A Shore to Explore and it's Good Friday

Another week closer to the month of April, means another hike! It is Easter weekend and I have company arriving on Saturday from PEI so why not sneak in a Good Friday hike. The destination is Pennant Point - a trail that follows the rocky shoreline from Crystal Crescent Beach, about 30 minutes from the rotary in Halifax, to the tip of Pennant Point. It is about 5 kilometers each way.

You may have heard the rumour (or else it is the worst kept secret in Halifax) that we have a nude beach here in our conservative city - well the path goes right by it at the Third Beach.  Luckily for us, the temperature is rather nice but given it is March 29th - the most skin exposed today is my hands and forehead when it warmed up enough to shed the toque and gloves.

The scenery on this surprising warmish, sunny day is stunning.  The sunlight is reflecting off the water and the rocks have a slight warmth to them.  After such a miserable, cold winter the sun today almost eliminates any remaining small patches of snow. The ocean is quiet, the surf is light and we just take it all in and enjoy the walk.

You never really lose sight of the lighthouse at Sambro off in the distance, a beacon for seafarers and hikers alike. This is the perfect spot for "rock scrambling" to stretch the old quads and test your balance jumping from boulder to boulder in those sturdy hiking boots. A day off work for many brought a few of us there on that day- a girl hiking solo, a guy trail running and a lots of families and pods of friends checking out the shoreline as you draw closer back to Crystal Crescent beach.

We grab a spot on the rocks to have a bit of lunch and a hot drink as we soak up a few rays of sunshine. There are alternate paths to get back to the parking lot but as they involve crossing some inland paths, we suspect they would be muddy as old heck. It was decided that we head back the way we came. I feel the warmth of the sun on my face and while it ain't the Caribbean - it sure is pretty.

OUCH ! Vaccinations, Pills, and Travel Clinics

A trip to Africa is exciting, with the prospect of going to a country few others get an opportunity to visit. Everyone wishes you well and you get pumped at the thought of embarking on your new adventure.

On the REALITY side of things, like everything, there is a bit of housekeeping to take care of. A trip to the Travel Clinic is on the 'to-do' list where your trek (along with it's incoming and outgoing flight plan) is analyzed for risk  of diseases and other nasty issues.

We had an excellent consult with travel nurses at the Dartmouth Travel Clinic, a branch of the Capital Health medical system. They are up to date on any travel advisories that travellers should be aware of, high-risk countries subject to disease and general health and wellness.  Have YOU had your all your shots?

For this trip the following were recommended:

• MMR: mumps | measles | rubella vaccine - Luckily I'm old enough that I dodged that bullet 
• Polio (shot) - Had to get it
• Typhoid (pills) - Taking them now - four pills taken every other day for eight days
• Yellow Fever (shot) - Have to get it !
• Malaria Prevention - Got my prescription
• Altitude Illness prevention - Got my prescription
• Cholera...Diarrhoea...Crap Stuff - Got my prescription in the fridge

Pill Anyone?

Now, I give the travel clinic full marks for customer service, attention to my needs and subject knowledge. What is a piss-off is the manner in which the medical system and insurance companies don't support the well-being of the traveller. ALL of the drugs mentioned are covered by my workplace health plan but since they are administered by LICENSED HEALTH CARE workers but in a clinic environment (I did mention that Capital Health is a key cog in the Nova Scotia health care system) I pay out of pocket for many of them. That does not make sense and needs to change!

So the flip side is my body is prepped for whatever Africa wants to throw at me and should I ever be crazy enough to try anything like this in the future  <I'M GOOD TO GO>

The Bluff Wilderness Trail - Timberlea

On March 23rd, the weather was cloudy and flurries were forecast so we didn't want to stray too far away from the Metro area. The Timberlea Bluff Wilderness trail just 15 minutes west of downtown, a trail I had been meaning to check out for a long time (I used to live very close to this trail) was the choice for the day.

