Yesterday Denlo took me to the Massi market here in Nairobi. I went crazy hopping. I got 2 handbags, 5 woven bowls, 12 braclets for the kids, a mask and a batik. We were shopping way longer then I had planned but Delno is a great wheeler dealer so we stuck around for more deals.

In the afternoon we joined Nikos for lunch and then came home to rest. I started to get organized for the next leg of my trip. I need to take just about everything with me as I will not be back here till the 22 of Nov.

We were invited for supper at Delno's neighbors. She is from Ireland and is a wonderful cook. Did not stay out to late and had another great sleep.

Today we went to the orphanage. This amazing Kenyian women has taken in 150 kids. Twenty of these kids have HIV. It is amazing how this place works. I bought them 40 blankes, toilet paper, cookies and a few toys.

We then went out for breakfast and now home to get ready. I do not fly to Tanz till 5:30 this evening and I am already packed. I will kill the rest of the day reading. I cannot believe it but I have already read 4 books. I am so loving this vacation. L

Soooooooooooo, Let me try this again. Earlier this morning I had my entire posting done. When I went to hit the send button I lost it all as the internet was down. UGH!!!!!!

Oct 21

This is travel day. I leave here at 9am. Nikos from Africa Calling takes me to Bushtrekers as he only has me. Here I meet up with 5 more people. Emma (Brit), Derek (Scott), Seta and Anna (Belgium) and Maryana (Mexico). We all pile into this huge truck. We are taking a huge truck as we are to pick up 6 more people in 2 days for Massi Mara. We drive to Lake Baringo. We are meant to go for a boat ride on the lake but it is late when we get there and soon after it begins to rain. We eat dinner and crash.

Oct 22

We get up at 6am and go for our boat ride to see the Hippos and birds. It is on the boring side. We get back, have breakfast and head out to Lake Bagloria. This is a much nicer lake. Here we see a zillion flamingos. White ones and pink ones. Further on we get to the hot springs. They are great. I wanted to get into them but they are natural and are not made for people to enter. As wel, they are serioulsy hot. You can hard boil an egg in it after just 5 mins.

From here we drive on to Lake Nakuru. When we arrive at the campsite it is raining. I had booked a room for the night before I got there as I was warned that it was cold up there. The rest of the people also took a room. We were all glad that we did as not only did we have elect. but soft beds and shelter. Yup! It rained most of the night.

Now this lake is beautiful but drying up. More flamingos, white Rhinos, Giraffes, Hyhinas, Impallas, Buffallok, monkeys and Eland zebra, which is the largest Antelope in the world if I understood it correctly.

Oct 23

Now we head back towards Nairobi to pick up the other people. Oh, the roads are not the best roads in the world. They are seriously bummpy and with a big truck it makes it even worse. The driver has been worried about the wheel since yesterday. We leave at 7:30 and arrive at 11:30. The driver decides that he wants to get another truck as he does not trust this one. We have lunch while waiting but the whole time takes 3 hrs. We pick up 7 people and they are cranky alreadty. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! At 2:30 we head off again. After hrs and hrs of driving we fianlly reach Massi Mara at 8:30. On our way to the camp we see Elephants. At this very moment I have a realization. OH NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I did not transfer my sleeping bag. I can only hope that someone eles did. I am not worried about the rest of this trip but I am worried that I may not have ti for Kili.

As soon as we get to the camp I let everybody else off the truck. I as the driver and he says that he double checked the truck and did not see anything on it. I find the guide and he tells me that he saw it and transfer it for me. WHEW!!!!!!!!!

Now we are all assigned to little huts. They are so quaint. Maryana is my roommate again. She is so sweet and we totally get along. She is all of 24 but we have some amazing conversations. Maryana and Emma both work with disabled children. Emma is a speach therapest and Maryana a special eds teacher. Needless to say we have a ton in common and it is so refreshing talking to people who are doing what I so wanted to do.

Anyway, our hut has a single bed and a bunk. I give Maryana the bunk. All the huts have elect which is huge. Way more than I ever expected. Eat a late dinner and crash.

Oct 24

Today we did two game drives. One early in the morning and one in the late afternoon. We see tons of Zebra, Elephants, Giraffes, Lions (YEAH!!!!!!!!!! and a male to boot), Impala, Gazzels, Topis, Elands, Hippo's and mongoose. The only thing we are missing is the Leopard of the big 5. We also get to see the Wilderbeast migration. They are coming back from Serengti in Tanz. We go the the place where they cross the river to safety. In the river are a bunch of Crocs. We see on open it's mouth but it is not hunger. They are all corssing very safetly while we were watching anyway.

