Day 11 Bike, Barbeque, and the Crater

We return to the mainland for out last 3 days.  We stay in a lodge ngorongoro crater manor outside the rim of the crater.  The lodge  is on a coffee plantation owned by the Dutch family named Borraso it is spectacular.  We get mountain bikes and ride until dark exploring the villages surrounding the farm. The fair trade coffee they make is some of the best in the world plus the plantation really puts a lot back we saw schools hospitals and a day care all ran by the farm.

I get in a screaming contest with a group of baboons at the gate of the crater.  While everyone is inside getting paperwork I start putting my shoes on with the door open I look up two baboons setting beside me I start hitting them with my shoe and finally get them out I turn around and one is sitting in the back seat enjoying our box lunch.  Gabe is right outside the door with his cell video recoeding.

We head to Lake lyasi looking for the Hadzabe bushmen and a Datoga blacksmith that have lived in this region for 10,000 years.  The blacksmith made our arrow tips from nails and knife from a car spring and wedding bracelets from a brass faucet he melted down.  They introduce us to their families they like the Masai have multiple wives.  Out guide was doing the introductions and translating questions, where are we from? how many children?  How much did i pay for my wife?  The guide said 100 dollars and they started clapping. 

Next we look for the Hadzabe bushmen who's numbers are down to 600.  We have a guide local to the area and speaks their strange language using their tongue to make clicks.  When we finally walk up on them it is like we walk up on a wild animal dressed in animal skins and a boston celtic jersey stoking a fire.  There are skins drying in the trees animal skulls decorating the trees.  We find 2 tribes they are nomadic and not always in the same place they have no concept of money but they are excited about arrow points and knife.  They show us their skills with the bow,  different medicines for every aliment.  Mosquito repellent it is the mid morning not much hunting they shoot some birds a snake slithers into camp scaring the children they shoot it in the head skinning it to use on their arrows.  A young bushmen show up with a small antelope they field dress the dicdic throw a shoulder on the fire and eat the liver raw.  Gabe tries everything he will be sick after this. They sit around the fire and smoke ponk(click)ponk(click) a plant that is stronger than marijuana which gabe doesn't try while the meat is cooking.  The meat is great Luke  doesn't eat it he later tells us the same knife they gutter the deer with was what they were using to cut our meat.  We  are going to be real sick.

They aren't very good roll models they don't follow rules or boundaries,  they just hunt all day,  there wives are half dressed and were purchased with a baboon,  only one wife but they trade out,  they hang out during the middle of the day smoking weed and barbeque their kill.  I always try to interact with locals this was the best experience so far.  I just hope the camps don't get commercialize like the Masai where they are trying to sell you trinkets the whole time you visit.

I am now on a layover in Amsterdam getting ready for my second 9 hour flight.  The boys are in a casino here at the airport wouldn't expect much

Day 8,9,10 From 19000 feet up to 19 meters under water

Got a little carried away so next 3 days will be short with pictures.

We landed in Zanzibar amongst the disorganized chaos that I have learned to love  about Africa.   Zanzibar is an island located off of the east coast of Tanzania, 90% Muslim, 8% Christian, 2% Hindu first inhabited by fishermen from Africa then Portuguese  then Iran and British all of which gives it a unique culture.  It was part of the spice route and the slave trading route.  We tour stone town, old slave markets, masque and churches built and destroyed by sultans and missionary's, we run across the home of phrad musada aka Freddie Mercury from the group Queen, his father was Iranian and mom Indian and he grew up in old town.  The bungalows we are staying at is great not crowded good food on the beach so far lot better than the mountain.

Day 7: The Climb, pole pole

The Climb, pole pole 

Day 7
The Climb, pole pole

Our time finally comes, we get ready quickly since we slept in most of our clothes already, all we had to put on was our outer shells, gloves, and hats.  We start by eating tea and cookies unlike every other meal Amos warns not to eat or drink too much. Our blood ox looks good and we start.  Gabe has made another come back.  He had me worried last night he was really sick but he gets dressed and jumps in line for the summit.


It is dark and we move like snails zig zagging across the final 3000 vertical feet of the mountain.  We are climbing with our guide Amos leading me Luke Gabe and 2 other assistants in a single file where they carry the water, and cameras both of which freeze before we get too far.  We meet a large group of 30 climbers from the UK that camped a couple thousand feet above us, at the start they are laughing and have party lights on their backpacks as they pass us.

Amos is setting our pace and route pole pole (slow slow) is what he keeps saying. I can still breath with my mouth closed and talk; that didn't last long.  The next two hours I start laboring to breathe my heart rate spikes I don't want to look at anything but Amos feet staying close and trying to stay out of the head wind.  I am still able to talk but when I do I pay the price by taking me a few minutes to get breathing back under control.  I can see the boys shadow from the headlamps behind me.  I don't look back anymore I now am dizzy have terrible cotton mouth we have 5 liters of water in the guides packs but the hose coming out is frozen we get it broken loose and we look like we are nursing. we blow water back after we drink to keep the tube from freezing.  The last 500 ft are a group of refrigerator size blocks stacked on top of each other very steep. I am more than dizzy now I am in a surreal state not talking I hear Luke and Gabe struggling behind me.  The guides start singing.  Every block we climb up someone has left a pile of vomit when we try to duck behind a rock someone has claimed it for a bathroom leaving a mess.  We finally climb around the last group of large rocks and see the peak.  Still dark but starting to see the sky brighten.

We finally reach the summit look into the glacier for a brief minute the storm stops we can see people in every direction most of them were in the high tent camps, we didn't want to waste time so we take the quickest route.  We ain't having a party no disco lights on our bags in fact we get our cameras they are frozen phones also.  We are now met by half the UK group with their disco lights flashing they aren't having near as much fun as 4 hours ago they had some of their group had to turn back and waited behind some rocks until they split.  Finally found an old camera to snap the pictures as we stepped aside for the next group.

