At the top of Africa, and around - Part 1

As a first storytelling (hei, it's Richard here), I decided to use my trip to Tanzania and mainly Kilimanjaro in april 2011. As always, we need to choose a destination (or destinations) from the almost endless possibilities, then plan when to go, what to do, how to do it, how much time to spend for each part of the trip; the last point going against people that take things as they come and are not so strict regarding time frames, but I'm sure that for some trips, a proper planning is essential.

It was february 2011 and I had just started in a new job. In 2 months time there would be Easter holidays and of course I wanted to use the opportunity to travel for some days. I tried talking to a few friends trying to motivate them for a road trip somewhere in UK. I had seen a nice post about one in Ireland which gave me some ideas, namely http://www.xbhp.com/gier/travelogue/ . Unfortunately, at the time at least I thought so, no one was really interested in it. Talking to a friend from work, Stian, I mentioned my plan and he came with a better suggestion, Kilimanjaro!

Yes, I had wanted to go to Kilimanjaro for some time, and I don't know how it didn't come up in my mind before. I had heard stories, seen pictures, and thought that it would be an amazing place to go. On that same day he told me that he was really interested in going there, we talked and decided to go together there. We started looking for tour companies, flight tickets, other places to go after Kili, etc. There are too many companies offering hikes to Kili, and it is time consuming finding a good and not so expensive one. Also many of them don't have the prices on their website, and/or do not say what is covered in the price, and therefore you have to send an email asking for a quotation and what is included; it is really important to be certain about what you are paying for.

As important as finding a good company is to decide which route to take to reach the top. There are 6 possible routes, each with its own characteristics. There are enough descriptions around, so I will not say much about them. What I can say is, don't go for a short route, or at least try to get some extra days for acclimatization to avoid the symptoms of altitude sickness. Routes which take 5 or 6 days have lower success rate than longer routes. Pay attention that when companies says 7 days, for example, the first of those could be just your arrival at Arusha or Moshi, before starting the hike on the next day.

Image from http://www.tanzaniasafaristz.com/kili-route.htm

When we were researching the routes we saw that Rongai is a route that starts on the opposite side of all the other routes, and closer to the Kenyan border. While checking for flights our best option was to fly to Nairobi and take a bus from there to Tanzania, so that route sounded a good option. We still considered the Machame route which is one of the famous ones, and by reading a bit more we grew fond of the Lemosho route. Talking about reading, we got ourselves a really good reference book about kilimanjaro by Henry Stedman, where he covers a lot of useful and interesting information, including some nice route charts with elevation gain and drop.

So, the plan was to go in the middle of April, during the rainy and therefore low season. We were worried that it might be difficult with the rain to hike for so many days, and reduce our chances of summiting. The Lemosho route was said to be one of the wettest ones, and Rongai the driest one, but we were already quite happy with what we had read about Lemosho and we kind of wanted to risk it. In any case, we were sending questions about those 2 routes, and Machame, to a great number of tour operators, in Nairobi, Arusha and Moshi, but our preference was Moshi, which is much closer to Kili. To cut a long story short, by the middle of march, we decided on a company apparently from Nairobi (called Adventure Kenya Safaris), which had offered us a good amount of service and the Lemosho route on 8 days (6.5 days up and 1.5 days down), for a really good price. They would pick us up from the airport in Nairobi, give us the hotel for that night, give bus tickets to Moshi, the hotel before and after the trek, and a bus ticket to Dar Es Salaam. And we were supposed to be just the 2 of us, so it would be quite an exclusive trip, thanks to the low season :).... but then we found out that an american couple would join, which was completely fine with us.

Ok, we had that arranged and by that time we knew we were going Trondheim → Oslo → Brussels → Nairobi → Moshi → Kilimanjaro → Moshi → Dar Es Salaam → Zanzibar → Nairobi → Brussels → Oslo → Trondheim. With accommodation secured up to Dar Es Salaam, I decided to look for a couchsurfer in Zanzibar, and by my surprise I found one! He replied me quite quickly and was ok with hosting us for 4 nights, and we were really happy about it!. Meanwhile we had to take care of some vaccinations (Hepatitis A - Diphtheria / tetanus - Yellow fever), medicine against malaria (Malarone vs Lariam), arrange some dollars to pay the outstanding amount for the trek, check for proper clothes, go up and down some hills to get in better shape...