We are meant to go to the Massi village today but be put it off till tomorrow. Game drives are exhauting. You spend all of your energy looking for things that your eyes get sore. You never, ever leave the truck to see anything. You are seat bound the entire time.

Tonight we are blessed with a serious lightening and thunder show but now rain. This is good for alot of people as it is hot out.

Oct 25

Today we do two more game drives. Inbetween the game drives we got to the Massi village. On the game drives we see a cheeta which was the highlight of the day till we came upon a moma lion and her 1 year old babies. We did not see it but mom had killed a wilderbeast and dragged it down to the river bed. The cubs (3 of them) were so not interested. They were playing and having fun. Mom was eating but we could not see her. What we did see was the blood on her face.

The village is interesting but way to touristy for me. The Massi warriors did two dances for us and the women followed by doing two dances as well. They were selling their wares. I should have bought something but I knew that when I got back I would be at a Massi market and would get a way better price.

Oct 26

Wow! We had alot of excitement last night. At about 1am the Elephants decided to come to our camp. They were just passing by.....so we thought. At 4:30am we hear the Elephant blow it horn and a lion roar. This wakes up most of us. I hear the Massi Warriors tell someone to go back into their room as it is not safe. I can see them sneaking around the cabin next to ours. After an hour of this we are given the okay to come out again. I run into Emma and she is scared The Elephants were right next her rooom. She could hear them eating. Before you could not see the river for the bushes now it is totally clear. Thsi was the conversation of the day. Oh ya, Maryana slept through the whole thing.

So, today is anohter travel day. We are on our way back to Nairoi. We leave at 8am and get back at 5pm. Everybody quickly splits up afer a fast and furious good bye.

I am now back from safari. Who knew that it could be so exhauting sitting in a truck for hrs watching for hrs on end for animals. Exhausting it was. I need to shower and rest. I will post more tomorrow when I am fresh.

Do know that posting photo's this time around is going to really suck. I took over 400 of them. I will try to pick 20 of my better shots. I am starting to get the hang of the camera so I hope that they will be good.

Some of you are wondering how I am posting this. NO, I do not have a computer/laptop with me. If I did I would be posting a wee bit more often. I use my friends computer when I get back to his house. I leave for Tanz. in a couple of days. I will be using the computers at the hotel there.

Bob, I will not start my trek up Kili till Oct 29th. I am thinking of doing the Magaru route only cause I can take the extra day I need. I am not so sure I can make it up the Machame route without the extra day. I need to pounder this a wee bit more. I am told that you do 7 hrs. then 2 hrs rest then 5 hrs with a hour rest then 6 more hrs. If that is the case there is no physical way I will make it to the top and the top is where I want to be.

Later guys

Ok, it is official. I have a cold. I kept on thinking it was only allergies as I was sneezing so much but it is definately a sinus cold. It will be gone along with my blister before I head up Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Today was a rest day. I slept in.......did laundry.....went to this majorly weird glass place. Very excentric. When we got back I worked on my photo's. I learned two things. The photo's were way to big and that was why I could not send them. I fixed that problem and set up my Orchid photo's as an experimant. Well when I saw that that worked I then moved on to the Giraffe photo's only to learn that I can only post photo's once a day. UGH!!!!!!!! I was on such a roll.

I still am not happy with most of my photo's. They are so dark. Chuckie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are you? What do I do? I will have to play with it on my own during the safari. My bag is packed. and I am ready to go. This time instead of a 20k pack I have a 5k day pack. I am totally loving that. I leave tomorrow for 6 days.

Happy travels

So let me take you back a few days.

Oct 15
This is the first day of my Mt. Kenya trip. We did a 4 hr drive to the campsite. The country side is amazing. You can see that many of the people do not have much but what they do have they work very hard for. Lots of different plantations along the way. People are walking everywhere. There are alot of bikes being used as well. At the campsite there are two groups there. A group of 9 tents (all Dutch) and one of 8 tents. My tent stands alone.

Oct. 16
We get up and have breakfast. While eating this lady from the Dutch group comes to me and say's " Are you alone? Yes. With these two men? Yes. You are a very lucky lady. I know, I say and I will be picking up two more this morning. My guide was laughing really hard. He says, she is jealous of you.

We head off to get the porters. On the way we pass the Equator. Of course this is a major tourist trap and we needed to stop. I get the photo and move on. The next stop it in town for more food and the porters. On again to the entrance gate for Mt. kenya.

As we arrive we can see that there is a huge group getting ready to climb as well. There are 28 Kenyians doing a fundraising trek. I have no idea how many porters/guides/cooks they have but there are a ton of people involved. I alter find out that it is a drug company that is sponsering this trek.

