Hello everyone,
So... what has happened since our big engagement news??
Well, the news keeps coming- I just recently found out my sister is pregnant with her first baby!! So we are now extra excited about coming home!
We have been very busy lately, making our way from the Usambara mountains in Tanzania to our current home in Mombasa, Kenya. We had a great time in the mountains, spending our days hiking through picturesque villages and farmlands and having lunch at an AMAZING farm that served us homemade everything! Even homemade cheese; which was such a treat after months and months without any decent dairy products!
We then travelled with a wonderful Italian couple to a beach resort called Peponi just outside of Pangani. We lived in a cute little caravan on the beach for a few days and enjoyed a some more tanning time. Then we made our way to Tanga, a cute little town on the coast where we enjoyed VERY cheap accomodation above a bar (which was surprisingly not noisy). Did some good runs in Tanga and mostly just relaxed before our big trip to Kenya.
We had a relatively stress-free trip across the border into Mombasa and found a great hotel with a beautiful courtyard. Unfortunately the weather has been terrible here, so we have spent many a days in our room catching up on movies! We did have one annoying encounter when we were randomly walking on a beach, trying to do our own tour and got busted for being in a restricted port. We then had to pay a fine of 200 shillings. I got quite irate with the officer with a big gun but luckily he was in a good mood and didn't arrest me or anything!
Tomorrow we are off to Nairobi to spend our last few days doing track workouts with Darl's Kenyan friend and exploring the biggest, baddest city in Kenya (or so the rumour goes). I just hope it is not as bad as Dakar, Senegal or we won't be going out much!
See you all at home in less than a week!!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Engagement
So, most of you facebook users have already heard our big news.... wait forit.... we are engaged!!!
Yes, Darl proposed a few days ago and we have never been happier! (or more excited to get home!)
It was a perfect evening... Darl and I had just woke up from a long nap in our cosy cabin with a fireplace in the cool Usambara Mountains in Lushoto, TZ. He was holding the ring so tight in his hand that his palms were sweating and he told me he had something to give me. After some coaxing and him telling me he was nervous, he handed it over and asked me to marry him!!
The ring is gourgeous!! It is made of tanzanite, a blue gem that is mined here in Tanzania so I will always have a piece of Africa!
After we told the guesthouse owners theybought us drinks in their cute bar and made us listen to leanord cohen.
Good times!!
Yes, Darl proposed a few days ago and we have never been happier! (or more excited to get home!)
It was a perfect evening... Darl and I had just woke up from a long nap in our cosy cabin with a fireplace in the cool Usambara Mountains in Lushoto, TZ. He was holding the ring so tight in his hand that his palms were sweating and he told me he had something to give me. After some coaxing and him telling me he was nervous, he handed it over and asked me to marry him!!
The ring is gourgeous!! It is made of tanzanite, a blue gem that is mined here in Tanzania so I will always have a piece of Africa!
After we told the guesthouse owners theybought us drinks in their cute bar and made us listen to leanord cohen.
Good times!!
News from Lushoto Tanzania
Hey Everyone
Just thought I would spread some great news, as of the 29th of July Krystal and I are now engaged.
I myself have been planning this for over a year, but thought what a great way to get engaged then in Africa towards the end of the trip. This way if Krystal could stand to be with me after 7 months of being glued to the hip then I would know that nothing could ever stand in our way.
The plan was to initially propose at the top of Kilimanjaro, there were also thoughts of proposing at the finish line at Comrades but as a friend advised me. After 89km of torturous punishment you might not always see the best in the other person. So the plan was Kili and after 4 grueling days of treking I was feeling like a million bucks. This was met with devastation as the night of the final trek to the top I was a mere 40mins from proposing when and with no indication my eyes rolled into the back of my head as I sloped to the ground. I tried to continue but after another 5mins of hiking I was forced to return to the base camp.
Just a few days later we arrived in Lushoto and got a beautiful large cabin room with a fire place. We actually planned on a run but fell asleep and when we awoke through my nervousness and studdering I managed to get the words out to marry me.
I've never been happier in my life.
Just thought I would spread some great news, as of the 29th of July Krystal and I are now engaged.
I myself have been planning this for over a year, but thought what a great way to get engaged then in Africa towards the end of the trip. This way if Krystal could stand to be with me after 7 months of being glued to the hip then I would know that nothing could ever stand in our way.
The plan was to initially propose at the top of Kilimanjaro, there were also thoughts of proposing at the finish line at Comrades but as a friend advised me. After 89km of torturous punishment you might not always see the best in the other person. So the plan was Kili and after 4 grueling days of treking I was feeling like a million bucks. This was met with devastation as the night of the final trek to the top I was a mere 40mins from proposing when and with no indication my eyes rolled into the back of my head as I sloped to the ground. I tried to continue but after another 5mins of hiking I was forced to return to the base camp.
Just a few days later we arrived in Lushoto and got a beautiful large cabin room with a fire place. We actually planned on a run but fell asleep and when we awoke through my nervousness and studdering I managed to get the words out to marry me.
I've never been happier in my life.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Clean at Last!
We made it!!
We just returned to Moshi after completing a 6 day trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world! 5895m to be exact.
We set off with high spirits and clean clothes. The first day was easy peasy climbing through beautiful rainforest, that kind of resembled a forest in Vancouver (except for the palm trees) and ended at 3000m above sea level. Our team consisted of 6 porters, 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, waiter, a cook and an assistant cook. They were all wonderful at keeping us as comfortable as possible considering the circumstances. The food was great- we had amazing breakfasts every day consisting of porridge, tea and milo, omelettes, toast and peanut butter, and Darl got weiners. Lunches were also great- bagged for the hike and usually peanut butter, crap loads of margarine, and green pepper. Yes, this may sound gross but actually quite satisfying when you have a mountain appetite! Some of the other meals were delicious home made soups, coconut rice pilaf, pasta and veggies, and crepes with jam for dessert. Ooh and we also got tea time every afternoon with popcorn, peanuts and cookies! The best part was all the fresh fruit! To stay hydrated so we could ensure our success with the summit, we had to drink 4 L of fluids every day.
Day 2 we ascended above the clouds to Sheera base camp. Here we had views of Kili and Mt Meru and we were at an altitude of 3600m. By the end of the day, we left the rainforest and began walking in a whole new world. We were then in "Moor Land"- where the trees were covered in a moss-like substance and they looked like they were shedding. The vegetation was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Day 3 we reached 4600m before descending to 3950m so we could begin to get used to the air up high. I started to feel pretty dizzy on the way up and decided to begin altitude meds. Darl was still feeling great though. The scenery changed once again to rocks. There were sharp, thin rocks that looked like litter heaps everywhere and the sun and wind were extremely harsh. By day 4 I was feeling pretty crappy, after a cold night with no sleep. But we had to suck it up because that night we would begin our serious leg of the journey up to the summit.
At 11:30pm we were up, had drank our tea shivering in the tent, put on all the clothes we owned, and headed up towering Kili with our trusty guides Mr. Temo and Mr. Moshi. Each step felt increasingly more difficult as our fatigue and lack of oxygen took effect. I was particularly hurting early on, and Darl had to help me up even simple rocks as I bitched and whined that I didn't care about the top anymore. I had nausea, felt like I might crap my pants, and the cold was still cutting through my millions of layers. Darl, the eternal optimist, continued to feel great as we stumbled through the dark, only the moonlight to show us the way.
With about 45 minutes and 200m elevation to go, things went all wrong for poor Darl. All of a sudden, after 4 days of Darl feeling solid and strong, without any ill effects from the height, he became extremely disoriented. He popped a diamox (altitude med) with hopes that it would treat how he was feeling and we carried on. At this point, all of my self-pitying went away and all my attention was on my honey. When Darl's eyes started rolling into the back of his head, we knew things were getting serious and his time was up. After some persuading, he agreed to head down before things got any worse and Mr. Moshi helped him, rather aggressively, back to base camp. Darl felt like a dog on a leash, half conscious, as Moshi pulled him along. We said our I love you's and I continued up with Mr. Temo. I reached the Uhuru Peak, 5895m, at 5:45am. It was pitch black, -20 degrees plus wind chill, and I was ready to go to bed! I got a quick picture beside the sign and we bolted back down, watching the sunrise as we went. It wasn't nearly the climax I hoped for without my partner beside me :(
The next two days we motored down the trails back to the park gate and raced to our hotel to get a much deserved shower after 6 days of extreme filth!
I think I am sick of extreme activity for the next little while... All I can look forward to now is some baking at home and watching tv! Yay, homeward bound in less than a month!!
We just returned to Moshi after completing a 6 day trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world! 5895m to be exact.
We set off with high spirits and clean clothes. The first day was easy peasy climbing through beautiful rainforest, that kind of resembled a forest in Vancouver (except for the palm trees) and ended at 3000m above sea level. Our team consisted of 6 porters, 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, waiter, a cook and an assistant cook. They were all wonderful at keeping us as comfortable as possible considering the circumstances. The food was great- we had amazing breakfasts every day consisting of porridge, tea and milo, omelettes, toast and peanut butter, and Darl got weiners. Lunches were also great- bagged for the hike and usually peanut butter, crap loads of margarine, and green pepper. Yes, this may sound gross but actually quite satisfying when you have a mountain appetite! Some of the other meals were delicious home made soups, coconut rice pilaf, pasta and veggies, and crepes with jam for dessert. Ooh and we also got tea time every afternoon with popcorn, peanuts and cookies! The best part was all the fresh fruit! To stay hydrated so we could ensure our success with the summit, we had to drink 4 L of fluids every day.
Day 2 we ascended above the clouds to Sheera base camp. Here we had views of Kili and Mt Meru and we were at an altitude of 3600m. By the end of the day, we left the rainforest and began walking in a whole new world. We were then in "Moor Land"- where the trees were covered in a moss-like substance and they looked like they were shedding. The vegetation was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Day 3 we reached 4600m before descending to 3950m so we could begin to get used to the air up high. I started to feel pretty dizzy on the way up and decided to begin altitude meds. Darl was still feeling great though. The scenery changed once again to rocks. There were sharp, thin rocks that looked like litter heaps everywhere and the sun and wind were extremely harsh. By day 4 I was feeling pretty crappy, after a cold night with no sleep. But we had to suck it up because that night we would begin our serious leg of the journey up to the summit.
