LODGES' EXPERIENCE

Of the 3 lodges we've stayed in, Kisema Ngeda has to be the most memorable. 4 hours drive from Arusha, it is located in a little known corner at the edge of Lake Eyasi. During our long ride there we had our doubts about the place, whether it was worth such a long and at times difficult journey on a not entirely satisfactory road.

During the final stretch our imaginative tourist minds even briefly harboured thoughts of being murdered and mugged in the desolate African wilderness. However we duely arrived at Kisema Ngeda and our mindsets underwent a total change. There was no grand arch bearing the name of the lodge, just a simple roadsign a few hundred metres out at a crossroad pointing out the correct direction. Understated with no airs, because the luxury of Kisema Ngeda lies not just in its comfortable and modern facilities but also in its breathtaking view: The reception hut simply stretches out and melds seamlessly into the distance, where local cattle herds pass by against a backdrop of the crimson sun setting over Lake Eyasi. It was love at first sight. We simply dumped our luggage at the reception and with our cameras headed into this alluring picture, hoping to capture the last of those magnificent rays before they disappear into a star-filled night sky.

Nice scenery aside, special mention must also go towards the owner of the place - Mariana Nani - and her extraordinary life story. An Argentinian from Buenos Aires who has been travelling all her life. Backpacking, working odd jobs, working on a cruise ship - she basically led a life that we didn't imagine possible back in Singapore. And yet she met her husband, a Tanzanian of German descent, in a bar in Arusha, and fell in love. They eventually opened Kisema Ngeda and now they're happily settled down together running the family establishment and have two lovely kids. Sounds like something out of a fairytale no?

MAASAI TRIBE

An interesting contrast can be made between the Hadzabe and the Maasai people. While the former are hunter-gatherers who eat almost any wild animals, the latter are nomadic herders who subsist only on their cattles, be it meat, milk or blood. They eat no other wild animal and only kill lions, hyenas and other predators when their cattle herds are threatened. 

The Maasai people have been famed since history as being fierce warriors but (thankfully) we experienced their hospitality rather than their belligerence. The traditional Maasai boma again was worlds apart from our usual HDB flats and we could not imagine their lives as we were crammed in the dimly lit huts. 

We do not pity them but rather it was hard for us to understand their way of life - their daily schedule of taking the cattle herds out to graze every morning, their transactional marriage system equating brides with cattles, their strict class system which dictates their social life. Once again we were humbled by their rugged and fierce spirit which has preserved their way of life for hundreds of years.

The huts of the Maasai tribe, made of mud, straws and wood

Little boy with a stick in his mouth, I could not resist so I gave him a little pinch!

The school of the tribe

There’s a teacher and a black board, teaching the English alphabets

A dung beetle!

Qianwei joining in the tribal dance. As you can see, every maasai man holds a stick. The sticks are used to fight off predators and also as a symbol of status in the tribe. The honorable ones are allowed to carry the black sticks made by ebony wood. They all wear dark coloured robes.

They rear cows, sheeps for food and use donkeys for labour!

All in all, it was really educational!

VISITING BUSHMEN

Our climb was only the first part of the journey! The second part we spent visiting the locales of Africa and seeing the sights and indigenous people!

Visited the Hadzabe tribe in the morning and just when we thought our Tanzanian journey cannot get anymore exciting and fresh, we were wrong. Being with the Hadzabe people felt like being transported to another dimension - they still wear baboon skin, their dogs are for hunting and not performing cute tricks, and they wield bows and arrows like Legolas minus the pretty face. Mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers, they live in a society strictly segregated by gender. 

They eat all wild animals except for hyenas, because they feed their dead to the hyenas and thus do not eat them out of respect for their dead. They smoke marijuana and have an average life expectancy of 45. They obtain their metalware and marijuana by barter trading wild bushmeat with other tribes, mainly the Datoonga people who are skilled blacksmiths. Living with these people who have no use for money, whose education equals knowing how to hunt, who have no worldly concerns was a reality check for us. 

Once again we were just reminded of how diverse human population is and how much of a bubble Singapore truly is.

Real bushmen, chilling under the rocks, wearing baboon skin as their clothing.

Not only is the blacksmith is involved but also the wife and son, working together hard as a family to achieve the highest productivity. 

A baboon carcass. o.O 

Marijuana joint. That’s right, you are looking at an illegal drug. 

Our arrow practicing session. We could not hit a single target. The arrow has really high tension, yet the little boys had almost 100% accuracy. I guess mastery of the bushmen bow and arrow really takes time and training!

