DECEMBER 30-Treating Ourselves
There was a nice hotel in Machame, so we had treated ourselves. What a nice place to wake up to. In true long distance hiker form, we were filthy going in. They accepted our money and let us in, even though we looked horrible. It seems they gave a good rate because we looked rough. By morning we were a little better.
We cooked in the room the night before, and I hand washed my salty, sweaty, filthy clothes.
Some "hiker hunger" kicked in. The free breakfast, with so much food, was well received.
Our guide for this stretch, Emmanuel. He had never had an assignment like this! He has developed shin splints and blisters. Luckily I learned how to tape shin splints this summer while hiking the PCT.
Staci and I had always been taught to walk facing traffic. It's crucial here, though not commonly practiced. Cars and piki pikis (motorcyles) drive on the left. Piki pikis often turn off power on downhill stretches to conserve gas, and still go quite fast. They are impossible to hear. Silently, with big loads, they careen down narrow, rutted roads, generally on the left hand side. When walking on the left hand side (which to our right sided American brain would normally seem okay) the "whoosh" of an overloaded, silent rocket going by is bad for ones heart, and sanity. It's not uncommon to see four people on a piki piki, or one person and an unimaginably huge load of anything from bananas headed for market, to lots of chairs. We've avoided collisions with piki pikis thus far, but am looking forward to cars driving on the right side of the road when I return home.
Piki pikis are generally a tool for young entrepreneurs. If a boy (we haven't seen one women piki piki driver, and few women drivers at all) can scrape up a down payment for a motorcycle he can start making a living hauling people or merchandise.
Even after nearly a month and a half, if walking in the left side of the road when a motor sound comes from behind, our natural instinct is not to be concerned, and we should be!
It was a long day hiking, and we finally made it to the city of Sanya Juu. We found a very inexpensive hotel that suited our needs. This was a seven dollar room, not the three dollar hotel of a few nights ago. What an upgrade. :) I've slept in some pretty rough looking places recently, and been happy, because they were secure. This was much different than the spoilage of the previous night. As long as we weren't upsetting villagers, I was happy.
What a difference for me to be waiting for Emmanuel. He had been fast the first few days hiking with us, but now has changed. It was a great day for hiking with Staci and just chatting. We chatted about everything, and we chatted about nothing. The Tortuga, just plugging away, has now passed the hare, Emmanuel.
We have picked up a fair amount of Swahili for only being here a month and a half. Staci and I eavesdrop during conversations to see if we can figure out what's going on. It's a challenge, but sometimes we're able to piece together correct tidbits.
There are frustrating items about hiking in East Africa.
-While you can usually find someone who speaks English, it's often about as good as my Swahili. Communications difficulties abound.
-Very limited signs. Tanzania is a little better than Kenya was, but not much. Roads that are shown on maps, and logically would have some indication of what was down that road, have nothing. It is very rare to see a road sign.
For instance, there is no sign at the turnoff that leads to Arusha National Park. The thought of no signs indicating Yellowstone or Crater Lake National Park would be unimaginable.
Coca-Cola and Double-Mint gum signs abound, but a sign indicating the name of the village or town you're in...forget it. The thought of a sign indicating how far to upcoming towns are non-existent. A result is people don't know how far it is from point A to point B. This includes guides. Most people we run across don't have vehicles, so they haven't learned the distances by looking at odometers when traveling. We've pretty much quit asking people how far it was to the next landmark.
-Maps are not common, and not used. Prior to the trip Staci had big challenges finding good maps of Kenya and Tanzania. The maps she got were okay, but the thought was we could get better maps once here. That didn't work out. Staci's maps are the best we've seen.
Because maps are uncommon, people don't know how to use them. This has led to interesting, and challenging, discussions with guides, none of who have known how to read a map. The simple concept of the use of a scale to determine distances has turned out to have been way more difficult to explain to so many. Even before Tanzania our good KWS Rangers who were so woods wise would stare blankly, in awe, at our maps.