At 11:30pm we were up, had drank our tea shivering in the tent, put on all the clothes we owned, and headed up towering Kili with our trusty guides Mr. Temo and Mr. Moshi. Each step felt increasingly more difficult as our fatigue and lack of oxygen took effect. I was particularly hurting early on, and Darl had to help me up even simple rocks as I bitched and whined that I didn't care about the top anymore. I had nausea, felt like I might crap my pants, and the cold was still cutting through my millions of layers. Darl, the eternal optimist, continued to feel great as we stumbled through the dark, only the moonlight to show us the way.
With about 45 minutes and 200m elevation to go, things went all wrong for poor Darl. All of a sudden, after 4 days of Darl feeling solid and strong, without any ill effects from the height, he became extremely disoriented. He popped a diamox (altitude med) with hopes that it would treat how he was feeling and we carried on. At this point, all of my self-pitying went away and all my attention was on my honey. When Darl's eyes started rolling into the back of his head, we knew things were getting serious and his time was up. After some persuading, he agreed to head down before things got any worse and Mr. Moshi helped him, rather aggressively, back to base camp. Darl felt like a dog on a leash, half conscious, as Moshi pulled him along. We said our I love you's and I continued up with Mr. Temo. I reached the Uhuru Peak, 5895m, at 5:45am. It was pitch black, -20 degrees plus wind chill, and I was ready to go to bed! I got a quick picture beside the sign and we bolted back down, watching the sunrise as we went. It wasn't nearly the climax I hoped for without my partner beside me :(
The next two days we motored down the trails back to the park gate and raced to our hotel to get a much deserved shower after 6 days of extreme filth!
I think I am sick of extreme activity for the next little while... All I can look forward to now is some baking at home and watching tv! Yay, homeward bound in less than a month!!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Jambo!!
Jambo from Dar!!!
We are now getting ready to leave the capital of Tanzania after chilling here for a week.
My parents arrived at the end of June and we had such a great visit with them!! They were much more hard core than we ever imagined, right off the bat we went for a walk in the downtown streets of Dar Es Salam and my mom and I drank tea with a street vendor. He even gave it to us for free! And everyone here called my mom "Mama" and Dad "Papa''. It was great! They were treated with much respect and kindness everywhere we went (well most places!). We also went to a real African market and Dad got to practice his bargaining skills African style! Unfortunately Dad kept referring to the Tanzanian Schillings as "play money" and seemed to think that any price asked for was reasonable. So Darl and I had to suck it up and give up on our fine-tuned skills of getting a deal.
After Dar we took a 10 hour bus ride to Arusha in search of a safari tour in the Serengeti. We lucked out and found a great company quickly and were off the next day for three nights, four days of camping in the jungle! We even had an elephant wander onto our campsite one night and every night we could hear scary sounds from wort hogs, hyenas, and other mysterious creatures. Darl was frightened but I held him closely!
Our tour guide was great and he helped us to spot cheetas, lions, baby lions, millions of wildebeests migrating, millions of zebras running to a water hole, hippos galore, giraffes, amazing birds, monkeys and the list could go on forever!
After my mom finished hugging our guide and cook a million times, we carried on with our adventure and travelled to exotic Zanzibar island for some R and R. Here we stayed in a peaceful village on the beach called Jambiani and spent our days by the pool, walking on the beach, and eating seafood. Wine was difficult to find, but we did get creative, we even snuck booze in a water bottle into one strictly no alcohol allowed restaurant! Dad and Darl had some good bonding time over gin and juice and Darl almost had my Dad hugging him (but not quite). hehe. We also went snorkelling and Dad tried fishing using a string and stick on a home-made sail boat made from rice sacks and mango trees. Good times enjoyed by all as we watched mom try to get back on the sail boat after snorkelling! She resembled humpty dumpty!
Now since my parents left, we have been trying to get used to life without them again. We have been chilling in the city, organizing our next trek up Kiliminjaro, and finding interesting street food once again. We have been staying at a great Indian run guesthouse downtown and enjoyed the final world cup match with tonnes of people from around the world. Although we were cheering for Netherlands, we still enjoyed ourselves!!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Flesh wounds and broken spirits
Well, we thought the worst of our trip was over until this week.
After our ordeal getting to Beira and then Pemba, we relaxed for a couple days before the next leg of the journey to Mocimboa da Praia. We thought it would be somewhat straight forward getting to the border of Tanzania, since it was only about 400km away. So, we got up bright and early for our bus for 5am, actually got on on time for once, but then it was all down hill from there. The bus, was PACKED with people, chickens, luggage, fruit, etc. and we were the last ones on, so had to stand. Which at first was annoying but then we just accepted it. THEN the bus broke down. Then they got it going, and it broke down again. And again. And again. 5 hours later we made it 100km. And so we waited some more on the side of the road. Luckily we made some very nice friends on the bus and practiced our portugese to distract ourselves. We finally arrived at our destination 12 hours later. We only went 300km. THEN we got harrased like crazy by potential drivers to the border for the next day. We agreed to go with one guy and went to our guesthouse to relax.
Unfortunately our guesthouse was extremely ghetto, so we were stuck with ice cold dirty water bucket showers and no electricity. We still managed to do a little run to calm ourselves and went to bed early. Then at midnight, a drunk guy woke us up knocking on our door thinking it was the washroom. Then at 1am rats invaded our bathroom and ate our soap and crapped everywhere. Then at 2:30am our driver began knocking on our door saying the transport was leaving earlier than expected and we should get going right away. We were so exhausted at this point we just told him to go away and come back at the originally planned time of 4am. He came back at 3:15am and then left town. We got ready and out the door for 4am but he was gone. And there was no one else to take us to the border. SO, plan B.
We met some guys also going near the border so we hitched a ride in the back of a truck with them. We had a pleasant drive to a town very close to the border called Palma. We thought we were home free! BUT quickly discovered we still had another 45km to the border and no one was coming through town. The locals were particularly weird in this town and spent the whole day staring at us. We asked to take a picture to remember this terrible day, but the elders flat out refused. So we waited some more. Then some locals offered to take us to the border on their motor bikes for a ridiculous some of money. At first we said no but as the day went on we got pretty desperate. By 1pm we finally agreed to go with them.
Well the motor bike journey was the first time on this trip I was really scared for my life. We fell off the bike 4 times in total. One time completely breaking the handle bars so the rest of the trip his stearing was off, making it even more difficult. I burned my leg pretty bad on the exhaust pipe, cut my lip, and scratched my legs on branches along the way. Darl had to ride without any feet bars and hold his backpack on his back while trying to brase himself on the bike for the three hour ride. We arrived at the border with oozing flesh wounds, bleeding from the face, and with broken spirits.
We then made it through customs and had to continue on the motor bikes until we got to the rovuma river. Here a bunch of guys stood around attempting to rip us off even more. We finally got across the river on a boat around 6pm. It was pitch black, we were walking through mud up to our ankles, with our shoes in hand and backpacks on, making our way through the shallow waters with a group of about 15 other african guys. The moon was shining and we just looked at each other and laughed. We made it to the next pick up truck and then to the Tanzanian town of Mtwara by 8pm.
Thank god for Mtwara. This town is a gem. Chilindima Guesthouse is amazing. We wish we could stay here longer but my parents are coming in 2 days!! So, one day to rest and eat some proper food for the first time in days and then on the road again. We hope the bus to Dar Es Salam isn't too painful tomorrow!
After our ordeal getting to Beira and then Pemba, we relaxed for a couple days before the next leg of the journey to Mocimboa da Praia. We thought it would be somewhat straight forward getting to the border of Tanzania, since it was only about 400km away. So, we got up bright and early for our bus for 5am, actually got on on time for once, but then it was all down hill from there. The bus, was PACKED with people, chickens, luggage, fruit, etc. and we were the last ones on, so had to stand. Which at first was annoying but then we just accepted it. THEN the bus broke down. Then they got it going, and it broke down again. And again. And again. 5 hours later we made it 100km. And so we waited some more on the side of the road. Luckily we made some very nice friends on the bus and practiced our portugese to distract ourselves. We finally arrived at our destination 12 hours later. We only went 300km. THEN we got harrased like crazy by potential drivers to the border for the next day. We agreed to go with one guy and went to our guesthouse to relax.
Unfortunately our guesthouse was extremely ghetto, so we were stuck with ice cold dirty water bucket showers and no electricity. We still managed to do a little run to calm ourselves and went to bed early. Then at midnight, a drunk guy woke us up knocking on our door thinking it was the washroom. Then at 1am rats invaded our bathroom and ate our soap and crapped everywhere. Then at 2:30am our driver began knocking on our door saying the transport was leaving earlier than expected and we should get going right away. We were so exhausted at this point we just told him to go away and come back at the originally planned time of 4am. He came back at 3:15am and then left town. We got ready and out the door for 4am but he was gone. And there was no one else to take us to the border. SO, plan B.
We met some guys also going near the border so we hitched a ride in the back of a truck with them. We had a pleasant drive to a town very close to the border called Palma. We thought we were home free! BUT quickly discovered we still had another 45km to the border and no one was coming through town. The locals were particularly weird in this town and spent the whole day staring at us. We asked to take a picture to remember this terrible day, but the elders flat out refused. So we waited some more. Then some locals offered to take us to the border on their motor bikes for a ridiculous some of money. At first we said no but as the day went on we got pretty desperate. By 1pm we finally agreed to go with them.
Well the motor bike journey was the first time on this trip I was really scared for my life. We fell off the bike 4 times in total. One time completely breaking the handle bars so the rest of the trip his stearing was off, making it even more difficult. I burned my leg pretty bad on the exhaust pipe, cut my lip, and scratched my legs on branches along the way. Darl had to ride without any feet bars and hold his backpack on his back while trying to brase himself on the bike for the three hour ride. We arrived at the border with oozing flesh wounds, bleeding from the face, and with broken spirits.
