Aug.23-24: Tanzania safari and heading back to Canada

Susanne with her last entry..... :)

Jambo!

Well, when looking back, it is amazing to see how much we were able to take in over the last few weeks.  The build in Xai Xai, the South Africa safari, then the Kili climb and we had another adventure booked.  About 1.5 days in Lake Manyara and the Ngora Ngora crater.  Fairly close to Arusha, we had booked a tour with Leopard Tours and  were picked up nice and early the 23rd.  7 of us continued here.  Carin had another safari booked and Steve was flying out that afternoon, the group was shrinking from 9 to 7.

It truly is amazing how well this group has gotten along. Someone said that morning: you know, in stressful situations, it is normal that people snap at each other once in a while, but it never happened in our group of 9.  very true.  We were very, very lucky to have the dynamics we did.

Our sweet ride arrived in the form of a big, beige Toyota Landcruiser which had a pop-up roof so that people could stick their heads out top and have a 360 view of the surroundings and still have some protection from the sun.  Our driver`s name was Moses, he was from Tanzania and was amazing in trying to explain his native land and the people.

We had to drive about 2 hours to Lake Manyara,a lake which is buzzing with pink flamingos and greens during the wet season, but in the dry season, the alkaline takes precedence in looks and it basically looks like a dry salt lake.  There is still a lot of water, but the water level is lower and the edges dry out and have a white colour.  Am not an alkaline expert, but know you can buy alkaline batteries...hence the ``no life in the water`` explanation makes sense. There are some small fish and also the food for the flamingos which gives them the pink color...forget the name right now, but not much else lives in it and animals don`t drink from it, either.

We went for a game drive around the lake and saw a lot of rain forest type of trees when first entering the conservation park which is tiny compared to Kruger...maybe about 300 square km`s.  Baboons, monkeys and many other animals similar to what we saw.  It is always exciting to see animals, though, as you see them in a different setting, at a different distance and in different circumstances.

While driving to the game drive, we drove through part of Tanzania, and it was interesting to try to form an impression other than just from Kilimanjaro which obviously does not give you a generic view of the country.

There are about 120 tribes in Tanzania, it is a very peaceful country since independence from British colonies.  One tribe is called the Masai and they herd cows, and goats.  They live in round little huts and often in family circles. Maybe 8 huts if the male has one wife. If he has lots of goats, then he may have more wives, and the little circle of huts could expand to 10 or 15.
The Masai are very traditional and trying to hang on to their ways of life: everything centers around the cows and shepherding them basically. They used to fend off lions when living life in the bush and brush.  They would put a bad smelling oil on their skin which would basically keep lions away from them, and they fear buffalo more than a lion. Hard to believe. They walk around with a stick which used to always be as spear...also used to take lions down if needed.

We saw an interesting progression of the tribe: tire shoes.  Shoes made of pieces cut from rubber tires and strapped to the bottom  of their feet.  It obviously works as a protection but also serves another purpose: when Masai might steal cattle from another, they like wearing the tire shoes, so that foot prints don't designate which way they may have gone due to the tire marks working both ways.  haha, too funny!

Kids walk up to 5 km`s to school. There are many boarding schools in the rural communities and kids go to them starting at age 6. Yip,imagine some of your kids going to school for 5 days at a time at that age,and then only coming home on weekends. very independent kids. They walk to school along busy roads, wear school uniforms, and often try to hitchhike to help with the long distances. You could count on one hand the amount of people I saw during that entire drive who might have been a bit chubby or overweight.  Lots of walking and exercise would take care of that, I guess.

Girls wear their hair short until high school. Again, often striking facial features and really nice looking people.  All roads are incredibly dusty and basically everything close to the road (about 20-30 meters or so) is covered by a layer of ``PEI dirt colored`` dust.  It is on stores, vehicles, plants..you name it, it has dust on it.

Before our safari, we had checked into our beautiful Serena lodge....a collection of huts overseeing the Lake below. Beautiful view and very, very nice hotel with nicely landscaped grounds, a pool and a buffet which gave our bellies a good challenge...we kept loading up our plates with things we had been craving (especially salads etc).  Great lunch!
The evening was spent having a nice dinner and drink, and calling it a ``late`` night at around 10ish or 11, as we had to get up at 5 am on Wednesday, our last safari day and travel day back toward Canada.

• schools can be public (about 20,000 shillings a year or about $13 or so, plus cost of uniforms, books etc). 60-70 kids on those grades/schools.  Cost of private school about $1200 per year and smaller sizes
• English is taught right away
• You can see an Internet cafe and beside it a Masai in traditional garb of checkered red or blue fabric wrapped around them. can spot them really far away. Really interesting mix of old and new
• saw a guy strap two live chickens onto the back of his bike with bungee cords. hmmm....why not, I guess
• random furniture beside road all the time. i.e. 10 lazy boys of different fabric or patterns....dusty, of course
• the reservation parks have no fence here, so animals roam more
• $1500 Shillings= $1 US
• plugs are weird, 3 prong fat adapter needed...
• saw random camels on side of road

The Ngora Ngora crater is a reservation park and inside it is an actual crater which houses 25,000 animals in a location about the size of 10x19km or so....not huge!

