Mpulungu, Muslims, Malaria, Mwongozo, Mahale, and More!!!

Hi, I hope you all appreciate the effort that went into this posts title.

Well, its been quite a two weeks to say the least, and this will probably be a long post. I'll just start from where I last ended at Victoria Falls unti I made it this morning to Kigoma, Tanzania.

After a nice few days in southern Zambia in Livingstone and Victoria Falls I took a 24 hour bus ride to the far north of the country to Zambia's port on Lake Tanganyika, Mpulungu. I arrived pretty exhuasted from the bus, but in better shape than I thought I'd be. I assumed there'd be a bank, internet, some someblance of a town there, but I was wrong. It's a pretty small town with just the most basic services, so no bank, no internet, nada. The setting is gorgeous, right on Lake Tangayika, with two islands right off shore. Since I planned on there being a bank, and didn't have enough money for the next part of my trip, two days after arriving I had to take a 5 hour bus(each way!) the nearest town with a bank. I guess that's the price I pay for not checking things out first.

Anyways, I arrived on Sunday and on Friday a big passenger boat was scheduled to depart north towards Tanzania and the chimpanzee park, Mahale Mountain, that I really wanted to visit. Outside of teh bank day I spent my days hiking and canoeing around the lake. First, a little side story.

I found one place in town that served rice, which was great, because I can't stand nsima. There was a big poster of the Dome of the Rock, the Hajj and Medina, so I assumed the owners were muslim. There's a big mosque at the entrance to town as well, and Zambia has an ok sized muslim population, suppsedly. Well, after my second day there in a row the owner came to talk with me in very poor english. Eventually I told him I came from Israel and that I had been to the Dome of the Rock, pointing to the poster on the wall. Well...due to the difficulty in communication it turns out he thought I was a muslim after I told him I was at the mosque. I didn't discover this until the next day when I came back for my rice and vegetables and there were two guys in those perfectly white long dress looking things that you see many arab and muslim men wear. They said hello, they were happy to meet me and quote "you may try to make plans, but only Allah can choose your path". Both were from Malawi originally, I found out, and spoke very good English, unlike the restaurant owner. They than told me that I should stay in Mpulungu start some businesses, but first there are some charitable donations that I should make. They than gave me a list of a few different things from some fellow muslim's medical bills, to mosque repairs, and a donation to their local school.

At this point I'm confused, kind of uncomfortable, but I had figured out at least that they thought I was muslim. At this point I told them that I think there's a misunderstanding. I told them I was not muslim, to which they reacted quite confused. It turns out the misunderstanding was when I pointed to the poster. They all thought you had to be a muslim to be able to go to the Dome of the Rock. They were quite embarrassed after realizing the mistake, but there was no tension. I kept coming back to that place each day I was in mpulungu for rice and vegetables(cabbage only) and the owner was as friendly as you could imagine.

Well, I went on two hikes while I was there waiting for the boat. One was through a road, and footpaths between the closest town to Mpulungu, Mbala, and Mpulungu. Alltogether it was around 35k, so I was pretty tired, but it was an awesome hike. Great views of the lake, nice people and villages along the way, and I got to see a lot of small farms.

The next day I went to Kalambo falls, which is the second highest single drop fall in Africa, whatever that means exactly, at 212 meters. Victoria Falls isn't even the highest falls in its own country. After walking up the rift valley escarpment a few hours I got to the amazing falls. The gorge is stunning, tons of birds flying around, and its a big falls. I'll post pictures so y'all can see. My other days in mpulungu i just rented a small dugout canoe and went to the offshore islands and went swimming. I also read another book, this one by an African author, Elechi Amadi. I read his first book, The Concubine, which was very good, and I highly recommend it. He's Nigerian, and his books are on traditional Nigerian life and his experiences during the civil war there. I'm hoping to find another one of his at some point along the way.

