Yesterday's post was a little late, so if you missed it you can read it here first...
https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2021/02/long-day-to-get-to-usambara-mountains.html
So, the taxi was bringing us along this dirt track that was not much wider than a walking path. I had seen pictures of the property, so I kind of knew what to expect, but from the looks of this path I wasn't sure we were heading in the right direction!
Unlike Turkey, Tanzania is not an easy country to navigate.
Unless of course you pay the big dollars and get a tour company to do everything for you, which is the way most people visit Tanzania. Trying to do it on your own can be frustrating and is often more expensive than it should be anyhow.
So on Friday, we had gone downtown with our friend Justin to buy bus tickets from Arusha to Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains.
We've just been relaxing the past few days since our return from the top of Kilimanjaro. The weather here in Arusha hasn't been great. Rain on and off, and hard at times. So we've been doing some computer work and getting caught up on things from our almost a week away. And, we've been doing some planning to figure out what we're going to do next!
We are so close to Serengeti National Park. Just about any tourist who comes to Arusha is here because it's the set off point for safaris in the Serengeti. But apparently we are not "just anybody"...
Wow. We are a little overwhelmed by all the comments on yesterday's post. Thank you all so much.
You would think we would have slept like a rock on our final night after the marathon of hiking we had done the day before. And I think we did sleep well... until one of the nearby camps started making noise at about 3:30am.
We had wanted to get up early... but not that early! We still had an 11 km (6.8 mile) downhill hike to get to the exit gate where a van and a nice lunch would be waiting for us. But we still managed to toss and turn a bit until we finally got up around 6:00am.
We were woken up at 11:30pm and fed a hot drink of ginger tea to warm us up a bit for our planned six hour hike in the darkness up to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro... Uhuru Peak, located at 5,895 meters (19,350 feet) altitude.
Why are we hiking in the dark? It's a common question, and there are actually a few reasons.
We were up at 6:30am again. A fairly big day ahead of us as we were going to hike up to Lava Tower at 4,630 meters (15,190 feet) in time for lunch, and then back down the other side to Barranco Camp at 3,976 meters (13,050 feet) over a total distance of 9.7 kms (6.0 miles).
They made us a packed lunch, and we got going at about 8:10am.
The guys got us up at 6:30am and we did some washing up and had a good breakfast. There was always hot water for tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, and lots of fruit and millet porridge every day. I ate my fill, but I have to say that I would be happy to never see a bowl of millet porridge again. My mother used to make it when we were kids, and I didn't enjoy it then either! Then there would be some eggs and sausage and some kind of casava bread. The cook was well aware of Ruth's gluten free diet.
By 8:20am, we set off for a 5 km (3 mile) hike that would bring us up another 878 meters (3,000') in altitude.
Are you looking for ways to make extra money to help you get by? Believe it or not, there are a lot of things you can do to generate income. As crazy as the following ideas may sound, they might work well for you. So, why not try these out:
Sell Jellyfish
It is unlikely for you to find someone who has a pet jellyfish as they certainly are not the cuddliest. However, there is a market for jellyfish, and they are quite costly. In fact, the cheapest one there runs around $330, including a small tank and some food good for three months.
Day 1 started at 7:00am in Arusha. We then had a two hour drive from Arusha to Moshi, and we stopped at several places to pick up either people or gear. There is a lot of logistics involved with getting two people to the top of Africa... and we had a total of 11 people helping us get there!
We had our two guides, Kobby and Shalali, our cook Martin, and eight porters carrying the gear and supplies needed for seven days and six nights on the mountain!
By the time most of you read this we will be well into our first day of hiking the highest mountain in Africa!
I am drinking a nice Kilimanjaro beer this evening as I write this. It will be the last one I have for a week!
I want to tell you a little bit about the mountain and the route we are taking...
Back in December when we were trying to figure out where to go next, the Tanzania option had one big negative. It would be the most expensive option.
And so while we knew that in advance, it's still difficult for a couple of normally frugal travelers to watch the numbers add up! But, it's only money, and you can't take it with you. Not really much point in having it if you don't spend it. Within reason, of course.
The last day of our 4 day 3 night hike up Mt. Meru was really great. Our park ranger Dominic agreed to take us on a route that went through an area where we would see a waterfall and a high chance of seeing some of the animals that call Arusha National Park home.
We were woken up at 6:30am at Mariakamba Hut. Had a good sleep and felt much better! Ready for the 6.8 km (4.2 mile) hike down to the entrance gate with a short detour to a waterfall along the way.
If you haven't already, you really should read day 1 and day 2 of this hike!
Before we get into the summit hike itself, I wanted to explain a little bit about Mt. Meru. It's a dormant volcano that had half of its cone somehow collapse 8,000 years ago. So the remaining part of the cone is what we were climbing. You make your way up and along the ridge of the cone itself, with the 2,000 meter (6,600 feet) sheer cliff walls on one side, and a steep volcanic slope on the other side.
