Wednesday, October 05, 2005

More summit pictures





Note Shawn taking a pee inside the crater. Apparently he has a thing for peeing in volcanos :)

Monday, October 03, 2005

A few pics from Zanzibar


Stonetown

















This is Bwejuu beach, which is on the east side of Zanzibar. Palm trees, sand, and Indian Ocean



A dhow at sunset. This pic was take in Stonetown.

All these pics are of course from Tibi :)

Elephant? What elephant?


We had stopped for lunch near a pond in the Ngorongoro Crater. This elephant just came cruising into camp.

Just seconds before this photo, the elephant was actually bearing right down on us... I was just about to go running (and screaming) into the truck and hide under the back seat.

An acacia tree. For reasons I can't explain, I really like these trees. I believe this is actually an "umbrella acacia tree"
Our incredible porters, and the path ahead. Those guys will carry all that gear down the valley, and up the next ridge. We will follow, but we will carry a tenth of the load and take at least twice as long. If I recall correctly, this is on Day 4, from Barranco camp to Karanga camp
Kili from Barranco Camp (12,700 feet, or 3860m). This is the evening of Day 3, or the morning of Day 4. As you can see, at this point in the trek, there is still a little work left to do. As our friend and fellow trekker, Richard, would say, "we have a few steps left to take".

Some more kili pics


Kili at night.
I think Tibi took this from Karanga camp (Day 4)
I'm not sure where the second pic came from (I will find out), but the clouds look cool to me.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Another safari pic



Some more pics from Tibi.

Check out the colours on this bird. Craziness. If I hadn't seen the bird with my own eyes, I would have thought Tibi was messing with our heads and used PhotoShop to change the picture, painting the bird funny colours. But no. This bird exists in Africa.

The other animal is a leopard.
Apparently it is rare to see one, so we were fortunate that day.

I will post some more pics later this weekend.

A few safari pics 1


This elephant snuck up on us while we were checking out some baboons. We still would have not seen it had our driver Lymo not told us to look behind us. Who knew that elephants could be so stealthy?

Sunset from the side of Kili



I think this is from Shira camp. Picture courtesy of Tibi.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Tibi made it back to Seattle

After some difficulties in Africa regarding his flight home, Tibi is now back. This is good news.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Mira and Shawn back in Seattle, Tibi (hopefully?) on the way

Sometime yesterday Mira and I got on a plane leaving Tanzania. Tibi had a ticket for the same flight, but somehow his "name wasn't in the system". We argued with the airline, but we weren't able to get him on the flight. So, Tibi had to spend an extra night in Africa. Hopefully he is currently on his way home... Tibi, if you are reading this, drop us an email, will ya? Thanks :)

Some other random thoughts:

- We spent the last two days on Bwejuu beach on the east cost of Zanzibar, doing absolutely nothing. We were "breathing just to breathe". Bwejuu is a great place. Just palm trees, sand, and Indian Ocean, as far as the eye can see. If you haven't already done so, I recommend clicking on the "zanzibar.net" link on the right, and click on "Image Gallery". Take a few seconds to check out some of the pics, and go on a little vacation in your head :)

- We could never have climbed Kili without the help of our guides and porters. These guys are incredible men. In case you didn't know, the trek was fully supported: the porters cooked, carried most of our gear, set up tents, etc, etc. I didn't even have to boil my own water (it's sort of embarrassing, really). The porters carried very heavy loads on their heads, and pratically ran up the mountain. They cruised up it like they owned the place. I tried to imagine keeping up with them, carrying my little day pack, and wondering how long I would last before I passed out. I currently have a theory that these guys are actually mutants, and don't require oxygen; that is, they don't actually need to breathe...

Anyway, they are tough and strong. Where I come from we would make hockey players out of these guys

- I once heard a smart guy named Dave say that it's "not where but who you're with that really matters". Tanzania is no exception. It was the first time I traveled with Mira and Tibi, and they turned out to be awesome travel companions: patient, resourceful, fun, and able to have a sense of humour, even when we were stuck in an airport :)

- Oh, I forgot to mention further evidence to support my theory that the guides/porters aren't human. On summit day, we trekked for 10 hours (from high camp to the summit and back) at altitude. I packed lots of food and several litres of water. Our friend Richard packed enough power bars to feed a small African village for several days. And what did the two guides that made the trek with us pack? Nothing. NO FOOD, NO WATER. Unbelievable. Don't try this at home :)

- I'm really craving a bowl of Reese Peanut Butter Puffs right now. Everytime I travel abroad, I can never eat cereal (for various reasons), which is a fairly serious departure from my daily routine. If I had any milk in the house, I would be eating cereal right now...

- Rumour has it our photography team (ie, Tibi & Mira) will post a few more pictures. Come back sometime and check it out. Much more interesting than my blabbering

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Glaciers at the top of Kili


We saw some beautiful glaciers at the summit though we didn't get close enough to actually touch them.

It's taking waaay too long to get these online so we'll have the rest of the pics and the video up next week :) I wanted to mention that one of the things that really motivated us on the way up was knowing that we had such a great group of friends & family cheering us on. So thanks for all the encouragement :) :)

Tomorrow we head to Bweju for a much needed beach break.

A view of Kili from Baranco camp


Every time I'd look up and catch a glimpse of Kili I would get a little more nervous about the climb.

We think God made giraffs from leftover parts..


Since the computers here are a little slow...we're going to try and put up only a few pictures. This is from our safari to Lake Manyara National Park..

The summit

It took us 6 days, 8 hours to reach the summit: 19,341 feet...next to me is our friend Richard from Switzerland who joined our group for the climb. WOOOO!!!!!