We saw tons of animals again, and topped a great day off with seeing a Cheetah.  Almost completely hidden by grass but enough of a head sticking out to take a few pics. amazing little creature. We also saw a serval, and I ended up seeing the movie African Cats on the plane, so felt well prepared :)   After the safari, we had a quick lunch at a picnic stop in the game park where we basically had two elephants almost join us for lunch and off we went to Arusha where we said bye to Alex, and got our bags.

The way home was eventless. We stopped in Amsterdam for a 10 hour layover, so took a train downtown and took a Gracht/Canal tour. Beautiful day and nice to enjoy some of it outside.

Now am at home in Halifax at 6 am writing this blog as I have a bit of insomnia, I think.  Just got home at 4 am after a delayed flight from Toronto and discovered that someone took stuff from my bag...grrrrr..... second glitch.
Well, everyone: it was fun writing and sharing some of our experiences.  It was truly a trip of a lifetime.  One month full of very special activities, and also of forming impressions/memories which are there to stay.

Thanks for being a part of our adventure!  Stay tuned for Chile and Machu Picchu next summer.... :)

Kili continued....Aug. 21st was Summit Day, oh what fun that ``little hike`` was :)

Susanne writing a couple more entries...

Day 5 was an easier one and day 6 was basically summit day. The guides never wanted us to know much about the days ahead, it seemed....so we wouldn`t worry too much. Now I get it. Summit day is basically a wake up call at 11 pm after going to bed at 6 pm but being so nervous and excited that it was hard to sleep, and the climb starting at midnight. This last leg of the hike is very steep; you are counting on your headlamp as it is otherwise pitch black, and the lack of oxygen made some of us pant like chain smokers running a marathon. It was rough..Stellar point is the point which you want to get to. Basically the point high above you which you can see somewhat even in the dark as that is where the white glaciers are, and you see some head lamps off in the distance of those climbers who left a bit earlier. The climb is steep. You cover just under 6 km`s but with an incline of about 1.2 km`s....which should explain why. Uffff!!! We got there before sunrise and the sun started to just come up as we arrived (I seem to remember, but am a bit fuzzy here). Once there, everyone cheers, and hugs, but then you basically have another hour or a bit less to Uhuru Peak where you get your pics and which is the true highest point. The sunrise is stunning, you can see the crater to the right, the glaciers to the left...it is a truly magnificent site.

Even though it is exhilarating to be at Stellar Point and see the sights, you are super tired, many of us too tired to take pictures, too cold to get your camera out and exhausted....in our prep info it said something like ``ìf you feel tired, don`t lie down``.....didn`t really understand that until we got closer to the top of Stellar Point. I likely could have napped....so tired from lack of sleep, the cold, the darkness and we spent only a few minutes at the peak and then started our descend again. The way down makes you aware what you climbed on the way up...now in daylight. There is a lot of loose rock called scree (sp??) and you can basically slide down it, but you are likely to fall on your butt at some point. The dust is everywhere, but again, at this point, you really don't care. The climb up had taken us until sunrise, the way back down was .....I don't remember, we started to go at different paces and since more than the usually 4 guides had come to the summit, we had guys all around us making sure everyone was ok. There was some nausea happening with some folks due to the quick change in altitude.

We had a quick nap and then had to go another 2.5 hours to get further down the mountain.  Going up the mountain is rough, but down is not that easy either: really tough on the knees and toes.
Then we spent the last night in tents and early on the 22nd, at around 7 am, we started our last leg to make it down to the gate where we ``got the t-shirt``, drove to the store in Moshi where we returned our stinky, smelly rental gear (now the renters felt better than the ones who had to carry all their stuff all the way home), and got back to our Impala hotel in Arusha to take our first showers in 8 days. Yip, it ain`t pretty, but it`s the truth. :)

FYI:

• Dirt under finger nails...not so pretty
• Dirt in ears.....interesting Q-tip moment
• Dirt in your nose: just plain gross, and you have to sneeze allll the time
• Wet wipes: best invention ever for camping
• Spitting tooth paste into bushes is much more fun than spitting it into the sink
• Portable toilets in tents: not so great on a cold and windy day...there can be lift-off!

It was a truly ``once in a lifetime`` experience. The people, sights, weather, physical and mental challenge.....the lack of gear made it a bit tougher all around, but NOW it is a great story!
I want to take a second and thank all my team mates and want to also congratulate them on their Kili success. They will always be an important part of this memory. 

Congrats to Nancy B, Nancy V, Carin, Chelsea, Michelle, Lisa, Steve, and Alex!

We did it! ... we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (Aug.16-22)

Susanne reporting from Tanzania....

