CONGO!
Yep, that's right the The Democratic Republic of Congo, The DRC, The Congo. I know it's arrogant to be impressed with just going to a country but I impress myself. This is the second time I have wandered out of my guide book, actually my 2004 lonely planet (Africa on a shoestring) says to stay away from Congo, and definitely don't go out at night. By contrast the more recent addition of Lonely planet East Africa that Flic has recommends the volcano and also to check out Congo's excellent night life... how fast things change.
The food here is, well, not very nice. For meat eaters the common food is cooked green bananas (not as flavoursome as you might think) and a block of solid old animal flesh overcooked and covered in oil. For a vegetarian there is a lot of confusion followed by banana and what looks like boiled nettle hiding the grissel of fish. Mmmm. Fortunately we found a nice restaurant that offered good curries for pretty cheap... I think I may have had one too many curries on my first night.
So after a lot of the typical red tape it takes to do anything in this place we finally got to climb the volcano. I was still a bit iffy from the one-too-many curries, and totally unfit. After one hour I was puffing and panting, whinging and moaning, greeting and ballin. In my head I thought I was never going to make it, I kept thinking "spent bloody $100 on this bloody permit, didn't bloody see the gorillas, didn't bloody go rafting, I bloody spent my bloody money on this bloody volcano that I'm not even going to bloody be able to climb" Luckily Flic was there, she put up with my whinging and tricked me into going just a little bit more, and a little bit more after that. I was walking frustratingly slow, kind of like being stuck behind an old lady on a busy street slow... except I was that old lady. Actually It's my birthday today, I'm 31, Flic bought me a snickers bar and made me a bracelet.
On the trip with us was a German documentary film crew that had planned 3 years to climb. And some local Congolese scientists monitoring the volcano's activity. The Germans, unsurprisingly, were rather well equipt, they had super rain coats, and camping chairs, sleeping mats and wind breakers. We were a little less prepared, we had a white grain sack with "Net weight 100kg" written on the side... they served all the same functions of the German's stuff but we didn't need 29 porters. The Congolese skipped up and down the volcano in their plastic sandals and t-shirts.
After 7.5 hours or so, we had done it. The volcano was awesome, lava bubbling away inside, a thunderstorm passed by but missed us fortunately, as Flic and I were sharing Flic's summer weight one man tent. So here is a comparison of stuff I've climbed:
Volcan Nyiragongo, Goma, Congo: 3470m
Annamalai hill, Tiruvannamalai, India: somewhere between 815m & 4000m (internet accuracy)
Mount Sinai, Shamil Shek Egypt: 2285m
St Mary's Peak, Flinder's Ranges, Australia: 1170m (but I stopped 50m from the top)
Aurthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland: 305m
Back in Rwanda my legs are complaining, and the laundry was calling. after 6 buckets (wash, wash, rinse, wash, rinse, rinse) the water was still manky brown. We are going to go for a swim in the lake and head into the capital today. I'll try and give you the low down on the history as I attempt to understand it myself. I'll also upload photos and spell check as technology permits.
The food here is, well, not very nice. For meat eaters the common food is cooked green bananas (not as flavoursome as you might think) and a block of solid old animal flesh overcooked and covered in oil. For a vegetarian there is a lot of confusion followed by banana and what looks like boiled nettle hiding the grissel of fish. Mmmm. Fortunately we found a nice restaurant that offered good curries for pretty cheap... I think I may have had one too many curries on my first night.
So after a lot of the typical red tape it takes to do anything in this place we finally got to climb the volcano. I was still a bit iffy from the one-too-many curries, and totally unfit. After one hour I was puffing and panting, whinging and moaning, greeting and ballin. In my head I thought I was never going to make it, I kept thinking "spent bloody $100 on this bloody permit, didn't bloody see the gorillas, didn't bloody go rafting, I bloody spent my bloody money on this bloody volcano that I'm not even going to bloody be able to climb" Luckily Flic was there, she put up with my whinging and tricked me into going just a little bit more, and a little bit more after that. I was walking frustratingly slow, kind of like being stuck behind an old lady on a busy street slow... except I was that old lady. Actually It's my birthday today, I'm 31, Flic bought me a snickers bar and made me a bracelet.
On the trip with us was a German documentary film crew that had planned 3 years to climb. And some local Congolese scientists monitoring the volcano's activity. The Germans, unsurprisingly, were rather well equipt, they had super rain coats, and camping chairs, sleeping mats and wind breakers. We were a little less prepared, we had a white grain sack with "Net weight 100kg" written on the side... they served all the same functions of the German's stuff but we didn't need 29 porters. The Congolese skipped up and down the volcano in their plastic sandals and t-shirts.
After 7.5 hours or so, we had done it. The volcano was awesome, lava bubbling away inside, a thunderstorm passed by but missed us fortunately, as Flic and I were sharing Flic's summer weight one man tent. So here is a comparison of stuff I've climbed:
Volcan Nyiragongo, Goma, Congo: 3470m
Annamalai hill, Tiruvannamalai, India: somewhere between 815m & 4000m (internet accuracy)
Mount Sinai, Shamil Shek Egypt: 2285m
St Mary's Peak, Flinder's Ranges, Australia: 1170m (but I stopped 50m from the top)
Aurthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland: 305m
Back in Rwanda my legs are complaining, and the laundry was calling. after 6 buckets (wash, wash, rinse, wash, rinse, rinse) the water was still manky brown. We are going to go for a swim in the lake and head into the capital today. I'll try and give you the low down on the history as I attempt to understand it myself. I'll also upload photos and spell check as technology permits.
posted by Rachel | 4:07 pm
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