Ahh--London. My Anglophile roots remain!

Well--I arrived in London at 6:30 this morning. My flight from Dulles wasn't the worst I've ever taken, but it wasn't the best either. I've definitely grown accustomed to taking flights longer than 14 hours so being able to upgrade. This was rough. I had two kids in front of me that keep jostling around and asking for more food from the flight attendants, and two Irish high-schoolers next to me that were trapped in and traveling with a couple other girls that kept coming over to talk. Then, I seemed to be surrounded in general by the entire geriatric crowd going on a Carnival cruise. Of for the love of peter, paul and mary!

Anyway--I arrived, quick trip on the Heathrow express and a taxi ride and I was happily ensconced in my hotel. A shower and a nap do a lot to revive you!! So I slipped on my keens and started walkin'. A few hours later I'd covered Covent Garden, Leicester Square to get theatre tickets and whatever neighborhood I'm in (near University of London). I also caught up with a friend from Darfur who's here finishing up school. I went to see Wicked--an early birthday present to myself (and if I don't really eat much here for the next week I should be able to cover my ticket with my perdiem). It was fantastic. Lots of Americans there......And lots of people in really weird and IMHO inappropriate clothing for the theatre. The weirdest thing was that it looked like a movie theatre when we left---water bottles and candy wrappers all over the floor. Strange, strange, strange.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to hit Regents park and maybe the Thames.....it all depends on if the weather is as lovely tomorrow as it was today!

So, I'm off to bed....

Cheers mate,
Jane

anglophile

Oye--I really need to sleep!!

Well--for those of you who don't want the minutia of my life....skip this one!! It all started last Monday.

I took Lily to the vet for some nasty skin infection. And, after a mere $180, we are on the road to recovery. But, the antibiotics she's on for two weeks increase her water intake and (apparently) decreases her bladder. On Tuesday, I came home from work and discovered Lily had peed on the stair landing. Hmmm. So on Wednesday I blocked the stairs...hehe. Not so much, she peed in another spot on my carpet. Blech. So I blocked her in the kitchen on Thursday with a "target" in case she had to pee and her dog bed. She peed all over the dog bed. Eww. Friday I blocked her in the kitchen with nothing, and she peed on the floor. Now I can't really feel angry becuase she can't help it!! But she's also unable to make it through the night either. So she's woken me up at 3 or 4 a.m. every night.

I thought things would be better over the weekend becuase I could let her out. But I foolishly signed up for a sprint triathlon run by my tri club on Saturday. So I had to get up at 5 a.m. Lily wanted to make sure I was awake so she woke me up at 3:30.

On my way home from the race, my duty officer blackberry rang. For those of you not in the know (and why would you be), each of us has to be on duty for 1 week every six months. We answer USGS earthquake notifications and alert staff, and are available for others as international disasters are identified. So I was on the receiving end of a call from USAID-Tbilisi (Georgia) where Russia has decided to attack. Oye. After dealing with that, I came back, took Lily to the park, and took a nap. I woke up hungry and decided to have some edamame from costco. Bad move, something didn't sit right. By 4:30 pm I was on the floor of my bathroom, sweating so hard my clothes and the bathmat were soaked! And let's just say I cleared the edamame, and all other food, out of my system.

After a few more hours of resting, I settled in to watch the Olympics. I walked Lily multiple times and let her out at midnight after watching the women's 4x100 relay. (My friends Stefanie and Mark are there--so cool!!!) So I had a chance of making it through the night---if it weren't for that pesky war! The State dept operations center called me to find out what our response plan to the disaster declaration would be. Apparently, some people weren't communicating as well as they should!! So, up at 4, I figured I would be proactive and took Lily outside. After a few more hours of sleep, the blackberry rang again.

So it's Sunday a.m. and I haven't slept through the night since last Monday a.m. I'm so tired. And Lily has another week of antibiotics so I'm not in the clear until at least next weekend. Yikes.

Well--at least the tri went well....though I have a lot to do before IronGirl in a few weeks!!!

Maybe I'll go take a nap---it's only 8:20 a.m......

Jane

Photos from my trip and update

So I've been back for just about a week and have been working crazy hours as it's our busiest time of year. I finally got Lily back from the Aloise clan on Saturday and she skipped over excited and went to annoyed (that I had left her) but she finally seems to be recovering from that too. I tried to get a lot done over this long weekend and I still need to clean up the place, but a few loads of laundry and $200 in groceries later (!), things are settling back to "normal".

I got my photos uploaded to facebook (finally) and I'll upload all of them to shutterfly or some other service that will let you look at them without creating an account....but here are a few highlights.......

This is from my camp on the 2nd night and was the first time we were above the clouds and could see Kilimanjaro. The coming days would take me toward the base and then around to the right side before summiting.