We then made it through customs and had to continue on the motor bikes until we got to the rovuma river. Here a bunch of guys stood around attempting to rip us off even more. We finally got across the river on a boat around 6pm. It was pitch black, we were walking through mud up to our ankles, with our shoes in hand and backpacks on, making our way through the shallow waters with a group of about 15 other african guys. The moon was shining and we just looked at each other and laughed. We made it to the next pick up truck and then to the Tanzanian town of Mtwara by 8pm.
Thank god for Mtwara. This town is a gem. Chilindima Guesthouse is amazing. We wish we could stay here longer but my parents are coming in 2 days!! So, one day to rest and eat some proper food for the first time in days and then on the road again. We hope the bus to Dar Es Salam isn't too painful tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On the road again!
Well we have made it to the other side of the continent since the beginning of our journey, yet things here in Northern Mozambique are really not that different from elsewhere in Africa! We are back to finding mystery food down back alleys, eating some form of maize meal over a fire, the showers are once again cold, with buckets in case you don't use toilet paper. Darl enjoyed a minibus ride the other day with three chickens pecking at his ankles!
We started our beach time here in Tofo- where we lived in a grass hut and did a marine safari and swam with dolphins, who unfortunately got freaked out when all of us jumped in after them and ate darl's other big toe. Then they swam away. But we still consider that a quality experience!!
We then made it to Vilinculos, which was awesome because the guesthouse called Vilinculos Backpackers was abnormally cheap and the meals were also cheap. But then we discovered the owner abusing his staff verbally and physically and decided it wasn't such a nice place after all! So next we had to get to Beira for a flight to Pemba (so we are on time meeting with my parents) but we showed up at 4am, waited for our driver to wake up for the next three hours, just to be told the bus would not be leaving that day. So... plan B. Find a new way 400km north. So we made friends with some others going the same way and made it to a town where transport often goes by. We met some amazing locals there who insisted on feeding us a bunch of random local dishes including this weird sour maize meal drink, mystery beans, xima with casava leaves and really good nescafe.
While our new friend Frida and I ate away and attempted to communicate in portugese, the guys found us a semi-truck that would drive us to a town closer to our destination. So, 9 of us packed into the cab of the truck and cuddled up for the long drive. We arrived in Inchope around 5pm, at this point we were happy to escape, since our driver stopped several times along the way for beer runs! We were then rushed into a Chapa to Beira. This was only 100km down the road but, as African transport tends to be painfully slow, we arrived 3.5 hours later. Darl survived the pecking from several chickens under his seat and we made friends with these loud drunk guys who were happy to be alive!
Thank god for our hotel, we found a little gem in Beira called Pensao Moderna and got treated like gold! We made our flight the next day and are now enjoying the most beautiful beaches and friendliest people yet in Pemba! Next stop: Mozamboia da Prai, border town with Tanzania!! Yay!!!
We started our beach time here in Tofo- where we lived in a grass hut and did a marine safari and swam with dolphins, who unfortunately got freaked out when all of us jumped in after them and ate darl's other big toe. Then they swam away. But we still consider that a quality experience!!
We then made it to Vilinculos, which was awesome because the guesthouse called Vilinculos Backpackers was abnormally cheap and the meals were also cheap. But then we discovered the owner abusing his staff verbally and physically and decided it wasn't such a nice place after all! So next we had to get to Beira for a flight to Pemba (so we are on time meeting with my parents) but we showed up at 4am, waited for our driver to wake up for the next three hours, just to be told the bus would not be leaving that day. So... plan B. Find a new way 400km north. So we made friends with some others going the same way and made it to a town where transport often goes by. We met some amazing locals there who insisted on feeding us a bunch of random local dishes including this weird sour maize meal drink, mystery beans, xima with casava leaves and really good nescafe.
While our new friend Frida and I ate away and attempted to communicate in portugese, the guys found us a semi-truck that would drive us to a town closer to our destination. So, 9 of us packed into the cab of the truck and cuddled up for the long drive. We arrived in Inchope around 5pm, at this point we were happy to escape, since our driver stopped several times along the way for beer runs! We were then rushed into a Chapa to Beira. This was only 100km down the road but, as African transport tends to be painfully slow, we arrived 3.5 hours later. Darl survived the pecking from several chickens under his seat and we made friends with these loud drunk guys who were happy to be alive!
Thank god for our hotel, we found a little gem in Beira called Pensao Moderna and got treated like gold! We made our flight the next day and are now enjoying the most beautiful beaches and friendliest people yet in Pemba! Next stop: Mozamboia da Prai, border town with Tanzania!! Yay!!!
Friday, June 11, 2010
South Africa Grand Finale
Since the Comrades we have once again been going hard!!! After the race we enjoyed post-race beers and food at the Nedbank tent with our fellow teammates and our new bestfriend Colin. Our Norwegian roommates Ana and Ulrikke saved our day by driving us home, cooking us an AMAZING meal and traditional Norwegian cake for dessert, and took care of us in every way possible. We spent our last two days in Durban saying good byes to all the great friends we made. Oh and we also enjoyed a fabulous post-race breakfast the next morning of KFC and curry "bunny chows" (quarter loaf of bread with curry inside). Unfortunately we lived at the bottom of this giant hill, so walking home was very interesting for the first two days after the race! I had to hold onto Darl (choo choo train style) and we sort of shuffled down the road while I grimiced in pain, but we had to giggle at how ridiculous we looked!
We then made our way to Drakensburg mountains for some hiking on the border of S Africa and the little country of Lesotho. It was sooo beautiful! And Darl and I got suckered into jumping into glacier water at the top for some free shots. The shots were very interesting, called banana rushes- you light them on fire and inhale the fumes after. good to keep you happy for a while!! After hiking we also did some cycling and lots of relaxing in the beautiful national park. Luckily we made friends with this amazing couple, Sarah and Rudolpho, who we then spent the next week with. They drove us across the north western part of S Africa to hlehluwe game reserve. First we made a stop at this cute little town called Nongoma that was very non-touristy and got to meet some wonderful locals who cooked us traditional foods- mmm madumbes!! and they even washed our car at the guesthouse!
After Nongoma we made it to the nature reserve and had the best day ever!!! We saw millions of real african mammals!! like giraffes 2 meters from the car, baboons everywhere, elephants and baby elephants, zebras posing with their sweet 80s hairdos, water buffalos,impalas, and rhinos!!! oh man, so cool. and the next day we made it to St Lucia and saw hippos only like 30 feet away!
Our final stay was at the best guesthouse we have stayed at in Africa in a small town called Mtubatuba. It is called Khumbalani Lodge. We highly recommend it to anyone who goes to St Lucia area!
We have since gotten across the border to Mozambique, went to Ponto D'ouro (tourist trap town, donºt recommend it), then to Maputo where we have been preparing for the next leg of our journey North across Mozambique to Tanzania to meet up with my parents at the end of June!! Cant wait to drink it up with the family!!!
We then made our way to Drakensburg mountains for some hiking on the border of S Africa and the little country of Lesotho. It was sooo beautiful! And Darl and I got suckered into jumping into glacier water at the top for some free shots. The shots were very interesting, called banana rushes- you light them on fire and inhale the fumes after. good to keep you happy for a while!! After hiking we also did some cycling and lots of relaxing in the beautiful national park. Luckily we made friends with this amazing couple, Sarah and Rudolpho, who we then spent the next week with. They drove us across the north western part of S Africa to hlehluwe game reserve. First we made a stop at this cute little town called Nongoma that was very non-touristy and got to meet some wonderful locals who cooked us traditional foods- mmm madumbes!! and they even washed our car at the guesthouse!
After Nongoma we made it to the nature reserve and had the best day ever!!! We saw millions of real african mammals!! like giraffes 2 meters from the car, baboons everywhere, elephants and baby elephants, zebras posing with their sweet 80s hairdos, water buffalos,impalas, and rhinos!!! oh man, so cool. and the next day we made it to St Lucia and saw hippos only like 30 feet away!
Our final stay was at the best guesthouse we have stayed at in Africa in a small town called Mtubatuba. It is called Khumbalani Lodge. We highly recommend it to anyone who goes to St Lucia area!
We have since gotten across the border to Mozambique, went to Ponto D'ouro (tourist trap town, donºt recommend it), then to Maputo where we have been preparing for the next leg of our journey North across Mozambique to Tanzania to meet up with my parents at the end of June!! Cant wait to drink it up with the family!!!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
My Comrades Experience
Everyone has always said the training is the hard part and the race is the glory run. 99.9% of the time I would agree but comrades is really something different. We trained for it perfectly, I had won a 18km race in South Africa over the hardest terrain I have ever seen, run our first Ultra with a 52km race in Chattworth in Durban again running a great race even with showing up after the gun had gone off and our runs to the bushes and to top it off a competitive 10k race which I was on pace for 33mins unti going off course with 2km to go but none the less we were ready. We had even done 70km of the course on a training run and it had gone quite well despite the distance and driving time.
To be honest this was a dream come true for me and I got to run in one of the greatest ultra marathons in History with 24,000 runners registered. Unfortunately the night before saw alot of concerns with us both getting food poisonng. Krystal and I knew this could be problematic but with our luck we just laughed it off since we knew something had to happen with our luck.
Morning of I still felt great, ate a huge breakfast consisting of cornflakes, milk and imodium. I still thought it possible to run a good race. We were excited and strangly positive. Coming to the start line I could see all of my fellow runners dancing to various music and really just making the moment even better. 10minutes before the race, im pumped and turn on my watch that I had charged before heading to Pietermartizburg and nothing, I try again and low battery. The worst thing that could have happened just did and no watch to time or pace myself through 89km really shock me up since I would never know how fast im running, its really a mental thing. Regardless I but it aside and ran what I felt was right, going through 5k had never felt so easy and im guessing im running around 19 or 20mins for 5k, at 9km something went wrong and I feel pain inside my knee and hamstrings and I know its dehydration and my muscles are tightening up. When your at 9km and thinking what am I going to do about the next 80km its a scarry thing.
