Last Day at Plantation

Jambo Jambo! 

First, we have to start with last night’s adventure. One of the workers of the resort came to start a fire in our fireplace. What a disaster! As he lit the fire, we could see some smoke coming into our room I thought well, he will open the flew.  He left. Shortly after, our little cabin was filled with smoke. Our eyes were burning, we couldn’t breathe and we felt like we were in the BC wildfires. We re-open the windows and the door to try to let the smoke out. It did not get any better and so off I went, in the dark, to get someone to come and help. 

When the man arrived in our cabin, he quickly said “oh! no good!”  He proceeded to take a towel and started to fan the room to get the smoke out.  Rémi joined in to help as I was outside laughing.  All of a sudden he started twirling the towel and saying I’m a fan!  At this point we were all laughing hysterically. We got most of the smoke out but we had to sleep with an N95 masks as the smell was just too much to handle. 

I forgot !  This man took the burning wood with his bare hands and brought it outside.

We had an OK sort of sleep with waking up quite a few times to go to the bathroom but overall it was an OK night.

We got up at about 8 o’clock in the morning, had breakfast and had our briefing with our guide for the climb.  He went day by day, telling us sort of what to expect. It’s less of a mystery now and I think those who were worried are feeling much better.

Rémi and I opted to do a local tour with a guide. We met up at two in the afternoon and off we went. Our guide’s name was Victor and as we cross the gate, a friend of his met up with us and joined for the tour around the village.  His name was Noël and he would like to be a guide some day. 

On our tour, we saw a banana plantation where we learned all about bananas how they grow and learned it takes nine months to grow. We made our way to a sugarcane plantations, followed by a coffee plantation.  

I saw a sign for a school and I asked if we could go and visit. Our guide wasn’t sure, but we made our way to the school just to see. It was a bit of a process, but in the end we were able to go in and have a quick visit. We met the headmaster before being introduced to the teacher, who gave us a quick tour of the place. There is about 800 students at this private school. We were shown the new garden project, where the students will take care of chickens, ducks, goats, perhaps a pig among other things. We also had the opportunity to visit one classroom of children who would be in about grade 2 in Canada. As the door opened, they all stood up and greeted us with a good afternoon visitors. The classroom had some paintings on the wall like the alphabet and such and they each had a wooden desk set in rows.

After visiting the school, we made our way back towards our resort. The unofficial guide lives right across the from the plantation. He brought us to his house so we could visit his family. When we arrived, his mother was sitting on the cement slab, filled with beans where she was separating them by colors. There were many children around, his sister and neighbours. They were fascinated by us and kept touching our arms and our skin. They all wanted to try Rémi’s sunglasses and so I took a picture and show them what they look like. They were all very happy and smiling.

 Noel‘s mom told him to show us the rest of the yard where there was a cow, a goat and some ducks. They offered us dinner, but we kindly refused as we were having dinner with a group. We made our way back to the plantation where we rested for the rest of the day. This was a fabulous day.

Looking forward to leaving for the mountain in the morning! Nighty night! 

Weather: around 23° and sunny in the afternoon.

Food: potatoes, rice, pasta, beef, pork, desserts

New Swahili words:

•  coffee, Kahawa,
  
• See you later- kwaheri
• Mambo. How are you 
• Popow. Fine

plant: avocado tree
New bird: Ibis, something
New people:  Prosper, who works at the hotel Noel, the young man that joined us for our tour some thing that made me laugh: at the reception. I heard the sound of a bird I asked what is that? She said we call it a bird, new animal for today a horned chameleon

Moraivo Plantation

We have finally arrived in Kilimanjaro!  This humongous plane arrives at this tiny little airport. I was so

excited to finally be in Africa. There might’ve been a tear or two from being overwhelmed. Finally, a lifelong dream coming true.

