Tukuyu and around

3 September 2008

Tukuyu and around

The day started with Stacey and I trying to go for a run, but not being able to get out of the compound/hotel where we were staying because they had locked all the gates. It made me feel good that we were secure, but we were not able to get out. Our run through town was okay, there were a lot of people already out and about, we had a lot of people cheering for us as we ran by, which was fun. Before we left for the day Stacey and I went to the market to buy some bananas to take with us, and usually they are 100 shilling a piece so we were just going to get 5 bananas 500 shillings, right . . .wrong. We couldn’t understand what the woman was trying to tell us so I told Stacey just to give her the 500 and see how many bananas we got. Well we got bananas . . . we got 18 bananas to be exact and they were not the little bananas they were the full size bananas.

Our plan for the day was to go south and see Lake Nyasa and then on our way back make it to some waterfalls. The guide book made it sound like it would be really easy. To get to Lake Nyasa hop on a Dahladahla to Kyela and walk south until you run into water. It ended up not being so easy . . . we got off in Kyela and started heading south until some guy asked us where we were going so we told him and we were going the wrong direction, so we got directions and asked how far it was. It ended up only being about a 5-8km walk so we decided to walk down to the lake and then depending on time either walk back or catch a Dahladahla back to Kyela. We started walking again and were walking for about 45 min when someone else asked us where we were going and we told them and he started laughing telling us we still had 5km to go. At this point in time we were tired and hot, so we decided to turn around go back to Kyela and get some lunch and then catch a taxi down to the lake. (There were no Dalahdalahs from Kyela to the lake) We finally made it back, ate lunch at the Steak Inn where we both ordered rice and beans. It was one in the afternoon by the time we were done with lunch so we decided just to head north and try to make it to the waterfalls.

To get to the waterfalls according to the guide book take the Dalahdalah get of at a certain stop and rent a bike and bike 12km to the falls. This sounded pretty fun and we were ready for a bike ride. We got off at the right stop and walked around town asking about a place to rent a bike. To our great disappointment there were no bikes to rent. At this point in time Stacey and I were tired and very very disappointed. We decided to go back to Tukuyu and try to rent a taxi from there. Soon as we had made the decisions, two guys came and asked us if we needed a bike and we were like YES!!! So they went and got two bikes, got on the bikes and told us to get on the back. We have seen this done all through the small towns in the highlands. People can not afford a car so they get on a bike. Now I would have never ever gotten on, but I was so disappointed that we didn’t make it to the lake and not knowing if we were going to make it to the falls we agreed. This ended up being a good thing because even if we were able to find out own bikes there were so many roads to take and then you have to get off the bikes and walk over a river and through some fields where we would have never been able to find it on our own. I am very thankful to our tour guides.

When we finally got back to our hotel in Tukuyu we met back up with Siri, Liz, and Sara so that three of us could hike Mount Rungwe the next day.

4 September 2008

Tukuyu

I just climbed Mount Rungwe the third highest peak in Tanzania!! It was a tough climb and I kept thinking about how proud my Dad would be. I was so proud of myself for making it to the top. It was a four hour and forty five minuet climb to the summit and three hours down. The way up was so hard, it was at a 30 to 45 degree incline the entire time, but well worth it. We were dropped off at the bottom and had to hike through some tea, potato fields. Then we entered the rainforest at the bottom of the mountain. As we started working our way up it changed from a rainforest to a forest and later on into a bamboo forest. It was so interesting how fast the geology of the area changed. Unfortunately when we made it to the top we were in a cloud so we were unable to see even 10 yards in front of us, but it was still an amazing feeling knowing that I made it to the top. Michael our guide showed us to the edge of the crater so we could see inside of the volcano, but since it was so cloudy we couldn’t see in and it just looked like we were standing on the edge of a cliff. So we gave him a hard time and told him that we didn’t believe him it was a volcano. He told us we could hike down into it, but that was another 3 hour hike down and 5 to get back out . . . we quickly decided to believe him after that. My legs would not allow me to hike uphill anymore.

After we got back to the hotel and met up with the two girls who decided not to climb the mountain we all went out to dinner at the only restaurant in town besides our hotel. I had a typical Tanzanian meal of ugali and beans. Ugali is kind of like cream of wheat just really really stiff. Most Tanzanians eat ugali with their hands. The waiter brought it out without a spoon and left to get some other people’s food. I was so hungry that I started to pick at the edge with my fingers. When the waiter came back he was like “Ahh you are a Tanzanian you know how to eat ugali!” and then to his disappointment I asked him for a spoon. During dinner all the power and lights throughout the city were shut off so we got to enjoy the rest of our dinner by candle light.