Finally on the 14^th of april we started our trip. Already in Oslo the first happening: We were suspected of stealing a guidebook !? Yes, we spent quite some time checking some guidebooks about Tanzania, and also Kenya, but ended up not buying any. A few minutes after leaving the bookshop, we were stopped by a policeman who started asking questions, and we explained that all was just a misunderstanding, so all was ok then.

Reaching Belgium, we had a whole afternoon in Brussels. We both had been there before, so we just wanted to walk around in the center taking a few pictures and drink some good belgium beer. I had stopped drinking beer 1 month before since I somehow thought it could be good for my preparations for Kilimanjaro (go figure...), but being there I couldn't miss that chance. At a pizza place I got a cherry beer called Kriek, which as far as I remember was quite ok.

Afterwards we went to 2 places Stian had reccommended, Delirium Cafe and Rhumbar, both with a great selection of beers. At Delirium I got a traditional Delirium Tremens, one of my favorites, and at Rhumbar I tried Hopus, which was served in a special way: with a yeast shot on the side (on the picture below, already gone). That shot was strange, don't know exactly how to describe it... but the beer itself was well worth it. Another new trial for the night was a Bersalis Tripel, but that was just so so.

Then it was time to head back to the airport to spend the night (the flight to Nairobi was scheduled for 10:30 the next morning). We were so tired that we almost missed the stop for the airport.. we had fallen asleep and the driver didn't see us; luckily we woke up just in time before he left the final stop.

At a starbucks in the airport, such a coincidence: there was a waiter, Bari, from Guinea that had lived in Norway for some time and he was really happy to meet people from Norway, or living there, as is my case. He even offered me a discount on a packet with 2 stroopwafels, which I like a lot! It's rare to meet people that have connections to Norway so randomly like this, so that was cool :)

On the next part the real adventure begins!

Wetland, Wonderland

Place: The Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary (and the Point Calimere Bird Sanctuary) (a.k.a. Kodikkarai Wildlife Sanctuary) 

Location: Vedaranyam, Nagapattinam Distt, Tamil Nadu, India 

How to get there: By road 

Nearest major rail station: Nagapattinam (55 km) 

Nearest airport: Trichy (160 km) 

Entrance costs: Approx Rs. 50 per person (ex. tips)

How do I recreate in words the magic of being in a new place? That…feeling, of mingled excitement, anticipation and adventure; the all-too-natural, mild undercurrent, of fear of the unknown; the sense of simple triumph, at having stepped out my door and come this far – at having discovered, for myself, this place! It was just past 9 am and the temperature was still mild. The sky was grey but the morning fog had lifted. It was quiet. My dad stopped the car and I fumbled around in my bag for my camera while my parents simply drank in the silence. Our Santro was parked on a narrow mud road, right in the middle of a vast, shallow, water-filled wetland. We were in the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, near Vedaranyam in southern Tamil Nadu, and were here at the best time of the year – just after the monsoon rains in December. The sanctuary lies at the apex of the Cauvery river delta. Spanning around 24 sq-km it is a mix of wetlands and dry evergreen forest and is home to the endangered blackbuck deer and a large number of endemic and wintering birds. Two bee-eaters flitted around in the bushes, much to my frustration as I tried in vain to get a shot of their lovely rust and green plumage. On an island just by the road, a boar munched grass contentedly, looking at us with mild curiosity. 

Contented Boar

We had a problem, however. A few metres ahead of us the road itself vanished under water only to reappear a few hundred meters later somewhere on our right. This sanctuary, within two minutes of our entering it, had exceeded every expectation and we could barely look away, let alone drive back. On the other hand, we had driven more than 800 km in the car, and had an equal distance left to cover on our road trip of South India. We couldn’t risk stalling the car, especially not in a forest sanctuary miles away from any major town. My dad and I got down and walked over to where the road vanished under water, wondering if our trusty tall-boy terrier would make it! The water was ankle deep on either side of the road, but there was a fairly strong current where it flowed over across the road and we had no way of knowing how deep it got a few metres on. It was the mother of all dilemmas. 

