OK so i know you want to hear about our trek to the base camp first, so we will hold off on the ant story. it's at the end anyway. we are at a different internet cafe today due to it crashing at "a La Mode".
We set out in the morning w/ a 10 min wait while the driver fixed the windshield wiper on one of the trucks. not a good sign. Mark was w/ Luke and michaeil in the nicer truck and we followed. first lost them when we had to get petrol and then had to get water (maji) and then our truck kept getting slower and after a couple stops, it just stopped. (TIA/this is africa) what to do. when it looked like it would go no further, the other guide came back to get us after dropping off mark & kids. so that was the journey to get there on a cool very rainy day. we checked in at the entrance of the park and then set off w/ our 2 guides who carried our lunches and water.
the first leg of the trek up Kili is 7-8K (about 5 miles) & is in rainforest and gets 3300 millimeters of rain/year. so we were experiencing it as it should be. after we got going we finally warmed up and then started going up. it is a really nice trail that we went up. very well maintianed. the wildlife we saw were pretty much ants (really mean looking ones) and the Blue monkeys. They were very cool and we saw them very up close (like 10 ft) when we went back down. got to see them eating, swinging, jumping and doing the dooty!
gabriella was quite the trooper and only had to be carried by the porter the last 10 minutes before we got to Merengu Hut for lunch. Luke's energy kicked in after 2K and he and Michael had to be slowed down several times.
the huts were nice. we ate in the communal dining hut and met a mother and son from Texas who were on their way down. the son, probably in his early 20's said it was the hardest thing he has ever done and we over heard a group of men say that they just wanted a flush toilet. Fortunately we had luke and ella here so that we could be proud to say we summited base camp!
the hike up was about 3 hrs and down took us a little over 2 as we watched the monkeys some more and messed w/ an ant line (how we think our bad karma came back to us!) it was pretty slick on the way down due t0 the rain that continued behind us and ella's lower legs were a nice slimy brown!
we were looking forward to our hot showers as we piled into a larger but much slower truck for the ride home. when we got home and inhaled what food we had we discovered that our housekeeper turned off the hot water tank (saving energy :) so we went to our favorite Indian restaurant, El Rancho! (the mexican chef never showed & they kept the name)
again looking foward to showers we arrived home, i unlocked the door and then was suddenly bit by an ant. after yelping, we looked down and saw ants everywhere and we where jumping around like we had ants in our pants! cause we did!!! well luke and i did and we ran to our rooms and stripped down only to discover that they had made a linedown the hall to our empty room, the bathroom, M & C"s and mine & mark's. so we had a stomping party and had quite the pile of dead soldiers when we were done! never did find food or anything else they could be coming to but they have not returned. :)
OK off to an orphanage for a couple hrs to play today.
Gabriella says hi to Madison! thanks for checking in and definitely a playdate when we return!
love to all and will check in again.
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This is so amazing! I love the stomping party! Can't wait to hear about the safari....
ReplyDeleteLove to you all.
Sue and Skip
I've heard about these ants before. In the villages, they devour everything in their paths, bite anyone in the way. I think the entire village usually has to evacuate. Yikes!
ReplyDeletethey weren't that bad fortunately. didn't hav to evacuate. they can be pretty aggressive though and they hurt!
ReplyDeleteTermite mounds all around just like in pictures you see. i think our front door is invaded by them. there is a hole near the bottom.