Starting out at about 10AM from the BLT trail, from where the bluff trail is also accessed, was still snow covered. There is about 0.5 km walk from the parking area to the trailhead. The first 1.0 km is common to the trail sub-system where you can then decide how you want your hike to proceed.  There are four stacked loops - Pot Lake loop, Indian Hill loop, The Bluff loop and Hay Marsh loop that comprise the system totalling up to a possible 30km of hiking.

The landscape is almost lunar - huge rocks with sparse forestry as we start out along the Pot lake loop.  The trail is snow-packed with not allot of footsteps ahead of us - a fairly quiet day on the trail. Strangely, my nose starts to run and my head gets achy which is unusual for me. It really doesn't hit me at the time but I was feeling the first effects of seasonal allergies - early in the season.

Clouds are moving in and knowing that we would be breaking trail in the snow on the next loop, we decide to limit our hike to just one loop this day which allows us to relax a bit and enjoy the remainder of our hike. We take a break to do one of my favorite things - fire up the little pocket rocket stove, boil some water and enjoy a mug of hot apple cider and a packed breakfast sandwich for a snack. My buddy fires up his BioLite stove using some dry twigs and brings it to the point where it can actually generate power to charge a cell phone, for example. It was fun to see the potential of this neat little stove and see it in action. Good fun!

The trail is busy by early afternoon - a testament to people's desire to get outdoors after a very long dreary winter!

Trip Itinerary

FLIGHTS - The Trip to Tanzania

Wednesday May 15, 2013
Air Canada, Flight AC860 Depart Halifax, NS 11:45PM (Wednesday May 15, 2013)
Arrive London Heathrow, UK 9:35AM (Thursday May 16, 2013)

Thursday May 16, 2013
Egyptair, Flight MS778 Depart London Heathrow, UK 3:00PM (Thursday May 16, 2013)
Arrive Cairo, Egypt 8:40PM (Thursday May 16, 2013) Egyptair, Flight MS841

Depart Cairo, Egypt Flight MS841 at 11:30PM  (Thursday May 16, 2013)
Arrive Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 6:15AM (Friday May 17, 2013)

Friday May 17, 2013
Precision Air, Flight PW436 Depart Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 7:00PM
Arrive Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 8:30PM

ACCOMODATIONS

The tour company uses the Springlands Hotel in Moshi for their initial meeting and gathering, so we decided to just hang out there in the few days we have prior to and after the trek. It looks very nice and comfortable. We will be there May 17-19th and back for a couple of nights May 25-26th.

Their contact information is:
Springlands Hotel
Tembo Road
Pasua Area
Moshi
Tanzania

Phone: +255 - 27 27 53581
Email: info@springlandshotel.com
Web: http://www.springlandshotel.com

THE TREK

The tour company is G Adventures out of Toronto (formerly known as Gap Tours but I think they had to change their name for some odd reason). Our tour is known as the Marangu Route and you can get all the juicy details on this route here. There is a detailed description of each day available on the 'Full Itinerary' link.

In summary here is the skinny:

Day 1 (Sunday) Moshi

Arrive at any time.

Day 2 (Monday)

Marangu Gate to Mandara Hut
Hike through forested lower slopes to Mandara escarpment.

Day 3-4 (Tuesday , Wednesday)

Mandera Hut to Horombo Hut/Kibo Hut
Hike through heather and moorland zone to Horombo Hut before proceeding onto the Kilimanjaro Saddle through desert like alpine zone to Kibo Hut.

Day 5 (Thursday)

Kibo Hut to Kilimanjaro Summit/Horombo Hut
Evening hike to the Summit via Stella Point. Appreciate the beautiful sunrise, descend back to Horombo Hut.

Day 6 (Friday)

Descent - Horombo Hut to Marangu Gate to Moshi
Descend mountain, pass through villages and plantations on the slopes to Moshi.

Day 7 (Saturday)

Moshi - Tour concludes Saturday AM

Sunday is a Free Day !

