of love, freedom and spanners in the works

I certainly didn't imagine life in africa the way it has turned out - I am still trying to get to grips with the fact that I am living in a big house, have a dog, can afford a car, have people working for me and all that as a volunteer... but that's the way it is and most days I love my life.

I love my dog - she is the most incredible creature ever - so kind and tender, full of beans and mischievous and now my companion until death do us part.

I love my car - it has given me freedom and mobility; allows me to plan even less and up until a week ago was very reliable and enduring. but as happens with 20 year old cars, there comes a point at which things start going wrong. the last 3 weeks my little lady - 'bertinchen' - has been a bit sick and spent most of her waking hours in the garage - it all started with her not having much power when going uphill and as I am a greenhorn in engines I took her to the garage and told them to look into it. as I was going to pick her up I was told she needed a new clutch - another 4 days without a means of transport... oh well - I guess it just needed to be done.
when I finally got her back I just couldn't get her to start without pushing - luckily there are lots of hills in kigali.

I had the drivers of the office look at her and after I'd tried for ages to start her up one of them got in the car, turned the key and she sprung to life like there had never been a problem - this seems to happen a lot to me these days; things don't work and as soon as the expert comes along they behave as though nothing had happened... is the world against me? ;-))
low and behold the next morning my poor guards had to push the car again - I park face up the hill, so can't do the rolling down the hill directly... after the second time my guard kindly drew my attention to the fact that I should park her the other way round. I went to work again and in the evening couldn't get her to budge and had to leave her over night.
the following morning I asked another driver to help me - and he opened the bonnet, and started looking around and suggested lending me his battery - we connected it - still nothing. ok - so it's not the battery. then he sucked some petrol out of the tube and spat it onto the motor (a mouthful of petrol at 8am - I can't think of anything I'd rather do at that time of the morning!) I tried and she sprung to life for 3 seconds - ok - so it's to do with the amount of petrol that gets into the engine when starting - he turned the little container that holds some petrol for starting upside down and diagnosed that it was due to the petrol not reaching the tube that it didn't get to the motor. wicked - my car was fixed with a simple turning of a container - I was happy.
in the afternoon I got off work and decided to go for a little cruise before my hairdressers appointment - put the key in the starter, turned it and all that came out was a lame stuttering which died off altogether after a short while... f***!
I went to find more drivers who again opened the bonnet and looked and pondered and discussed, tried to start the car and ended up doing it by pushing her. off to the garage again - too late to do anything before the weekend... b****r.
back to garage on monday - monday evening pick up the car - it seems to work now - yay. tuesday morning - nothing again... more pushing by the guards but everytime I broke the motor died - so instead of going to work I went to the garage - again.
I complained that they had screwed it up - I'd never had these kinds of problems before they changed the clutch. I got her back last night - and managed to start her this morning although after a few stutters.... fingers crossed I'll be able to take off tonight!

the dark side of the moon

how many times have you been camping in the african bush with a double matress, a bialetti coffee maker and had drinks with ice under the stars watching an almost total eclipse of the moon dancing round a bonfire? well - this is my weekend in akagera summed up in three lines - in one word: BREATHTAKING! definitely one for the memory box.

there is nothing like driving along through african countryside with some good music and company - I got carried away by just looking out the window and letting myself be absorbed by the music and the countryside; in a world of my own, too happy for words - feeling like everything is in perfect alignment; being in exactly the right place at the right time - I would not have changed anything.

I also realised how much I miss camping and being outdoors, sitting around a fire and sleeping under the skies; must remember to do this more often. and camping with a car is fun; you get to take your house to the bush ;-)
we packed the van with a double matress, moskito nets, charcoal and kerosene, the kerosene lamps, food and drink for an army, coffee pots and a sound system - if you do it, you might as well do it right, right?

off we went to akagera national park which is only a good hours drive from kigali but the landscape is very different; still hilly but you can already see how it turns into the plains of the serengeti; the vegetation is less dense, the dominant colour the yellow of the dried grass spotted with green dots of shrubs and bushes against the sometimes red, sometimes ocre colour of the earth.

upon arrival we went and had lunch at the lodge before setting off in search of giraffes and maybe the elephant. at some point we lost the others and were just driving through the bush, stumbling upon a herd of antilopes without a clue of where we were going or indeed where the other car had gone. but thanks to a phone call indicating us that the others were just past the herd of okapis and had spotted a giraffe and a compass we miraculously managed to find them - and the giraffe.