Pictures..finally!!

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

PS..

I have a video of us at the top :)

Apparently the high altitude does something to your memory because the three of us (Shawn, Richard and myself) have had trouble piecing together the full experience of summiting. It was the toughest, most mentally and physically gruelling thing I've ever done. I'll post pics of the summit and the video when we return. Sorry Bart, we were too cheap to pay a porter to run our blog posts down the mountain :P

Next..Zanzibar! We still need a place to stay for 4 nights.

It's done

Afternoon all. Mira and I reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at ~ 7am on Sept 12. It was a great great time. Unfortunately, Tibi became ill at high camp (15,100 feet) and had to abort his summit attempt part way to the top. He is OK now. We are back at the hotel, trying to get clean :) I have much to say, but haven't the energy to type it right now. We will provide some details later. I promise we will post some pictures as well.

Thanks for reading. Keep your stick on the ice.

-shawn

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

courage.. it couldn't have come at a worse time

Hey team. I'm short on time, so just a quick post here. We got back from the safari yesterday. It was awesome. The national parks here are beautiful. We saw lots of animals: rhino, giraffes (btw, these must be the most ridiculous looking creatures on the planet, eh? They don't make any sense... can you imagine if you have never seen one, and then came accross it? I would think we were being invaded by aliens), leopards, lions, etc, etc. we will post more about this later. Our photography team (ie, tibi and mira) took several gigs worth of pics. They have been doing an awesome job. hopefully we will post some soon.

ok, today we start our trek. It is 7 days long. For those of you doing some arithmetic at home, you should hear from us on the 13th, and hopefully not before then. If you don't hear from us on that day, don't worry too much, this is Africa: shit takes time. We've been talking to some people who have climbed kili, and the crux of the problem is on summit day. We start at ~ 1am, climb ~ 5,000 feet to the summit (19,341 feet), then do a long descent (not all the way to the bottom, but we cover some ground). I don't have the all the numbers with me, but it is fair to say that it will be a, uh, full day.

hopefully the mountain will be kind to us. I trust you all are well, talk to you soon.


PS: Brian, mira says hi :)

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Mira & Shawn here. 4 flights, 5 airports, 44 hours later..we're finally in Moshi. It's been a long 2 days.

Key events:
- Our luggage is here
- We found Tibi in Dar es Salaam..apparently he was stuck in Nariobi for the night because the flight he was supposed to be on for Dar "didn't exist"..so they told him..HAHA!
- The mountain is huge.. as shawn puts it "Oh SHIT, that's a big mountain". The peak is obscurred by clouds so we haven't fully grasped what we'll be attempting in a few days.

Upcoming events:
- We have a 2-day safari starting tomorrow and we start our climb on Wednesday.
- Zanzibar on the 14th...accommodations to be determined

Stuff:
- Our driver to the hotel has a sister in Toronto..small world indeed! he was talking to her on a cell phone as we were weaving down the road. He's more high tech than Shawn! If this isn't public knowlege yet..well now it is..Shawn doesn't have a cell phone...how does he survive?
- Shawn's been doing his voice recordings..slightly bizzare but could be useful :P

We have roles:
- Shawn.. the vault.. but considered expendible once we have our remaining tickets
- Tibi.. highly opinionated entertainer and lady charmer
- Mira.. photo gurl.. social coordinator (recently nominated).. and keeps the boys in check

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Hanging in Heathrow & eating kitkats

We're those people...you know, those people that hold up the plane because they're stuck in security? well that was us this morning at SeaTac. We showed up 2 hours early, went through security and arrived at the gates. When we got there we were told that we needed an additional security screen before we could board..we found this out a few mins before the plane was to depart...so we raced back to the main terminal, got frisked, and sprinted back to the gate..as Shawn puts it 'we had our knees moving'...Haha!

Now we're stuck in Heathrow after a fairly uneventful flight from Seattle to Chicago, Chicago to Heathrow. There was a failed attempt to get binocculars for Shawn early this morning but we prevailed at Heathrow. We almost had to go on the safari without binocculars..socially unacceptable. They'd kick us off the truck for sure.

It's been a long day. On Shawn&Mira local time, we're 19hours into the trip. We have some work to do.

Friday, September 02, 2005

And so it begins...

Howdy. Welcome to the online account of our trip to Tanzania. Our story begins on Tuesday, June 08, 2004, at approximately 2:49 PM, when I receive an email from Mira Patel that says: "...I'd like to try Kilimanjaro next year... let me know if you are interested...". Four days later I reply: "I'm into it". Since then, we did some planning, booked some flights, a climb, recruited Tibi Doman, booked a safari, yada yada yada... you know how it is... next thing you know it is the day before our flight to Tanzania, Africa.

Here is the plan:
1. Go on a safari (I would really like to try to ride a giraffe if they will let me)
2. Make an attempt on Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa (I would consider this the main event of the trip)
3. Go to the island of Zanzibar for some relaxation.

Here is our team (we all live in the Seattle area these days):
1. Mira Patel: Team lead. I have also appointed her chief photographer :) Originally from Brampton, Ontario
2. Tibi Doman: Paddles on Mira's dragonboat team. Mira and I think he has high enterntainment value for this trip. In addition, he is in charge of carrying me down mountain when I pass out.
3. Yours truly, originally from Cornwall, Ontario (nice).

So, this is our trip, in search of a little adventure. If you don't have much to do in the next 2 weeks, come for the ride with us :) We're not sure how often we will post (even if we do, will anyone read?), but we will do what we can.

Ok, first order of business: a 30+ hour trip to Moshi, Tanzania.

You all have a good one,
shawn

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Kilimanjaro here we come!