Serengeti Safari

Awakening in Arusha's morning mist, we were taken to the office of the safari company we had hired, Basecamp Tanzania, and it's gregarious leader, Achmed. Achmed is a Briton of German heritage who is has been married to a Tanzanian woman for many years. He sports a Kaiser's moustache, complete with twisted ends that curl into circles on each end. This morning, one of the ends was limping slightly. Liz and I were also limping, as we entered the office and penetrated the cloud of cigarette smoke between us and Achmed. "Generator day!" He shouted above the lawn-mower-like roar outside. "...Tuesdays and Thursdays...do you want to check your e-mail?"

While waiting for our jeep to be packed, we chatted with Achmed and learned some new details about our last adventure. In a Beatle-esque deadpan, he recounted: "Oldonyo Lengai: I had some clients on it when it erupted in June, ...I don't personally enjoy climbing mountains."

So, it turns out that our lunch spot at the top was lava flow from less than two months ago. Funny that no one mentioned that to us yesterday. Achmed showed us a video clip taken by his clients of lava flowing out of the volcano and encouraged us to read more

We were introduced to our companions for the next four days, Christian (driver & guide) and Wilfred (cook). Liz and I struggled with the concept of having two people working for us - a strange complement to what I see as an odd activity: driving around looking for animals. The agenda, we were reminded, includes 2 1/2 days at Serengeti National Park, followed by one day in the Ngorogoro Crater. Off we went.

On our way to the Serengeti, we stopped at Olduvai Gorge, the area where Homo Erectus was known to walk the land. In the car, we started to feel that we were in the wilderness, Christian would direct us to elephants on the horizon and even to giraffes munching on trees right near our car. When we stopped to observe a lioness nursing her cubs, it was clear that we were in Serengeti. "You are very lucky," Christian assured us after seeing the baby lions, introducing us to the aim of his position: to make sure that the clients are lucky.

After a long drive, we arrived at the campsite and Wilfred burst into action. In a kitchen bustling with chefs, he established himself in a corner and got to work. The rest of us grabbed our tents and looked for a campsite. Liz, noting the wire over the dining area and the kitchen asked, "Christian, what is the wire for?" "To keep out the baboons," he answered rather unconvincingly. "And..." Liz prodded. After a long pause, Christian admitted, "Lions. They come here in the night to drink water. Be careful if you get up to pee in the middle of the night."

The Safari was a lot of fun. We rode comfortably in the jeep, enjoyed the scenery during the long silences and admired the animals when we could find them. We saw "everything" as they say, though we were eluded by the Rhinos. We saw Lions, Hippos, Giraffes, Elephants, Buffaloes, Cheetahs, Leopards, Zebras & more. The baby lions were Liz's favorite. Cute! I liked the Giraffes the most. Impressive.

The lions at Ngorogoro Crater are known to enjoy the shade of the jeeps. We had heard that they come so close, you could reach out and touch them. It's true, we were visited by a relaxed pack of lions and enjoyed seeing them up close. It was, however the most zoo-like part of the tour. It was much more interesting when we saw some focused lionesses marching down the road slowly toward a pack of warthogs. They stalked their prey quietly, approaching stealthily through the tall grass. We held our breaths in anticipation and then suddenly, Pounce! A lioness grabbed a warthog in her teeth and another chased the pack, losing steam before catching another through the frantic squealing. The lion (king) promptly grabbed the caught warthog and started to eat. That's how it works apparently, only the women hunt and the men eat first.

After four days, we felt very satisfied with our wildlife viewing and were ready for a slower pace. We went to the western slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro and relaxed there for a few days. After that, we made our way to Nairobi, via Moshi. In Nairobi, we started to ease ourselves back into the developed world, enjoying organic food and movies. After that, it was time for the three-day journey home, reflecting on a spectacular six weeks in Tanzania.