My porters would set up my tent and a little table for my meals. If you have a big group they bring a mess tent, but since it was just me, this was my set up. After this camp it was too cold to sit outside so I would eat in my tent.

A beautiful sunset

Sunrise while I was summiting Kili....I had been climbing for about 6 hours by this point.

Once we got to the top, we could see some of the famous, and shrinking, glaciers

I finally made it to the very top--Uhuru peak.

A few more views of the glaciers as we walked back to Stella's point before descending.







In Ngorogoro crater, in one of the few places you can get out of the car,
we enjoyed watching the hippos.

Two wildebeests play around.

We had a visitor to our camp....and she drank a lot of water.

We ran out by the next morning.

A lion cub poses for a photo.

I love my hippos--but in this hippo pool, they're disgustingly dirty.

A herd of elephants come to the water point where we're parked.

And line up to take a drink. I don't think they were feeling photogenic.

A handsome devil poses for his glamour shot

while looking out for his four females nearby.

Safari Buzz

So after returning from the Kili climb on Saturday, I left Sunday a.m. for my four day "budget" safari. There was one other person in my group--Carlos, a Venezuelan engineer who lives in Paris (really---does that sound like a bad gig??). We headed off for the long drive from Arusha to the Serengeti around 8:30 a.m. At the gates to the park I saw someone familiar---Stella from Kili!!! Random eh? She was on the second day of her 5 day safari....so I ingratiated myself into her group of 5 little by little since we were camping at the same place every night for the next three nights.....

During our first afternoon tooling around in the car we saw hippos, zebra, gazelle, giraffe, a lioness (posing for the cameras which she was pretending to ignore), and some others that I'm forgetting right now.

During the next day + in the park we saw lots of the same, plus Nile crocs, water buffalo, a few prides of lions, impala, warthogs, a herd of about 20 elephants drinking from the water hole right next to us, a cheetah, possibly a leopard in a tree (looked like a lump to me...I want to enhance my photo and see if I can really distinguish it from the tree branch), lots of birds and lizards, hyena, a serval cat, a jackal, and maybe more.

The best sighting was a group of female lions tearing apart a zebra they had killed fairly recently. We went back later to check on the status and the four moms were sitting on the side with HUGE bellies, while their cute little cubs starting munching on the deceased. One was playing with a chunk of the zebra tail....pretty cute. Then we saw a young, injured male some in for some snacking too. Totally cool!!!

The last night we stayed at Simba camp on the rim of Ngorogoro crater. It was cold....again. But Ginger (from Stella's group) called me over in a hurry....to see an elephant drinking out of the water tank for our camp!!! I have some great pix that I'll put up in a few days. Let me tell you, they can suck up a LOT of water quickly in their sassy little trunks!! Of course, we did run out of water by the next morning, but it was worth it.

In the crater, we say two cheetahs running along, followed by lots of wildebeests, zebras, buffalo, flamingos, hippos, elephant, and most importantly, 2 endangered black rhinos. There are somewhere between 10-20 left in the crater. So that was awesome!!!

Then on Wednesday evening I flew to Dar and spent a few days with my sister Molly and her hubby and 2 kids.....It was nice to finally be warm again!!! My mom was also there for the first two days. We went to a town north of Dar that used to be part of the slave trade routing where people were brought in before being shipped to Zanzibar. Different, but interesting in it's own way.

After a few more days of playing with the kids, a little memento shopping, and a scary moment when some guy tried to rip my sister's side view mirror off of her car door (while we were inside), it was time to leave.

So right now I'm at the Shipol airport in Amsterdam enduring the 8 hours between flights. (I know i should go in to town but it's boring by yourself.....plus my carry on is heavy).

I'm excited to get home. All in all it was a great trip!!!!

More soon!
Love,
Jane

The Kili Blow-by-Blow

Despite the technology on Kili (people were using cells, iPhones, solar powered internet) I just kept a short, hand-written account of my trek. Here's what I wrote in chronological order. If you want the big finish....skip down to Day 6.

Day 1: The trek begins. And after a few hours I think "What the ...was I thinking?!" After another hour of mud and rain uphill I was simultaneously thinking "I'm going to die" and "I'll never make it." My guide Gerald says the first day si the hardest. Well, inshallah. Gerald took pity on me and carried 2 liters of my water the rest of the way up that day to lighten my pack. And meanwhile, porters are zooming by me with 20kg of gear plus their own stuff. I'm lame. I'm not sure triathlon season really prepared me for this (as I thought!). Of course, hiking in the rain for 3 1/2 of the 4 1/2 hours I climbed up today didn't help. I was wearing my rain coat to keep my bag dry ,so by the time we got to camp my bag was dry but my body was cold and semi-wet. My rain pants kept my lower half dry but I was sweating through everything so it doesn't really matter. Wet from rain or sweat is still wet. So I've changed my pants to have the thicker, more comfortable ones and hopefully that, plus less rain (fingers crossed) will make tomorrows 1,000meter climb better. The porters have set me up and I have a little table and chair for dinner/breakfast. They also brought me hot water right away with an assortment of drink options (tea, milo, coffee, cadbury drinking chocolate, nido, etc). So it's 5:35 pm but I'm ready for bed. It's still raining so I don't want to be outside. And I'm praying my soaking wet rain coat is dry tomorrow.