We did it! The 9 of us who set out to climb the almost 6000 meter mountain were all successful! But it was quite a feat.
We started August 16th with a trip back to the airport to hopefully recover the missing bags for 6 of us...but were unsuccessful. So on it went with more paperwork to fill out as apparently no one had really even started looking for our bags and had no idea where they were. At least we wanted to have them upon our return as they were quite valuable with a lot of our climbing gear...likely about half of it seemed to come from MEC. :)
I`d be lying if I said we were not ``more than disappointed``....we basically had the clothes on our back and carry-on items. We tried to put some important things in the carry-on in case this would happen (ie. we all had worn our boots and had maybe a jacket and a few thought about underwear etc) but a lot of stuff was still missing. So we were told: we have to get going, the climb was supposed to start in the morning and we did not get to the rental place in Moshi which is a little town close to Kili, until about 1pm. The rental place had lost electricity so it was quite an adventure to root through the hanging clothes in the dark, trying to figure out what one would need for the next week on a cold mountain....I spent about $176 for the essentials....jacket, pants, gaiters, some thermal stuff, some dry fit shirts, gloves, socks etc. They only took cash, so we had to dip into what we planned to be our porter money.
It was pure chaos! :)

We started the climb on August 16th at around 3 pm, walkedwell into darkness at around 7 pm, and climbed for 4 hours, starting at the Machame gate at an altitude of 6000 feet and ascending to about 10,000 feet.
This is when I have to get generic. :)

In the coming 6 days, we climbed up, down, up cliff walls like mountain goats, through rain forests and deserts. We did evertyhing from what feltl like rock climbing (super fun) to sliding in mud and dust.  I`d have to count, but I think we covered about 60 km`s and ascended from 6,000 to over 19,000 feet.

Our group of 9 was diverse. We ranged over 3 decades in age, came from different provinces and experiences and some of us only met during the Habitat trip. Now we were tent mates, climbing buddies and had no chance but to get even closer during this adventure. Our days consisted of early breakfasts in a larger tent, usually it would be freezing cold until the sun came up. Routines of brushing teeth nearby some rocks, and using the portable toilets (inside little tents, best investment ever), getting our big bags packed up for the porters and our own backpacks with a change of clothes, cameras, our daily 2.5 litres of water etc. Then came the gaiters and finally another ``must have``: our trekking poles. They helped balance, took a bit of pressure off your back, the stuck into the ground to get leverage and made life a bit easier. The pace was not fast but the steady incline is what made things challenging...and the altitude and lack of oxygen that comes with it.
After a couple of days, legs started to burn and the altitude started affecting some people, even though we were all taking Diamox. Headaches, some nausea, and general soreness from always carrying the packs, quads were feeling the exercise and we were getting burnt from the strong UV rays. Funny, when we did the Habitat trip, we complained that a lot of things were getting tanned but your hands usually don`t get a tan as you`re always wearing gloves to work. Here, it was the opposite. During the days, when the sun was up, you could climb with a long sleeved shirt , but since your hands were always exposed to the sun, we would get the tops of our hands and knuckles tanned/burnt. I guess some things do even out. :)

The nights in the tents were cold, and it was amazing how much you become aware of anything weather related: the stars are incredible at night, so clear. If you`re lucky, some moon light would help you out sometimes on late walks to the washroom (there is a story with that word actually...later), but headlamps ruled the day. Mornings were cold, we had frost on the ground the very first morning. Once the sun comes out, you could cook in it if shielded from wind etc. We climbed in t-shirts on our second day, I think. It gets dark very quickly at around 6:30 or so and with the lack of sun, the cold returns. We learned to dress in layers, fleecies were our favorite outfits and we constantly took layers off or put them back on.
Since we were still missing a lot of things that you can`t rent, there was a lot of sharing going on by the 3 (Chelsea, Carin and Steve) that had all their gear as well as some that lucked out by packing their carry-ons well: water purification tablets were regularly shared, flashlights, batteries, toothpaste...you name it, if you asked enough people, you could likely find it or something similar. The group was sooo amazing about helping each other.
We tried to take in as much of the beautiful scenery as we could: the changes with altitude brought 4 distinct ``looks`` to the mountain. From rain forest with monkeys and baboons swinging though the trees, to heather moorland where you saw very distinct Kili plants, to semi desert and finally desert...the finally two not so exciting and SUPER dusty.  But still very cool ....

Well, let`s talk about the dirt and grime for a bit. Everything had to go into the tent at night to keep it warm including boots and I hate to admit it, but those things don't smell so pretty after a few long walks. Also: we literally had to wear stuff not only once, but 2, 3, or 4 times as we only rented a certain amount of gear, so out came the baby powder to mask the smell of socks and other things. Dust starting accumulating everywhere: ears, nostrils, under finger nails and after a while, you just really didn't care anymore. You did the best you could with a little tub of water which appeared before all the meals in front of the meal tent to wash hands, and then there were sanitizers and baby wipes, but they only do so much. Dirt got into your skin in ways I have benerv seen before and since we had no mirror, we had to point out things to one another...sun screen under eye, dirt/dust on teeth from hike, sunburns...all were things we did not necessarily discover on our own as we had no mirror for a week.