The way we were guided through this stretch of Tanzania, and it occurred often in Kenya, was upon getting to an intersection ask who happens to be around which way to go. Sometimes they know. Sometimes they guess, but sound convincing to the guide, and give bad directions. The solution for Emmanuel was to ask as many people as possible and try to come up with a consensus. It was a time consuming process. We got in the habit of overriding the process.
DECEMBER 31-Getting to Angeri-Nairobi
It had been wet and humid the first few days hiking in Tanzania. Banana trees were common, and beautiful rivers and creeks cascaded off the east side of Mount Kilimanjaro. As we hiked down and around the south side of the mountain it turned distinctly more arid.
We got an early start, after taping up Emmanuel. He had a hard day. Exhaustion had set in. His feet hurt. He had shin splints, though the taping did help, and finally, he was pushed out of shape when we didn't listen to one of his illogical guiding ideas.
Staci and I looked at the map and determined it was 20 to 25 km to the planned early endpoint for the day, Angeri-Nairobi. By starting early (6:15) we could be there easily by lunch. It was easy, straight, somewhat boring road walking. He laughed at us thinking we could do it.
We crossed no water between Sanya Juu and Angeri-Nairobi with the exception of one water pipe with a puncture hole with enough water coming out to eventually fill a canteen.
Main Street, Angeri-Nairobi. The last community before the gate entering Kilimanjaro National Park.
We made it to Angeri-Nairobi at 11:15. We would have been there sooner, but we had to wait quite a bit for Emmanuel, who had slowed to a crawl. He was "hangry." We found a place with barbecued goat and ugale, and his temperament came back to rational.
No matter how grumpy Emmanuel got, it was hard to get mad back because of how cool and collected he was with the mob in Uru-West. He will always hold a special place for Staci and I. He pretended to have a gun in his tent and started unzipping the tent that night. It was the only way to disperse the mob, and it worked!
The eating establishments in the villages are not fast food restaurants. It took an hour and forty-five minutes for lunch. The skinned goat as usual was hanging there, when we ordered. They then started butchering. We knew everything was fresh.
We end this six day hiking stretch just seven kilometers from the Londerossi Gate, the beginning point for the climb up Mount Kilimanjaro! Staci and I easily could have made it. Clearly, Emmanuel would have actually searched for a real gun had we asked him to take another step.
At 2:00 pm we caught a version of a mini-bus/retired safari vehicle for the beginning of the journey back to the big city of Arusha. A little time off the trail to regroup will be good.
Public transportation here is an eye opening experience. At one point 14 adults, nine seats.
This marks the end of quite a year. I retired, moved back to Etna, hiked the PCT, became a grandfather, learned I was going to be a grandfather (baby) again, and am off on this adventure. 2014 was a good year, I'm hoping 2015 is a little slower paced.
JANUARY 1, 2015-Happy New Year
We were not party animals on New Years Eve. Both of us were asleep by about 8:00 p.m.
A lazy day was seriously needed. A lazy day occurred.
The most productive activities of the day were getting clothes washed, getting a ride organized so we can finish the walk from Angeri-Nairobi to Londerossi Gate, and cleaning up my "brain."
The "brain" is the top pouch on the backpack. I use it for the multiple little things that may need to frequently be grabbed.
I had run low on insect repellent and the only type available in Arusha was in scented petroleum jelly. I had never seen anything like it, but I got it and was willing to do what was necessary to keep mosquitoes away. It did work okay, but was not backpack friendly.
With the sun bearing down on the top of the pack, and a lid that didn't seal well, it created an annoying chore. I had a gooey, scented, insect repelled mess over all the little things inside a gallon zip lock bag. Everything from Chapstick, electrolyte powder, NuSkin, water purifying pills and neutralizer, toothpaste, and other items were covered with petroleum jelly.
We spent much of the day visiting with new friends from the hotel. Apprelle, between Staci and I, is an Occupational Therapist resident from Canada doing two months working abroad in Tanzania for requirements as she completes her residency. We had lots of fun visiting with her. Martin and Kristen were fun too and are from Switzerland and in Tanzania for safaris. Apprelle will safari with them before starting her work.