as night was falling we drove up to the camp site which is on a hill overlooking one of the lakes in the park. we set up our 'tent' - we tied a moskito net to a tree and placed the double matress underneath it - done! the others struggled a little more with their swish little igloos; but in the end everyone had a 'roof' under which to sleep.
we got a good fire going and indulged in some domain de bregon with pringles before proceeding to the main course of the event - brochettes, bread and pasta salad. we even still had some ice left from the improvised coolbox and thus had some cocktails with ice whilst sitting round the fire listening to music from the portable stereo - can it get any better?
oh yes! looking at the moon we suddenly realised that there was a shadow moving over it - and it wasn't a cloud... so we concluded that what we were in fact witnessing was an eclipse of the moon. well - it was one of the most amazing moments I have lived so far. magical - absolutely magical!

the moon shining onto the lake

brochette

after a night under the stars we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and as we came prepared started making coffee - well, there's nothing like a good coffee after waking up! we unpacked the breakfast buffet which consisted of bread, manchego cheese, nutella and peanut butter, fruit and cookies - you name it! and after a nice chilled breakfast we packed up our belongings to go and find some wildlife. we weren't hugely successful but still managed to see a couple of bald eagles, hippos, different types of antilopes and animals that look like an african version of deer, kingfishers and ibises.

sunrise


the 'tent'




breakfast buffet

we stopped at the campsite by the lake and spontaneously started having lunch. unfortunately some of the bread had gotten drenched in kerosene, but luckily there was more ;-) so we indulged in more tortilla de patatas (home made of course), left over pasta salad, cheese and fresh pineapple - seriously delicious and spot on! then a little siesta in the shade.
we concluded our tour d'akagera with a drink in the lodge.

hippos

bald eagle

we were just about to settle down with a refreshment as ana called us - a baboon had smelt the food on the back of the pick up and helped himself to one of our garbage bags (the one with the kerosene-bread) - fascinating to watch him go through our garbage, carefully inspecting all the stuff and eating what he deemed eadible. it's quite weird to see a furry thing moving just like a human being. once he'd finished with that bag he climbed onto the back of the van and opened the carton of juice and started drinking. the guards from the lodge chased him away and took our garbage and we quickly proceeded to lock all the food related items in the car - after all we wanted to drink our coffee in peace before hitting the road back home to kigali.

checking out the garbage

the indian pants go to the congo

well - how to describe what I experienced this weekend? it was what spanish people call 'la hostia' and I am still in a daze and lost for words. it was one of those experiences where you see something and it's so incredible and unbelievable that you sort of can't take it in; it doesn't feel real and it's impossible to digest what's happening - well, that kind of sums up my feelings about this weekend. but let me try and tell the story from the beginning...

about a week or so ago tifas was talking about his trip to goma and how he wanted to climb the nyiragongo volcano (the one that erupted in 2002 and for which I sent out blankets on behalf of the swiss red cross - you can still see donor-plates along the road to the national park ;-)) - it took all of no time to convince me to go along too - I LOVE volcanoes and after a couple of difficult weeks at work a bit of volcanic energy was exactly what I needed.

so on friday I left work at 12.30 and got into my car to head up to goma. my colleague lindsay hitched a ride with me as he wanted to see gisenyi and goma - lucky me! suddenly - we'd just been talking about the car and stuff that can go wrong, etc. - when the acceleration stops working. I pull over and we open the bonnet (I was really scared something had gone severly wrong and we were going to be stuck on the road for the rest of the day). lindsay identified the problem straight away: the contact with the battery had been shaken off (my car is a very clattery vehicle, so no surprise that the screws get shaken loose). we miraculously manged to find half a pliers and some wire with which we fixed the contact back onto the battery - and the car jumped back to life as though nothing had happened. brilliant!
so - off we continued on the road to congo. we made good time and got to the border at 5.30. crossing over and getting into congo was much easier than last time and we did not have to pay any 'coffee' this time. upon arrival in goma we went to a hotel on the lake and had a tembo (congolese beer) about which I had been dreaming ever since deciding that I was going to go and climb the nyiragongo. it tasted amazing and whilst we were having beer and just enjoying sundown at lake kivu the tour operator joined us and lindsay spontaneously joined up to climb the volcano with us.