Besides the 9 of us, there were lots of other important people. We had 4 guides and about 30 porters which included the cook, assistant cook, and the soooo important guys looking after the 2 portable toilets. We always had one guide ahead setting the pace, two at the end and a floater...but mostly one ahead and the others were in the back somewhere. After we would leave for the day`s hike, the porters would clean up, get our tent stuff, eating tents and the 9 chairs, all cooking supplies and everything else packed up and basically pass us on the way up (yes, that did not help the ego greatly). They carry their own pack and are allowed to carry an additional 20 kg`s which is usually done on their heads in large baskets, or in gear bags or large white bags which are balanced on their own packs. They mostly have boots, but some have shoes only and they have no poles and are like mountain goats climbing and often running up and down the hills. They are amazing!
There are obviously other climbers you see along the way and the camps are much larger than I thought with what sometimes looks like 50+ or so tents. On our last night at base camp, the tents were literally placed on the sides of cliffs in whatever even spots the porters could find. We often slept on slants and would slide in our sleeping bags, and most meals, the table was uneven so that you would strategically place yourself at he ``receiving end`` of the table (the lower part`) or the higher part, depending on preference. Often, when walking around camp sites, it reminded me of Sackville Street in Halifax and making it up the hill on cold winter nights.

Tanzania Notables:

• we were told early that we do not go to ``pee`` or use the washroom, but we ``send an email``. Number 2 is called ``sending a fax``. well, the theme carried all week with going to the Internet cafe, emptying the trash box, the fax machine being broken or having a bad connection......it went on and on :)
• Hello is Jambo ..how fun is THAT to say all the time!
• Coca Cola rules here
• Toyota is king of vehicles
• gas is close to $1.50 a litre
• unemployment rate is 70%

　
TO BE CONTINUED...HAVE TO catch ride to safari...

August 15th: travel day from he....#@!&*!!!!!!!!

Susanne back at it.

Monday, August 15th

Well, everything had overall gone extremely smoothly to date.......besides a few people getting sick for a day or two, all had gone quite well. Too well maybe...... :)

(Suspense...)

We left the hotel early and instead of the anticipated 20 minute airport ride, we were there in less than 10 minutes. We walked into an open, but deserted airport with no one at ticket counters or anywhere else beside two sleeping security guards at the front entrance (well, it WAS 4:30 a.m. after all).
The first flight went well.....we got into Johannesburg at the anticipated time around 8 am and were supposed to be on a 9:40 am flight to Nairobi to catch our connection to Kili.
Well, this is where the ``smoothness`` sort of stopped. Chelsea and Steve were ahead in line, had gotten their boarding passes and went on to security. When the rest of us got to the counters to get our boarding passes, we were told that the flight had closed as it was now only 45 minutes until the flight departure time.

We had been in line for a while and no one did the habitual roll call you would get at the airport at home ``anyone going to xxx location , please move to the front of the line``. We tried many ways to still get on board...pleading, complaining (someone had actually further delayed us by giving us the wrong info and sent us to the wrong counter)...we finally found a wonderful South African Airlines Supervisor who spent about an hour trying to get us on another flight two hours later, so that we could maybe still catch our later Nairobi connection to Kili. To make a long story short, it was a bit of a roller coaster morning. We went from yes, to no, to `not today`, to `yes, but at a cost` when trying to rebook flights or find alternative ways to get to Kili where we are supposed to start our ascend tomorrow.

4 of the 6 remaining climbers ended up getting onto a 11:40, including me, and kept worrying a lot about the other two that did not make this one. But we figured that it would be easier to rebook 2 versus 6 people and we could at least try to find and take care of their luggage. We were all supposed to be checked in but at the last minute, the paperwork for 2 was not right and somehow they were not in the system. The Kenya Airways counter guy was awful, moved slower than a snail and we are not fans at all. Glenda, the other supervisor who helped us, deserves a medal: I have never seen someone try so hard to help someone. She literally ran back and forth behind counters and floors in her high heels, trying to make this happen. The 4 of us on this flight hope to catch the 6 pm Kili flight from Nairobi. we weren`t holding our breath as the connection was tight already and we left 30 minutes late. The last option was a $300 charter flight at 10 pm. we had to just play it by ear....grrrrr......well, something had to happen sooner or later.

Some of us had said that there is definitely a break on any wine or beer in prep for the Kili climb as it obviously dehydrates you...but we all ordered a drink as soon as it was offered on the plane. What a stressful morning......let`s hope we all get there sometime tonight and are able to stick with our departure date of the 16th tomorrow. We also had a bumpy first flight and have started taking our Diamox altitude pills as our ``trial day`' so we are all a bit weary, tired and ticked off.