At around 11am we head out. This part of the trek is alone a road. The huge group have an ambulance and landrover with a huge trailer ahead of them. They also have camera's as they are documenting this trek. I manage to get into some of their filming. The ambulance gets stuck and needs to be rescued. I find out later that it too 8 guys to push it out.

This part of the trek is about 9km and took me 6 hrs to get there. I carried my own bag which I am guessing weights about 20k. Old Moses is at 3400 meters

The place that we arrive at is called Old Moses. I meet Mark (France) and Ana (Angora) who are on their way down. The are mountaineers and were saying that they conditions were not good enought to make it to their peak. There are 3 peaks in all. Then I meet Peter (Sweden) who is not really prepared for this trek as he decided to do it on a whim. Then there is Kevin (Kenya) who is a total sweety. Last was Krish (Mauritias) who askes me if he can interview me. They are all in there 30's accept for Mark who would be in his 40's. As they night goes on we get to know each other better. Later there is a group of 8 older men (50's) and a young man who are all over weight and loud.

At dinner time my guide puts down a table cloth. Everyone is jealous and ask how I rate. I say jokingly......I am a princess. From then on I was dubed the princess. Not only did I have a table cloth on my table but I had a room to myself. The food is great. The company is amazing and the night is over.

Oct 17
I did not get much sleep last night. The brits were loud till late and then they snored loudly. I could hear them 3 rooms down. We were all up early to head off to our next site. It had rained that night which was great as the weather was beautiful this morning. We can see the peak of Mt. Kenya today.

We are heading up to Chimpton which is about 14 km away and at 4200 m. This trek is nasty. It is up and up and up. There is no plateau for hrs. We get to a peak and think we are almost there. NOT! We walk along a vally that is still climbing but not as steap. I am still with my back pack. I have passed the Brit's and the Kenyians took up the rear as they left later.

Along the way some porters pass me. One is carrying a chair. I say....that is for the queen. Then there is anohter chair and I say that is for the King. Then more chairs, tables and dinner tents. This is all for the drug company trek. Yikes. This is scary. Kevin tells me later that even he is embarassed when he sees what they are carrying.

At about 4 hrs I tell my guide that I desperately need to eat. I am losing energy. He says it is a good time as there is a great spot along a stream for us. After we finish eating the Kenyians arrrive and stop for lunch as well and we continue on. At about 7 hrs we come to yet another nasty climb. I decide that it is time to give up some of my backpack. I take out two small bags and give them to the porters. They want to take it all but I will not give it up as yet.

I finally arrive at the top and there is Peter. He was first up and I find out that I am second up. About 20 mins later the Kenyians start to arrive. We cheer them in. They tell us that alot of there people are hurting and that the brits are even furthere behind. The Brits had to do the nasty part in the dark as they did not arrive till about 8. That was 4 hrs after us.

As the evening passes I find out that Peter, Krish and some of the Brit's and Kenyians have altitude sickness. I am mostly worried about Krish as he is to mountianeer to the peak with three others. He is so mad as he wants to go. He tells me that he will go no matter what. A mans ego! I tell him to go ahead and push himself but not to put anybody in danger. I wait to hear if he made it or not. Oh, by the way, that is a 14 hr climb.

This evening I have everybody around my table. Not just to chat as that they would have done anyway but cause I am the princess my guide has made a can of charcoal to put under my table to keep me warm. I feel so special.

Down side.....my guide keeps telling me I have to eat more. I will need the energy for the climb in the morning. I keep telling him I am full and cannot. I push a little bit more down. I am totally stuffed.

We head off to bed early as we need to be up at 2:30 am.


Oct 18

We get up at 2:30 and I am shocked to see Peter and 3 of the Brits up and getting ready to climb. I did not sleep well again as the Brits chatted loudly for an hr after we crashed and started snoring immediately when they did crash. As well, a few of them were pucking their guts out most of the night. Oh I forgot. This night we all shaed a room. My guide has breakfast out for me. I say........I cannot eat another bite. He is not happy so I try some bread with peanut butter. I will pay for this later

The Brits head out first then Peter and I leave together at 3:45am but he gets way ahead of me fast. I give up my pack to the porters as I know this will be a nasty climb. I have on 4 layers of clothing and do not feel the cold much. The stars are out and the sky is clear. It is amazing. About 45 mins into the climb I start to feel sick. I totally lose it. I puc my guts out for about 10 mins. At least that is how long it felt. Now on an empty stomache and feeling a zillion times better and I carry on. I walk slowly and surely. I know that I will make the top but it will be hard.

