A beautiful view of Mt Kilimanjaro with a pond in the foreground.
It may be hard to tell, but the trails are steep.
We stopped at a small village for lunch and had soup and boiled beef. The soup was delicious. When we added a very little bit of a red pepper it rivaled any habanero. This is the cook working on the food.
More banana trees. There are a lot of banana trees in this area.
I was exhausted today, and slowed down Staci and Emmanuel considerably. The uphills were consistent, steep, and it was hot. I was soaked from sweat by 9:00 a.m., and never dried out. I was an absolute anchor.
It was time for bed early, about 6:30 p.m.. Because of my being exhausted we stopped in the village of Uru-West. Not as far as hoped for the day. We had permission from the proprietor of a little shop to camp. An exorbitant "security" fee of 30,000 Tsh ($18USD) was asked for after the fact. We found out later we needed permission from the village chief too. That's when the $/£& hit the fan. Certainly the most intriguing 12-14 hours of this adventure. An alcohol stoked mob is not fun.
I don't have the energy to write about it now. Staci put up a short version of the incident on her blog at hiketoclimb.com
The bottom line is we are safe.
DECEMBER 29-Gloria
Without going into details of what happened through the night, we got off to a very early start. We were guided out of town safely by our angel, Mary. My lasting impression about the village of Uru will not be the idiots, it will be the love and kindness shown by two total strangers, Mary and her mother. Our guide and interpreter Emmanuel deserves accolades too.
Adrenaline does great things. I was able to keep up with Staci and Emmanuel. We all wanted to get as far from Uru as possible. It was quite a while before we took a break. A long early lunch meant we could relax and ponder the night's events.
Hiking took us through some coffee bean territory.
We found a spot which opened early for us and ordered a kilo of pork, and ugale. It was delicious. I've had a craving for Coca-Cola. Normally I might drink three coca-Colas in a month. I had three bottles at this one setting.
One of the wonderful treats is hand washing before meals. Before eating they bring soap and heated water to your table for hand washing. This was an occasional practice in Kenya, and seems more commonplace in Tanzania. Even at an absolute shanty on the side of the road, we were surprised by this treatment. It is logical. Food is eaten with hands, few utensils. Often people share a single platter of food. It is comforting to know the others at your table have clean hands.
Staci met a wonderful 16 year old girl, Gloria (yellow shirt), walking our direction on the road. She was on the way home from visiting her grandmother's house with her sister. They walked together for nearly two or so hours. Gloria had just finished her "Form 4" exams, essentially finishing high school. She won't know until April if she will be able to go to University.
Her older sister graduated from college, and Gloria is hopeful. I think she will do great. Her English is excellent, which meant she and Staci could have deep, meaningful (and sometimes silly) discussions.
We finally got to Gloria's house and met her parents. They are hard working banana growers. She pointed out the different kinds of bananas, and their uses. I certainly prefer the smaller, sweet bananas. The bigger bananas here are used almost like a potato as a food staple. The mother, Gloria, Staci, and some of the other children peeled bananas to show Staci what they had to do to get them to market.
They pack the bucket down, got Staci's hair wet, and she tried the next step.
She was not able to go without hands. It was very heavy. The thought of carrying that load, regularly, to the market is amazing. The market was way back in the town where Staci had met Gloria for the first time.
This day helped revive our great feelings about Tanzania. Gloria's parents were so kind, and we left with too much weight in bananas and papayas.
After about 30 km we found a really nice hotel in Machema. We splurged. After the last three nights, especially the previous night, we deserved it. Showers were delightful. WiFi was horrible, but what's new. Had the chance to watch TV for the first time since the trip began, it was so bad it soon went off.
Mary and Gloria made this a wonderful day.
Someday I may write about the evening of the 28th and the morning of the 29th. I'll probably need a real keyboard for that chapter.