The full slideshows from our trip are here:
Zanzibar
(mainland) Tanzania

Oldonyo Lengai

After staying put in Zanzibar for a month, we made our way to the mainland of Tanzania. Our first stop was Moshi where we met up with our Tanzanian friend, Simon and his American fiancee, Tara. Together, we were planning to climb a volcano called Oldonyo Lengai. The volcano is revered by the Maasai people as "Mountain of the Gods." It's revered by tourists as a great place to watch the sunrise. The plan was to start at 1 am, in order to get to the top by 6:00 am. We were told that it's safe now to climb it, though it is sometimes active.


The drive to Oldonyo Lengai put our 4x4 to the test. The road was incredibly bumpy and laden with levels of dust that I had never seen before. The mid-day heat made us want the windows open, but we would rush to shut them again as vehicles passed us, kicking piles of dust into our jeep. We stopped for lunch near the volcano and from out of nowhere, were met by a trio of massai boys, clearly as intrigued by us as we were by the golf-ball sized sticks in their ears.

Arriving at our campground parched and caked with dust, we were stunned see a rushing river. We went on a hike upriver to a gorgeous waterfall where we rinsed and refreshed ourselves. Back at the campground, we ate and wound down quickly, in order to catch some Z's before waking up at midnight for the climb.

When we awoke under the moon, other campers were awake from the night before. We ate a midnight "breakfast" and embarked for another bumpy, dusty drive, this time in the dark. A close call on a steep section of road tested my alertness. We nearly tipped over, trying to scale a deeply washed out hill, but it was "hakuna matata" [no problem].

Headlamps lighting the way, we started our ascent up the steep slopes of Oldonyo Lengai. My mind focused on thoughts of home, pondering various expectations for my return to the life in North America. This served as a practical distraction from the moonlit mountaintop above. Unused to exerting itself at this hour, my body protested and I found myself trying to catch up with the others between rest breaks.

The hours went by and we made steady progress. The slope got steeper and I gained in alertness along with it. Simon, Tara and Liz were doing great. We would make it to the top for sunrise, our guide assured us.

5 hours later, we reached the surface of the moon - or at least that's what it looked like to me. Building-sized cones matched by equally imposing caverns leading to "the center of the earth" as Lizzie said. We walked to the sunrise side, passing vents of steam and climbing over crumbly white chunks of ash. It was like being at one of those national parks where there is volcanic activity (Yellowstone, Lassen) and walking in all of the places where you're not supposed to.

We watched the sunrise from a glacier-esque patch of hard grey lava. We ate our "lunch" and turned to descend.

Getting down was easier than climbing as my hiking shoes gripped the steep slope. Liz's running shoes were less cooperative, so as I had needed extra time on the way up, she needed it for getting down. We took our time, sipping our water and enjoying the spectacular morning view. It took us almost as long to get down as it did to get up, but at the bottom, Simon was waiting for us with some freshly cooked sweet potato. He was characteristically teasing the Maasai boys nearby that he wanted to buy one of their sheep, because he was hungry. "I need to ask my Dad..." was their reply "...he counts them."

Savoring food and wobbly walking, we looked up at where we'd been and agreed that we didn't know quite what we were getting into.

We had an eventful return trip with some jeep trouble, and a subsequent successful highway tow to a gas station. We were eventually deposited in Arusha, said goodbye and limped into the shower before going to sleep before our wildlife safari, due to start the next day.

Oldonyo Lengai

Stone Town Revisited

Stone Town was warmly familiar for us on our short (2 1/2 day) interlude before leaving Zanzibar. I resumed drum lessons and was pleased to feel that I had learned a few things. My teacher taught me a few more rhythms and I left the music school vary satisfied with my time there.

We returned to our familar room at the Narrow Street Hotel, enjoyed daily lunches at our favorite local restaurant, the Passing Show. We saw familiar faces there, including our friend Aika, a colorful woman from the Kilimanjaro area who we met when we were last in Stone Town.

The familiarity of Stone Town made our month of July feel real, feeling that we were living in Zanzibar and being a part of life on that beautiful island.