 We arrived this morning at about 730.  The airport is very small, there’s a one large room, one bathroom and that’s it. When you arrive, you line up outside, they take your temperature and you move inside.  In the large room, it’s loud as everyone is talking- there’s a guard who asks to see your visa. He ruffles through your papers, hands them back to you and says “sign here date here”.  Afterwards you go in a line and wait to see the officer to get your passport stamped and your visa verified. 

Once that chaos was over, you moved onto the next step: the belt to hopefully get your luggage.  That was fairly easy as there’s one airplane, one belt. We were all very happy to see all our bags made it to Tanzania!. Once we had our bags, we had to move onto the next step, which was to place our bags on another belt to go through the security. Lord only knows why you would do this when you arrive in a country, but we did so and moved on outside.

We were met by Jerry, our guide for the climb. From there, they loaded our bags on the roof of the bus that was to carry us to our hotel. We climbed on the bus and off we went. Let’s just say that it was a very interesting 45 to 1 hour ride. First off, they drive on the wrong side of the road. I was sitting behind the driver so I could see everything that was going on ahead. There are motorcycles, buses, not many cars, people walking along the road there is people everywhere. Goats, chickens, cows, people, more people! We pass buses, we pass these little tuktuks, full of hay and every time it’s a bit of a harrowing experience.  We got a first good look at Tanzania: tin homes, “mud homes”, no doors on many home, only a curtain. 

Our “resort” is just lovely. It’s a coffee plantation.  there are about 30 little cabins and it’s just beautiful, our bed has a net around it to protect us from the mosquitoes. The grounds are absolutely breathtaking. Vegetation, birds, monkeys, bush, babies, beautiful flowers, beautiful plants, interesting insects as well. 

Remi and I went for a walk in the morning while everybody else went for a shower and a nap. Some people slept till 3 o’clock in the afternoon if you can believe it. We enjoyed a beautiful walk on the trails around the plantation we took our time, and saw so many beautiful things.

The day was just a lazy day of relaxation and enjoyment. Later in the afternoon, the owner of the resort, came to our group and asked to see Rémi Roy. A little worried and he says that’s me. The man proceeds to tell us his passport is at the airport!  Rémi didn’t even know he didn’t have it! We are not sure how this happened but we are very thankful that whoever found was honest and handed it in. That airport was so chaotic I’m surprised it was even found! 

A group member was arriving tonight, the aiport personnel let them bring the passport to us. Happy we didn’t have to do that interesting ride again… although I wouldn’t have minded much as that’s the best way to experience things. 

Lunch was between spaghetti or fish. We went with spaghetti. We had a lovely dinner- buffet style. There was soup, saffon rice, wedges, different massalas, chicken, desserts. It was delicious!  

So far, it’s a very friendly place and people.  Everyone seems genuinely happy to see you and want to to help you.  My best example is my search to find a monkey. Walking along one of the trails I saw a young man dressed in green. I’m told he was sort of like security.  I asked him if there were monkeys. He responded yeah yeah and off we went on a monkey search. We looked and looked and couldn’t find one but all of a sudden he found a bush baby. A bush baby is sort of like a flying squirrel except it’s bigger and it has humongous eyes. I was so excited to see this bush baby. Another fellow joined us, and we kept looking for monkeys but did not find any. One of the guys who was dressed in a beige outfit, took us with him to find monkeys and we did find a whole group of them, vervet monkeys. That has to be the highlight of today seeing these monkeys having so much fun up in the trees looking at you, right in your eyes, as it was eating. They are very curious! These little creatures just want to see you.  By the time I got back to my room, the monkeys had made their way to the bamboo behind it. These folks were just so happy to be able to help me find what I was looking for.

I can’t explain how blessed and lucky I feel to be here. I absolutely have white privilege. That is neither good or bad. As a white person, I can’t deny this simple fact. 

Weather: mostly cloudy, 20°C - sun came out at around 4pm and warmed us up. 

New food: baobab juice 

People: Jerry the guide, Sara the guide’s boss, Victor the monkey man

Something that scared me:

Something that surprised me:  it’s cold- locals are wearing jackets and hats. 