Day 2: Woe is me. I woke up at 7ish and got ready to go. The porter, Ben, borught me hot water by with no real place to wash I just washed my face and brushed my teeth. We started up, and I mean UP, at 8 am. We didn't stop going up until about 11:30. No joke. Pole pole yeah, but it's still hard. We got to camp around 12:45 so that last hour was some up and some flat but much easier. But what a view. The rain stopped about the same time we got to the top of the hilliest section...because we're mostly above the clouds now. Here at camp and at 2 spots along the way we could see Kili. It's gorgeous. And with the sun, everything is better. My clothes are dry! Yeah! I'm dry....double yeah!...for the first time in 18 hours. Once the last two porters got here (oh yeah, it's me, a guide, a cook and three porters), they set up my little table, heated some water for washing and gave me some hot toasted peanuts. So I'm sitting here in the sun and 2:45 with nothing else to do. I've met another American traveling sola....Stella...and also a German guy alone. But camp is huge today. Yesterday it was hidden by trees and rain but today our moving village is clear. I can also see Mt. Meru from camp, above the clouds anyway. There's not much snow left on Kili--I guess I thought there would still be more left. The next few days should be shorter and "more less steep" as Gerald says. So that will be good.

Day 3: "More less steep my ....." I was up and at um early. We had a long steady climb until basically lunch. We went up about 800m straight. That was actually ok--it was the 2 hours of steep downhill (and then a steep uphill) after lunch that did me in. Plus, the a.m. sun was gone so it was cold and cloudy. I waver between "I can do it" and "I can't". I think I'm two parts negative and one part poistive--not the best outlook really. During our long uphill to lunch I sang 99 bottles of beer on the wall to keep myself occupied. I spent all day trying to fight off dehydration (why didn't I bring electrolytes?!?!) and the pain of sunburn on my forehead and nose. Just a little sun will do it I guess. So the sky cleared up and I can see two things. 1) Moshi town below (and even twinkling lights at night) and 2) the insanely steep hill we climb tomorrow. Oye!!!

Day 4: BRRRRRR. Holy crap it's cold!!! If it gets much colder I'm in trouble! I haven't broken out my warmest clothes yet but I thought I wouldn't need them for another day or so. My forehead is so sunburn it hurts even when I sleep. I wish I could see it. I tried taking a picture of myself but that didn't work. Oh well. The other hikers don't see too repelled. Today's uphill was some hand holding/rock climbing. It was a rough but fun uphill for a while. Then down, then up, then flat, then down. then up again. Seriously, hasn't anyone thought about building a bridge? Jeez. One porter for another group fell right in front of me going downhill and sprained his ankle. I gave him some advil but in the middle of nowhere he eventually just had to suck it up. He still made it to camp before me. And with his 20 kg too. I have no idea how. Today was a short day. Only 4 hours of hiking. I was told 3 but I guess I'm slow. (though another group I've befriended came in 1 1/2 hours after me and had left earlier so I guess I'm not that slow). So I got to camp at 12ish. I had a warm lunch today. My appetite's stronger--which is good considering not much is sticking. Let's just say I've left a part of myself on the mountain. So it's almost 2 and I've got 4 hours to kill. Hmm. Stupid not to bring a book. I'm going to see if Chad's grou has nail clippers cuz I think I'm losing my big toenail. Ewwww.

Day 5: The start of summit day: Today I started out ok. We climbed to the last camp (around 4,550m). Despite layers of SPF 55 on my face, I feel like my sunburn is getting worse. It feels all leathery. And after arriving at camp, after a steep, steep last hill....I have a massive headache. This leads me to a panic attack (in my head I'm sick and I'll never make it) But I'm already here, so despite my panic attack, I'm going to try. i'm told that if I make it to the snow to just push till the very end....but if I go bonkers before the snow, to think about turning around. My friend Stella made it up and I ran in to her as she was leaving camp for the descent. She said I'd be fine....but that was before my panic attack!!! So we'll see. It's almost 5 pm. We'll leave around midnight I think. I hope I make it--but if I don't, it's still been a good hike with amazing views and I've gone further than ever before!

