We woke up at 4:30 to make our 6:00 flight out of Zanzibar. As Todd noted, I forgot to close the mosquito net, so I woke up with about 30 mosquito bites. Todd had less than 10. I even had 4 on my face. It was going to be a rough day for me.

We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya and found a driver for the day. We had pretty much exhausted all the touristy things to do in the city on our previous visit so we figured we would spend a portion of the 15 hour layover buying underwear and watching movies, so we asked the driver to take us to a shopping mall that had a movie theater. Laundry wasn't as readily available as we thought during our trip and we had to make an emergency purchase at the mall. There were only two movies playing, Hancock and Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia. I was excited about Hancock and wanted to pass on Narnia; however, we really had nothing better to do.

We had our final African meal at the mall, the very Swahili cuisine of pasta and chicken tacos - believe it or not, the tacos were actually really good (avacados are curiously popular in Africa...definitely not something we expected). After passing about 9 hours at the mall we headed back to the airport around 7:00pm. It took us a few tries to find a taxi driver who would take us to the airport for 1250 Kenyan Shillings (about $20), which was literally all the money we had left in our wallets at the end of the day, but we found a willing driver. We were counting on the airport having a business class lounge so we could get a free dinner, and we were rewarded. After getting enough free food to fill our bellies, we boarded the plane and went to sleep. From Nairobi, we went to Zurich and then on to Frankfurt (about 10 hours of flying). Luckily for everyone around us, we were able to check in to the hotel room early so that we could shower before hitting the town. We had lunch and then went on a three hour walking tour of Frankfurt. I think we saw everything there is to see in Frankfurt, so we headed to the bars. We tried some apple wine and numerous hefeweizen, but mostly we just watched the German men in their tank tops, capri pants and fanny packs.



On Saturday morning we headed to the airport for the last legs home; Frankfurt to Dulles to LAX to SFO. I couldn't wait to be home. My bug bites were killing me and I had a stomach bug. In africa, we ate at the night market and on the mountain ate food cooked by a guy that hadn't showered in 6 days, but we didn't get sick from the food until we ate in Germany. My stomach is still a little off. We finally made it home at 9:30 pm on Saturday July 12 - we left Zanzibar around 8:00pm PDT on Wednesday July 9, so it was a long trip home. We took nice long showers, did some badly needed laundry, and hung up our packs until next time...

As with our first visit to Stone Town, we were initiallay focused on figuring out how to get to Nairobi on July 10th (in order to make our return flight home). We assumed since there were at least three flights a day to Nairobi, and that it was Zanzibar's low season, that this would not be a problem. Again our lack of advance planning bit us in the behind and we were left with only one option, an expensive 6AM flight - which gave us 16 hours to spend in Nairobi (our flight back home departed at 11:45PM).

So once again we were in the busy part of the island, where the Islamic inlfuence is omnipresent - you're surrounded by veiled women & skull-capped men, and several times a day calls to prayer drift over the city from numerous mosques. Unfortunately, also everywhere are the touts (in Swahili they are called papasi which literally mans 'ticks') that want you to take a taxi ride, book a tour through them, buy something from their shops, or in one form or another get you to part ways with your money. It definitely gets tiring to politely respond to the incessant greetings and welcomes you get just walking down the street, but we had lots of opportunity to practice our hapana ahsantes (no thank yous).

We took a small boat out to one of the surrounding islands called Changuu, which at one time served as a quarantine station for people arriving by ship to Zanzibar, but today its main attraction (at least for us) is the population of hungry Aldabra tortoises which inhabit the island, and which they allow visitors to walk amongst and feed. Supposedly they are second in size to the species found on the Galapagos Islands (one of our future vacation destinations). We had to go off the beaten path a bit, but we found the biggest turtles sunning themselves in a far corner of the turtle habitat. We even orchestrated a few turtle races between some of the turtles using the lure of fresh food (but of course rewarded both the winners and losers with a treat at the end).



