Jordan

October 25 - November 7, 2013
Amman
We did a lot of relaxing in Amman in our fancy hotel room. We managed to leave the room to walk around the city and visit the Citadel and Roman Amphitheater. The following day we visited Jerash which was by far the best Roman ruins we have seen yet!

Dead Sea

It seems that relaxing is our new favorite activity! It was easy to do in our resort in the Dead Sea. We floated. We took mud baths. It was fabulous :) It was the first time Devin has ever floated in his life. Yay!

Petra

Petra is spectaular!! We arrived in the late afternoon on Wednesday and after checking into our hotel, El Rashid, we decided to grab a quick shwarma for dinner before doing Petra by night. We left at 8:30pm to walk down through the candlelit Siq to the Treasury where we were met by hot tea, local music, and a little history of the area. 

The next morning we started out early to make the most of our visit to Petra. We walked again through the Siq to the Treasury, both of which are even more amazing in the daylight! We saw some of the many tombs, climbed to the High Place of Sacrifice, and continued down the back pathway to avoid the crowds. Beautiful views! After lunch we hiked the pathway behind the royal tombs to get a better view of the Treasury from above.

We started out early again on Friday morning to get one last look. We saw the theatre, the Byzantine Church, and climbed up to the Monastery. Our feet were tired so we decided to make our way back through Petra to hop in the car for Aqaba. Not before saying goodbye to all of the donkeys and camels, of course:)

Aqaba

We spent three days/four nights at the Red Sea Dive Center just outside of Aqaba. We did six dives over three days, saw lots of coral, small tropical fish, huge puffers and trumpet fish, lion fish, and sand eels. Shore diving was awesome!

Wadi Rum

We were back to camping in the desert once again! We booked a two day tour through Wadi Rum Green Desert, and our tour guide Mohammad showed us a great time. The first day we started with a camel ride into the wadi to Lawrence's Spring. We climbed up to the spring to find a herd of goofy goats :) After that we jumped in the bed of a super old Toyota to go four wheeling through the desert. We climbed a sand dune, met a cat with henna named Lulu, drank lots of Bedouin tea, saw ancient inscriptions, hiked through a canyon, and watched an amazing desert sunset. That night we feasted on chicken cooked underground, listened to some local tunes, and slept in a Bedouin tent. The next morning we climbed to the highest peak in Jordan, Jerbel Um Adaami (1,823m), then enjoyed a lazy lunch with our new British friends. The afternoon sun created the most beautiful contrast between the red rocks and the blue sky. At night we gazed at the crescent moon and the Milky Way. We loved the Wadi!

Lebanon

October 21 - 24, 2013

Despite only spending four days in the country and originally planning on lazing around Beirut, we hit many of the hot spot destinations in Lebanon. We arrived at our hotel around 3am on Monday morning, exhausted from almost 20 hours of travel. We weren't sure we were in the right place. Hotel Talal had no signs and had lost our reservation. We finally settled into our room for a short sleep.
Later that morning we hooked up with eight other people (mostly Australian and British) to head down to Saida (Sidon) and Tyr. This was our first experience in a mini bus...Beirut traffic is fast-paced and hectic. It was a good introduction to getting around as we understand zero Arabic and communication is difficult.
Saida was awesome! We ate falafel, browsed the souks, and weaved our way through the town to see ancient churches and mosques. We then hopped another mini bus to head down the road to Tyr where we visited a couple of Roman ruin sites. That night we dined at Le Chef, Lebanon's version of the soup Nazi :)
Tuesday we did a walking tour of Beirut to visit the Blue Mosque, St. George's Orthodox Church and the museum underneath, walked along the Mediterranean Sea, stopped at a cafe for Turkish coffee and knafeh (a Lebanese dessert), saw Pigeon Rock, and lunched at Abu Naim where we ate too much mezze and grilled meats. Yummers!
We spent Wednesday is Baalbek which is about a two hour bus ride from Beirut, on the border with Syria. The ruins were amazing and we hired a tour guide, Khalil, who provided a great narration with a little bit of comedy :)
Our last day in Lebanon was a short visit to Jetta Grotto (beautiful cave and nominee for one of the Seven Natural Wonders) followed by a slow-paced walk about in Jebeil (Byblos). The town is quiet and touristy with a nice souk and a relaxed feel. We ate a seafood lunch on the water at Bab el-Amin and walked around the nearby ruins. The crusader castle was cool but the ruins were not well maintained.
Lebanon left us tired and ready for some R&R in Jordan!