I was still holding pace through 20km but im limping, at 30km the limp has slowed me down considerably and I still remember looking up and thinking I have to run another 59km and im in so much pain. This was the hardest race of my life, at 50km I have already stopped about a dozen times to use the bushes as my imodium isn't working. The one thing im proud of is that I never walked one of those damned hills no matter how bad it got. I have never walked in a race in over 13 years and the one thought I kept in my head was that I had never run further than 70km and if I could make it that far then I could walk. I made it to 75km and my knee finally gave out and I had to sit along side the road trying to stretch it out and walk until I could move it enough to run again. I ran the last 19km in over 2hrs and normally I would run it in just over an hour. Every km I would have to walk the downs and run up the hills until about 6km to go it seemed as though the roads were straighter at least enough to take some of the pressure of my knee and run somewhat normally. I had planned on breaking 6hrs and in the end settled for 8:02.
This was in my mind a great race, it wasn't a race for time or place but for mere survival. So many times I prayed that I wouldn't die and that I would finish as well as the many tears that came from the pain of trying but Comrades taught me just how much you can truly push your body and that anything is possible.
Thank you to everyone for your help and kind words through all of this, without you this wouldn't be possible.
Darl
To be honest this was a dream come true for me and I got to run in one of the greatest ultra marathons in History with 24,000 runners registered. Unfortunately the night before saw alot of concerns with us both getting food poisonng. Krystal and I knew this could be problematic but with our luck we just laughed it off since we knew something had to happen with our luck.
Morning of I still felt great, ate a huge breakfast consisting of cornflakes, milk and imodium. I still thought it possible to run a good race. We were excited and strangly positive. Coming to the start line I could see all of my fellow runners dancing to various music and really just making the moment even better. 10minutes before the race, im pumped and turn on my watch that I had charged before heading to Pietermartizburg and nothing, I try again and low battery. The worst thing that could have happened just did and no watch to time or pace myself through 89km really shock me up since I would never know how fast im running, its really a mental thing. Regardless I but it aside and ran what I felt was right, going through 5k had never felt so easy and im guessing im running around 19 or 20mins for 5k, at 9km something went wrong and I feel pain inside my knee and hamstrings and I know its dehydration and my muscles are tightening up. When your at 9km and thinking what am I going to do about the next 80km its a scarry thing.
I was still holding pace through 20km but im limping, at 30km the limp has slowed me down considerably and I still remember looking up and thinking I have to run another 59km and im in so much pain. This was the hardest race of my life, at 50km I have already stopped about a dozen times to use the bushes as my imodium isn't working. The one thing im proud of is that I never walked one of those damned hills no matter how bad it got. I have never walked in a race in over 13 years and the one thought I kept in my head was that I had never run further than 70km and if I could make it that far then I could walk. I made it to 75km and my knee finally gave out and I had to sit along side the road trying to stretch it out and walk until I could move it enough to run again. I ran the last 19km in over 2hrs and normally I would run it in just over an hour. Every km I would have to walk the downs and run up the hills until about 6km to go it seemed as though the roads were straighter at least enough to take some of the pressure of my knee and run somewhat normally. I had planned on breaking 6hrs and in the end settled for 8:02.
This was in my mind a great race, it wasn't a race for time or place but for mere survival. So many times I prayed that I wouldn't die and that I would finish as well as the many tears that came from the pain of trying but Comrades taught me just how much you can truly push your body and that anything is possible.
Thank you to everyone for your help and kind words through all of this, without you this wouldn't be possible.
Darl
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Race report continued
I have to mention the start line to the Comrades as well. I was soooo emotional being a part of something that special. It was pitch black still at the start line at 5:30am and thousands were lined up ready to partake in this ridiculous race. Everyone sang this beautiful song in Zulu that really got us pumped up and everyone was sooo into the song. I wish I knew the words! Then they sang the South African National Anthem in 4 different languages and it ended with Chariots of Fire. I had goosebumps from the cold (it was only 6 degrees at the start) and from the excitement.
After the 30km mark when I was hurting so bad on the downhills, I changed my race plan entirely. Instead of sub 8 the new plan was to finish in the 12 hour cut off. So I distracted myself with calculations of the pace I would have to keep and how long I had to run for before I could walk to rest if need be. So I figured I could walk the last 20km. But when I got to the last 20km I started to have higher hopes. A Bill Rowan medal (7:30-9hrs) was still possible if I just ran a bit further. After the 15km to go marker I started to think that walking was going to take way too long, so why not run a little bit further?? This mentality continued right up until 2km to go and I just kept moving my legs in a running/ shuffling motion until I was running through the downtown streets of Durban with fans going nuts everywhere, the streets completely blocked from traffic and I felt like a celebrity as I kept moving. When I got to the grass route through the stadium I got excited. It was the first time in a race that the last 200m wasn't the most painful part of the experience. I got my 5th wind and just went for it! I raised my arms in the air and smiled at the fans and ran fast!! I finished in a solid 8 hours and 21 minutes and have never been so happy with a race time. I earned it. I know I had more potential but that day was just not mine for running.
But in the end as they carried me away on a stretcher I was happy. And the post race massage also made it all worth it!!
After the 30km mark when I was hurting so bad on the downhills, I changed my race plan entirely. Instead of sub 8 the new plan was to finish in the 12 hour cut off. So I distracted myself with calculations of the pace I would have to keep and how long I had to run for before I could walk to rest if need be. So I figured I could walk the last 20km. But when I got to the last 20km I started to have higher hopes. A Bill Rowan medal (7:30-9hrs) was still possible if I just ran a bit further. After the 15km to go marker I started to think that walking was going to take way too long, so why not run a little bit further?? This mentality continued right up until 2km to go and I just kept moving my legs in a running/ shuffling motion until I was running through the downtown streets of Durban with fans going nuts everywhere, the streets completely blocked from traffic and I felt like a celebrity as I kept moving. When I got to the grass route through the stadium I got excited. It was the first time in a race that the last 200m wasn't the most painful part of the experience. I got my 5th wind and just went for it! I raised my arms in the air and smiled at the fans and ran fast!! I finished in a solid 8 hours and 21 minutes and have never been so happy with a race time. I earned it. I know I had more potential but that day was just not mine for running.
But in the end as they carried me away on a stretcher I was happy. And the post race massage also made it all worth it!!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Comrades 2010
Wow, we made it!!! I will give a quick race report and look forward to Darl's report to come...
So, we started our adventure in Petermeritzburg and stayed at a wacky, but wonderful guesthouse that was about 1 mile away from the start line. Our new friends Rex and Mark Andre from Ottawa came with us and we had a great trip telling race stories and met up with them again to pick up our race kits on Saturday.
Our hosts at the guesthouse were very friendly but we are pretty sure they were wasted the whole time we were visiting!! There was a nice family also living in our guesthouse and the Indian lady kept on insisting that we eat her amazing smelling curries and "poykie" but we had to say no to prevent any stomach mishaps on race day. But we did agree to come back to Meritzburg in the near future (after we hike in the Drakensburg mountains) to have a proper feast with them. We also stayed with some people from South Carolina and they were also wonderful.
Unfortunately the day before the race something went really wrong with our stomachs yet again. At first I thought it was just nerves but after the 8th time to the washroom we were pretty sure we had food poisoning AGAIN. So, you would think this would have made us upset but as we lied in bed getting ready to go to sleep, we just started laughing. What else can you do in that situation?? So at least we went to sleep in good spirits despite how our stomachs were feeling.
During the race I knew early on (about 15km into it) that I was not feeling right at all. My legs felt like lead and I think the dehydration had already gotten to me. Luckily I brought 5 gels with me, and forced myself to down as much energade sachets and water and coke and salted potatoes and jube jubes as I could stomach to keep myself nourished. I was disappointed early on as well because I couldn't find any nice running buddies to talk with and help distract me from the pain. After 30km the downhills REALLY started to hurt. I now understand why everyone says an up year is easier. I was looking forward to the hills we had to climb because they were so much easier than going down!!
The crowds are what really got me through the race. They were amazing!! I had women singing me songs in Zulu and dancing, people drinking beers and offering me some as well, and just genuine looks right in my eye and telling me I could do it.
Crap, I will write more asap!! I am out of time online!!
So, we started our adventure in Petermeritzburg and stayed at a wacky, but wonderful guesthouse that was about 1 mile away from the start line. Our new friends Rex and Mark Andre from Ottawa came with us and we had a great trip telling race stories and met up with them again to pick up our race kits on Saturday.
Our hosts at the guesthouse were very friendly but we are pretty sure they were wasted the whole time we were visiting!! There was a nice family also living in our guesthouse and the Indian lady kept on insisting that we eat her amazing smelling curries and "poykie" but we had to say no to prevent any stomach mishaps on race day. But we did agree to come back to Meritzburg in the near future (after we hike in the Drakensburg mountains) to have a proper feast with them. We also stayed with some people from South Carolina and they were also wonderful.
Unfortunately the day before the race something went really wrong with our stomachs yet again. At first I thought it was just nerves but after the 8th time to the washroom we were pretty sure we had food poisoning AGAIN. So, you would think this would have made us upset but as we lied in bed getting ready to go to sleep, we just started laughing. What else can you do in that situation?? So at least we went to sleep in good spirits despite how our stomachs were feeling.
During the race I knew early on (about 15km into it) that I was not feeling right at all. My legs felt like lead and I think the dehydration had already gotten to me. Luckily I brought 5 gels with me, and forced myself to down as much energade sachets and water and coke and salted potatoes and jube jubes as I could stomach to keep myself nourished. I was disappointed early on as well because I couldn't find any nice running buddies to talk with and help distract me from the pain. After 30km the downhills REALLY started to hurt. I now understand why everyone says an up year is easier. I was looking forward to the hills we had to climb because they were so much easier than going down!!
The crowds are what really got me through the race. They were amazing!! I had women singing me songs in Zulu and dancing, people drinking beers and offering me some as well, and just genuine looks right in my eye and telling me I could do it.
Crap, I will write more asap!! I am out of time online!!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
We are famous!!