For eats we sampled the Zanzibari nightmarket, a set of food stalls that opens up shop each night near the waterfront. Manned by the typical agressive papasi, they eagerly court your business to at least 'take a look' at their food, even if it is exactly identical to five other food stalls within the area. Our two favorites were Zanzibar Pizza and beef skewers on chapati, each of which could be purchased for about a dollar. I love places like this where you can try so many different foods, all the while keeping a nervous hand on your Immodium tablets. This video gives you a good idea of what the food market looks and sounds like:

On our final full day in Zanzibar we had to decide between two of the islands' famous activities - a Spice Farm Tour or Swimming with Dolphins. Due to Juli's love of dolphins (if she were an animal she would definitely be a dolphin), it was a hard choice to make - in Zanzibar you actually swim with wild dolphins in the ocean - by means of small boats that chase down groups of dolphins and then - SPLASH! - in go the tourists. This sounded a bit strange to us, and perhaps even a bit cruel, so we decided not to support this enterprise and instead go with the more traditional option of the Spice Tour.

The tour took us to a few farms where we could see and smell the variety of spices for which Zanzibar is known (vanilla, cinnamon, clove, etc.). We also got to taste some of the crazy fruits grown on the island like jackfruit, lychee, and elephant apples. A spice-laden rice and curry was served for lunch that was really tasty, even if we had to sit on the ground to eat (my flexibility in such situations leaves a bit to be desired). After one more stroll around downtown Stone Town and some food from the nightmarket, we headed back to the hotel in preparation for an early wake-up call to get our 6AM flight to Nairobi. We picked out our least-stinkiest clothes for the long journey home. Everything was great until Juli forgot to close the mosquito net around our bed...

Our original flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar was 'diverted' to Johannesburg on account of the 50+ South Africans who were climbing Kili in a group on the same schedule as us. So instead of leaving at 7AM as expected, we did not take off until around noon, on a completely different airline, headed for the mysterious archipelago of Zanzibar.

Unbenownst to myself, Zanzibar is the most common name given to a group if islands off the coast of Tanzania, that until the early 60s was a country unto itself. It has been a stop for traders and sailers from nearly all corners of the world (but most specifically from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia) since at least the very first century AD. It's a conservative Muslim society, and Juli had a little trouble wrapping her burka at first, but the dirty looks abated as the days went on. The Zanzibaris seem to be very fond of fu-man-chus, however, as long as I kept my knees covered.

The first order of business for us was figuring out how to get to our final destination, Lamu in Kenya. During our 'planning phase' for this trip, I had brazenly told Juli we should just figure it out when we got to Zanzibar instead of trying to book something ahead of time (those who know us know that such spontenaeity is in strict violation of our 'normal' behavior). Unfortunately the cheapest route we found was priced at $550 each! We looked into chartering a plane, a boat, and various other options with no success (the parents will be happy we quickly eliminated riding the bus due to frequent robberies by Somali bandits), so we decided to stick in Zanzibar for a week instead.

After a furious 30 minutes studying somebody's borrowed Lonely Planet guidebook, we decided to head up north to the beach town of Nungwi, which promised nice beaches and good nightlife, something both of us were definitely looking forward to after the Kili experience. As the taxi veered off the paved road and through some rough dirt, we were rewarded with the blinding white sands and the amazing turquiose waters of the Indian Ocean, and we both felt the stress of our travel issues melt away. We settled in a cheap beach bungalow, basic and clean and just a few steps from the beach. It was also just a few steps from the loudest bar in Nungwi, and provided us with great bass grooves deep into the night (really deep, like 3 or 4AM).

We passed the days lazily (for us), doing some snorkeling, reading, kayaking, and almost any other activity we could do near the beach and water. On account of having so much time in Zanzibar, we even had one day where we planned absolutely NOTHING (shocking, I know). But of course one hour into that day we got stir-crazy and decided to setup a scuba diving trip for the day following.