So Friday comes, the boat to Tanzania is supposed to arrive, and I wake up feeling horrible. In the back of my mind I knew immediately what it was, but I didn't want to admit it. The boat hadn't shown up, so I went to the harbor, and they said it was delayed, but would come in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I'm just feeling worse and worse, and I go to the hostel owner and tell him I need to see a doctor. I had aches everywhere, a horrible headache, felt dizzy, all the signs of malaria. A doctor came to the hostel pretty shortly thereafter and gave me this prick on the spot malaria test they do. It came out negative, but they often do when in fact its malaria. In any case he told me to start taking the medications to treat it. I have enough for four or five bouts of Malaria, so that wasn't an issue, and I started on those pills. Well, just after that the hostel owner told me he heard the boat wasn't coming until the next day, which was just as good, because there was no way I was going to be able to get on that boat. For about 24 hours I was competely miserable, and another 24 hours feeling horrible. The boat came in the next morning, and somehow I managed to walk over to the harbor and get on it. It was probably not the best decision to get on the boat for my health, but if I didn't get on the boat than I was stuck in mpulungu with no way of getting to the park and it would have been an enormous hassle.

The boat, normally the Liemba, is supposed to go from its main port of Kigoma, in Tanzania, to Mpulungu and back once a week. Well, the UN has recently started shipping Congolese refugees that fled to Zambia back to the Congo with this boat. For about two months, and for another few months its pretty much just doing the refugee runs. The boat that came, the Mwongozo, usually goes from Kigoma to the capital of Burundi. About once a month now it does the Kigoma to Mpulungu route, and I got really lucky that the week I showed up in Mpulungu it was coming. So if I didn't get on the boat that day I'd really be stuck in Mpulungu.

My first day on the boat I felt horrible still, but it wasn't as bad as the first day, so that was one promising sign at least. I got myself first class cabin, which while not comfortable by any means, at least meant I had a room to myself. This was Saturday, and when I woke up Sunday I felt almost like a new person. Not feeling great, but compared to the previous two days I could not have been happier. Until than I thought there was no way I'd be able to go to Mahale Mountain park, and that I'd have to take the boat all the way to Kigoma. The stop for Mahale Mountain was supposed to be around 3-4am on Monday, so I told myself I keep feeling better all day than I'll still get off.

The boat ride itself is amazing in its own right. The lake is stunning, and there are small villages every few kilometers. The boat stops in the lake at quite a few villages, since there are no docks big enough for it to stop at, and small boats race out to bring it passengers and cargo. Its absolute chaos with boats ramming eachother, cargo falling in the water, fights breaking out, and its quite a scene to witness. I was going to have to get down onto these boats at the Mahale stop, which wasn't the most comforting thought, but I felt better all day and I was set on going to that park. Also, after appearing outside my room, after being holed up teh first day sick, I was something of a celebrity on the boat. The captain invited me to the wheel, radio room, whatever, and everybody wanted to talk to me. I was the only foreigner, and in fact from Mpulungu until I arrived this morning in Kigoma, almost two weeks, I met no other travellers or foreigners at all. I was even given permission to use the officers deck to sit and enjoy the ride. It's the top deck of the boat, and its practically void of people, while the bottom two levels are overflowing with people.

Well, the huge horn that goes off at each stop went off at 4:30am at the stop for Mahale Mountains, I was feeling even better than the day before, and I got off in the middle of the night into the madness of the small fishing boat frenzy. No problems though, and a few minutes later I made it to shore. I may not have had malaria, the test did come out negative, but I'm pretty sure I did. The symptoms were the same, and the fact that after taking the medication I improved so rapidly makes me think it was malaria. Its behind me now though, I feel fine, and I really, really hope I don't get it again. I don't think I can ever donate blood again, which kind of sucks.

Anyways, I got to the park headquarters for Mahale Mountain, and was in for a small shock. The costs for the park, new as of January 1st, are ridiculous. You have to pay 80 US for each 24 hours you stay in the park, you have to pay 50 dollars for the park boat to transport you from their headquarters to the campsite, 20 dollars for every four hours you have a park guide, and you're not allowed to walk without a guide, and finally 30 dollars per night for their accomadations. Even if you bring your own tent, its 30 dollars. In short, you have to pay a fortune to see the park. I had come all this way, so I wasn't not going to go, but I couldn't stay as long as I wanted. The other issue was a boat back to Kigoma. I arrived in the park on Monday, and there was a boat to Kigoma on Wednesday and Saturday. I couldn't afford to pay park fees through Saturday, so I had no choice but to leave on Wednesday, yesterday for Kigoma. The fees, in my opinion, represent how Africa is really a destination more catered for high end tourism only. I'll try to write more about it in a different post, but this one will be way too long as is, so it'll have to wait.