We made the 6 pm flight by running from one gate in Nairobi to the other (much smaller airport than we thought, and did not have to go through passport control...but I may have run one or two strangers over on the way with all of our carry-on and waterbottles bouncing around our little backpacks) and arrived in Kili at 7pm....without luggage.  So after a ride to the hotel, we had a nice dinner and I am now sitting in the same outfit I had on all day and which I might have to wear tomorrow starting this climb. If we are lucky, the flights will arrive with the two missing group members at 11 pm tonight, if not, then at 9 am tomorrow and we have to get our stuff on the way to Kili. Not the preferred method, but likely the only option without starting our climb late.

One very noteworthy mention: we flew by Kili  at 19,000 feetand my stomach just about dropped. I had been feeling great about the build, but flying by it and seeing the peak above the clouds is certainly intimidating when thinking: hey, you get there via plane, but can we REALLY climb up there? Hard to believe!!!

So folks, this might be the last entry before our climb tomorrow. Wish us luck in finding our luggage and on the climb :)

Hope to drop a note on the 23rd when we are back down. Hopefully 9 for 9 for our might Canadian group.  Actually: I am sure it`s 9 for 9....great little group and we`ll push eachother up.  We already planned drinks and called first showers in the rooms for when we return.  The altitude pills are already working:  they act as a diuretic and people have been peeing all day...great, just what you want. Lots of washroom trips without washrooms unless a lunch or night rest stop!

Other thoughts about the trip:

• 7 days without washing our hair.......yikes, not the happiest thought....you thought helmet hair is bad!
• Actually: this is one I think about a lot.....will leave it at that. Will be a first :)

Cheers, take care, all!!!

August 13th, last evening with the gang back in Maputo and14th, our lazy Sunday

August 13th evening:
After the safari, we got back to the Maputo hotel and had about an hour or so to get ready for dinner. we staked out some restaurants and settled on one called Maputo Waterfront which was about a 1.5 km walk from our hotel. this would be the last night as a team. Sunday, most team members would be heading home, a couple ere heading in different directions (Cecile to go diving and Dan to head to Capetown) and the rest of us were headed toward Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
The dinner was nice, we invited the 3 Mozaic guides and had also invited Magaia from Habitat who lives in Maputo. We did our habitual walk through the very odd downtown of Maputo and arrived at the restaurant which had live music, a great menu and relatively fast service for African standards.

Dinner was great with lots of laughs,reliving memories from the last two weeks and having a really nice final night as a team. I was really impressed by this group. It is not easy to travel with a group of 20, to make sure everyone is ready on time, is open to the same things and is easygoing enough to handle all the things that can happen on this kind of build and trip: lack of materials on work sites, lack of food at times when meals are delayed or rescheduled, waiting for other team members of staff, waiting for buses and drives, and dinners to be ready and specific answers to be available.....you really have to be somewhat easy going and patient about a lot of things. we had an extremely busy schedule and had an awful large amount of early mornings including a few 5 am`s....I am pretty sure they will have to go home and sleep for a few days. Hats off to this group, they really adjusted, bonded well and was a fabulous group of people to experience Mozambique and South Africa with: some new friends and it looks like some already caught Habitatis. :)

Sunday, August 14th:
today we had planned a market visit in the morning. After a couple of wrong turns, we finally found the market. A market with crafts and other paraphernalia tucked into an older building behind an open air, fresh produce and fish market. Chelsea ran a bee-line past the somewhat smelly fish section as usual. The rest of us had a good looks at the red snappers, prawns and other interesting fish available. I had grilled calamari last night and it was delicious...seafood here is fabulous!
The market was not great...too bad. Many of us had planned to do a lot of shopping in Maputo but some of the stands weren`t open as it was Sunday and the choices were somewhat limited ...so don`t expect a ton of gifts :)
About half the team left by lunchtime or just after and we were left with our Kili group. we went to search for a laundromat but were unsuccessful...the town is pretty quiet on Sunday`s. So the rinsing in the sinks started. Things did not do well drying wise, so many of us were at it with hair dryers later in the evening. It was nice to have a slower day before catching a 7 am flight on Monday morning. Time for a nap for some, Internet visits for others, and just putting or getting caught up on journals.
We had dinner again at the Scorpion and said Good Bye to Andrea who was staying another night but was not coming to Kili with us. Bedtime at 10:30 pm in preparation for a 4:15 am hotel departure.

Maputo tidbits:

• About a million people live in this capital. Brand new large stadium built for the African games taking place in September.
• Better English than in Xai Xai but still some language issues. Hotel menu offering ``smashed potatoes`` and when Nan ordered a ``salad``, she got ``salt``
• We saw little of the city so I want to be careful offering opinions, but many streets were incredibly dirty, smelled like ``not so nice things...if you know what I mean...`` and had kids begging in the evenings, sink holes in the middle of the sidewalk which could swallow a whole person (without tape or a warning) and a very interesting mix of old and new
• Our walk to the Waterfront hotel took us along the waterfront and the Saturday night activity for locals seems to be to park the car facing the water, open all the doors and blare dance music. Funny thing is that the cars are sort of close together and play different music so it`s an interesting mix of songs and basses walking by them all. Quite the stereos, though!