Day 6: The push to the summit: We started around 11:30 pm. I put on every layer, took all of the other stuff out of my bag and headed out. It was brutal. The moon was just past full so it was bright--which was nice--though you could still see the headlights bobbing along eerily in the night. It was straight up. The whole way. No rest at all--no little flat parts, nothing. I freaked out around 3 or 4 am I think. After much cajoling to just go a little further, I said I quit. Gerald tried to get me to keep going and I would go a little bit further, but I just couldn't make it. My muscles weren't tired, but I was disoriented, and tired from not sleeping and just out of it. It was like I could tell I didn't have enough oxygen for what I was asking my body to do. And for some reason the Cipro still wasn't taking hold so I was just tired of it all. Just as we started to head down (literally one step), my friends from the other group came up to where we were standing. They've always been slower than me...but very nice. They convinced me to join them since I was already so far up (turns out about 75% of the way). So I did. And we finally made it. Late, cold and tired, but we made it. Of course, once you get to the top of the hill at Stella point, you have to walk another 45 minutes along the glacier rim (seriously?!?!) to get to the sign, but that part wasn't that bad all things considered. Then of course, you still have to get down the frickin' thing. There weren't too many people up there. Mostly the people I summited with and a few others. Some were totally spaced out, others were romping around like it was no big deal. After my few photos and a snickers, we headed down. Down was like (after the sketchy icy part) skiing through dirt and sand. Maybe like telemark skiing? It was fun at first, but after an hour solid of that my thighs were burning. We got back to camp at 12:30--much later than we thought. But I did it....despite my best attempts otherwise. Now we're at Millennium cap--about 1 1/2 hours down from last night's camp. My knees are screaming!! Tomorrow we do the last bit--through the rain forest again. At least this time there'll be a hot shower at the end of the road!

Day 7: The end. OMG. That's a lot of downhill!!! We started down towards Mweka camp at 7 am and it was rocky and steep. I bit it once on my already sore knee. After Mweka camp, it turned to serious mud. I was cruising for that first 1 1/2 hour after Mweka, passing people left and right. But after 3 hours of walking down the steep hill I just got tired. Knees and thighs hurt, and it just went on forever! It was super muddy and you just keep going down, down, down. We made it to Mweka road. Yeah right? no. Another hour of slogging through the muddy road and we finally made it to the gate. I signed out at the hut, tipped my porters, cook and guide and endured a terrifying drive back to Arusha. Finally a hot shower! NOPE! The power had just gone out so there was only luke warm water. Agh!!! But at least it was a shower, and with semi-clean clothes to wear!! So I walked in to town, got some money, the Herald Tribune (one day old) and some pizza. Except for the total body soreness, I feel like a new person!!!

All in all, it was a great experience. I met some great people and accomplished my goal (though I'll always remember I tried to throw in the towel and a smooth talkin' Floridian with a bad knee made me keep going!).

Now I get four days of safari, camping style, and watching from the comfort of my car!!

Photos will be posted later......

Jane

On to Kilimanjaro!

So today I left Mombasa. Our conference went well. The mix of sun and rain made being inside from 8 a.m to 5:30 bearable. Of course, by the time we got out it was too cold and windy to want to go swimming. But that's ok. It was nice to see my Sudan colleagues!!

I got on my little twin prop airplane for the flight back to Nairobi and then on to Kilimanjaro. Everything was smooth as pie. Of course, I almost peed my pants as we flew by Kili. What am I thinking? I'm totally scared to head off tomorrow. Keep your thoughts with me...especially towards the end of the week!!!

More next weekend--until then--I'll be on the mountain!!

Jane

In Mombassa

So after a mere 24 + hours of travel, I arrived in Mombasa at 11:30 and at my hotel around 12 a.m. All in all, the flights weren't too bad. It's just a long haul with a bunch of transfers. So once I got here I was showed to my room....and in my haze, the only thing I really remember in walking was a sign that said "Please don't feed the monkeys". I have yet to see a monkey, but hopefully they'll wander by sometime this week.

My room is nice and clean--which is good since I spent about 30 minutes to 1 hour on the bathroom floor the day I arrived. I don't know if I ate something or what, but I was sweating up a storm and alternately hot and cold. It was brutal. Much like my experience on the floor of the Khartoum airport for those of you who know that story.

So after finally getting out of bed at 10 a.m. I wandered around looking for colleagues. I found a few and found out that a bunch of people were going snorkeling....so I promptly jumped on that bandwagon. We took off in a boat and headed out to a reef right off of the coast and near our hotel. We snorkeled for about half an hour and saw some great fish, coral, starfish, and other strange sea creatures. We then walked on a separate "reef" with lots of sea spiders (star fish), sea urchins, oysters, little crabs, etc. All in all, it was a great way to spend a few hours under the beautiful sun after 24 hours of travel. In the afternoon, we did a bit of work on the presentaiton we have later this week, and then a team meeting, followed by a nice dinner.

Today the work began---an all day meeting to start things off. The food, for a vegetarian, is a bit sketchy....as are opportunities to exercise.....And everyone's starting to get me really nervous for the hike up Kili next week.....

More to come,
Jane