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!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
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!!
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