I finally get to a point where I see the Brits. They are heading back. They did not make it to the top. Then Peter is comming down. He made it to the top but is freezing as he does not have enough clothes on. He says that he missed sunraise by 3 mins. I am thinking.....to hell with the sunrise.....just get there. We part ways again and I continue on. I am taking alot of breaks to get my breath and part of me is thinking that I will not make it but I know that I have to as we are heading down on the back side of the mountain. Did I whine? Hell ya. I was about 20 mins to the top. I so wanted to quit. I was exhausted but I pushed on. A total of 4 hrs later I arrive at the top. This peak is Lanana Point and is at 4991m. I can see Mt. Kilimanjaro. The sky not clear but the moutanin raises about the clouds. I take my photo's with the reporter and start down as it is cold and windy up there.

To get to our next point we need to crawn along the ridge of the mountain. It is scary and I am thinking.........what was I thinking.......HAHAHA..........Actually I am loving this part. The sun is shining upon us. I am so glad the weather is good. There is no way in hell I would have made this trek if the wearther was bad. Anyway, an hour or so later we get to the Teliki huts and take a 10 min rest. Next we have a long way to go walking on loose gravel. We are slipping and sliding most of the way. This stuff is really hard on the knees. This whole way down takes me 3 hrs. We arrive at Mailind's hut (4300m) at 11am. There we have breakfast. Finally I get some food back into me. All I want to do is crash. NOT!!!!!!!!!!! I still have another 4 or 5 hrs ahead of me. I take an hour nap and carry on. Now I am digging deep. I am exhausted but know that I need to get to the next huts before I can call it a day.

This part of the journey takes me into bog. It is dryish but still very hard to walk in. We are in this for about 2 hrs. It is beautiful but I cannot enjoy it much as I need to concentrate on my feet. When we finally get out of that we hit the jungle. This means waking down rocks and roots. Not my favorate conditions. I trudge on. My knee is starting to hurt. I find out my guides toes are killing him. Again this area is seriously beautiful but still I cannot enjoy it as we need to keep on moving. On and on we go. 5 1/2 hrs later we finally arrive at The Road House. What a charming place. I have a room to myself again. I am desperately trying to keep awake for dinner. I am really to tried to eat but will try my best. I get some dinner down and then give up. It is now 9pm. This trek took me about 14 hrs. This is my longest trek ever. I know that I should be proud of myself but I am way to tired.

Oct 19
I had the best sleep ever since I arrived here. I was told by the porters that the buffalo were in the camp and asked if I saw them. Nope I said. I was out like a light and heard nothing. The blue monkeys were there to meet me this morning. That was nice of them.

I eat breakfast and get ready for my last trek. I am told it is 26 km and Megway (my guide) thinks it will take 4 hrs. I am so refreshed after a good nights sleep and food in my belly that I am back to myself. We head off . The guide and porters are shocked to see how strong I am again. Hey......I say..........see what a good nights sleep will get me. This part only takes us 1 3/4 hrs. Now that we are early we must wait for a few hrs for the driver to arrive.

As I sit and wait for him I am starting to feel very proud of myself. I DID IT!!!!!!!!!! One down and one more climb to go.

I am still working on attaching photo's. Last night I waited till midnight for them to process. I finally had to shut the computer down and go to bed. I hope to get some on tonight.

I have just gotten back from Mt. Kenya today. I tried desperately to post some photo's but the internet here is slow as molasses. UGH!!!! It is almost midnight and I am totally exhausted. Ray, If you are reading this. You are so right. This was the hardest climb I have ever done. I so had to dig deep to finish it but make it to the top I did.

I will log much more tomorrow as it is a holiday here and so there is not much else to do.

I arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a very long flight. No problems at all which was great. It went very smoothly. I got to Kenya and expected to see Delno outside waiting for me. Well he was told the plane would not get in till 8:50 so he went out to eat. Needless to say I was not sure what to do but being the cleaver traveler that I am, I had is cell phone number with me and called him. He was there in minutes. Whew!

Driveing at night the traffic was not so bad. Delno's house is awesome. Exactly what I pictured a house in Africa to look like.

It rained last night. That kept me awake a wee bit longer than I wanted to so I did not get up till 9am. Now we will go for breakfast and then off to the giraffe orphanage place.

More later. Just feel my beaming face. I have not been this excited about anything in a very, very long time.

Ok......It is now 11:46 here. I have finally finised packing, dishes, laundry and answering email. I am going to try to get some sleep. HAHAHA..............ya right. I need to be up at 4:30 am so I am hoping to get in a couple of zzzzzzzzzzz's before I head out on my adventure.

Wish me luck