If you missed day one, you will want to start reading here...
https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2021/01/mt-meru-tanzania-hike-day-one.html
Because of our late start on day one, we had not arrived at Mariakamba Hut until about 6:30pm Monday evening. The first day hike had not been that strenuous and we were feeling pretty good. We had done about 9 kms (5.5 miles) uphill, rising in altitude 915 meters (3,000').
Our ranger Dominic had set a fairly slow pace and we weren't doing much more than 2 km/h. They really stress that you need to go slowly for proper acclimatisation, and a higher chance of success of achieving the summit.
I'm going to post each day of our four days away as a separate post. But I will try to post twice a day to get us caught up, so try to remember to check back so you don't miss anything!
Lots of photos for you. Don't forget that you can click on the photo to make it full screen!
So, day one started with us being picked up at our apartment by the safari vehicle from our tour operator at Rwalinda Tours. They arrived with two of our porters, and our head guide.
By the time most of you read this, we will be well on our way through the first day of our 4 day, 3 night trek up Africa's 5th highest and Tanzania's 2nd highest mountain, Mt. Meru.
Our guide and our chef were over at the apartment on Sunday going over some things with us. They are very detailed, and want to make sure you are prepared. I get the impression that they have come across people who have definitely not been prepared.
We met one of our porters yesterday. Abdallah is 24 years old and wants to work his way up to being a guide. He has taken the guide courses at the local college and is now beginning actual training. He is also learning Chinese because there are a growing number of Chinese tourists coming to Tanzania and there are no guides who can speak Chinese.
Justin set things up so that Abdallah would spend the day with us doing a hike to a waterfall about 10 kms (6 miles) away from our apartment.
We hung around the apartment in the morning, and then at lunch time we had made plans to meet our new friends Ryan and Marti at an Indian curry restaurant in the central area.
It was about a 3 km (1.8 mile) walk from the apartment to the center of Arusha so we set off at 12 noon for our 12:30pm lunch.
I believe that every day here in Tanzania will be an interesting day. There is so much going on, everywhere we look!
We will be doing our four night Mt. Meru hike starting on Monday, and our seven night Mt. Kilimanjaro hike starting on February 2. So Justin said we had better get our gear set up for the two hikes. For that, we had to do the 80 km (50 mile) drive from Arusha to Moshi.
Writing this note from the boarding gate for our second flight of the day, going from Istanbul, Turkey to Doha, Qatar.
We were up at 5am this morning and by 6am we were on our way to the airport.
Our flight didn't leave until 10:25am, but we were told to get there early because of Covid etc, etc... then of course we sat around and waited for almost two hours for the bag drop to open!
And the airport wasn't at all busy. In fact, the exact opposite. There were four flights leaving all day!
We got there early, and had to sit around only to find out that the WiFi wasn't working. They only have one machine where you have to scan your boarding card to get access, and it was located outside the gate area. Ridiculous in this day and age.
Anyhow, the flight was almost full. I saw maybe six or eight empty seats. Everybody was really good about mask wearing, unlike our easyJet flight from the UK back in October. The only thing we both still find funny (odd? stupid?) are the people who want to rip off their seatbelt and jam themselves into the aisle as soon as the plan lands. Doesn't make any sense to us at all, but obviously we are in the minority.
Other than that, it was an uneventful one hour flight to Istanbul's SAW airport.
We had lots of time to waste before our 5:55pm flight to Doha, Qatar. But we couldn't go past passport control because the bag drop wouldn't open until almost 3:00pm! Oh well.
We finally got that done, and went to go through passport control. Of course our visas expired eight or nine days ago, and sure enough we got sent to immigration. We explained the story, and produced the letter from the doctor but that made no difference at all. He siad the only thing that would matter is if you were held up due to Covid!
Then he said "the fine will be 1,034 lira ($177 CAD, $139 USD) each". Yikes!
But he then explained we don't have to pay it now. In fact, we would only have to pay it if we come back within three months and then it would apply towards residency. Very strange, and we didn't quite get it. His English wasn't the best and he was trying to explain it through Google Translate.
But either way, it doesn't cost us anything right now, and if there are repercussions of any kind we will deal with them the next time we return to Turkey, possibly two years from now.
So we were cleared through passport control and on to the waiting area where we are now.
We were a little late leaving yesterday. Had the car all packed up and ready to go by 11:00am, but our Airbnb host was a little late coming to get the key, and then we stood and had a nice chat with him for a while before leaving. But, we knew there would be very little traffic, it was only a 200 km (124 mile) drive, and we couldn't check in to our apartment in Fethiye until after 4:00pm.
Again, weekends are on lockdown for the Turkish people, but foreign tourists are exempt. We figured being on the highway there might be stop checks.
Well, it's moving day today! And we definitely feel like it's time to move on. We've been in this apartment in Antalya for exactly one month! It was almost starting to feel like our apartment.
Yesterday was our final eye doctor appointment, and everything is the way it should be so we are cleared to travel. Of course we still have eye drops to take for the next month or so.
And we saw another one of them yesterday.
We had read about the constantly burning fires at Mount Chimaera. And they are located on the Lycian Way hiking route, so we made a plan to do the hour and a half drive down to that section of the trail where we could access the fires area from below.
