I always wanted to go to Africa to see animals in Safari and for a while I also wished to hike up Kilimanjaro, so the choice for my last holiday was quite easy - Tanzania!
PHOTOS
Vzdy jsem se chtela podivat do Afriky na zvirata v safari a uz nejakou chvili jsme si take prala vyjit Kilimanjaro, tak ze vyber me posledni dovolene byl lehky - Tanzanie!
FOTKY
Saturday Dec 19th - Wednesday Dec 23rd
The travel to Tanzania was our first adventure. Even the original itinerary was crazy: San Francisco - Charlotte - Washington DC - Addis Abbaba - Kilimanjaro, but it got even crazier. The day we left there was big snowstorm on the east coast, so we got stucked over night in Charlotte. The next day we managed to fly to Washington DC and spent one night on the airport there. The next morning we should be rebooked on flight to Ethiopia, but we were told we are not in the system! We got stand by ticket, but luckily got on the plane. This plane was about 6 hours late so we also missed plane to Kilimanjaro! Since there is only one flight per day, we had to stay over night in Addis Abbaba too. After 5 days of travel we arrived finaly to Tanzania on Wednesday! The Zara agency took us to our hotel, where we got ready for our next day Kilimanjaro trip.
Sobota 19. Prosince - Streda 23. ProsinceCesta do Tanzanie bylo nase prvni dobrodruzstvi. I puvodni plan byl sileny: San Francisco - Charlotte - Washington DC - Addis Abeba - Kilimanjaro, ale nakonec to dopadlo jeste sileneji. V den, kdy jsem odletali byla velka snehova bourka na vychodnim pobrezi, tak ze jsme zustali uviznuti v Charlotte. Dalsi den se nam podarilo odleted do Washington DC, kde jsme stravili noc na letisti. Nasledujici rano jsme meli mit presunutou letenku na let do Etiopie, ale bylo nam receno, ze nejsme v systemu! Cekali jsme tak, jestli bude v letadle misto a nastesti jsme se do nej nakonec dostali. Letadlo melo ale asi 6 hodin zpozdeni a tak nam uletelo letadlo do Kilimanjara. Protoze z Addis Abeba leti jen jedno letadlo denne do Kilimanjara, museli jsme zustat pres noc taky v Addis Abeba. Po peti dnech cestovni jsme nakonec ve stredu doleteli do Kilimanjara. Zara cestovni agentura, nas vzala do hotelu, kde jsme se pripravili na nas vystup na Kilimanjaro, ktery mel zacit druhy den.
Thursday Dec 24th - Wednesday Dec 30thWe started our 7-day Kilimanjaro hike on Christmas Eve. We decided for the longer version to be able to aclimatize to high altitude. Despite this I still had a problem with the elevation and had to take altitude sickness pill before summit day. In our group were two more people - Matthias from Germany/Dubai and Jonathan from Chicago. Jonathan was underprepared, Mathias had extra equipment, so they formed nice couple in the end :) We chose this time for hiking up Kili because it was supposed to be beginning of dry season - we had rain every single day.... starting from about 10 -11 am, so we learned to get up early, so we walk as little as we have to in the rain. The temperature wasn't too cold, just wet, only the summit day was pretty chilly and we had to move not to get too cold. We had with us (4 people) 1 guide, 2 assistant guides, 1 cook, 1 assistant cook and 12 porters - little bit excesive, but we didn't have choice. They were carrying our tents, equipment, food, dining tent, special toilet, and who know what else :)
Ctvrtek 24. Prosince - Streda 30. Prosince
Zacali jsme nas 7 denni vystup na Kilimanjaro na Stedry den. Rozhodli jsme se pro delsi verzi vystupu, abychom meli cas se aklimatizovat. I tak jsem ale mela problem s vysokou nadmorskou vyskou a musela jsem si vzit specialni prasek pred vystupem na uplny vrchol. V nasi skupine byli dva dalsi lide - Mathias z Nemecka/Dubai a Jonathan z Chicaga. Jonatan prijel nepripraveny, Mathias mel zase extra vybaveni a tak nakonec vytvorili dokonaly par :) Vybrali jsme si toto obdobi na vystup Kilimanjara, protoze ted mel byt zacatek sucheho obdobi - prselo nam ale kazdy den..... zacalo kolem 10 -11 rano, a tak jsme se brzo poucili a vstavali brzo, abychom sli co nejmene za deste. Zima velka nebyla, jen vlhko a jen v den dobyvani vrcholu bylo chladno a tak jsem se museli pohybovat, abychom moc neprochladli. Meli jsme sebou (4 lide) 1 pruvodce, 2 pomocne pruvodce, 1 kuchare, 1 pomocneho kuchare a 12 nosicu - trochu prehnane, ale nemeli jsme na vyber. Ti nesli nase stany, vybaveni, jidlo, stan na jezeni, specialni zacho, a kdo vi co jeste :)