So yesterday we were getting ready for Colin to just show up (as he often does on Sunday mornings) and he came like usual at 11am. But instead of going to his place, he told us to suit up in our team Nedbank gear and he was taking us to be interviewed by a local paper! So we had to sit with this hardcore Comrades guy for the next two hours while he peaced together the running adventure we have been on since arriving in Senegal in Jan. He even got a media pass into the world cup stadium so we could get our photos taken! So now we have all these awesome pictures to show you all when we return. Also we will post a link to the newspaper article as soon as we find it. The guy expected it would be out on Wednesday.
Other than that, life has been good lately. We even rented a car last week and Darl drove standard on the opposite side of the road, changing gears with his left hand, up the huge crazy hills in this town. It was very impressive! And we got to escape the city and head to some beautiful beaches and a nature reserve north of town. We also did a walking tour in the city last week and learned lots about the history of Durban. We went to the train station where Ghandi was kicked off of a first class coach, which apparently triggered his early ideas about passive resistance. AND we saw the roof of the train station that was mistakenly built here instead of in Toronto so it can withstand several feet of snow if that were ever to happen!
This week we will be heading to the expo to get our race kits, meeting up with some Canadian runners for drinks, and then heading to Petermeritzburg for a couple of nights before the race. Then we run ALL the way from Petermeritzburg to Durban! Then we get to get back to living like we are on vacation again and seeing sites and making our way to Mozambique for the next leg of our adventure to begin.
Other than that, life has been good lately. We even rented a car last week and Darl drove standard on the opposite side of the road, changing gears with his left hand, up the huge crazy hills in this town. It was very impressive! And we got to escape the city and head to some beautiful beaches and a nature reserve north of town. We also did a walking tour in the city last week and learned lots about the history of Durban. We went to the train station where Ghandi was kicked off of a first class coach, which apparently triggered his early ideas about passive resistance. AND we saw the roof of the train station that was mistakenly built here instead of in Toronto so it can withstand several feet of snow if that were ever to happen!
This week we will be heading to the expo to get our race kits, meeting up with some Canadian runners for drinks, and then heading to Petermeritzburg for a couple of nights before the race. Then we run ALL the way from Petermeritzburg to Durban! Then we get to get back to living like we are on vacation again and seeing sites and making our way to Mozambique for the next leg of our adventure to begin.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Feeling at home in Durban
Three weeks has passed and we are still here in Durban counting down the days until Comrades. Life here is pretty simple... we chill by our pool in the mornings, take a "taxi" (which is a cheap mini-bus full of people) downtown or to the beach or a museum, then we run, eat, and and do it again. We have met some great people and spend a lot of time with our roommates from Norway. The girls took me out for a night of drinking to help calm down my nerves and allow me to forget about running for a little while! It was good times indeed.
Also our running friend Colin has begun a ritual of inviting us for Sunday lunch where we get to eat his wife's amazing cooking and chill by the pool with some beers and his family. His wife is even going to teach me some of her African recipes like steam bread and briyani- I am very excited!!
Also our running friend Colin has begun a ritual of inviting us for Sunday lunch where we get to eat his wife's amazing cooking and chill by the pool with some beers and his family. His wife is even going to teach me some of her African recipes like steam bread and briyani- I am very excited!!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Biryani and more miles
Hello!!
We now have some idea about the Comrades course. On Saturday we ran 68km of the route with our new team, team Nedbank. One of our team mates kept telling me I was a "strong lady" in Zulu, so that made me feel very confident and excited about the race coming up! The day went really well, another running group was on the course also so we got to reap the benefits of their awesome aid stations. Darl got forced to eat Indian Biryani with mutton, we also got offered cake, chelsey buns, beer, water, coke, etc. to help us make it through the 6 and half hours of running! Man, we are meant to live here in Durban!
All out of time but I will write more soon!!
We now have some idea about the Comrades course. On Saturday we ran 68km of the route with our new team, team Nedbank. One of our team mates kept telling me I was a "strong lady" in Zulu, so that made me feel very confident and excited about the race coming up! The day went really well, another running group was on the course also so we got to reap the benefits of their awesome aid stations. Darl got forced to eat Indian Biryani with mutton, we also got offered cake, chelsey buns, beer, water, coke, etc. to help us make it through the 6 and half hours of running! Man, we are meant to live here in Durban!
All out of time but I will write more soon!!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Strides for Stubby
Hi everyone!!!
So we finished our first ultra and lived to tell the tale!! On Sunday we ran the Chatsworth Freedom 52km and did quite impressively, considering the morning lead-up and the MILLIONS of hills right up to the finish. Darl, toeless but still strong, ran a solid 3:37, placing 35th out of over 5000 runners, and I ran 4:30, placing 5th for the ladies. Not bad, considering we both had several bathroom breaks in the bushes during the race (because we were stupid enough to eat curry the day before the race), then we missed the start because we were sorting our bibs. AND to top it off, I did a massive tumble with 200m to the finish, with everyone staring at me! Quite embarrasing. But we still managed to have a GREAT time in the race! We both made a bunch of new best friends and Darl now has a training partner that came 12th last year in Comrades!! Our other new friend, a coach named Colin, drove us to and from the race, budged through the huge pre-race line-ups to get us registered, and took us site-seeing after the race! Colin was third in the Comrades previously and ran a 5:45!!! So pretty much, we are hanging with the rockstars of ultras here in Durban!!
We also have moved into our new beautiful home for the month. We have a room in an old colonial house, with a brick oven, a pool with palm trees, a million rooms including a bar, a piano room, kitchen with an OVEN!!!, and a great old dog named Bonnie. All for only $700 for the month!!! And we have great new roommates, a bunch of germans, that are all moving out at the end of the month, leaving us with the place to ourselves!!! Doesn't get much better than this!!!
Life is good, and things aren't that scary in South Africa afterall. So don't worry, Mom and Dad!!!
Love you all!!!
So we finished our first ultra and lived to tell the tale!! On Sunday we ran the Chatsworth Freedom 52km and did quite impressively, considering the morning lead-up and the MILLIONS of hills right up to the finish. Darl, toeless but still strong, ran a solid 3:37, placing 35th out of over 5000 runners, and I ran 4:30, placing 5th for the ladies. Not bad, considering we both had several bathroom breaks in the bushes during the race (because we were stupid enough to eat curry the day before the race), then we missed the start because we were sorting our bibs. AND to top it off, I did a massive tumble with 200m to the finish, with everyone staring at me! Quite embarrasing. But we still managed to have a GREAT time in the race! We both made a bunch of new best friends and Darl now has a training partner that came 12th last year in Comrades!! Our other new friend, a coach named Colin, drove us to and from the race, budged through the huge pre-race line-ups to get us registered, and took us site-seeing after the race! Colin was third in the Comrades previously and ran a 5:45!!! So pretty much, we are hanging with the rockstars of ultras here in Durban!!
We also have moved into our new beautiful home for the month. We have a room in an old colonial house, with a brick oven, a pool with palm trees, a million rooms including a bar, a piano room, kitchen with an OVEN!!!, and a great old dog named Bonnie. All for only $700 for the month!!! And we have great new roommates, a bunch of germans, that are all moving out at the end of the month, leaving us with the place to ourselves!!! Doesn't get much better than this!!!
Life is good, and things aren't that scary in South Africa afterall. So don't worry, Mom and Dad!!!
Love you all!!!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Wine and Sorbet- A Great Combo!!
So this morning at 10am we were sipping wine and sorbet and nursing our aching muscles on a beautiful winery in a small town called Stollenbosch, 20 minutes drive from Capetown. We ran a great race of 18km through the vineyards and Darl, back to his old self, won the race!! He even beat the ringer they brought out to challenge him from Pretoria, who has an impressive race history.
What haven't we done in Capetown??? Yesterday we hiked up Table Mountain, and then all the way back down, totally about 19km of hiking to top off our hardcore week of training for Comrades! We are up to nearly 100 miles this week and our legs are feeling it!! Thank god there is so much wine for cheap around here to sooth our aching muscles!!
We also biked around Cape Point, saw mini penguins (that were absolutely adorable, especially when they try to jump!!), wine tasting, botanical gardens, and this Monday we are going shark cage diving! Apparently someone was eaten whole by a great white the other day in Capetown... with people on the shore to witness it! So hopefully we don't die...
Then off to Durban on Tuesday, but first stopping along the coast for some rest. Should be a long haul, about 22 hrs in total by bus. Then a 52km race this weekend... good times!!
Love you all, you all need to come to Capetown immediately!!
Krystal and Darl
What haven't we done in Capetown??? Yesterday we hiked up Table Mountain, and then all the way back down, totally about 19km of hiking to top off our hardcore week of training for Comrades! We are up to nearly 100 miles this week and our legs are feeling it!! Thank god there is so much wine for cheap around here to sooth our aching muscles!!
We also biked around Cape Point, saw mini penguins (that were absolutely adorable, especially when they try to jump!!), wine tasting, botanical gardens, and this Monday we are going shark cage diving! Apparently someone was eaten whole by a great white the other day in Capetown... with people on the shore to witness it! So hopefully we don't die...
Then off to Durban on Tuesday, but first stopping along the coast for some rest. Should be a long haul, about 22 hrs in total by bus. Then a 52km race this weekend... good times!!
Love you all, you all need to come to Capetown immediately!!
Krystal and Darl
Monday, April 12, 2010
Capetown- prettiest city on earth!!
Hi!!
Wow, Capetown seriously kicks ass!!
Oh man, you all would absolutely LOVE this city!! Its beautiful! Huge mountains basically right in the city, super clean, perfect weather of 25 degrees, REAL coffee, white sand beaches, seals at the harbour, and little mini penguins!! I could live here!! Of course there is apparently lots of crime which is a downfall but we haven't seen that yet. But everywhere has bars on the doors and you can tell people are nervous about it.
We have been doing some pretty beautiful runs up the mountains and almost dying everytime; but it is sooo worth it for these views!! Oh and we found a local running group to do track workouts with starting tomorrow. I am scared!!