So......after a long argument I got the park people to let me pay 80 dollars one time, enter the park on Monday and leave Wednesday morning. I also got them to agree to let me pay for two guided hikes, but have them be all day and not be timed to the 4 hour bullshit. I had travelled on a boat for two days, planned on going to this park for months, and at this point I was just going to have to bit the bullet and pay a lot of money.

The park is absolutely stunning. The Mahale mountains rise up to 2,500 meters, and go straight into the lake. The water is exceptionally clear in this area and there are stretches of actually white sand from the ground of shells. The forests on the mountains are dense, tropical, and some of the prettiest I have ever seen. The mountains create their own weather system, so the area gets a lot more rain than the surrounding area. The area is also home to around 700 chimpanzees, the largest community left anywhere, and has been the site of a Japanese research project since the 60's.

So I hiked some 12 hours alltogher through thick forest, got stung by nasty flies, ants, and probably some other things, sweated out half my body weight, and I saw.....NO chimpanzees! Writing it just now its still hard for me to grasp, but I saw none. Chimpanzees move along the same trails pretty constantly, and every few days they move high up into the mountains, where there are no hiking trails, for a few days. Well, my guide is pretty convinced that I came during the two days the chimpanzees are up in the mountains. The hiking was absolutely amazing, its beautiful there, but I was, and still am to a lesser degree though, quite dissapointed in not seeing the chimpanzees.

On the second day we came across the Japanese researcher, this was already the end of the day, and upon hearing that I hadn't seen any chimps and that I was leaving the next day because of the costs started pleading with the park rangers to let me stay. I thanked him, but told him it wasn't his fight, and it wouldn't not have done any good. He offered to let me stay at his research station, and he's a really nice guy who's been to Israel too. He's collecting data for some post doctoral research of his, so I wish him lots of good research data and hope his papers get published.

A bit demoralized after everything I had gone through to get to the park and not having seen the chimps I left Mahale mountain yesterday morning for what I thought would be about a 10 hour ride on local fishing boats to Kigoma. When I got on I was told that we'd be arriving the next morning, today. So that just added to my mood, but I think at that point so many things had not gone according to plan that I no longer cared. The boat ride was horribly uncomfortable, but I actually quite enjoyed it. Last night was cold and miserable, and I'll never do anything like it again, but it was a hell of an experience, and I have really experienced this lake.

Now I'm in Kigoma, I've showered, and I'm just starting to take in the last few weeks on this lake. A few things about the lake(no, the post ain't over). Lake Tanganyika is the longest lake in the world and the second deepest. It has the second largest volume too after Lake Baikal in Russia, which is also the worlds deepest. Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, and Congo border it, and there are almost no roads throughout the entire lake. The only way you get around is some kind of boat or flying, but there are very few airstrips throughout the area as well. You can see the Congo side pretty much everywhere you are, and I can't even begin to imagine what amazing, unknown sites are on that side. If that country ever becomes stable I am going to get to their side of the lake. I'm not done with the lake though on the this trip. I'm going to stay in Kigoma tomorrow, and on Saturday I continue north on the lake to the capital of Burundi, Bujumbura, which lies on the northern tip. I'll be in Burundi for only a day or two on my way to Rwanda. I've talked with people who were there a month ago, the country is stable, so no worries for anyone who has misgivings about Burundi. I've hard Bujumbura, Buj, is a really cool city so I'm looking forward to spending a day or two there. The lake is amazing, I'm in love with the rift valley lakes, and I'm glad I'll have several more days on the lake before I finally leave Bujumbura at the beginning of next week.

I'm absolutely exhausted, I haven't slept well in a long time, but my health is good. The malaria is gone, so there is no need to worry about that, and I'm going to spend the next few days in Kigoma and Bujumbura eating really well and sleeping a lot. I will post pictures tomorrow, the internet is really fast here:-), so I'll post those links when they're ready or just check out my facebook profile.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll write more from Bujumbura or Rwanda. Tchau, B