Neither of us had ever been scuba diving before, so we signed up for the most basic course which they said consisted of a few lessons in a pool and then one dive. To our surprise (somewhat), there was no pool - they loaded us up on a boat and started out to the ocean. About five minutes before we arrived at the reef the guide went over all the instructions with us, something about a regulator, signals if you can't breathe, etc. I was sufficiently terrified. The boat stopped, the guide jumped in, and told us to do the same. At first it was just strange to be completely underwater and breathing normally (pretty heavily for me actually, but at least breathing in and out underwater was just surreal). We sank to the bottom of a 2-3m area and did some practice 'drills' which first consisted of having to remove your regulator from your mouth, throw it behind you, then find it and put it back in - I am sure Juli could see the terror in my eyes as I frantically searched for the mouthpiece to restore my air...she is the one who is good in the water, while I am always freaking out about my contact lenses or something else that is inconsequential. But I was able to find it without turning too deep a shade of blue, and then it was really 'go time,' and we headed for the reef.

I quickly warmed to the scuba diving - I don't think I can go back to snorkeling after having the freedom to stay underwater for 45 minutes at a time, and go deep to see more interesting marine life, of which there was tons...even for our guide there were some firsts, a leaffish which was well disguised on some coral; a few ribbon eels and lobsters, and a couple manta rays. Juli and I were really pumped about the diving and fortunately they let us go on a second dive in the area, which was just as great as the first. We only made it to a depth of about 8m (24ft) at the most, but it was an incredible experience - made us wish we had tried it sooner (especially a couple years ago in Thailand), but made us certain we would try again.

We had one final meal in Nungwi, chilled at a beach bar with a group of four from South Africa, and arranged for a morning ride to take us back to Stone Town (the big city on Zanzibar island) for our remaining few days in Africa.

First I'll have to say a few words about the Kili climb...as Juli mentioned, it was so much more difficult than I expected - I had heard about so many people doing it, I thought it would be a nice little walking path all the way up...which in some parts it was, but to finish required lots of clambering over rocks and ice. Added on top of that was the 'false summit' of Stella Point, which is where I took in the sunrise. I was so burnt out once I hit Stella Point, sat down and watched the sun; it was hard to get my legs to move forward and take me to the summit, even though it was in sight and I knew it was close. Mentally and physically, it was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. It does feel good however to have made it to the top with such great guides (I should also mention that one of them took my pack for about an hour during the summit attempt after he watched me weaving back and forth on the path) and great co-climbers. I had thought maybe I would be hit with the 'mountain madness' bug and start to do more climbing, but right now I can't see that happening.

So after our mammoth summit day hiking experience, it was almost over as we descended to the final camp and had our last group dinner. At dinner the head guide awkwardly tried to talk to us about tipping, etc. - little did he know we had already decided as a group what to do. Each of us threw in some amount, between $150 and $200, which I collected and then came up with a couple options for how much to tip each porter, cook, assistant guide, & head guide. It was actually a lot easier than I thought to come up with a distribution scheme to which our group of 8 agreed. Then on the final morning we had a formal 'ceremony' where all the crew lined up while Danny and I said some big thank yous and handed them their money. They were pretty respectful when taking the money, we had heard that many porters act like you've just handed them a pile of doodoo when you give them the money...one stepped back and counted his, and immediately the rest of them were very excited about the tips.

But perhaps the biggest cheer of all went up when our Japanese team member Noriyuki reached into his bag and pulled out a handle of Bombay Sapphire Gin. Immediately they all went scrambling for cups, or anything that would hold the liquid as the head guide doled it out. I asked Noriyuki if he had carried that bottle the whole way and he said 'No, they did!!' The general agreement between all of us was that they were more excited for the booze than the money!

Either way we had a very happy (but muddy) final hike four hours down the hill to 1800m, where we received our summit certificates and boarded the bus to head back to the hotel for a badly needed hot shower (however the water pressure left much to be desired).