Oh, and of course, minor detail... I ended up in the hospital... they gave me IV and said i had a pretty bad bladder infection but I am doing much better now!! Oh and this crappy dietitian is low in iron!! That explains the slower running these days and sleeping so much. Damn west african food!! I guess its to be expected considering I haven't eaten many green vegetables or iron-fortified foods in months!!
We have lots of plans for this city but for now we have just been relaxing in our awesome apartment with a kitchen!! We have been cooking up a storm and haven't lost our skills in the kitchen at all in three months. In a few days we are attempting cage diving to see giant sharks, should be interesting...
Love you all!!
Wow, Capetown seriously kicks ass!!
Oh man, you all would absolutely LOVE this city!! Its beautiful! Huge mountains basically right in the city, super clean, perfect weather of 25 degrees, REAL coffee, white sand beaches, seals at the harbour, and little mini penguins!! I could live here!! Of course there is apparently lots of crime which is a downfall but we haven't seen that yet. But everywhere has bars on the doors and you can tell people are nervous about it.
We have been doing some pretty beautiful runs up the mountains and almost dying everytime; but it is sooo worth it for these views!! Oh and we found a local running group to do track workouts with starting tomorrow. I am scared!!
Oh, and of course, minor detail... I ended up in the hospital... they gave me IV and said i had a pretty bad bladder infection but I am doing much better now!! Oh and this crappy dietitian is low in iron!! That explains the slower running these days and sleeping so much. Damn west african food!! I guess its to be expected considering I haven't eaten many green vegetables or iron-fortified foods in months!!
We have lots of plans for this city but for now we have just been relaxing in our awesome apartment with a kitchen!! We have been cooking up a storm and haven't lost our skills in the kitchen at all in three months. In a few days we are attempting cage diving to see giant sharks, should be interesting...
Love you all!!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Africas Greatness
hey Everyone
Well tonight we leave for South Africas Cape Town but what an experience we have had so far.
Leaving Busua was the hardest thing we have had to do since arriving in Africa, the beaches, people were amazing. Some of the most amazing parts have been our drinks with the local farmers with fresh coconuts cut from the tree, our tombrown lady who deliveredd this delicious porridge to our door step each day at 6:30 AM. Even our crazy lady who it looked like blessed the road each time we ran by made this experience so much richer. We learned to boogie board through the amazing waves and came back with some pretty nice burns. My new nick name is very cool Sports Man.
Ill write more in South Africa but so much to say
Darl
Well tonight we leave for South Africas Cape Town but what an experience we have had so far.
Leaving Busua was the hardest thing we have had to do since arriving in Africa, the beaches, people were amazing. Some of the most amazing parts have been our drinks with the local farmers with fresh coconuts cut from the tree, our tombrown lady who deliveredd this delicious porridge to our door step each day at 6:30 AM. Even our crazy lady who it looked like blessed the road each time we ran by made this experience so much richer. We learned to boogie board through the amazing waves and came back with some pretty nice burns. My new nick name is very cool Sports Man.
Ill write more in South Africa but so much to say
Darl
Monday, April 5, 2010
No marriage yet!!
Don't worry, that was just a little April fools stunt that Darl decided to pull on facebook...
So we finally left Busua, our little piece of paradise in South West Ghana in a small fishing village. It was amazing to have two weeks of relaxation time, it was very hard to leave.
So things that happened since our last blog... hmmm... well my bad luck continues. I got chafed soooo bad after a very humid long run. Then I was smart enough to jump in the salt water ocean! Oh the pain. Luckily, our friends recommended that we go buy Vaseline in town. That saved my life! We are so pampered at home with our fancy anti-chafing remedies we completely forgot about good old Vaseline! Also, to continue my bad luck, I found the one jelly fish on our beach and got a wicked sting on my tummy. good times!
Another interesting experience was going to a local church. It was called Assemblies of God and was very uncomfortable for me. Everyone was all dancing around in a trance like state saying hallelujas like crazy and lots of amens. We tried to act like we knew what we were doing and in the end we had a million new friends in Busua!
Next we attempted another long run and got ourselves good and lost trying to find this small village. Luckily, on our way back when we were extremely dehydrated, these nice men in the rainforest offered us fresh coconut milk and coconut! It was just what we needed to get through the end of the run.
Ooh! And the best thing to happen lately, I discovered soybean skewers!!! My first veggie meat in three months! It was truly heaven.
Ok, I am out of time but we will write more soon!
Love you all!!
So we finally left Busua, our little piece of paradise in South West Ghana in a small fishing village. It was amazing to have two weeks of relaxation time, it was very hard to leave.
So things that happened since our last blog... hmmm... well my bad luck continues. I got chafed soooo bad after a very humid long run. Then I was smart enough to jump in the salt water ocean! Oh the pain. Luckily, our friends recommended that we go buy Vaseline in town. That saved my life! We are so pampered at home with our fancy anti-chafing remedies we completely forgot about good old Vaseline! Also, to continue my bad luck, I found the one jelly fish on our beach and got a wicked sting on my tummy. good times!
Another interesting experience was going to a local church. It was called Assemblies of God and was very uncomfortable for me. Everyone was all dancing around in a trance like state saying hallelujas like crazy and lots of amens. We tried to act like we knew what we were doing and in the end we had a million new friends in Busua!
Next we attempted another long run and got ourselves good and lost trying to find this small village. Luckily, on our way back when we were extremely dehydrated, these nice men in the rainforest offered us fresh coconut milk and coconut! It was just what we needed to get through the end of the run.
Ooh! And the best thing to happen lately, I discovered soybean skewers!!! My first veggie meat in three months! It was truly heaven.
Ok, I am out of time but we will write more soon!
Love you all!!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
where to begin??
Hello everyone!!
It feels like forever since we last wrote. So much has happened on our journey through Ghana, both good and bad but mostly good!
We started in Northern Ghana in a wonderful little city called Wa, which was very laid back with tourists because I don't think they see a lot of them. One day we were walking down the road and this woman insisted that I hold her child. Unfortunately for him (and me) he was absolutely terrified of me. We are pretty sure he thought I was a white demon lady and screamed as if he was being tortured but his mom still insisted I hold him! Poor kid...
Then I went for a 3.5 hr run. Darl finished his run in 1.5hrs because he wasn't feeling well but I continued on my own. By the time I finished I thought I was going to die! I have never been chafed like that in my whole life! The humidity here is vicious so my clothes rubbed like crazy and I was left with 2nd degree burns! THEN, to top it off, I almost blacked out at the bus station from heat exhaustion! Good times. Luckily, we had a bunch of very helpful people take care of me until we got a cab back to an air conditioned hotel to recover.
We also visited a small village called Wechiau and went to a community run ecotourism project for protecting hippos. It was amazing!!! We slept on a rooftop and took a canoe ride to see a family of five hippos and learned lots from our wonderful tour guide about the local beliefs and uses of botanicals. Oh and our canoe almost tipped in the river with the hippos but we stayed afloat thanks to our guide jumping into the water to stabilize it!
Next we went to Mole National Park and stayed in a small village called Larabanga with no running water, bucket showers, and a rooftop to sleep. Darl attempted a run the first night we arrived towards the national park when he was attacked by giant angry baboons! We think they were driven by hormones and likely thought Darl was a female, slightly less hairy but just as smelly baboon to mate with. He barely escaped with a few scratches but has been traumatized ever since.
After Mole we were quite excited to enter civilization again in the city of Kumasi. Here we discovered some amazing porridge called Tom Brown and lots of other interesting foods like ato (mashed plantains or potatoes with spices, onion, palm oil and avocado), and dari (powder made from cassava root), fou fou (mashed inyam into a sticky paste served with ground nut soup), and kenkey (made with maize). Also I met an interesting mute fello doing a hill workout and joined him for 10 hill repeats. Him and I were laughing the whole time when we werent panting like dogs! But it was a good time! Kumasi is a great city for running because it is all on rolling hills. |We also got to visit an amazingly huge market, apparently one of the biggest in western Africa! And we saw the palace of the Ashanti king and learned about the history and current Ashanti influence in Ghana. My Ashanti name would be 'Aquia' because I was born on a Wednesday. We also learned about how certain Ghana city folk make fun of each other for eating Ghanian food and eating with their hands and get labeled "village" people. Very sad that even here people are losing their traditional values around food in the name of fast food and convenience foods.
4 days ago we discovered what we have been dying to find for a while. Paradise!!! Long, deserted beach with amazingly huge waves for surfing or boogy boarding, tasty seafood meals every night, and long, rolling hills in the rain forest for training runs. We even had a man jump out of the bush yesterday on our long run and offer us palm wine (their local moonshine). Dave Dame would be soo jealous! We also made friends with some ridiculous dudes one from Ireland and one from Holland who loved to drink.
We are going to stay in Busua for another week or so before heading to the Cape Coast to learn more about the slave trade in Ghana. But I don't want this part of the trip to ever end!
Miss you all and make sure you write us lots!!
It feels like forever since we last wrote. So much has happened on our journey through Ghana, both good and bad but mostly good!
We started in Northern Ghana in a wonderful little city called Wa, which was very laid back with tourists because I don't think they see a lot of them. One day we were walking down the road and this woman insisted that I hold her child. Unfortunately for him (and me) he was absolutely terrified of me. We are pretty sure he thought I was a white demon lady and screamed as if he was being tortured but his mom still insisted I hold him! Poor kid...
Then I went for a 3.5 hr run. Darl finished his run in 1.5hrs because he wasn't feeling well but I continued on my own. By the time I finished I thought I was going to die! I have never been chafed like that in my whole life! The humidity here is vicious so my clothes rubbed like crazy and I was left with 2nd degree burns! THEN, to top it off, I almost blacked out at the bus station from heat exhaustion! Good times. Luckily, we had a bunch of very helpful people take care of me until we got a cab back to an air conditioned hotel to recover.
We also visited a small village called Wechiau and went to a community run ecotourism project for protecting hippos. It was amazing!!! We slept on a rooftop and took a canoe ride to see a family of five hippos and learned lots from our wonderful tour guide about the local beliefs and uses of botanicals. Oh and our canoe almost tipped in the river with the hippos but we stayed afloat thanks to our guide jumping into the water to stabilize it!