Birds  today: beautiful sunbird, peregrine falcon, other unknown birds

Wildlife: bush babies, vervet monkeys. 

Plants: poinsettia (who knew they grew in Africa)

Places: plantation 

Swahili words that I remember:

•  1- moja 
• hello - jambo
  
• Thank you - asante
• Very much- sana
• 8- nane
• You are welcome- caribou

Doha Airport

​Wow! I have never seen anything like this!  I have been to many airports but this one takes the cake!  

It’s opulent- beautiful art pieces, a whole section with water and trees, huge bright signs, looks like something out of this world! 

There is so much to look at and see that 8 hours goes by pretty quickly. 

I don’t know if the photos will show up… 

Montréal to Doha, Qatar

We left Montreal at 10:05 in Qatar airways. When you get to your seat, there’s a pile of stuff waiting for you. There was a blanket, a pillow, headphones, and a little bag of goodies, containing a sleep mask, socks, earplugs, a toothbrush, and a teeny tiny tube of toothpaste.

The stewardesses are all very petite and pretty with black hair. They wear burgundy pants with a white shirt covered in little designs. When it comes to serving dinner, they wear a little navy blazer over their shirt.

At midnight we had dinner. I chose the ”roasted chicken and potato wedges”. why the quotation marks? Well, I saw pieces of pre-cooked chicken covered in melted cheese and doused with the gravy put a few peas on top and voilà. That was my dinner.  No potatoes and no what I imagined roasted chicken looks like. There was a little bowl of salad, which was OK and for dessert. It was a mousse of some kind. There was also a bottle of water.

By 1 o’clock I still could not sleep so I started a movie called Ambush. My 1:30 my eyes were tired and so I managed to fall asleep. I got a few hours of sleep with waking up every so often because of inconsiderate people who push and hit you on the way to the washroom or wherever they’re going. Too many inconsiderate people on earth.

When I woke up, I finished my movie, which was just OK. 

For “brunch” I took the vegetarian noodles as I couldn’t handle the surprise chicken again. They were like overcooked Tai noodles. They were edible. There was also a little cup with fruit and a cup of yogurt. The bun was cinnamon raisin. 

This is a very long flight … 12 hours long. Let’s just say I much prefer the 18 minutes late we had yesterday ha ha. The worst part is it’s not over. We have an eight hour layover in Doha, followed by another six hour flight to Kilimanjaro.

• I’m shocked at many people are wearing masks… on the whole airplane there is less than 10 people wearing one!  

Ottawa to Montreal

After Denise dropped us off at the airport, there were no issues. It was our first time through the new security and it was quite effective.

Our flight to Montreal took 18 minutes, yes only 18 minutes!  We spent 2+ hours at the Ottawa airport to fly 18 minutes and then spent 5+ hours at the Montreal airport. That’s a long time! 

Once we arrived, we decided to have dinner at Carlos and Pepe‘s Mexican restaurant. They had a good food- I shared Quesedillas with Heather. Our waiter was quite the character. A female waitress came by with a tray of glasses of water and offered them to us so we said sure! When our waiter came back, he seemed quite offended that we had glasses of water as he said, that water is not yours, you didn’t order it. We replied water is free in a restaurant. He said well you didn’t order it. We were thinking “What??” 

Once dinner was over we made our way back to our gate at which point we heard an announcement about our Doha flight. Something about if our boarding pass was given by a different airline we had to go to the desk to get new passes and get our paperwork vwerified. 

It is now 9 o’clock and our flight departs at 10:05. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I will get to sleep on the flight that will be more than 18 minutes. 

I’m on the app- I have no idea what it will look like… fingers crossed! 

The Big Day is Here!!

 Here we go!  3 hours to go before my sister picks us up to drop us off at the airport!  