At dusk we stepped into the road outside our hotel to take in the Kili peak - until that moment we had not seen it except when we were actually on the mountain as there was a constant cloud cover over Moshi - it looked massive and looming over the city, much more so than it had on the trek itself. At the hotel we arranged for some even more badly needed laundry to be done, attempted to pay the rest of the trek fee that we owed (there is a long story about this, but the upshot is, if you travel to Africa, just bring a suitcase full of US dollars - it is far and away the currency of choice - traveller's checks, Tanzanian Shillings, and Scottish Pounds are near worthless), and Juli and I secured a flight to Zanzibar, albeit one that left at 7AM the next morning, making one more early wake-up necessary.

Sorry about not finishing the last blog. Africa is very far away, so the internet is really slow here and I didn't have the patience to finish the post. The internet speed is also why we haven't posted many pictures, so we are going to have to wait till we get back home to post more of those.

Okay, so after making it through the first day, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of potatoes and meat served in our warm mess tent. The porters, guides and service staff were amazing. The porters (there were 16 of them for our group of 8) carry 25 kilos a day and make only $7 a day. The head guide, Jacob, was in the Imax movie 'To the Roof of Africa'. Jacob is pretty old and a smoker, I don't know how he climbs Kili so effortlessly. Day 2 through 5 were kind of a blur. We hiked a lot and then ate a lot. Typically we were walking for 5-6 hours per day, slowly making our way closer to the summit. We slept when we could - my sleeping bag mattress had a leak so it was hard to sleep. Luckily Todd traded with me for a couple of nights, I don't think he wanted to deal with me after 4 nights of not sleeping. It was freezing at night (especially when a midnight bathroom run was required) but very comfortable during the day.

On the fifth night, we were camped at about 4900 meters, our last camp before making the charge to the top. Thus far nobody in our group had experienced any altitude issues. That evening after an early dinner we went to bed at 7pm and were awakened at midnight to start the ascent to the top. We quickly dressed, drank tea, and tried to get our handwarmers to work. We brought six hand warmers and none of them worked, we think it might have had something to do with the altitude. 8 trekkers and 4 guides left camp the camp around 12:45 AM. I knew it would take about 6 hours to make it to the top, but I didn't think it would be that hard. It was grueling. For those of you in SF, it was like walking up California street in sand in the freezing cold (and I mean cold, all of the water in our nalgene bottles and other folks' camelbaks froze). For most of the trail up it was a basic dirt path, but then near the top it turned to clambering over ice and rocks on a fairly vertical path. The altitude also makes it tough to breathe (the highest I have ever been before Kili was the top of mammoth at about 11,000ft). Along the way we saw a few 'casualties' from other groups, either huddled on the side of the trail or being helped down the mountain by a guide. Around 3:30AM, one of our group fell behind for good - she was getting too sick and could not continue. The headlamps of climbers above us clearly communicated we had a LOOOOONG way to go to the top...I hated to look up because every time I'd see a few lights really high above our current position, which meant we still had a big climb ahead.

Just before sunrise, seven of us clambered up a stretch of glacier to get to Stella Point, which meant we were just 45 more minutes from the very top. Amazing glaciers were all around us at the top, there was definitely more ice than I had expected (I have heard that the ice will all melt within 10 years). Slowly, the seven of us made it to Uhuru Peak, the highest point of Africa at 5,900m/19,000 ft. Todd and I both made it! I was so happy, I didn't think it would happen. The last hour was slow going on the glacier, but being able to see the peak made it bearable for me. I think Todd has a different feeling about the last hour :(. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. Even Lynn who has run marathons and triathalons, said it was the hardest thing she ever did.

So, we made it, but we still had to get back down. We were at the peak for about 20 minutes taking pictures and than we headed back to the camp at 4900m. We got back around 11:30, passed out for an hour and than set off again for the next camp, which was at about 3800m. In all, we hiked for about 15 hours that day. It was rewarding, but I will never do that again.

The safari was amazing, but by the end we were so restless. We spent five days sitting around all day, we couldn't even go for walks in the evening (except for the walk between the buffet and our dinner table). I was quite stir crazy and very ready to spend some hours hiking up kili. Be careful what you wish for. Half way through day 1, I was exhausted. I felt like I had ran a marathon in the smoggy 909. My lungs burned; probably from the chest cold that Todd gave me. During the day i thought there was no way i would finish the 7 day trek up kili. It was a rough 6 hour hike. i finished last out of eight.