FLIGHTS - The Trip Home

Monday May 27, 2013
Precision Air, Flight PW763 Depart Kilimanjaro, Tanzania 4:10PM
Arrive Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 5:30PM Tuesday May 28, 2013

Tuesday May 28, 2013
Egyptair, Flight MS842 Depart Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania 1:15AM
Arrive Cairo, Egypt 6:00AM Egyptair, Flight MS777

Depart Cairo, Egypt on Flight MS777 at 9:30AM
Arrive London Heathrow, UK 1:35PM

Air Canada, Flight AC849 Depart London Heathrow, UK 3:00PM
Arrive Toronto, ON 5:45PM Air Canada, Flight AC624

Depart Toronto, ON 8:55PM Arrive Halifax, NS 11:56PM

Black Rock Trail near Bay of Fundy, N.S.

Finding myself with the use of a nice car rental for a few weeks, I had a hankering for a little road trip on Sunday, March 17th. Having read about a trail system in the Annapolis Valley near the town of Berwick called Black Rock Trails, it sounded like an inviting option. The thing I like about some trail systems, including this one, is that they may be designed to fit together as a series of loops - with varying distances or levels of difficulty. If you are full of pis'n'vinegar, you can do a couple of loops or if the weather turns crappy (blasphemy - not in Nova Scotia !) you can loop back.

The day started good enough, having downloaded a couple of pages of maps and trail information from various websites. As the trail sits on private property, it did not have authentic provincial or trail club documentation. We had mapped out a desired route and off we went.

The first part of the trail was well marked and we enjoyed the scenic icy brooks and snowy forest pathways. Our trail route brought us face-to-face with the awesome Bay of Fundy, famous for the crazy high-tide changes. We could see Cape Chignecto across the bay, bringing back memories of a challenging   3-day trek  we did a few years back.

Things got a bit weird when landmarks we were expecting didn't materialize or when trail start and end points didn't lineup with our maps. The Balsor Road Trail, the largest and most difficult, took a northerly turn about one-third of the way along, rather than the southerly route shown on the map. My friend, experienced in the use of compasses and GPS tracking, did not take long confirming that things were not right.

We decided to continue southerly but soon realized that this area was actively being worked by loggers - we could hear machinery humming ahead. The problem was this activity was going on smack dab in the middle of the original trail route.

To make a long story short, my friend's knowledge of marking GPS coordinates at regular intervals helped us to hike around the logging, selecting an alternate route and hooking back up with the original trail. The thing I learned was DON'T ALWAYS TRUST MAPS FROM ADHOC WEBSITES. All the maps we had were INACCURATE - not reflecting recent changes to the trail system that affected the Balsor Road trail in particular. The sign at the trail head was more or less up-to-date but we paid little attention to it as we had maps in our pocket. Be very careful on this trail - bring a compass and GPS and if you are not proficient with these tools - stick to the early trail loops that are fairly well marked.

A Hike to Cobequid Eco-Trails

On March 3rd, 2013, we decided that since much of the snow in Halifax was disappearing, the hiking trails would be accessible. It was decided that an 80-minute drive up to Kemptown Road (near Earltown) to the Cobequid Eco-Trails would do the trick. The weather was cloudy but mild.

The Cobequid Eco-Trail system is a wonderful series of trails that are well marked and well-maintained. Check out their website which I linked to above to view their trail listings.

The plan was to hike the Sandy Cope Trail, a loop that would let us pass through forest, lakes and waterfalls.Mother Nature had a mind of its own though, as it became clearly apparent that the snow was still knee-deep - making it a slog that was just not going to happen on that day. You would tire yourself out in a very short period of time.I had done the Gully Lake trail in the fall.

Time for Plan B to kick in. There was a quiet road through the area used by skiers, skidoos and ATVs that was more or less packed down. Not quite as scenic but we still get to enjoy the great outdoors and pack in a decent hike.