uh oh

This summer, I checked off an item on my bucket list: bungee jumping.  I jumped off the bridge at Victoria Falls, plummeting 111 meters over the rushing zambezi river.  We had a running, not-so-funny joke among the group about what if the bungee rope broke... 

Well, last week it did. A poor Australian girl fell into the river at about 20 meters above the rushing water.     With her feet still bound to the cord, she swam to the shore and lived to tell the tale.  "It was quite scary because of a couple of times the rope actually got caught on some rocks or debris," she told an Australian TV network.  She would swim down to dislodge the rope and free herself.  Wow.

i miss art.

I went home recently and got to see my mom's birthday present all put together! We redid our deck this summer and I salvaged some of the wood, added a white-wash, and attached some black and white pictures from Africa this summer.  And then we hung masks (Grandma gets Nate a mask wherever she goes–from all over the world) alongside the boards. Check it out:

I also finished an art project I've been working on for a little while...

only in africa

I know I've proclaimed my nostalgia for africa a lot recently, but one last post, please.  

Check out this mountain biker:

Wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun.

Ernest Hemingway said of Kilimanjaro: "Wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun." 

Please go check out this super cool presentation by Arcteryx of Mt. Kilimanjaro!


Some cool excerpts:
• After the Germans ceded their East African holdings to the British in World War I, Tanzania gained its independence in 1961 and the highest summit was renamed Uhuru, meaning "freedom" in Swahili.
• repeat photography shows that some glaciers have shrunk by 40 percent between 2000 and 2007.
• The Chagga were driven into hiding around Kilimanjaro several centuries ago by the warlike Masai, in turn forcing a race of pygmies over the mountain and into Kenya.  {both of our guides are from the Chagga tribe}
• In Chagga territory, the reverent sleep with their head toward the mountain and bury their dead so aligned
•lead more than 28,000 climbers up the mountain each year.
•Slowest ascent, Dr. Hans Meyer: 6 weeks; October 5, 1889
• Fastest male ascent, Bruno Brunod: 5 hours, 38 minutes and 40 seconds; 2001




Reading this whole thing made me tear up, remembering all the memories gained this summer on the mountain and Africa in general. 

born free

Mom and I spent our evening watching one of our favorite movies, Born Free.  I remember watching it again and again throughout my childhood; always a favorite.  It'd been years since either of us had watched it and within that time, we'd forgotten the fact that it was made in 1966... certainly before HD...

I even learned how to play the one song on the piano. It makes my mom cry.

"Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart

Live free, and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star

*Stay free, where no walls divide you
You're free as a roaring tide
So there's no need to hide

Born free, and life is worth living
But only worth living
Cause you're born free" 

I want to be Joy Adamson!


(I also just finished reading I Dreamed of Africa. I highly recommend it! Wouldn't mind being Kuki Gallman either...)

funday quote

"Climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." ~ John Muir


I have to say, my spirit's feeling pretty clean :)

catching up....

JAMBO!
So i guess my post i tried to do from botswana didn't work so well...
but to fill you in, both mom and i made it to the summit of mount kilimanjaro on the morning of the 21st!!! woohooo! and we did it in good time and a day earlier than expected :) but our world's best guides and perfect weather are to be greatly accredited!  so now we have an extra day here in moshi then will head off to the ngoragora crater tomorrow. maybe a bit frostbitten and bruised, but my toes are all on my feet and legs are still sorta working...

first we spent a day with some masai people

lookin good at 94 years old

 then to begin our climb:

start: the rainforest with the welcoming calls of monkeys

world's best guides: Gift and Arnold

getting closer...

cold, dark trek to the summit

and we made it! all 5895 m

 

our sweet porters and guides sang us goodbye songs

day 6

day 5

taking care of debi

almost there- you can even see the sign

posing for GQ

the crater

our welcome back greeting