Our group consisted of

1. Me


2. Todd


3. Lynn (friend from univeristy)


4. Danny (Lynn's new husband, it was their honeymoon)


5. Julie (Lynn's sister)


6. Angela (Dubai transplant from Canada)


7. Dips (Dubai transplant from England)


8. Noriyuki (Dubai transplant from Japan)

Angela and Dips were lifesavers for us. They supplied us with tissues, wipes, vicks, altitude meds and contact lens solution (todd left his at the hotel). Our group was great. And our guides were fantasitc, but I wasn't sure if i was going to make it past day 2.

Here's all of us (minus Noriyuki) at the starting Machame Gate:

Sadly, our access to the internet has been more limited than expected while on safari and while climbing Kilimanjaro...so we're making this blog a little retro and we'll post a bit about our safari and next time we get internet we'll post about the Kili trip. Also, I understand the people have spoken and the fu-man has been requested. You will be rewarded shortly. We had hope to put up a new poll question today, but this computer is not benig helpful...so here it is - there were 8 trekkers in our group who started the climb of Kili. Of the 8, how many do you think made it to the summit? Answers to come in a future post...

After meeting the owner of the safari company for dinner and beers we were really fired up. Unfortunately, the execution was not quite up to our expectations. We should have known the first morning when the driver was 45 minutes late and the Landcruiser that would be our home for the next 5 days refused to start. But we gave it the benefit of the doubt and headed off to Tarangire National Park. On our way we made our first pharmacy stop of the trip for my flu-like symptoms. Afer refusing their offers of valium as a sleep aid, I settled on a children's medicine that worked decently for short periods of time. At the entrance to the park we experienced another delay as the driver's credit card was refused for park fees. Evenutally we did make it into the park and saw many elephants, zebras, and cape buffalo, many within arm's reach of the car!

The next day was a loooooong drive to Serengeti NP, which included our second pharmacy stop on my behalf, this time I tried the antibiotic route (after a previous barrage of meds from our first aid kit failed to do the job). Mostly I zoned out during this day as I was feeling really bad, but I am pretty sure we stopped at an archeological site on the way, and then sat around the entrance of the park for another hour or so. Then we went bumpily on our way through the park, where we came right up on a family of lions resting in the shade!

The next day I was not feeling up to even going out on a morning game drive, so Juli went alone and saw a familyof lions feasting on an early morning wildebeest breakfast, and another family playing in the grass. In the afternoon I was able to join up and see thousands of migrating wildebeests and zebras, as well as a family of lions relaxing by the river. Around the midpoint of the safari I started feeling better...right as Juli started getting sick and feeling like crap. So we had quite the "solo yet together" safari experience. Our car was also getting sicker...at this point it required one of two things for the engine to start - either we had to be stopped on a slope or another car had to push us from behind. This was especially good when we were stopped near a group of lions and one by one, every other safari car ignored our requests for help, expect for the very last one. And the driver's reluctance to turn off the car engine led to many shaky pictures for me...not good. After spending a dusty day in the Seronera area of the Serengeti, where we supposedly saw a leopard, we headed back on the road to the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is a depressed volcano where thousands of animals live and don't leave, making it a great place to go on safari.

Due to the rapidly deteriorating condition of our car, the driver requested a loan from yours truly to pay for repairs...however despite the mechanics' efforts the car remained as it was, and on the final day of our safari the driver said we could not turn off the engine. We were well rewarded by watching three lionesses on the hunt for wildebeests in the morning - watching them slowly close in an triangulate around a their targets made for thrilling theater, even if the wildebeests got away in the end. We also saw a rhino on this day, though it was too far away to get a real good look or take pictures. Mercifully we made the drive to Moshi, with Juli pretty much completely sick with the flu and me on the way back up (or so I thought), where our driver deposited us at the hotel where early the next morning we would begin our hike up Kilimanjaro.