Next we went to Mole National Park and stayed in a small village called Larabanga with no running water, bucket showers, and a rooftop to sleep. Darl attempted a run the first night we arrived towards the national park when he was attacked by giant angry baboons! We think they were driven by hormones and likely thought Darl was a female, slightly less hairy but just as smelly baboon to mate with. He barely escaped with a few scratches but has been traumatized ever since.
After Mole we were quite excited to enter civilization again in the city of Kumasi. Here we discovered some amazing porridge called Tom Brown and lots of other interesting foods like ato (mashed plantains or potatoes with spices, onion, palm oil and avocado), and dari (powder made from cassava root), fou fou (mashed inyam into a sticky paste served with ground nut soup), and kenkey (made with maize). Also I met an interesting mute fello doing a hill workout and joined him for 10 hill repeats. Him and I were laughing the whole time when we werent panting like dogs! But it was a good time! Kumasi is a great city for running because it is all on rolling hills. |We also got to visit an amazingly huge market, apparently one of the biggest in western Africa! And we saw the palace of the Ashanti king and learned about the history and current Ashanti influence in Ghana. My Ashanti name would be 'Aquia' because I was born on a Wednesday. We also learned about how certain Ghana city folk make fun of each other for eating Ghanian food and eating with their hands and get labeled "village" people. Very sad that even here people are losing their traditional values around food in the name of fast food and convenience foods.
4 days ago we discovered what we have been dying to find for a while. Paradise!!! Long, deserted beach with amazingly huge waves for surfing or boogy boarding, tasty seafood meals every night, and long, rolling hills in the rain forest for training runs. We even had a man jump out of the bush yesterday on our long run and offer us palm wine (their local moonshine). Dave Dame would be soo jealous! We also made friends with some ridiculous dudes one from Ireland and one from Holland who loved to drink.
We are going to stay in Busua for another week or so before heading to the Cape Coast to learn more about the slave trade in Ghana. But I don't want this part of the trip to ever end!
Miss you all and make sure you write us lots!!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Africas differences
Hey Everyone
Well its been quite a journey so far, both Krystal and I have suffered from food poisoning but the wierd thing is just days after recovering we both are right back out there eating street food and drinking African Juice called bissap made with their water so at times we are asking for it but in the end its all about the experience and stepping out of our comfort zones..
It has become apparent that the women in Africa are the back bone of the country, the men boast that they bring home the money but all we see are the women working, selling food, working jobs many men wouldn't be able to accomplish and then return home to cook and clean for their family while the men sit and drink tea in the shade with all their male friends.. Another big difference is that only men are seen hanging onto hands you will never see wolen doing this or male/female partners only males! Even driving their motorbikes they manage to hang onto hands or link their bikes together by their feet or what ever body part they can, this has taken alot to get used to!!
All in all Africa is a very friendy place, the people are very warm and being white and in Africa means you'll never go very far without someone trying to sell you something haha..
Life is good
Well its been quite a journey so far, both Krystal and I have suffered from food poisoning but the wierd thing is just days after recovering we both are right back out there eating street food and drinking African Juice called bissap made with their water so at times we are asking for it but in the end its all about the experience and stepping out of our comfort zones..
It has become apparent that the women in Africa are the back bone of the country, the men boast that they bring home the money but all we see are the women working, selling food, working jobs many men wouldn't be able to accomplish and then return home to cook and clean for their family while the men sit and drink tea in the shade with all their male friends.. Another big difference is that only men are seen hanging onto hands you will never see wolen doing this or male/female partners only males! Even driving their motorbikes they manage to hang onto hands or link their bikes together by their feet or what ever body part they can, this has taken alot to get used to!!
All in all Africa is a very friendy place, the people are very warm and being white and in Africa means you'll never go very far without someone trying to sell you something haha..
Life is good
Thursday, March 4, 2010
yogurt and bananas
So the other day we were eating our new favourite lunch here in Ougadougou, yogurt and millet. We came up with the great idea of putting bananas in it for some more flavour. But then we had all the ladies laughing at us and telling us it was completely wrong! We are pretty sure we offended them. So in case any of you are ever in the same situation, bananas dont belong in yogurt in Africa!
Monday, March 1, 2010
little miss sunshine van, camels in soccer fields, and more diarrhea
Hello friends and family!!!
Sorry it has been so long since we last wrote; we were on a bit of a marathon tour of mali and have finally slowed down a bit in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.
After Bamako, we travelled to Mopti relatively pain-free thanks to our friend at our guesthouse in Mali who arranged a ridiculously cheap car for us. Mopti was ok, we got to see a cool market where they trade huge slabs of salt from timbuktou (yes, the real timbuktou in the northern part of mali). We then took made our way to Djenné, which took 8 hrs to go less than 100km, but made some friends from holland and france along the way to ease the pain!
Djenné started off great, there is a huge mud mosque and the whole city is made up of old mud buildings on a little island; it's a world heritage site, google it! And they had a very exciting Monday market. Then it was my birthday and everything went downhill! Darl got severe food poisoning the morning of my bday (the doctor at our guesthouse figured it was salmonella) so we didnt do much for the rest of our stay. when Darl was a bit better we had to leave for Bandiagara since we already agreed to meet a guide there for a trek in Dogon country. Our trek was very cool, our guide was awesome except he kept guilt-tripping us for not paying enough even though we had already agreed on the price long before we started (which in our minds was quite generous). We stayed in little Dogon villages and learned lots about the history of the Dogon people. We were starving half the time and totally dehydrated though, because it was a full-on desert! when we finally got a cold bottle of water after 3 days of drinking warm well water that we filtered, it was the best water of our lives! it was fun pulling up the buckets of water with the kids at the well and they were all very excited about our filtering pump!
we then started our arduous journey from mali to burkina faso by public transit. first we waited around for 6 hrs before the van even showed up, then drove to the border town and on the way experienced our first sand storm! it was scary, we were very brown when we arrived! then took a van that didnt have first gear so everyone had to get out and push at every stop! this wouldnt have been so bad except that we had 5 different check points to get into burkina faso! we finally arrived after being in transport for 13hrs and we only covered about 300km in total. Needless to say, we are developing patience everyday in Africa!
So far Burkina is great, the food is much more exciting than Mali, there is ice cream carts everywhere, and we can even get yogurt! Now we get to sit back and relax for a week before our next big journey to Ghana.
Love you all lots!!!
Sorry it has been so long since we last wrote; we were on a bit of a marathon tour of mali and have finally slowed down a bit in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.
After Bamako, we travelled to Mopti relatively pain-free thanks to our friend at our guesthouse in Mali who arranged a ridiculously cheap car for us. Mopti was ok, we got to see a cool market where they trade huge slabs of salt from timbuktou (yes, the real timbuktou in the northern part of mali). We then took made our way to Djenné, which took 8 hrs to go less than 100km, but made some friends from holland and france along the way to ease the pain!
Djenné started off great, there is a huge mud mosque and the whole city is made up of old mud buildings on a little island; it's a world heritage site, google it! And they had a very exciting Monday market. Then it was my birthday and everything went downhill! Darl got severe food poisoning the morning of my bday (the doctor at our guesthouse figured it was salmonella) so we didnt do much for the rest of our stay. when Darl was a bit better we had to leave for Bandiagara since we already agreed to meet a guide there for a trek in Dogon country. Our trek was very cool, our guide was awesome except he kept guilt-tripping us for not paying enough even though we had already agreed on the price long before we started (which in our minds was quite generous). We stayed in little Dogon villages and learned lots about the history of the Dogon people. We were starving half the time and totally dehydrated though, because it was a full-on desert! when we finally got a cold bottle of water after 3 days of drinking warm well water that we filtered, it was the best water of our lives! it was fun pulling up the buckets of water with the kids at the well and they were all very excited about our filtering pump!
we then started our arduous journey from mali to burkina faso by public transit. first we waited around for 6 hrs before the van even showed up, then drove to the border town and on the way experienced our first sand storm! it was scary, we were very brown when we arrived! then took a van that didnt have first gear so everyone had to get out and push at every stop! this wouldnt have been so bad except that we had 5 different check points to get into burkina faso! we finally arrived after being in transport for 13hrs and we only covered about 300km in total. Needless to say, we are developing patience everyday in Africa!
So far Burkina is great, the food is much more exciting than Mali, there is ice cream carts everywhere, and we can even get yogurt! Now we get to sit back and relax for a week before our next big journey to Ghana.
Love you all lots!!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
black market ice cream and fetish stalls
Bamako is an amazing place! We are reluctantly leaving for Mopti tomorrow after a week here in Bamako.
We have discovered tonnes of interesting real Malian food, like the Monae (bamara for millet porridge), but you have to get to this lady's house before 8am or it all sells out. we got a huge pot full for 50 cents! and we also discovered these amazing little pancakes called fou fou and yogurt with millet called dengué, sooo good! and we followed these kids to a back alley and discovered where to buy ice cream here from some lady's freezer! ooh and we found peanut butter here finally!
other than that, we checked out a traditional dance group and jembé rehersal from a new friend of ours, drank a lot of african tea with our new friends, did a 30km run to the next town from here over this big mountain that overlooks the city, and found these fetish stalls that sell monkey heads, snake skins, crocodile heads, dried lizards etc that are used for traditional medicines and for good luck.
People here are the nicest we have ever come across! So helpful, open minded, and giving even though they have nothing material. We are falling in love with Africa more and more every day we are here. We are hoping our next destinations will be as good but this seems hard to beat!
Send us some love from back home! we are missing everyone very much!
We have discovered tonnes of interesting real Malian food, like the Monae (bamara for millet porridge), but you have to get to this lady's house before 8am or it all sells out. we got a huge pot full for 50 cents! and we also discovered these amazing little pancakes called fou fou and yogurt with millet called dengué, sooo good! and we followed these kids to a back alley and discovered where to buy ice cream here from some lady's freezer! ooh and we found peanut butter here finally!
other than that, we checked out a traditional dance group and jembé rehersal from a new friend of ours, drank a lot of african tea with our new friends, did a 30km run to the next town from here over this big mountain that overlooks the city, and found these fetish stalls that sell monkey heads, snake skins, crocodile heads, dried lizards etc that are used for traditional medicines and for good luck.
