Elephants can be aggressive

Details are still coming in but it seemed that a large male elephant was either very attracted to or intensly annoyed with Anna and Joanne. Not sure which is more likely. The other travelers were alerted by screams from their Land Rover and turned to see the truck speeding away from a chasing bull elephant. Fortunately for our adventurers, Land Rover's are faster than elephants.

Despite the excitement, the safari was amazing and enjoyed by all. Another highlight was coming upon a pride of lions finishing off a wildabeast kill. While the vegetarians in the group were rather mortified, everyone was amazed when the lions decided to rest in the shade of their trucks, close enough that they could see the blood on their fur. A cheetah and her cubs also made an appearance. Not a bad way to end a trip in Africa.

The team is now heading back to the airport for their return home. Fortunately, KLM is a bit more reliable in terms of the timing of their flights than some of the other African aviation companies. Hope to see them back this weekend.

Traveling-African Style

After two days catching their breath at the beach, our team headed inland. Unfortunately, despite extensive planning, travel in Africa is not as reliable as one might hope. What should have been a short flight to share lunch with the porters and graduates from Global Alliance's job training program turned into an all day ordeal. Drivers arrived late, flights mysteriously left early so ticket takers could attempt to renogiate a fare, direct flights became multi-stop flights and the team arrived in Arusha late in the day. All part of the experience I guess.

These last few days in Africa will be spent in the Serengetti and game park. Its simply astonishing to travel through the park where you see elephants, giraffes, zebras and wildbeast wandering about as casually as we might see people standing at a bus stop.

Home this weekend.

It seems our good friend Josh Sedaris has gone ghost on us. Hopefully, he is not too busy googling to share more of his unique perspectives before the trip ends.

Oh and one more thing. Ms. Wood Prince has denied the report published in yesterday's post that there was any concern about overserving and demanded a retraction of the "smear campaign." The blog has issued a statement standing by its story, stating that "the story speaks for itself."

Kwaheri

R&R in Zanzibar

The hard part is done and our team is safely settled into the beach lodge in Zanzibar. The hardest task now is avoiding sunburn and keeping Sarah from getting overserved.

Report from the Summit

They made it. Our team has returned from their jaunt up the mountain and what a trip it was.

It seems that this trip had some rather poor climbing conditions. Clouds, rain, sleet and snow left everyone and every bit of their gear soggy and chilled. With the departure of the team's motivational speaker, Shawna, paparazzi Sarah had to step up to the plate. It seems Sarah had a newfound fascination with photography combined with motivation techniques usually reserved for those chasing Brittany Spears. Negative comments were met with a bop in the head from one of Sarah's trekking poles. A climber that needed just that right comment to help push a little farther would hear "hippos are inspirational" or "can you move? can you eat? you've got nothing to complain about." It seems the combination of challenging weather and a sensitive leader created the perfect environment for the remaining team members on the mountain as they all summitted.

The entire team reported a positive, life changing and highly emotional experience. They came from very different places, bonded and accomplished a feat that was both harder and more rewarding than any of them expected. We will have to get most of the details from the climbers themselves but can share two interesting facts. First, Jim has become the first person to summit eating nothing but raw food. Yes nuts and fruit can provide the energy needed to make it to the top. For a meat eater like me, it seems a feat worthy of guinness record book. Second, it wasn't until she was standing at 19,300 feet that Anna shared with anyone her severe fear of heights. Apparently standing on the edge of a volcano rim in a snow storm was enough to remind her. The scree slope was unusually treacherous, but the guides and porters were amazing and made sure everyone made it safely down to camp. The next day left only a short 8 hour hike to the mountain gate and the waiting transportation.

That night the team shared a late dinner and appreciated sleeping in a bed for the first time in nearly a week. After a late morning of sleeping in and massaging sore and bruised muscles, the team is heading to Zanzibar for a few days of well deserved rest by the beach.

Well see if they have time to report from Zanzibar. I hear the power is much more reliable there.

Crickets to the bloggers

It seems our fearless reporters have been a bit too busy to report or maybe their power went out again. Hopefully more details shortly.