Dec 24: Machame gate (1490 m/4890 ft) - Machame camp (2980 m/9780 ft) - 18 km/11 m
Dec 25: Machame camp (2980 m/9780 ft) - Shira camp (3840m/12 600 ft) - 9 km/5.6 m
Dec 26: Shira camp (3840m/12 600 ft) - Lava Tower (4630m/15 190 ft)-Barranco camp (3950 m/12 960 ft) - 15 km/9.3 m
Dec 27: Barranco camp (3950m)- Kanga Camp (4200 m/13780 ft) - 7 km/4.3m
Dec 28: Karanga Camp (4200 m/13780 ft) - Barafu camp (4550m/14930 m) - 13 km/8.1 m
Dec 29: Barafu camp (4550m/14930 ft)-Uhuru Peak (5895m/19340 ft)-Mweka (3100m/10170 ft) - 7 km/4.3 m up and 23 km/14.3 m down
Dec 30: Mweka (3100m/10170 ft) - Mweka Gate (1980 m/6500 ft) - 15 km/9.3 m
Thursday Dec 31th - Sunday Jan 3rd
Since we arrived two days later than we supposed to, we didn't have time to drive to Serengeti NP. As we were told it wasn't famous big migration time anyway, so what we saw in the other parks was pretty much the same as we would there. We visited Tarangire NP, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara NP. All the places were amazing and we were quite lucky to see many animals very close - elephants, giraffs, zebras, lions, hyenas, etc. We travelled just two of us in a car with opened roof and one driver who was also our guide and he stopped whenewer we wanted to take any photos. The last day we went for little walk around the area, which was nice to get feel for the place not only from the car.
Ctvrtek 31. Prosince - Nedele 3. Ledna
Jelikoz jsme prijeli o dva dny pozdeji nez jsme meli, nemeli jsme cas zajet do Serengeti NP. Ale bylo nam receno, ze ted neni doba prosluleho velkeho pohybu zvere, a tak co jsme videli v ostatnich parcich bychom videli i tam. Navstivili jsme Tarangire NP, Ngorongor Crater a Lake Manyara NP. Vsechny mista byly uzasne a my jsme meli taky velke stesti, ze jsme videli hodne zvirat z velke blizkosti - slony, zirafy, zebry, lvi, hyeny, atd. Cestovali jsme jen my dva v aute s oteviraci strechou a jednim ridicem, ktery byl zaroven nas pruvodce a zastavil nam kdykoliv jsme chteli neco vyfotit. Posledni den jsme sli na kratkou prochazku po okoli, coz nam pomohlo pocitit atmosferu okoli ne jen z auta.
Sunday Jan 3rd - Monday Jan 4th
One of our biggest adventures was our flights back. When somebody rebooked our tickets on the way to Africa he or she managed to "exchanged" our tickets for the flights back. Nobody was able to figure out for what.....! Thanks to long pressing dialogs and nice people in Ethiopian Airlines we flew from Kili to Addis Abbaba and to Washington practically without any ticket (have to be said that from Addis to Washington in business class, so not so bad for such a long flight!). In Wasthington US airways managed to find our lost tickets and since our reservation for the last flight actually didn't disappeared, we could finish our flight as planned!
Nedele 3. Ledna - Pondeli 4. Ledna
Jeden z nasich nevetsich dobrodruzstvi byl let zpet. Kdyz nam nekdo prebukoval nasee listky na ceste do Afriky, podarilo se "vymenit" nase listky na cestu zpet. Ale nikdo nebyl schopen zjistit za co...! Diky dlouhemu presvedcovani a hodnym lidem v Ethiopskych aerolinkach jsme leteli z Kilimanjara do Addis Ababa a do Washintonu prakticky bez listku (z Addis do Washingtonu v prvni tride, a to nebylo vubec spatne na takovy dlouhy let!). Ve Washintonu se US Ariways podarilo najit nase listky a nastesti i kdyz jsme ztratili listky na nas posledni let, tak reservace na mista zustaly a tak jsme mohli dokoncit cestu domu podle planu!