The mall downtown was phenomenal....very classy and very expensive even for North American standards. Nike golf shirt at the Nike store: $100. Needless to say, we only window shopped on this lazy Sunday.

Internet was broken again at hotel (hence the late blog writing). Since I was luckier early in the week for our one night at the hotel to steal someone`s wifi, we decided to give it a shot. Michelle, Nancy V and I walked all the way from the 12th floor to the floor of the hotel, holding the laptop in front of us and refreshing the network list to see if we could get a wifi connection from ANYBODY :) No such luck. Michelle and I also tried the same for a few blocks down the street, but again: not our day. Will have to wait until we get to Kili maybe.

August 11th-13th: we`re Going on a Safari!!

Chelsea on the keyboard:

Thursday, August 11th.
Mozaic Travel came to pick us up the next morning at 6am. We had 3 vans- each with a guide: Thorcen, Pete and Kerry. We headed out shortly after that for the South African border and Kruger National Park! :) Everything went as planned and we entered the park via Crocodile Bridge midday. We did a 5 hr game drive through the park on our way to Satara- our camp for the next two nights. It was amazing to say the least! We saw elephants, kudu, impala, zebras, giraffes, monkeys, baboons, crocodiles, vultures, hippos, buffalo, warthogs, mongoose and about a million bird species. We caught the tail end of a white rhino crossing the street in front of our van and stopped just in time to have a herd of 8 elephants walk metres in front of us! It was incredible! To see all of these animals, roaming freely in their own habitat was surreal. The elephants might stop and stare at you, the baboons came right up beside us, giraffes towered above us... you had to be there!
The animals weren`t always that easy to spot though- Thorcen trained us to scan the bush from right to left as opposed to left to right because we are so conditioned to read that way that we can easily overlook things like we do when we`re reading and skip words. Many of the animals blended right in with the background- the hippos usually looked like big rocks in the middle of the waterhole! We started to get the hang of it by the end of the trip but Thorcen, our guide, caught most of it for us. By the time we had checked in at Satara we had seen 3 of the Big 5. They call it the Big 5 because they are the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are the: rhino, elephant, leopard, buffalo and lion. Leopards are one of the hardest to find and lions were second. We threw our bags in our super cool circular huts and boarded the open backed Jeep for a sunset safari hoping to see a lion as they prefer to hunt at dusk and dawn. We headed out in to the bush and what do you know- we found two! Well actually, someone else had spotted them but whenever you see a car pulled off to the side you stop to see what`s going on. Hiding 100-200m off the road were two lions, a male and female, relaxing below a tree. Our guide Tevin (who worked for Kruger) drove up the road a little to get some space and took us back down, off roading in to the bush. We were only 5m away from them- unreal! We were set, 4 of the Big 5 in the first day.... now to find a leopard!! :) We headed back to our camp, grabbed a quick meal prepared by our guides outside under the stars and packed it in for the night as we had another 6am morning coming up.
We spent Saturday doing much of the same stuff. Driving around the park for hours, spotting animals, taking pictures, and checking them off in our Kruger books as we went. We saw a ton of animals, including the same 4 of the Big 5 and some others like the ostrich, monitor (lizard), turtles, storks etc. Our drive took longer than expected, as it normally did- it wasn`t unusual to take 3 hrs to drive 10km, stopping all the time to take pictures of animals or watch all the action at a waterhole. We eventually made it back to the camp, had a quick lunch and then most of us headed out of a short 1hr game drive before our next sunset drive and bush dinner. We found another lion and a herd of elephants mud bathing! We went back, grabbed those that had decided to spend a little time poolside and headed in to the bush once again for another open top Jeep tour on the way to our dinner in the middle of the park! We drove out of camp, spotting a bunch of different animals while enjoying yet another beautiful sunset. That`s one thing about being in Africa- the sky has never seemed so big and unending. It`s blue as far as you can see during the day with very few clouds and switches to a vibrant red-yellow-orange at sunset before turning pitch black aside from the thousands of gleaming stars filling the sky. As the sun was setting and we were driving through the bumpy, windy roads we came around a corner and nearly collided with a elephant!! It was just hanging out, chomping down on some tree branches. We grabbed some awesome photos and maneuvered around it and off to our dinner. When we got there it was as if we had just won a reward challenge on Survivor! There were tables perfectly set, paper bag lanterns lit by candles lighting the path down to the table, and a huge bbq meal cooking on a massive outside bbq. We had an amazing dinner under the stars and just enjoyed each others company, listening to stories from our guides. On our way back to Satara, we saw some hyenas and two huge lions lying right on the side of the road!!
Ok, this is Susanne taking over....we are all writing this blog on August 14th going backwards in time and hopefully getting caught up before heading off to Kili. I already packed for our departure and just came down to join the others on the deck of the hotel which is overlooking a very busy Maputo street. ...Chelsea had to run up to do laundry.
So back to the safari story. I do not have the recollection of details that Chelsea has whatsoever and will have to go more general....sorry folks. Plus: I would be at it for hours :)
A few stories worthy of sharing:

• 2 of the vans saw the 5th of the big 5 on the 3rd day heading out of the park (Saturday, August 13th). Apparently you only see leopards about 1 our of every 6 visits or so, so they were very lucky. Someone had sighted it in a tree and flagged one car down, the other car was closeby and so two vehicles got to tick their `5`off. Our van was not lucky in the leopard territory but cannot say we are disappointed as we had so much other fascinating stuff.
• Have never taken so many pictures in such little time...you end up taking 3 or 4 pics of the same thing, as the animals are usually chewing, walking, running or doing other interesting things, so the ``scenery`` changes all the time.
• Our 3 guides in the 3 vans had stories about everything.....how long the various animals live, how and when they mate, what they eat, what eats them...the stories were endless and it felt like a National Geographic documentary.
• One cannot describe the sights, sounds, and smells but many animals were so close, you could hear and see snorting, hear them trampling over the ground and hear them splash in the water (herd of elephants)
• I am definitely a giraffe girl/fan...they are stunning....some were so close to the car, I had to lean out and look up and could not use my 250 telephoto lens....too close :) Giraffe means ``camel horse`` in another language as they walk like a camel but run like a horse.....not sure I agree with the horse comment, they are pretty gangly and awkward but magnificent
• All birds here have stunning colors. Even the starlings are a beautiful blue (sort of like our sparrow in function...picks up all food at rest areas etc)

Noteworthy mentions:

• female hyenas have male sex organs...without any function,so apparently just for looks. When asked why, the guide said it is likely an intimidation factor....one person squeaked from the back of our jeep ``who knows, but it must be why they`re always laughing``. :)
• Everything was incredibly dry as it is winter and all is dry until the rains start in October. Green might be prettier, but it is much easier to see through the bush as you can ``see through`` it, versus leaves blocking the way
• Animals are so incredibly clever, they find shade when it`s hot, find water to cool off. They pair up with other animals to use their senses (i.e. a giraffe has great eye sight, so others tend to hang around them as they see predators before they do). Other animals are used for their sense of hearing or sense of smell.
• Leopards often take their kill up trees, we found a carcass...some bones and a skull hanging from one tree and then the 2 vans who spotted the leopard saw a half eaten Impala on a branch in the tree next to it
• Kruger is about 400 km`s in length and maybe 100-200 in width, I think. There are about 2500 lions, but as a comparison about 130,000 Impala. Impala are pretty little antelope that have the color of deer but some beautiful stripes in black and white in their sides. There are a ton of them and people here also call them ``McDonald`s``. That is because so many other animals eat them and because the striping on their behind like`s like a big McDonald`s ``M``. The most popular food source. Yikes :)
• Besides being amazed at these animals and being impressed with how they are respected and treated here (you cannot get out of your car, can`t feed them, can`t litter etc.), there is also a sad part: poaching. Even though the park is a protected one and you have rangers looking our for hunters, some still come across the borders to Mozambique and others come by helicopter. We saw pictures at one rest stop of awful reminders that poaching and hunting are a reality even here. And sometimes tourists think more about getting a great photo than thinking about the impact on the animal. There was one story of a crowd closing in on a leopard at a place until it ran itself into an electric fence and died, rhinos which were killed for their horn which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in Asia as it is used for medicinal purposes, snares are around the hooves of others animals caught perhaps for their hides an left to die. Awful. I don`t want to put a big downer on this blog, but is not all as rosy as we describe it...there all still some awful things going on and further steps have to be taken by government and conservation organizations to ensure that many of these animals are safe and can live and die in their natural ways.
• OK, onto happier thoughts: wart hogs are hilarious. ``Pumba`` could be found wandering around quite a bit. They are born with a callous on their front knees and literally eat while on their font knees. They move around like that and only hop up when covering longer distances. When they are feeding and looking for food, they are on their front knees and back feet. Too funny!

Other tidbits:

• South African Rand are about 7 to 1 in currency. things are not too expensive, you can buy a bottle of wine for about 33 rand at the lowest price. Must admit we had a few of those during our days there
Sunset takes about 5 minutes, amazingly fast., Same for the sunset in the morning Am looking at Chelsea`s blog part above and am seeing she renames her guide. He was German and his name is Thorsten, not Thorcen...nice try. She said she called him ``Toystory`

We left the park and made our way back to Mozambique. The border crossing was sketchy. One van saw a body lying covered on the side of the road, someone who had likely been run over...half covered, yikes. Just later on the drive a drink driver apparently rear ended one of the other van`s trailers it was towing behind with our luggage, everyone was fine and it only broke the trailer light but lots of excitement!