People here are the nicest we have ever come across! So helpful, open minded, and giving even though they have nothing material. We are falling in love with Africa more and more every day we are here. We are hoping our next destinations will be as good but this seems hard to beat!
Send us some love from back home! we are missing everyone very much!
Friday, February 5, 2010
mali mali mali!!!!
So we survived our final days in Senegal and made it to Bamako, Mali.
We had an amazing end to our stay in Senegal at the grand mogul du Touba; a giant celebration that happens once a year to celebrate their religion, which is a form of Islam. We went with our friend and guide Masamba and he took us to stay with his huge extended family. We basically just ate non-stop while we were there! every hour there was more food! and the family was awesome; we spent time with the ladies in their outdoor kitchen where there were always several large pots brewing meat, chicken, rice, this yogurty milk stuff that we had over a porridge made of barley, café de touba (the thickest, most hardcore coffee ever with this interesting spice that we couldnt place), tonnes of veggies, onion sauce, bread, sweets, and the list goes on! it was basically the jackpot for understanding senegalese cuisine! and there were always lots of kids around wanting to practice their french and teach us their first language, wolof. we were really getting the wolof down, it tickeled the older ladies pink when we attempted to speak wolof with them!
but now it is a different set of languages here, but still we can get by with french. masamba says that the main tribal language here is the equivalent to german because it sounds more strong and angry! but people are super nice here and way more relaxed and helpful with tourists than in senegal. and food is super cheap! sorry wendy, krystal is back on the street foods here, she cant resist meals that only cost a dollar!!! we went to this awesome market today and are looking forward to a few more days in bamako to discover more interesting foods and see the sites before heading to a small town on the niger river 4 hrs east of here called segou.
We had an amazing end to our stay in Senegal at the grand mogul du Touba; a giant celebration that happens once a year to celebrate their religion, which is a form of Islam. We went with our friend and guide Masamba and he took us to stay with his huge extended family. We basically just ate non-stop while we were there! every hour there was more food! and the family was awesome; we spent time with the ladies in their outdoor kitchen where there were always several large pots brewing meat, chicken, rice, this yogurty milk stuff that we had over a porridge made of barley, café de touba (the thickest, most hardcore coffee ever with this interesting spice that we couldnt place), tonnes of veggies, onion sauce, bread, sweets, and the list goes on! it was basically the jackpot for understanding senegalese cuisine! and there were always lots of kids around wanting to practice their french and teach us their first language, wolof. we were really getting the wolof down, it tickeled the older ladies pink when we attempted to speak wolof with them!
but now it is a different set of languages here, but still we can get by with french. masamba says that the main tribal language here is the equivalent to german because it sounds more strong and angry! but people are super nice here and way more relaxed and helpful with tourists than in senegal. and food is super cheap! sorry wendy, krystal is back on the street foods here, she cant resist meals that only cost a dollar!!! we went to this awesome market today and are looking forward to a few more days in bamako to discover more interesting foods and see the sites before heading to a small town on the niger river 4 hrs east of here called segou.
Monday, February 1, 2010
off to a pilgrimage
it may be a while before we can write again, tomorrow we are off to a huge muslim pilgrimage in touba, senegal with our friend masamba. we are staying with his relatives and getting the whole experience, should be very interesting... We are wondering if we will see any animal sacrifices since we heard that is common at these types of events! after touba we are flying to mali to ride camels in the sahara!
everyone send us your good energy! krystals stomach is worse than ever, man africa is kicking our asses! thank god for immodium!
but that didnt stop us from enjoying a final meal with our senegalese family this afternoon; it was called maffé, peanut sauce, rice, veggies and beef! yes, krystal ate it too and tried to eat around the meat but likely ate some; when in rome... Jara, one of the cooks, also told us how to make the dish so we can try at home one day!
hope everyone is surviving the cold days, we will be wishing for cold when we get to mali where it is in the mid 30s!!
everyone send us your good energy! krystals stomach is worse than ever, man africa is kicking our asses! thank god for immodium!
but that didnt stop us from enjoying a final meal with our senegalese family this afternoon; it was called maffé, peanut sauce, rice, veggies and beef! yes, krystal ate it too and tried to eat around the meat but likely ate some; when in rome... Jara, one of the cooks, also told us how to make the dish so we can try at home one day!
hope everyone is surviving the cold days, we will be wishing for cold when we get to mali where it is in the mid 30s!!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Recovering
Hi everyone!!
Yesterday was interesting... it looks like even we can't overcome the harsh conditions of Africa in the first two weeks here.
Yesterday we rented bikes and made our way to this quiet beach out of town that has less garbage than most around here and were excited to spend a bit of time relaxing in the sun. But unfortunately, Krystal all of a sudden started seeing white everywhere and almost fainted a few times. It was really scary. Darl luckily knew what to do and got a shirt wet to soak Krystal's head with and eventually we made it back to the road. We met these rich snotty french people who considered giving us a ride in their fancy SUV with their fancy African guide but changed their mind because it might have been a bit uncomfotable for them and left us their with a quarter left of their water bottle! but luckily we did meet a nice local guy who owned a nearby restaurant and he flagged down a taxi for us. we promised to eat at his restaurant when we were feeling better!
since then we have basically just been sleeping and trying to recover. looks like we probably had heat exhaustion from a combo of hard workouts, the shits, and trop de soleil! We are starting to realise we aren't as hardcore as we once thought!
don't worry, we have a nice comfortable room to relax in right now and we know this town well so its probably the best place we could have gotten sick.
Love you all,
Krystal and Darl
Yesterday was interesting... it looks like even we can't overcome the harsh conditions of Africa in the first two weeks here.
Yesterday we rented bikes and made our way to this quiet beach out of town that has less garbage than most around here and were excited to spend a bit of time relaxing in the sun. But unfortunately, Krystal all of a sudden started seeing white everywhere and almost fainted a few times. It was really scary. Darl luckily knew what to do and got a shirt wet to soak Krystal's head with and eventually we made it back to the road. We met these rich snotty french people who considered giving us a ride in their fancy SUV with their fancy African guide but changed their mind because it might have been a bit uncomfotable for them and left us their with a quarter left of their water bottle! but luckily we did meet a nice local guy who owned a nearby restaurant and he flagged down a taxi for us. we promised to eat at his restaurant when we were feeling better!
since then we have basically just been sleeping and trying to recover. looks like we probably had heat exhaustion from a combo of hard workouts, the shits, and trop de soleil! We are starting to realise we aren't as hardcore as we once thought!
don't worry, we have a nice comfortable room to relax in right now and we know this town well so its probably the best place we could have gotten sick.
Love you all,
Krystal and Darl
Monday, January 25, 2010
attention! passage du crocodiles
st louis continues to be full of excitement; we ate another amazing meal with out new senegalese family today and drank thé senegalese avec sucre et beaucoup du menthe, c' etait tres bien! we all ate on the floor in a circle from a giant communal bowl, it was fun! and learned about some other delicious foods, like manioc; a potato-like fruit that grows in a tree and these little nuts that taste like raisins. we also went to this amazing bird sancutary and saw millions of huge pelicans and some crocodiles and a giant snake!
Friday, January 22, 2010
bonjour from st louis
hi! so we survived a long annoying trip thattook 12hrs to travel less than 300km and now are staying in st louis.
things we have encountered lately include;
a man trying to pull down darls pants for his change
someone trying to steal krystals keen sandals
a beatiful long beach in a village called yoff but littered with fish guts, goat guts, and goats eatingthe guts and kids poking the guts!
4 goats strapped to the top of our van for yesterdays trip
we are out of time on the internet
love u!!!
things we have encountered lately include;
a man trying to pull down darls pants for his change
someone trying to steal krystals keen sandals
a beatiful long beach in a village called yoff but littered with fish guts, goat guts, and goats eatingthe guts and kids poking the guts!
4 goats strapped to the top of our van for yesterdays trip
we are out of time on the internet
love u!!!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
dakar, senegal
hi friends and family!!
man, its going to take some getting used to these keyboards!! took a while to find the @ key!
so we survived our first two days in africa. got ripped off at the airport, but eventually made it to our guesthouse. things here are quite expensive so we are being pretty stingy and havent eaten a good meal yet! but we did find beans and a baguette and celebrated our arrival with cheap wine on a roof top!
we did our first run along the beach in 30 degree heat, found some other local runners who look like soccer players and we kicked their butts!!
today we managed to take a local bus downtown and krystal is practicing her french a lot!! no, merci comes in handy at the markets and trop cher!!!
the sounds and smells here are amazing, it is sooo bright! the sun is out until 8pm, which is nice because we arent brave enough to go out at night yet! last night went to bed at 9ish and slept until noon! feeling less jet lagged now! and so far no bed bugs.
missing everyone back home, we will try to write again soon.
love krystal and darl
man, its going to take some getting used to these keyboards!! took a while to find the @ key!
so we survived our first two days in africa. got ripped off at the airport, but eventually made it to our guesthouse. things here are quite expensive so we are being pretty stingy and havent eaten a good meal yet! but we did find beans and a baguette and celebrated our arrival with cheap wine on a roof top!
we did our first run along the beach in 30 degree heat, found some other local runners who look like soccer players and we kicked their butts!!
today we managed to take a local bus downtown and krystal is practicing her french a lot!! no, merci comes in handy at the markets and trop cher!!!
the sounds and smells here are amazing, it is sooo bright! the sun is out until 8pm, which is nice because we arent brave enough to go out at night yet! last night went to bed at 9ish and slept until noon! feeling less jet lagged now! and so far no bed bugs.
missing everyone back home, we will try to write again soon.
love krystal and darl
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Back to Ontario
We are off to Ontario tomorrow to finish up our goodbyes and then our flight leaves Jan 15th to Senegal, Africa. We are flying to Senegal through Washington; hope they let me bring my purse on the plane!
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