prepared fried chicken (my all time favorite), rice, smooshed avacadoes with tomatoes, chipatas, chips, and a delicious sauce.  Can't forget to mention the mango juice!   We lazed around their house while I introduced Google drive to Godfrey, which may help him in his new business.  On the way home, because we didnt have time to walk, Godfrey arranged an African massage (taxi ride on bumpy road).

Hauling water

Elizabeth, Godfrey, Michelle & Alice (Photo by John)

Millet being dried to go into banana beer

House we passed on the walk

2 Twiga Lodge

Twiga is giraffe in Swahili.  Paul and Erika created the place five years ago.  They rent overland vehicles, fully equiped for overland camping, to rent and tour East Africa on your own.

The view of Mt. Meru from the upstairs balcony.

The main room of the Twiga Lodge.

Walking around the sweet potatoes, bananas, coffee and maize crops in the area, with Christopher.

Colorful little feroe cement home in the village.

A great game drive with Paul today in Arusha National Park.

Colobus Monkey.

Great Crowned Crane.

Sun Bird.

Kilimanjaro was in the background all day long, Although didn't peek out of the clouds until late afternoon.

1 Traveling to Africa

 12:45 pm flight from Casper to Denver on time.

6:50 PM flight from Denver to Dulles, an hour late leaving DIA.  Got about six hours sleep.

11:15 AM flight from Dulles to Addis.  Watched The Darjeeling Limited, ate lots of pretty good food, slept & read about a woman who spent 460 days in captivity just next door in Somalia.  

When we landed, everyone clapped and smiled, as always on Ethiopian Air.

We can see Kilimanjaro from the plane window as we get closer to Kilamanjaro Airport.  Now it's real.  We start the climb in 3 days...but first to the Twiga Lodge for a safari and stretching out of these cramped bones.  We've been traveling for about 45 hours.  Travel weary for sure.

Packing for Tanzania & Ethiopia 2014

Our bags are packed...a duffle of hoodies for Hillcrest Orphanage/Nursery School from Lander Schools, two duffles with our Kilimanjaro gear, and a suitcase full of everything else including deflated soccer balls for the kids and adults.  We're flying out of Casper tomorrow, July 1.