Zanzibar's North Coast

At Zanzibar's most popular beach, Nungwi, we were happy to get a place just metres away from the ocean. The view from our room was of the beach and its dedicated sunbathers. While they put in full days under the sun, Liz matched their work ethic, pounding away at her thesis. I practiced my new drum rhythms and kept busy going to the "supermarket" and co-ordinating the rest of our trip.

Nungwi is an interesting place. The locals seemed more lively than in sleepy Bwejuu. We encountered a religious ceremony with the males singing and drumming while the veiled women spun their torsos to the music (I'll show you the video). We also found a group of locals our age who were practicing a drum/dance routine. Liz joined the dancers while I sat with the drummers and filmed the action.

A week went by and while it felt like time to move on (a weekly ritual at this point), we weren't ready to leave the beach, or Zanzibar for that matter. We made our way 30 min. (walking) up the coast to Kendwa.

Though Nungwi is the most popular beach, it isn't as beautiful as neigboring Kendwa. Once there, we treated ourselves to daily swims in the clear blue water. We snorkelled right off the beach and walked barefoot through the soft white sand. It's one of the nicest beaches I've ever seen and it was a tough place to leave.

Stone Town, Zanzibar

Walking to the local dalla-dalla (bus) out of Bwejuu, we bumped into an Irish fellow named James who had a whole van for himself & his 2 friends, also heading to Stone Town. He welcomed us to join them, as long as we didn't mind stopping at the Jozani forest (monkey preserve) en route.

Jozani was a treat as we got to wander among the adorable monkeys while they munched on leaves & hung around. It was our first safari of the trip, a good teaser.

Then, just like that, we were in Stone Town. In Zanzibar where there are no cities, this is "town", & the villages are just that, villages. Stone Town features narrow cobblestone streets that cars can't fit through. Scooters can, however, so we had to be alert to the honks as a vespa would zip around a corner and force us to the (which side?!) left and out of the way.

We coordinated our trip to Stone Town with the Zanzibar international film festival, a festival that has grown in it's 9 years to include daily music and dance performances. After Bwejuu's isolation, this seemed to be a good way to get culturally immersed in Zanzibar.

We found a sunny room for Liz to write in the mornings and I discovered the Dhow Countries Music Academy, where I enrolled in drum classes from a perma-grinning teacher, Kheri. The hand drums here are called ngoma and Kheri showed me some of the local traditional rhythms each morning. By the end of my week of lessons, he had built me two ngoma at my request. Now I've taken them with me to the beach to practice and learn more.

In Stone Town, we settled into a morning routine of writing (liz) & drum class (mark), while going to the Forodhani Gardens in the late afternoon for live music performances. We were treated to the talents of musicians from Zanzibar and all over Africa. A multitude of locals were at these shows and it was nice to see so many families out for an evening of entertainment. The kids would dance at the front near the stage, while their parents watched from a distance.

We made some Tanzanian friends and kept seeing them on the festival grounds. These kind and generous people made us feel very welcome and thanks to their excellent English, we were able to get some sense of what life is like for people our age in this country.

Bwejuu, Zanzibar

It was a long journey to Zanzibar for Liz and me; two overnight flights, two 7-hour bus rides and a ferry. We topped it off with a ride on a dalla-dalla, and made it to Bwejuu, an isolated beachside village on Zanzibar's east coast.

Bwejuu's sand is a gentle powder when it's dry and packs like a firm dough when it's wet. Palm trees line the beach and are met by the gentle waves of the Indian Ocean at high tide. At low tide, the water recedes by hundreds of meters revealing a long, flat beach and tide pools of warm water in gooey sand and seaweed. We were in Bwejuu for a week, long enough to notice the ocean's daily visits to shore shifting from afternoon to morning.

We put our footwear away and adjusted to beachside life. Liz got herself set up with an oceanfront "office" and diligently worked on her thesis in the mornings. In the afternoons, we swam in the ocean, walked barefoot up and down the beach, or went into the village for supplies. I helped Liz with editing and also spent a lot of time in a hammock, reading and listening to music.