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

October 10 - 20, 2013
There was a lot of anticipation during the morning. We had a long wait at the Machame Gate since there were many groups of hikers trying to sign in and get permits organized, but we eventually got on the trail around 12:30pm. Day one consisted of hiking from Machame Gate (1800m) to Machame Camp (3033m) through the rainforest. The pace the guides set (Laurence, Paulo, Gaudance and Felix) initially felt quite slow, but we eventually discovered that this was definitely an appropriate speed as we gained in altitude. After about four hours we reached our first camp and we discovered how well we would be treated for the next five days. As soon as we arrived, we noticed that our tents were up and we were directed into the mess tent for tea and salty popcorn followed by a hearty dinner of beef stew. The great food and service would continue for the next five days so all we had to do was eat, walk and sleep.

On day two we were warmed by the sun as it came over the mountain around 7:30am after a cool night, but the sun didn't last long as a dense and cold fog rolled in around 10am as we cleared the tree line. Today's climb was from Machame Camp to Shira Camp (3837m). We struggled to locate our camp (the camp sites are large with multiple groups spread over the entire area) due to the fog and spent about fifteen minutes walking in circles. Our guides final discovered our porters and we again were treated to hot food and tea. The hike on day two would be the shortest of the trip but, besides the summit night, it was the coldest. That afternoon it rained (or the fog was so dense it sounded like rain as it hit the tent) and by the following morning everything had frozen over.

Day three from Shira Camp to Lava Tower (4637m) and back down to Baranco Camp (3976m) was the first real altitude acclimatization day. We both had slight headaches at Lava Tower, but nothing too serious, and we recovered after we started heading down to camp. This was one of the longer days and we got into Baranco around 3:30 pm. We spent the evening resting as the following day would also be fairly long (something we weren't expecting) which would then be followed by the summit night.

On day four we climbed over Baranco Wall, which we were told would only take about an hour. I was sure, just looking at the vertical wall, that it would take at least twice that, but sure enough we were at the top within about an hour. We meandered our way (slightly and annoyingly undulating) to Karanga Camp (4033m) where we had a hot lunch of fried chicken and chips. From there it was straight up to Barafu Camp (4673m). The air definitely started to feel thinner but we were moving at a slow and steady pace and we managed to get to camp again around 3:30 pm. We rested for a while and then had an early dinner of vegetable stew before getting into bed. The idea was to get five hours of sleep before we were to be woken up at 11 pm, but very few of us got any sleep at all. This added fatigue would definitely come in to play as we made our way to the summit.

The penultimate day started out from camp at midnight and would last until about 4 pm before we got to our final camp. The climb was pretty much straight up from the start and only got steeper as the night progressed. The wind was also quite strong adding a significant wind chill to the already subzero temperatures. The altitude didn't seem to affect us until we got to about 5300m, at which point it came on like a ton of bricks. The nausea was the worst, and coupled with the extreme fatigue, it made the going extremely slow. At one point near the end our guide wanted to drag us up the mountain and Gaudance ended up hauling our packs up. We arrived at Stella Point (5739m, regarded as a successful summit as it is the first part of the crater rim) around 6:00 am to catch the sunrise and Uhuru Peak at 7:00 am (5895m).
I almost didn't go through with the next part of my plan due to the nausea and fatigue, but since I'd been planning it for months and had everything prepared, I got down on one knee and proposed to Jenny. After she wiped away the tears she managed to say yes.
After a short moment together we decided that we'd enjoy it more when we got down from the altitude so we spent the next two and a half hours painfully walking back down the mountain to Barafu. At Barafu we had an hours rest, a quick lunch (not much wanted to go down) and started the three and a half hour hike down to Mweke Camp (3100m) which meant another 1500m of painful descending. It was great relief once we finally made it to the days final resting place, had our appetites back enough to eat a full meal, and be in bed by 8 pm to sleep for the next 10 hours.

The final day was a short three hour 'stroll' down to the Mweke gate where we were greeted by our drivers and taken back to our hotel in Moshi. After a quick farewell beer with our guides and a couple of pizzas, we drained all the hot water in our shower washing away the past five days of the mountain. I also cracked open the bubbly I had brought from South Africa and shared a few celebratory drinks (and engagement drinks) with my beautiful new fiancée.

Relaxing in Jo'burg

October 2 - 9, 2013

What can we say? One week of eating and sleeping :) The Johannesburg summer is beautiful and Uncle Segs and Auntie Sharmila's house is now like our second home. Saturday we went to  Vinny and Lauren's wedding at the Cradle of Humankind...beautiful. Sunday we celebrated Auntie Rose's birthday with lots of crab curry. Monday we spent the entire day at Bayete Spa...massages, facials, and hand/foot scrubs. A perfect way to spend a week before we climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!