Safari: cannot recommend it enough as something to do in one`s lifetime. At one point, we had a pride of lions cross the road right in front of us and the male stopped to maybe pose for us and then walked by my car door so closely, I could have likely touched him...but limbs in car! Will never forget these 3 days and can`t believe we have another short one coming up right after Kili. We are very lucky!

August 10th, last build day!

Susanne reporting.

Wednesday: today was the last build day.....always a day you sort of look forward to as it means the family can move from one standard of living to the next. On the other hand, it means that a somewhat emotional day is ahead...one with more building activities, a dedication ceremony to officially hand over the new home to the family and final good bye`s with the work crew, families and community.
Funny: we stayed in a hotel right by the ocean but could not really go swimming due to crazy waves, surf and undertow, but a few of us decided to go for a 6 a.m. walk on the beach. What a nice morning....we did the obligatory writing in the sand, took pics of the sunrise and enjoyed the waves and fresh air.
We had a what we call a ``green shirt`` day last week and got a team picture taken by Dan who brought his tripod. We made today another green shirt day and put on the green Habitat shirts in honour of our last day. All our stuff was packed last night and we packed up the vans for the very last time.
We already knew that we would not be able to finish all three houses completely which often happens. Materials are sometimes not delivered on time and we had lost the day on the Scratch site due to the owner`s Mom passing away. We spent the morning trying to finish remaining tasks and entertaining the kids some more....then 12 p.m. came around and we went to the home site for a quick lunch and the upcoming dedication ceremony.
The specific project we worked on was the vulnerable children project for kids who have been affected by HIV/Aids by either having lost one or both parents or having sick or dying parents. A reminder of this came early in the day when we found out that one of the home owners would be missing the ceremony as it was Wednesday and her day to pick up medication. When getting medication to treat HIV on behalf of herself and/or a family member, the dedicated family person has to be there that specific day and it cannot be changed...so the Mom appointed another community member to attend the ceremony with her kids. Affliction of Aids and/or HIV is about 20 percent here, so when looking at the families and all the kids...one can`t help but do the math to see just how many of ``our kids`` were likely infected already and even though medication was available, people here were certainly not the in the same position as North Americans, for instance, to fight this disease. Very, very sad.....
Once the ceremony was about to begin, kids gathered around, the 3 families came, all the workers (2 per site) and the team as well as one other Habitat staff. It was a really nice ceremony..speeches of thanks from all sides, a presentation of the 3 signed Canadian flags from us, heartfelt speeches from our team members, lots of singing and an overall emotional, meaningful and unforgettable ceremony. Isabella, Mom of house number 3 was happy to have a roof that did not have to be replaced every 2 years like the one on her hut which had reeds. Eunice's aunt Louisa gave a thanks that Eunice, her 12 year old niece who was an orphan, would have her own house to live in. Eunice who was quite shy in the beginning, but grew on all of us so much since we met her. Of course all the attention on her today was a bit overwhelming for her age, but her aunt took care of all the speeches etc and Eunice was all smiles even though she hurt her foot stepping on a wire as she is also mostly in her bare feet. Our first aid kit came in handy once again :) Magaia, our Habitat contact here, sang a song his mother wrote who is a pastor and it truly gave us goosebumps....even though we could not understand the language, we had a pretty good idea of what the song was about.
We left mid afternoon and went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, settle final bills and switch vehicles and gears as the Habitat build part was now done and the next part of the trip would start: the R&R part which all centred around the upcoming safari. We piled into two vans operated by Mozaic travel (the company to take care of us for the next 3 days), and started our 3-hour drive back to Maputo. It took a loooong time. Since we left around 3 and had some stops to make etc, we were quite hungry on the way. So our snack of choice: hard boiled eggs which magically appeared in our van in a large crate type of container....not a bad snack actually! The last few kilometers to Maputo seemed like a roller coaster as roads were not paved anymore and the bumby roads made most of us wish we had a helmet in case our heads would bobb up or sideways. Quite the ride! We also ran into a police check point. The police asked Magaia why he wasn`t wearing a seat belt. ...apparently he answered `because I am tired...which seemed to work! Love it, would be fun to try in Canada one day to see how that answer would fly.
We arrived at the Hotel Turismo around 8pm, and went to the Scorpion restaurant for dinner! We were all starving, having not eaten since 12:30, and couldn`t wait to eat! We ordered our food and had some drinks and waited for our food.... then we waited some more, oh and just a little bit more- it took them 1.5hrs to prepare our meals!! I`m pretty sure our stomachs were eating our insides by the time it arrived- good thing the food was awesome! :)
Off to bed to get ready for our first safari day tomorrow.
A great, but long day. ...lots of hugs and good bye`s. Sad to leave but a great feeling to have been able to help these families. Habititis at work :)