November 2, 2006 Ngorongoro Crater – Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

November 2, 2006
Ngorongoro Crater – Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

We got up at 6:00 this morning and it was still raining. As we packed our things Ronan (the irish guy) informed me that when we went pee in the middle of the night he came face to face with an African Buffalo in the middle of our camp. While it may not sound scary, these are very dangerous creatures that kill more people than lions! I found his story very interesting because I too went pee in the middle of the night and was probably oblivious to the large buffalo…

Packing the tents in the rain was not at all fun. Everything seemed to get wet and muddy. Even so, we managed to break camp by 8:30. We started the long drive to Mt. Kilimanjaro. On the way we made quick stops in Arusha and Moshi for a little bit of shopping. For the first time in a while I purchased some souvenirs and gifts…

The rest of the drive was not that exciting. As we sat there I asked Revel to give me my African name. After deliberation with the cook, he decided that my name should be Mbowe (which means rain). B then asked for a name and is now known as Karatu (red dirt) in Africa.

We arrived at our new camping area at 17:00. Interestingly, we set our tents up on the grass of a fancy lodge. In a somewhat fortunate turn of events, it started raining almost as soon as we completed setting up camp.

After everything was set we went on a hike around the area with a local guide. After a 20 minute walk we arrived at a beautiful waterfall. B and I decided that we had to go for a swim. Not surprisingly, the water was cold and we didn’t last long. Even so, it was super fun!


Next, we made our way to a local bar. We were served banana beer. After everyone decided that they did not like it we were offered banana wine. It was much, much better and did not have any chunks in it and was nowhere near as gritty. As we sat there, drinking our banana wine, a group of children came and watched us. Eventually they worked up the courage to come play around with our group. We spent the next ½ hour entertaining (and being entertained by) the local children. They were fascinated by our digital cameras and loved seeing pictures of themselves. Just before it was time to go our guide gave us some sugarcane to munch on. Also, it started pissing rain (irish expression)…which forced me to borrow a purple and pink jacket from our guide.

We made the long climb back up the hill to our campsight and then had a our last dinner with our group. After dinner we made a trip to the hotel bar and hung out for a while. We watched the first part of Ace Ventura 2 and had some beers. As enjoyed ourselves the rain continued to build force and we were all worried about our tents. In the end, Hollys tent was the only one that did not withstand the storm. As a result, she squeezed into our tent and cuddled with B.

NOTE: Sadly it was so cloudy the whole time we were there that we only caught a glimpse of the very corner of the tallest mountain in Africa…