This morning's to do list:

• Go drop off the mouse we caught over night in the woods.
• Fill the bird feeders.
• Clean out the filter in Sophie's shrimp tank.
• Water plants.
• Clean out the fridge -don't want to come back to growing science experiments!
• Pack and weigh my bag one last time.  Removed a few items. 13kg - I have a bit of leeway. 
• We had enough rain so I don't need to water the garden.
• Drop off key with neighbour.
• Relax and wait for our ride.

Un autre dodo!

One more sleep before we head out for a wonderful adventure! 

On the "menu" today:

• Last minute purchases - second battery for Sophie's camera - I'm bringing her camera because she has a giant lens I can use during the safari.
• Move my camera clip to Sophie's camera (I can attach it to the shoulder strap of my backpack for easy access.
• Pick up bird seeds to fill the feeders before leaving.
• Feed Houdini (last mouse before we go! Wouldn't want him to get hungry).
• Remove zucchinis that are ready.
• Drop off key with neighbour.
• Visit with sisters.
• Double check I have all the needed wires.
• Empty my phone's gallery - I had 8000 photos.  They are now all on my computer needing to be dealt with when I return.
• It never ends... does it?! 

Packing is a Process

I'm typically a last minute packer unless I'm headed for an epic adventure that takes planning to be successful.  Packing for an adventure is a process.

My process started a while back with just ideas rolling in my head.  I know the following:

• We will have hot days, rain, wind, and freezing cold days.
• There will be nasty disease carrying insects.
• Many risks like slippery rocks, perhaps plants, falls, trips, bruises, infections.
• and of course, high altitude which you can't really prepare for or know how it will affect you.  

The risks are numerous on any adventure but you can't let that stop you.  You just need to prepare as best you can!

Last week, I started taking out all the stuff I thought I might need.  I took out the clothing I want to bring, make sure I have bug spray, sunscreen, snacks...All this stuff on my bed, on the floor, in a basket, move it from here to there,  there to here, to everything on the floor so I can sleep in my bed.  This goes on for a few days.  Not the most efficient way but it's what works for me at this point of the planning.

Yesterday, I organized everything on my bed: 

• A pile for the safari after the climb: no black or white, no bright colours, no shorts, no tank tops that leaves me with a pair of beige pants, a beige t-shirt and a grey t-shirt.  Easy.  
• A pile for the climbing days: I have 2 pairs hiking pants (one light one heavy duty), 2 long sleeve merino wool shirts,  1 pair of merino wool long johns, 2 merino wool t-shirts, socks, underwear, gaiters (to keep pebbles out of boots), rain jacket, rain pants, puff jacket.
• A pile of treats and nutrition:  I have skittles, beef jerky, almonds, chocolate, Tailwind for my water, salt tablets, dried fruit, Endurance Tap, and maple candies for the porters.
• A pile for my backpack: my puff jacket, rain coat and pants, medicine (Malaria, altitude, Pepto Bismol, Advil, Tylenol, allergy, Immodium, script for severe diarrhea), treats for flight, hydration pack, empty 1L water bottle, camera, wires for phone and watch, earphones, battery pack, book and journal.
• Already in my duffle bag: sleeping bag, mat, inflatable pillow, liner.
• Other must haves: Hiking boots, trail shoes, 
• Other: bag of toiletries, toilet paper, mitts, toque, winter underwear, buffs, balaclava, swimsuit.

That's where I'm at for now.  I'm sure some things will be taken out, others will be swapped.  As I said a the beginning, it's a process! 

Bags to organize our clothes.

The orange bag will be packed and
repacked multiple times.

This is the clothing and other stuff that
needs to be reduced to fit in the bag.

miscellaneous stuff that may
or may not come.

Kilimanjaro Bound!

 I haven't been great at journaling the prep for our Kilimanjaro trip!  We are leaving in 11 days and I am very excited!  We have been waiting for this trip since before the Covid pandemic hit!  

So far, we've been training as a group doing hikes and stairs.  Training on our own cycling, running, walking.  I feel ready and look forward to this lifelong dream to come to life! 

After climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, we will be doing a 5 day safari - two birds one stone!  2 things off my bucket list!