so with a lot of anticipation for the next day we went to the supermarket to buy our food and then went to the hotel to drop our bags and finally to go and have dinner at the doga bar before heading back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before the climb.
we got woken up in the morning first by thunder and then by the welding and soldering noises from the workshop just below the window - oh well - at least we didn't need the alarm clock ;-)) after a cold shower I packed my bags and we went downstairs for breakfast - lovely cup of nescafe nido and an omelett on a piece of bread with blue band - three things I don't understand about central africa: nescafe, nido and blue band - if you don't know these things, don't endeavour to get to know them, they're not worth it!

eventually the tour operator came to pick us up from the hotel and we drove to the entrance of the national park where we would meet up with the porters and guides. we stood around for ages, porters identifying which bags they would carry, tying stuff together to make it easier to carry and all the muzungus shaking hands and introducing each other - after what seemed forever we finally set off towards the volcano - the peak seemed so far away and it was easy to think - 'ghosh - are we ever going to get there today?'. but the path pretty much immediately leads into thick forest which obstructs any view beyond the immediate path ahead. the ground was soft and moist and the air full of that musky smell a damp forest emits; really reminded me of our family trips to the woods picking mushrooms - and I realised once more how much I miss going into nature. when you stood still and there were no human sounds you could hear the insects humming and the birds singing and you could hear peacefulness - I'm not sure how to describe this, but it's the sound of silence accompanied by the sounds of the birds, the insects, the rustling of the trees - but underneath it all is that audible silence that to me represents absolute peacefulness. strange to feel this peacefulness in a forest in which I was never sure whether we didn't have the odd pair of invisible eyes on our backs; after all it's the congo and the area is not necessarily safe - luckily it all went well.

then after about an hour or so of walking we got to the first resting point, just beyond the trees. we had reached the area where there used to be a forest but the lava from the 2002 eruption had killed all the vegetation on its way down the hill. as a result the area looks quite bizarre: there are dead tree trunks sticking out of a surface of lava - the trees that hadn't turned to dust in the flood of liquid stone that rolled down that hill (I couldn't help but think that it must have looked incredible to see the lava come down the hill - although devastating for the people certainly an incredible natural phenomenon). out of the cracks in the lava you have all sorts of tentative plants growing: mini fern leaves, little flowers, yellow, purple, pink, orange, blue and all the rocks covered in lichen - apparently the first thing to grow after everything has died in a place (I seem to remember that piece of information from somewhere - but I could be wrong ;-)) anyways, the whole landscape looks incredible; a black undertone and then the most incredible little spots of colour contrast all over - and it's amazing what you can see when you look closely - a whole micro-cosmos of life amongst the rocks. walking up the hills we also saw smoke coming out of the shrubs in places; since it was smelling of burnt wood we thought they were the fires in which people are making charcoal. we found out at one of the stops that in fact they are holes in the mountain and there's hot air coming out - sort of breathing holes of the volcano - absolutely amazing! we also saw one of the big cracks that had opened in 2002 and from where the lava had poured out and down the hill. in short - an incredible landscape. from a hiking point of view - a nightmare. stumbling up the steep path over fields of loose lava rocks is not exactly easy... but the experience as a whole was very special and also very meditative for me. there is something amazing about how you can push yourself through a physical challenge just by mentally adjusting!

tifas (with wound)

holes in the ground with steam coming out
(not very visible in the picture but amazing in reality!)

after I don't know how long on the lava fields we entered a forest again - this time it was much more primary rainforest type forest where the lava hadn't destroyed the vegetation. apparently there is not enough pressure in the crater of the volcano for it to explode upwards, so it pressed itself out through the bottom and therefore the top bit of it is still untouched by the recent eruption. again, incredible vegetation, humidity and birds and insects. high-altitude rainforest is beautiful! to walk up that part however was extremely challenging and I had to stop very frequently; we were also getting to an altitude that should not be underestimated... and the steepness of the path in combination with the fact that it was steps of different heights and the altitude made it a big challenge for me - but step by step I managed to get ahead. finally, after what seemed like hours we reached the metal huts which are apparently the shelter of the guides for the night (the ones that accompanied us stayed up on the crater with us) and we could see the end about 200 metres ahead; but these 200 metres seemed like 200 kilometres away: a steep strech of rock interspersed with volcano-tobacco (a plant that definitely looks like tobacco - don't know whether you can actually smoke it though) and yellow flowers and little bushes of grass here and there. it is so steep you almost have to walk on all fours and it seems absolutely endless when you're climbing it. I did stop after nearly every step because it was so hard to get up there - and it went on forever. ahead we could see the people that had already made it and the tents that were being pitched up - and it seemed so far away! eventually I got closer and closer to the top and to my left I could make out the steep drop that was already the crater. I stopped and waited for tifas to join me - I wanted to reach the summit with him - at the same time. and it is totally overpowering to arrive at the top and there is the crater - no warning, no physical distance to prepare you for what you see - it's right there, right in front of you - a big massive perfectly circular crater - I don't know how large the diameter might be - it seemed like at least 2km and then just a steep drop down, in some places overhanging. the guards were very edgy and kept reminding us not to go too close to the edge in some places as rocks might break off and people could fall into the crater (this time last year a chinese woman fell down and from the stories you hear it was not a pretty sight!). so anyway - steep drops all around, i don't know, maybe 300 metres and there's like a smaller crater inside the big one. you can see the lava on the ledge - and from the ledge another drop down to yet another smaller crater in which you have the boiling lava.

