I sent the following e-mail postcard from Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge (Tanzania)
at 6 a.m. on 2/28/99 via a radio link on the Bushnet. Because I was able to sent to only
one address through the radio link, I thank my boss at Intel who forwarded this e-mail to
the rest of our friends and family.
Jambo (Hello in Swahili) from Tanzania:
This is an electronic postcard from Stephen and Theresa Woo. Because I did not bring my
electronic e-mail address book, please forward to those who may be interested. Don't reply
to this address as we will be at the next camp when you receive this mail.
After 4 weeks of intensive preparation and many shopping
sprees at REI (see our stuff), Theresa and I began our journey to
the top of Africa on 2/14. We celebrated Valentine's Day with
dinner on the KLM flight to Amsterdam. We celebrated the lunar
Chinese New Year Eve by having dinner at Long Pura, an Indonesian restaurant with two
fellow trekkers. One of them is Lois Epstein, who is a hiking
friends of Eric Selvin from Intel. Small world.
We rested at Arusha first. On day 1 of the hike we started at 7500' and hiked through a dense and lush forest. After
Theresa's successful scaling of this 85 degree slope, we reached Forest Camp at 9000'. We have more than 50 porters supporting our
group of 14 people by carrying camping equipment, food, and luggage.
On day 2 we hiked through this place that just suffered a forest fire last week--it's
no fun hiking through soot--we were covered! I started to experience altitude sickness: no
appetite, nauseated, and throw up once. I struggled into Shira Plateau
camp after 8-hrs of hiking to 11,300'. I started to feel discouraged.
On day 3 on the way to Fischer camp I once again threw up--my
stomach was filled with Diamox, Pepto-Bismol, Ginger capsule, and Tylenol! I skipped
lunch, slept all afternoon, and Theresa forced some soup down me. Even though I really
wanted to give up, with Theresa's encouragement and prayers, I struggled on.
In fact, at Sheffield camp on day 4 and day 5 (14,800') and at Arrow Glacier camp on
day 6 (16000') I felt well enough to hike, read, and play Mah-Jong! The scenery of
where we hiked and camped was beautiful, the air was crystal clear, and the evening sky
just sparkle with millions of stars. We experienced hot temp, freezing cold, cloud, snow,
and sleet. I even saw lightening storms at night in the clouds below us!
Our 7th day was my favorite day--a greulling 9hr hike to Inner
Crater at 18500'. We had to scramble over Western Breach Wall's huge boulders with our
hands! Theresa was smart to not look down. I peeked and realized that we could fall 500
feet easily with nothing to hold on! We camped next to a glacier. It was freezing.
Our water bottles was 3/4 frozen when we woke up next morning at 4am. The pre-dawn hike
of 2hr (in the freezing cold--Theresa admitted afterwards that it was the most difficult
hike she ever did because of her fingers and toes were numb!) and 800 feet finally brought
us to Uhuru Peak: 19340 feet at 7:30am! Wow. We made it. It was
great standing on the top of Africa knowing that we survived the physical and mental
challenge.
For the next two days we descended 12,500' and hiked 16 hrs! We camped at Mweka camp. After 9 days and close to 60 hours of hiking, we arrived
at the Mweka gate. All 14 of us were very sore and were walking
very slowing in the past few days.
Want to find out how much fun the trip was? I got a a big wood splitter when I fell,
but it was removed by a doctor. Read about "The Blood, Sweat, and
Tears of Kilimanjaro!"
One of the best part of the trip was meeting Samia, an
assistant guide. We exchanged cultural info. He was shocked to find out that we let Rondo
sleep on top of our bed. I was surprised to find out that we share the same taste in
music--some of our favorite singers are Celine Dion and Shania Twain!
Theresa and I began our safari yesterday. At the Lake
Manyara National Park, we saw baboons, monitor lizard, bushbuck antelope, warthog,
lions (who were mating!), giraffe, hippos, stork, crown crane, jackal, zebra, impala,
buffaloes, monkeys, waterbuck antelope, banded mongoose, and many elephants. I wrote the
rough draft of this letter at 4am while listening to the thunderstorm outside. I'm typing
this in the hotel office at 7:45am. Theresa has a good night sleep after some heavy-duty
bargain hunting and negotiating. She bought a Tanzania mask and a Masai ebony wood
figurine.
In the next few days we will continue our safari through the Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti
National Park. We also are looking forward to meet Jane Goodall
and Cynthia Moss, who will be speaking at the "Perspectives on East Africa" symposium. We will
then spend one week in Germany before returning home
to find whether our dog Rondo still remember us! I will then work on the 600 pictures I
have taken so far for the web. In the mean time, have fun! (Sorry for the typo--I don't
think there is a spelling checker on this slow 66Mhz DX system :-)
Stephen & Theresa Woo
Safe and sound in Africa
Lake Manyara Serena Safari Lodge
