This week, after pouring through my guide book, I decided to climb Lupanga Peak, elevation 2150m (from Morogoro at 500m). The guide book suggested an excellent company with English-speaking guides and a hike for "most of the day" for "reasonably fit walkers." I thought that sounded perfect.
Step one consisted of purchasing a permit from the government to enter the Uluguru Conservation Area. I thought this might take a few minutes before I went with Charles, a friend of Edward, to visit his family. Instead, I was directed to sit in a chair straight out of the 70's in a cramped office. It should have housed two people for the two desks. Instead, there were 7, all seeming to shuffle papers. One woman who appeared to be a secretary hunted and pecked out something on a computer still using DOS. I think at some point I fell asleep, and two hours later, I received permits and a request for $30 US. I only had a twenty dollar bill on me, so I handed that over and 20,000 TSH (expecting 4,300 back considering the exchange rate). When the man returned with 3,500, we had some more discussion until we were both satisfied. I know it was a relatively small amount of money- but it was the principle of the thing. Plus, 800 TSH will buy almost three days' worth of breakfast.
Charles and I visited his family a short 30-minute daladala (minibus) ride away from Morogoro along the Dodoma road. It is amazing how much you can pack into a daladala when you put your mind to it. Every seat was filled, and I don't know why, but the seats are about half the size of a normal person. Plus, the woman sitting next to me had a small child on her lap. Under our feet were sacks of grain or corn or something, and the back storage area of the bus was packed so full the tailgate had to be strapped down because it would not close all the way. I gave the little kid a Wurthers candy, and she sucked at it for at least 15 minutes until she fell asleep with her sticky fingers still in her mouth. Her head lolled from her mom's shoulder to mine, and it was really cute.
When we arrived, we relaxed in Charles' mud and thatch hut which was wonderfully cool despite the scorching heat outside. His wife brought us ugali (a cornmeal doughy food staple), a tomato and bean sauce to dip it in, and fresh milk. After the initial shock of the arrival the mzungu, Charles' children started to trickle into the hut. It was time for the camera, and after I took a few pictures, the oldest boy seized my camera and started snapping shots of the others. It was so dark in the hut that the flash's light blinded us every time, and most of the pictures were random captures. Two of them are particularly hilarious faces being pulled by the youngest brother and one of the adopted girls. I will post some when Edward returns with his laptop from Arusha. After that, we played dress up the mzungu in Maasai shuka and took pictures of the whole family together. One of Charles' adopted daughters really took a liking to me, petting my arm and my hair and holding my hand. When we outside, I grabbed her up in my arms, and Charles got a really adorable picture of us.
Lupanga.
I was told that this was an all day affair, with a 7 hour hike to the top of Lupanga and a 4 hour hike down. I thought that it would be a good challenge, but I didn't really think through the elevation that we would gain 1650m, some 5,400 ft. Ahhh the benefit of hindsight. My guide, Aziz, and I started from town at 7 in the morning. In Swahili time, 7 am is 1 hour after sunrise and thus hour number one "saa moja." After 45 minutes, we were in the foothills in a small hill village. Our permits were inspected, and I took a picture of the sign that said "Lupanga Peak summit 3.5 miles." I thought, I can do that. The road dwindled to a single-track trail of red dirt that was fairly steep. My legs were already starting to burn. We passed through a few scattered fields of corn or beets perched precariously on the sides of steep hills, through scattered palms trees, and finally climbed into grassy, bushy hills beyond inhabitance. When we reached a beautiful little waterfall, we took a break. I was beginning to think, 'surely it can't all be this steep.' There were no switch backs, it seemed like we were going straight up, more or less. I remarked on how steep it was to Aziz, and he nodded gravely. "Yes, very steep," he echoed. Hopefully, I asked it it wasn't all like this. My heart sank when he said that it was like this the whole way. He was wrong, it only got more steep. Aziz said that the elevation of the waterfall was 900m- we had climbed 500m- and had 1150 to go!