this is how steep the last bit was!

the crater

...

now - I am not sure how to describe the sight of boiling rock, of a perfectly circular opening in the earth from which the earth itself if breathing - smoke billowing out in big clouds, the sound resembling a rough sea and waves crashing onto the rocks, only the waves are lava and the spray thousands of degrees hot - glowing drops of liquid earth flying upwards to fall back down - some landing on the ledge outside the crater. the whole thing glowing red, the top cooling off and showing cracks in changing directions, then suddenly one of the cracks widens and the lava comes bubbling out, accompanied by the smoke and steam that are set free - at times very intense then dying down only to flare up shortly afterwards - and this overwhelming sensation that this crater has been doing this for thousands and thousands and thousands of years - all the time, never stopping, a sea of lava rising and falling through time - oblivious to the politics surrounding the mountain, oblivious to the conflict on its hills and oblivious to the tourists that come or don't come - an age old natural phenomenon following its course. I felt so small and unimportant facing this crater of pure energy and power and it was great to be made aware again of how small we are in this world, of how unimportant we are really to the course of the world - that we might think we make an impact but in the grand scheme of things we are only a tiny little element and there are elements way more powerful than us out there - a good feeling! I think we tend to take ourselves way too importantly most of the time.

red label is a good heating system ;-))

'sleeping' on the edge of the crater

needless to say I could barely take my eyes off the crater and its bubbling lava and so after our dinner (hotdogs with mayonnaise and asparagus - total decadence!) tifas and I took our bottle of whisky and went and stood by the crater again philsophising about life and love for ages - remembering stories and telling them - feeling invigorated by life and its course and happy to share such a special place and moment with a dear friend. eventually it got unbearably cold and we decided to squeeze into the tent with lindsay (the tent, I think, would have been intended for one person - we were three; one of us nearly 2m high and the tent was already short for me!!) needless to say we didn't sleep much if at all and crept out of the tent again at 5am feeling groggy and cold. but nothing could spoil the effect of the volcano - I just couldn't get enough of it - seeing it in the fog of the pre-dawn light, then suddenly the light of the day creeping over the edge of the crater, illuminating the bottom and bringing out the contrast of all the different levels in it - the smoke of the crater against the early morning sun and in our backs still the cloud which was covering the hill we were having to walk down shortly. after a cup of nescafe which came full of ash and cooled off too quickly and one last look at the now obscured crater I turned my back on it and started the descent back into the valley.

we hadn't reached the metal huts at the bottom of the summit and I already had to start stripping off my endless layers of warm clothes - incredible what a temperature change there was from just a hundred metres or so. after about 1 hour I was soaking wet already and my feet and legs were tired - due to the cold on the top and the emotion of seeing the crater and everything I didn't feel the exhaustion or the tiredness from the climb; but after a night without any sleep and on a steep slope going down I became brutally aware of my aching muscles. to cut a long story short: the descent was painful and slow and extremely exhausting - two walking sticks broke and as a result I fell, my feet were simply too tired to not stumble over the rocks and it was a mental super-challenge to carry on - especially as the reward awaiting me was a long drive back to kigali. but it was worth every single second of it and if I wasn't in so much pain today I would say I'd do it again - but I'm not so sure right now ;-))

the descent into the cloud

and I did it all in my indian pants from ecuador - I still vividly remember climbing the cotopaxi in my first ever pair of indian pants almost 10 years ago - maybe volcanoes have to be climbed in indian pants ;-))