We were treated to gracious hospitality and continuous greetings of "Jambo" from the locals. Bwejuu was a difficult place to leave. After seven days, we made our way to Zanzibar Town, commonly known as Stone Town.

Summertime

The solstice signals change here in Berkeley as I review a packing list for Tanzania and a list of clients (I have clients?) to make sure that everything is under control prior to my 2 month hiatus.

It's summer now and I'm looking forward to this long anticipated summer vacation. It's Liz's last summer of Med/Grad school before heading into the hospital for untold hours at a time. She still has work to do in Africa though, writing her thesis on the missing children of El Salvador. In Tanzania, my short term agenda is drums and beach. I also look forward to meeting the people and animals of east Africa.

It's been an exciting few months, getting a consulting practice started and for the first time ever, being in a band. The consulting has grown out of my desire for a variety of work and a flexible schedule, combined with the common need that people have for better accounting systems. It's fun to help people and I'm finding it a lot more fun to have clients than a boss.

The band is great - I'd go see us! ;) The musicians are excellent and I'm having a lot of fun. To read about us and hear some Caravan (our name), click here.

That's it for now. Happy Summer everyone!

Canadiana

I arrived in Calgary on a crisp and dry February evening. Warm weather had melted the snow and then gone away - it was chilly compared to anywhere I'd been lately.

The winter olympics were on as I was welcomed by the warm hospitality of friends (Matt & Alisa). I awoke to an empty house the next day and found Matt's note. SNOW!, it said. I looked outside and saw a neighbor brushing half a foot of snow off of his car. The snow was still streaming down and I was glad that we planned to snowboard the next day.

The next day, lunch was the main event. Canada vs. Russia - Men's hockey quarterfinal game. We met Rob amongst the downtown crowd at a posh-ish grill with a lot of TVs. They were all featuring the wide white olympic ice surface with the red on white flashes of Russia vs. Canada. My eyes darted from TV to TV and down to the menu. Anticipation charged the restaurant as meals and pints were ordered from waitresses clad in evening-wear. Supportive calls went out towards the TVs for the players thousands of miles away.

The anticipated roar of the lunch crowd sadly never came. The russians struck first and managed to keep themselves out of danger. The Canadian team fruitlessly cycled the puck and misfired on shots. They couldn't find the net and as a result, it turned out to be a quick exit for the defending olympic champions this year.

Later that night, I joined Rob and his dog, Jiboo for a walk in the neighborhood. It was bitersweet to see two teenage boys skating on a thin patch of ice, shooting a puck at an empty net. We walked up the hill, through the fresh snow and saw another pair of guys sliding down the hill. They were using baking pans as toboggans and having a helluva time. We stopped to watch one run and had a laugh as one of the boys slid into a tree. "That one sucked!" he asserted as he grabbed the baking pan and ran up the hill for another round.

Returning to the olympics on TV, the pro hockey players were long forgotten. New Canadian stars were emerging daily - Cindy Klassen with her 5 medals, the mens curling team and Clara Hughes who donated her savings account to a sports-focused children's charity. There was an inspiring story about a Norwegian cross-country ski coach who handed a pole to the Canadian who was leading the relay, but broke a pole. The Canadians won silver, while the Norwegians were fourth. The coach's words were that it was "the right thing to do"

I did get into the snow myself, snowboarding with Matt in powder at Sunshine and again high above Vancouver at Grouse mountain with my brother-in-law Paul. We were riding in the rain, but we had a lot of fun flying down the hill that's only 15 minutes from Paul & Kara's house.

To continue the winter theme, I watched Paul play hockey and bundled up for walks outside. I spent time with my aunt Sheila, my parents, my sister and my beautiful niece, Emma. She's 6 months old now and loves her jolly jumper. The picture below says a lot, and here are the rest: Calgary & Vancouver Feb 2006