In the background is a balboa tree. It bears edible fruits which were really tasty(mix of sweet and sour). The bushmen were trying to use rocks to hit down the fruits. I'm holding an axe!

That’s right, that's marijuana for you right there!

Cooking tapioca like plant freshly dug out from the ground. The fire was started by spinning a rubber stick repeated.

Cooking a piece of baboon meat! 

The works of the blacksmith. There are sportks, arrowheads. Everything is handmade! Beautiful.

MORE TOMORROW!

DESCENDING

What goes up must come down!

A flower growing in the middle of no where! The survivability of the plant is incredible!

Helipad for extraction. If anything happens to someone, cost of evacuating through helicopter is 4000 USD!

Playing checkers with bottle caps and a piece of cardboard. 

Spent the whole night playing cards with the porters and rangers.

After a long and equally tiring trek, we finally reached the bottom!

SUMMIT PUSH!

Despite the already triumphant ascent to Uhuru's Peak, we decided to spend a bit of time exploring the Reusche Crater at the top, something rarely attempted by most climbers (they simply take a few hasty photos before making the long descent down to base camp). 

If the scenery on the way up the mountain was breathtaking, the sights within Reusche Crater can only be described as magical. Within it are glaciers, more stunning views of clouds from above, the enchanting Ash Pit and many many more. 

Once again our basic digital cameras could do no justice to the majestic geographical formations on display and we could only marvel in silence as nature's great works of art stood resolutely before us. Every sight seems worthy of a frontpage on National Geographic.

However one fact of reality remained as we were stricken by the lack of oxygen at such high altitude. Every step felt like we've run a marathon and at times the trek around the crater, despite the stunning views on offer, seem like an impossible task. It was literally and metaphorically breathtaking.

Getting ready for our summit push at midnight, headlamps ready and every piece of cloth we could find to protect us from the -20 degrees that awaits us...

It was a full moon. We could almost do without our headlamps because it was so bright. Jacob failed to turn into a werewolf unfortunately, because duh, Jacob is not a real werewolf, Edward isn’t a vampire and Twilight isn’t a love story.

Giant piece of blue ice!

A giant piece of glacier in the crater, amazing sight. Can you see the icicles hanging by the side?

Sulfur patches at the side releasing sulfur which was supposed to be very smelly, though we could hardly tell    

QW and I sharing a piece of icicle

Everything was frozen by this point. Our water tubes were useless. Marcus had a piece of frozen mucus dangling down his nose. Unfortunately I could not take a photo before he wiped it off! :(

As the photographer, I couldn’t wear gloves. My hands felt ok, but what I did not realize is that they had turned purple in colour. I swear they felt fine, looked scary only!

Snow snow everywhere!

We are on our way to the crater. The guide himself who has scaled kili 130 plus times has only been to the crater 2 or 3 times. We needed to get down this slope. In the end, we realized the easiest way was to simply sit on our butt and slide down, while using our feet as brakes to jam into the ground should we get too fast and slam into the rocks. One of the most awesome experiences of the climb!

The only foot prints were ours.

This is the ash pit. The crater! Getting here took almost everything out of me, but it was worth every bit!

This one is for the team, RAFFLESROW ALL THE WAY!!!

You know why we are kneeling? Because we could not stand. Air was so thin I had to stop to catch a breath every 10 steps I took. But  WE MADE IT!!

PRESSING ON

Those are the Porters. Look closely, they have approximately 10kg of their own mountain gear in their backpack, and an additional 20kg on their HEAD. And they are climbing twice as fast as us. Rangers course should be a breeze for these guys

Another awesome picture. We would be scaling that rock wall the next day.

Terrain gets tougher and steeper!

We were literally walking down a waterfall, one of the most fun experiences of the climb, though this part we had to descend a bit. 

The vast landscape before us.

Take a moment to enjoy the landscape, ZhenXiao

This is what it’s like to be “amongst the clouds”, a visibility of about 5 meters. Kinda like silent hill, a little creepy at times, but gives a whole new experience to the climb.

 Almost no more vegetations, just some grass and shrubs. It is raining too, despite the protection of our Goretex “armour”, it still manages to punch a hole in our morale.

That raven knows no fear, and loves the attention of cameras! The word “shy” simply doesn’t exist in its dictionary!

A distant mountain, with its peak penetrating the clouds. We are actually even higher than that already!

A strange curious-looking plant that collects water in its center. 

A piece of jackal’s goodies. Didn’t know such animals roam so high, it was already over 4000m at this point

Pushing on, adding on more and more layers as altitude rises and temperature falls.

Standing at the top of the world!

The SUMMIT is approaching!