Jocara Newsletter Jan 25, 2005 At last! More news from Jocara, we are indeed still alive and kicking! We arrived in Tanga late on 10th and anchored off the delightful and friendly little yacht club in calm water, much appreciative of a meal ashore and a good night's sleep. We were able to organise someone to take care of our cats and boat for US$2.50/day and booked tickets to Arusha, 400 km away, from where we would take our Safari. On 14th we took the local bus, $7 each, for an 8-hour ride to Arusha. Quite an experience and full of local colour! Arusha is at 1500 m altitude among hills and close to the mountains of Meru and Kilimanjaro. We stayed at a little guest house (US$8 a night for a double room with shower and toilet! OK, so what if the toilet didn't flush...). Next day (15th) we set off with Crown Eagle (one of the 200 travel companies in Arusha, recommended to us by good friends who passed through here a year ago) for Tarangire Park. Immediately inside the park boundary, marked by no more than a gate, we began to see elephants and giraffes up close, so many of them! It was really fantastic, and unreal. Families of elephants; young ones, matriarchs, mud-bathing, just like you see on a wildlife documentary, only right in front of our eyes. The huge Baobab trees, impossibly, made the elephants and giraffes look small. After a night in a nearby campsite we toured the park again the next morning, then moved on to a panoramic campsite on the edge of the famous rift valley, looking down onto the plains. The next day (17th) Caroline was sick with a stomach bug, but managed to enjoy the drive down into the Ngorongoro crater, a 20 km diameter crater with a flat interior of grasslands and lakes, stuffed with thousands of elephant, zebra, wildebeest, hippos, some rhinos, lions and cheetas and many, many birds, all of which we were lucky to see in the one day we had there. Totally different from Tarangire, and equally spectacular, if not more so. Back to Arusha and there we split up, Alex and Ria (Caroline's mum) taking up residence in a nice hotel (where the toilets flushed) while Caroline, Piet (Caroline's dad), Casper and John set off on 18th on a walking safari to climb Mount Meru, 4500m. The first day we climbed 1000m through grasslands and forest, staying in Miriakamba hut at 2500m altitude. On 19th we climbed a further 1000m through trees and then scrubland to reach Saddle hut at 3500m altitude, nestled between little Meru mountain on one side and a broad hump called Rhino point on the other. At 0200 the following morning we staggered out into the cold and dark with little lamps on our heads to make the final ascent. After reaching Rhino point (1.5 hrs) we dropped down some 150m to follow the jagged ridge of the crater that forms Mount Meru, a remnant volcano rim. After 6 hours in increasingly thin air, we gasped to the summit at 4500m just after 08:00. The views were fabulous, with cloud far below us, Kilimanjaro resplendent in the distance and the new volcanic ash cone lying within the arc of the old crater rim at our feet. It felt like the top of the world, though Everest is twice as high! Making our way down to Saddle hut took less time, of course, where we had lunch and a nap. Then we crawled another 1000m further down to Miriakamba hut, the last hour pushing us to the limit. The following day, the 21st, we descended the final 1000m and crawled into the hotel where Ria and Alex were staying, barely able to walk for the muscle pain in our legs. Piet and Ria left the next day, with hugs and tears, while Casper, Alex, Caroline and John took the bus back to Tanga, taking 9.5 hours this time in an even more colourful trip than on the way up. The 23rd, a Sunday, was spent recovering and making new Dutch Friends, also with young kids, who have lived in Tanga 12 years. Our colleague Oliver Wurl arrived on 24th to work with us taking water and air samples for nutrient and pollution analysis, bearing numerous begged-for items from Singapore organised by our good friend Matthias. Today Caroline, Casper, Oliver and John are out on the reefs taking samples, while Alex enjoys time with his new-found girlfriend Nina, daughter of our new Dutch friends Luuk and Birgit, and goes to the local international school with her for a couple of days. Jocara is currently at 5 deg. 05.04'S, 39 deg. 10.73'E --- The Jocara crew has also sent a new year card to all readers. The delivery of the card (on a CD) was delayed, but it is now uploaded to the Jocara website. Please see http://www.jocara.net/Home/2005_card.jpg --- P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net for updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters. Anyone can join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg with the subject line 'subscribe jocara newsletter' or 'unsubscribe Jocara newsletter' as appropriate.