We climbed on, and the track varied between three types of terrain: 60% so steep I wished there were stairs, 30% so steep you hand to climb with your hands grasping vines and stones to help you bear crawl, and 10% reasonable steepness which I would call "hiking." We passed into forest jungle and the temperature started to drop. The land was a rich emerald green, and on the path I spotted several sea shells (no idea how they got there). There were birds calling, though I saw few, with my eyes glued to the path or the next vine I would use to pull myself up or which corner of a rock might support my heavy boot. It was too difficult climbing to really appreciate the scenery. Every 8 or so steps, my legs were burning so badly I had to pause for a few seconds to let it subside. Occasionally, I would look back the way we came and be rewarded with an amazing view over Morogoro- we really were going straight up! At this point, also, I was starting to fear the way back down. I was imaging sitting on my butt and just sliding all the way. Finally, Aziz said that he would take a "short corner." I had no idea what that meant, but apparently, it is a polite way to say you are taking a bathroom break. It had been 4.5 hours, and I knew we still had 2.5 hours to go the peak- there was no way. I was cooked. When Aziz returned, we agreed to go just a bit further to a large rock that would afford a nice view and a rewarding place to call it quits. At 1200m, sure enough, we got a huge view over all Morogoro and up Lupanga Peak. It reared ahead of us, and I know it would have taken much longer than 2.5 hours to get to the top at our pace. Aziz said that most tourists don't make it this far, and I wondered if he was just humoring me.
The way down was better than I expected. The tread on my boots was excellent, and I was able to carefully walk side-wise from rock to rock for most of the trip. Aziz just wore city shoes with no tread at all and had to climb his way back down with almost as much difficulty as getting up. The song, "These Boots are Made for Walking" popped into my head, and I sang it to myself for most of an hour. Near the edge of the forest, we saw a black and white Colobus swinging through the tree tops, but he was gone before I could get my camera out. Unfortunately, the trip down was slow-going due to the difficulty, and by the time we reached the waterfall, the soles of my feet burned from being on such a slant in my boots. By the time, we reached the true road, I was dead on my feet, and only the automaticity of swinging one leg in front of the other got me back to the Chilunga Cultural Tourism office. There, we met up with the director, who congratulated me heartily. He said that almost everyone stops at the waterfall; almost no one makes it all the way to the forest; and very very few see a colobus. I guess Aziz was not humoring me. No kidding! Even though altitude hadn't hit me, I felt more destroyed than I had after my climb of Grays and Torreys. Happily, the director drove me home, so I didn't have to walk, and I treated myself to a Cadbury chocolate bar with Marula flavoring!
Hopefully, Edward will be back today, and I will be able to post pictures. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, and I look forward to celebrating with you when I return.
Heri,
Kara
Charles and I visited a Maasai Market in my last couple of days. I had commented that NaneNane was like the National Western Stock Show, but this market was much closer. The main attraction was the cattle. Warriors guarded small herds, and people walked around inspecting, buying, and selling. The air was filled with dust and the sounds of lowing and the crack of sticks across stubborn backs. I took this awesome shot of one warrior inspecting his herd.
After Charles sold one of his cattle, he and some of his relatives and I sat down to have some freshly cooked (and freshly slaughtered) beef. We sat around a small table covered in leaves pulled from the surrounding trees, and the chef dropped this slab of meat in front of us. Charles whipped out a knife and cut off large bites for everyone. As soon as I had mine in my mouth, I knew I was in trouble. It was tasty but huge and tough. Maasai love their cattle and everything connected to their cattle, and I was afraid of making some social fauxpaux by having to spit it out. So I chewed and chewed... and chewed some more. I couldn't even tear off a piece of it to swallow. What seemed like ten minutes later, I was still chewing, my teeth and jaws were starting to get tired, and I was really starting to panic that I would never be able to swallow the thing. Happily, Charles noticed that I had not been taking anymore pieces and just said, "If you can't swallow it, just throw it," gesturing to the dirt. Gratefully, I removed this giant, gray, masticated blob from my mouth and chucked it away from our table. After that, Charles cut me tiny little pieces that would have been good for a baby or a granny with no teeth- they were perfect!
In the last couple of evenings spent with Luka and Seleyan, we enjoyed delicious dinners of mishkaki na chipsi na mayai (sheesh kebabs with french fry omlettes). There was a little shop just down the road from the house that would grill you up the mishkaki over glowing coals, and the put french fries in a skillet and cracked eggs over them to make a little omlette. Then they would take all the elements and throw them in a plastic bag with a few squirts of tomato sauce and send you on your way to eat the mix with toothpicks. I should have taken a picture, but I was too anxious to get home and eat!
