The Fellowship of the Ring
Wednesday night after work we caught up with our good mate Intrepid Kat and her family in Moshi. Kat and her dad had just come down from Kilimanjaro, having climbed the same route we intend to do. She looked a wee bit tired...Her tales of snow storms, lack of air, exhaustion, people turning back and glaciers were thrilling but also a little terrifying. Mount Kilimanjaro is still a mountain after all. It must be respected. A person died on the mountain during the same period Kat was up there. Pulmonary Odema. Tour companies are a bit quiet about the specifics of those details. I think I heard 10 people die a year? Don’t tell my mum. The wife and I will still give it a go, will support each other the whole way and ensure safety comes first. It’s the people that ignore the warning signs or try to be macho up there that die. That’s not me at all ai? Um...
Thursday December 9th, was a public holiday (Independence Day). Love public holidays. But before the relaxing, I had to do my hour training run for the marathon. The wife and I did a nice early morning jog over a rain swollen river to Karanga with a vista of cloud shrouded Kilimanjaro in the distance. In the breaks in the cloud cover, I saw more snow on Kili than I have ever seen. When it rains heavily in Moshi (as it has the last couple of days), it means it is snowing heavily on the mountain.
I’m so used to seeing Kili all the time and being ‘oh yeah’, somehow as we are 10 days from going up it, its brooding, white shrouded rock face seems a little less benign. And more like, Caradhras the Cruel, the mountain that defeated the Fellowship from the Lord of the Rings. Not that I'm into that geeky stuff.
Intrepid Kat’s family were keen to see Lake Chala, so together at 10am we went with Bibi Stones (the other Moshi volunteer) and another Kiwi mate, out there. Dark rain clouds coming in from Kenya.
No elephant around this time, they are way off in Kenya. Sigh. I really like the Chala area. Peaceful, yet full of life. Reminds me of the conservation area I worked on in South Africa in ‘08.
Intrepid Kat’s family and I set off to go down to the Lake. My wife was happy to hold the fort at the tented campsite bar. I was happy to have some people to come gingerly down the steep-ish caldera wall of the Crater Lake with me. We got down to the water and found less of a shore and more of a few random rock piles and logs. We could see small fish swimming around in the water. We had joked and talked a bit about the possibility of a croc attack. I had heard the deep waters of Chala was teeming with them. A tourist was taken by a croc swimming (on the Kenyan side of the Lake) in 2002.
(what lies beneath...)
But other people have said it is fine for swimming...hm. It all looked so inviting. So what the heck, I waded in. The bottom drops off pretty fast so I didn’t go out too far. Soon all of us were splashing around, albeit with the odd careful looks around. We stayed near the shore...I dived under water a few times straining to see any big shadows moving my way.
(how to simulate a crocodile attack with a stick)
The water was so warm and nice. Some local fisherman watched and chortled at us swimming especially when I kept asking them if there were crocodiles around or not. They didn’t laugh so much when I swam at them hippo styles, pretending I was going to tip over their flimsy canoe.
It was nice to hang out with a family, made me realise that I am missing my own family back home. We dried off from our swim and chilled out the rest of the afternoon near the bar.
Supposed to be stockpiling gear for Kilimanjaro this weekend. Plus, maybe meeting the A-Town crew at a hot spring. Plus, a small movie theatre is opening in Moshi. It’s a thankless, busy life ;-)
Postscript.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/martina-navratilova-leaves-hospital-after-aborted-mount-kilimanjaro-climb.html
There is so much snow up there at the moment...seems like its hard going at the mo...Im sure it will clear up soon gulp
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