Mother of all dilemmas

It had been a bit of an adventure getting here and returning was not an option. We had made an unusually early start, having left Karaikal 70 km to the north at 4.30 am, intending to get here just after dawn. Having signed in at the Kodikkarai forest check-post just after the town of Vedaranyam, we thought it would be easy going after that. However, as our luck would have it, signposting for the sanctuary became scarce. Where there were signs, they were paper posters that had been pretty much annihilated and were not of much use.

We spotted a sign for the Pt. Calimere Bird Sanctuary, and took a right-turn onto a treacherous looking, monsoon-battered road. After a few adventures on that road, and with the help of a hitch-hiker who was working with a chemicals company (Chemplast) we emerged onto a vast jetty on the coast, right next to a Chemplast desalination plant. “This is the bird sanctuary Sir, this is it,” said the hitchhiker leaving us slightly disappointed. There were birds there – hundreds of ducks and a few storks, but the fog still persisted and it was high tide, so the charm was lost. The forest official would later tell us that this was the actual bird sanctuary, but it was quite different from what we expected. The official also told us that a large flock of flamingos had landed at the bird sanctuary a week or two before we came, but that they had moved on – wild-life luck!

Somehow not in the mood for a walk down the jetty to its tip a few hundred metres away, we left soon enough, and headed back down the main road. Once again, after going back and forth for about an hour, we found that the road to the sanctuary – or at least, one of the roads – was to the left off the main road, just after a barely existent picture of a blackbuck, on a post. We literally jumped for joy when we spotted the distinctive yellow and green signage on a building in the distance, that said ‘Tamil Nadu Forest Department’. 

Welcome sighting of the Forest Department Office

Now, two minutes into the sanctuary, with the gates locked behind us, we dithered, kept walking back and forth between the car and the vanished road, as if hoping that somehow the waters would part for us! Finally, we decided to do the only thing we could – go back to the gates and ask the forest official for help. We almost felt weak with relief when he looked at our car and said “Oh, that car will definitely go in Sir, in fact, we’ve just sent in two other similar cars. Please wait a bit, the guide’s gone to town, he’ll accompany you and tell you where the road is, and it isn’t difficult once you go in.” And so we went back in, and for the next hour or so had one of the most ethereal journeys we’ve ever been on. The car plunged into water, splashed out again. 

The Santro's wake

Spoonbills, storks, egrets, thrushes and sandpipers cavorted, fed and flew around by the road. In the distance solitary male blackbuck grazed serenely while the females sat in herds, looking on. The guide told us this was the only place in South India where we could see feral horses, and sure enough, we spotted a herd grazing contentedly giving us curious looks as we drove past. Whenever we stopped the first thing we noticed was the sense of solitude. It was just the four of us, the car and the half-submerged mud road while all around us the flora and fauna of the wetland carried on with their lives. In the distance there was a splash as a male blackbuck leapt into a shallow lake and gently ran across it, shaking itself dry as it came out the other side. A brahminy kite majestic in its brown and white plumage sat royally on a dry tree stump watching wetland-life and us go by. At one point, when my dad brought the car to a halt, I spent a good five minutes staring and clicking away at a gorgeously painted stork and a flock of feeding spoonbills, while my mom tried capturing a female blackbuck that looked a lot like Bambi’s mother (though Bambi’s mother was a spotted deer)!

Gorgeous(ly) Painted Stork

The 7 kilometre stretch of road went on right up to the coast, where the sanctuary juts out into the sea. We got out of the car and walked on to a kilometre-long beach that didn’t have another soul on it. A few metres into the water stood the ruins of a lighthouse, built by the Chozha kings who ruled Tamil Nadu around AD 1000. Our guide – who turned out to be something of an expert on the flora, fauna and history of the park, told us that the lighthouse was actually broken in half by the tsunami of 2004 and had stood pretty much intact until then. I waded up to the lighthouse to look at and touch the 1000 year old brick and mortar joints, and couldn’t help but wonder about the men who built this lighthouse, the soldiers who would have manned its lights, the ships from Lanka and around the world that would have looked to it for safety, and behind the shores it stood on, the people of a prosperous and thriving kingdom. 