It looks like we chose a bad night.  Our plan is to reach the summit by sunrise, watch the sun rise, and enjoying what we had just done walking along the rim of the crater.  It now is sleeting ice pellet's blown by 50 mph winds that are sandblasting my face; visibility turns to shit.  Luke and Gabe did great on the rocks and we are discussing next move as Amos checks blood ox Luke is low 50s he says he feels ok other than his heart feeling like its going to explode but that's normal. To complicate things more we look over the boulders and Amos yells its the Chinese and we don't want to be crossing trails up and down.  Plus we are in the wind exposed getting colder by the second.

We weren't spiting up  it has been an adventure we reached the summit now we have to get down to better air.  Luke and Gabe are taken by the the arms by Stoney and Antonio and the jump hitting a gravel pit like a alpine skier they skate down the steep part of the mountain where I see them falling rolling but they are flying down.  Me on the other hand fell 3 or 4 times, rocks are now snow covered, my balance is bad so I gave up skiing down the gravel therefore I start back on the zigzag path I came up still winded having to stop I am maybe half way to base camp and I see Gabe and Luke now on the flatter surface they will be at base camp an hour earlier than me.  We have 1 hour to get breakfast then we continue 4 hours back to Horombo this is the start of the 2 day walk out.  We don't eat Amos is not watching our food and drink so we quit both.  We try to sleep but any type of sound sleep will not happen at this altitude.  The good news is as we descend we start shedding layers causing us to get warmer.  We are very tired but we begin to breath easier.

Day 6 Horombo to base camp Kibo Hut

We get to the hut at 2pm it is cold and windy Gabe is really feeling bad the last few hundred yards take for ever.  Kibo is a hard place it is to high and cold for running water and all necessary supplies have to be carried including water.  Gabe is marginal has a bad climb into camp and bad headaches.  Luke has headaches last half but recovers we still are moving well but not eating much and feel miserable.

We get our room with 28 other people trying to climb starting at midnight the room is about 12X20 half men\women we are the only Americans not much talking.  The summit teams start at 10pm with the Chinese first out like always.  We met Mr Chow on the walk up he made it but most of his team froze out Mr Chow is a bad ass.  There are teams from Japan, UK, Sweden, Poland and Spain spend a restless night.  Gabe and another 19 year old from Spain are the youngest in camp.  Our time is midnight we get in our bags at 7pm Gabe has been having bad nose bleeds and tonight was the mother of all nose bleeds we bunked on the opposite side of the room because of his snoring but he comes in the middle of the night looking like someone out of a horror movie both nostrils bleeding and plugs are not stopping it.  We finally get our last toilet paper stuffed up his nose to stop the bleeding and he goes to bed.  We also have a older Japanese guy freak out in the middle of the night.

Our roof buckles all night under the 40mph winds every time someone goes out the door to the bathroom the door is blown open and the sub zero wind blows across our bunks.  When the person gets back they push a rock against the door to keep it closed.  Luke gets up once after a group leaves the door open and locks the door from inside leaving them out side banging till someone lets them in.  We watch waiting our turn to get ready.

Gabe ask me last night why are we doing this my smart ass answer why not.  I am feeling guilty now he has been sick every day but one.  Are they doing this to help me fulfill some mid life crisis?  I hope not.  I don't exactly know why i push i would have done it by myself and to have them join me made me so proud.  They test our blood ox at and gabe is low two days not eating is starting to show.

Luke on the other hand is having headaches but his appetite is fine.  The porters are calling him kiboko,  they were not expecting him to be this strong.  Such a noble sounding name,  Kiboko is Swahili for hippo at first he wasn't liking it but you can tell they are doing it out of respect. 

Our porters and guides are working hard they make 20 dollars a day and carry 40 to 50 lbs to this point.  They want us to make it Amos tells us they take it more serious when it is a family involved.  This is the end for them they start packing for the long walk out.  This is truly the most miserable place i have ever been.

Day 5: Zebra Rock from Horombo

We have been eating a lot of Ibuprofen and little food sore mussels headaches we had a great day today we climbed to Zebra Rock 16,000ft and back my back is getting better and Luke and Gabe are feeling better lots of rest.  the clear day gives us a clear view of the summit covered in snow.  Looking like its just over the hill.  We see the zombies returning to camp that afternoon speaking of the awful night they just had.  We spend time in camp people from all over the world in and out.  The summit will start from here and over the next 36 hours we will on our feet 24 of them so we enjoy a easy day and one to recover.

Gabe made a fashion statement with all the climbing fashion  snobs on the mountain breaking out the "jorts" Jean shorts he purchased at good will.  Everyone was impressed and will probably start a trend.

Mr. Chow leaves us for Kibo and his summit attempt.  We are awaken by his party this morning at the public sink which is out side of our door.  Vomiting and clearing of all mucus are a early morning ritual that we have been observing they are always the first to leave camp and last to get back.

We don't sleep tonight it is cold we drank our gallon of water each like every other day but today because we only walked 3 hours we are up all night going to the bathroom.  When you get back in your sleeping bag it takes an hour for you to get warm enough to sleep. We leave for Kibo at 7am a 5 hour walk again to 16,000 ft.

Luke

Gabe,
Feeling better, apologizing in advance for grammatical errors I’m too tired to care and Dad can’t write correctly in the first place.  But went to zebra rock today it was pretty cool to have a day to chill a little bit and not walk 1000 miles.  Dad will not get off our backs about this dang blog, every 5 seconds all I hear is blog, blog, blog.  So I did it.