1000 year old Chozha lighthouse

He also told us that the forest had had salt-water mangroves that took the brunt of the attack during the tsunami, but now show signs of coming back. We climbed up a relatively newer watch-tower and took in the ocean on one side, stretching out towards Sri Lanka, and the blanket of green that was Vedaranyam on the other. Immediately to the west, half a kilometre or so into the sea, we spotted two densely vegetated islands that we learnt are habited by fishermen, who often walk over to the mainland during low tide! Being interested in all things coastal, I found out that this sanctuary, despite being so close to the sea is largely a fresh-water wetland, fed entirely by monsoon precipitation. On being asked how the sea water was kept out, the guide pointed to a series of sand dunes about a metre or so in height, with grass and creepers growing on top. Simple, and apparently effective, though I wasn’t sure if they would last a cyclone. 

Dubious Dunes

We could have stayed on that watch tower for a long while, but headed back to the car when the guide started getting impatient, and drove back to the sanctuary gate, stopping on the way for more photographs and halts. It had been an adventure getting here, it had been an adventure inside, and though the trip was almost over, we knew already that this would be one trip we would not forget. As all good things should, this journey had come to an end and we headed back to Vedaranyam, a happy trio.

The town Vedaranyam, like many towns in India, gets its name from the temple here – dedicated to Vedaranyeswarar, an incarnation of Lord Siva. Vedaranyam also has a place in more recent history as the spot freedom fighter C. Rajagopalachari (affectionately known as Rajaji) chose in 1930 to stage a repeat of Mahatma Gandhi's world-famous Dandi salt march. South India being somewhat isolated from the goings-on in Gujarat, Rajaji took this mission on as a means to reinforce in the south Gandhi's twin messages of independence from British rule and civil disobedience.

Though we didn't stop at these spots, we did make a brief halt at the Ramar Padam (Rama's feet) shrine atop a hill, the highest point in the area, at a dizzy 40 m above sea level. Legend has it that Sri Rama, the king of ancient Ayodhya in northern India, came to coastal Tamil Nadu looking for a place to cross over to Sri Lanka, to rescue his kidnapped wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. He came first to Kodikkarai in Vedaranyam, and the hill he climbed is now home to a quaint shrine holding two lovely stone sculptures of his feet. While at the shrine, we overheard the story of his visit and stay here. Rama came first to Vedaranyam, looking for a crossing to Sri Lanka. However, he believed in fair play and that created a problem. Though Kodikkarai was close enough to Lanka (60 km across the Palk Strait) crossing from here would mean landing in Lanka to the north of Ravana’s palace, a palace that faced south. And even in a war where one side was so obviously in the right, attacking your opponent from behind was an absolute no-no. Thus, Rama had to abandon his plan of crossing from here, and instead journeyed further south to the island of Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi which would not only be the fair thing to do, but would also make better sense strategically. But that is a story for another day.

General Information: 

• General (very vague) directions: We followed the East Coast Road from Karaikal – an absolute treat to drive along, until just beyond the port town of Nagapattinam where we branched off to the east, to follow the state district road to Vedaranyam and Point Calimere. 
• Always ask for directions. Signposting is haphazard and unless you know the names of places on the way, you can get lost quite easily. If ‘Pt. Calimere’ doesn’t ring a bell with people, try ‘Kodikkarai’. 
• There are frequent public bus services from Nagapattinam (if going from Karaikal you may have to change buses at Nagapattinam) to Vedaranyam town, however the forest sanctuary doesn’t provide vehicles so you need to bring your own, or hire a taxi (that might have to be done in Nagapattinam or Karaikal) to visit the sanctuary. 
• If you’ve got your own vehicle, Karaikal is a better base than Nagapattinam, with better hotels though its 20 km further north. We stayed at the Holidays Farms and Resorts, Akkaraivattam, Karaikal, (http://www.holidaysfarms.com/) and were very happy with the rooms and the service. 
• The forest official at the Pt. Calimere sanctuary told us that the place often goes completely dry in summer and they have to bring in water by tanker to fill in the ponds – so make sure you go after the rains!