Once again, I've been negligent about keeping up with this blog--there's been a lot going on. I have a couple of entries to catch up on, but I'll start with the most recent.
Easter is a big holiday and Kenya and we had Friday and Monday off from work. My two roommates, Caitlin and Caroline, and I wanted to go somewhere interesting and we ended up deciding to go hike Mt. Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain and Africa's tenth highest mountain. By "we decided" I mean that I was in the US and said I was good with anything, email me when you decide what you guys want to do and I'll buy a plane ticket." Fortunately I live with excellent decision makers.
The adventure started with trying to buy a plane ticket on the same flight Caroline was going on. The website refused to take my credit card multiple times, so I selected the "pay at office" option. This necessitated a dreaded trip downtown to their office, battling Nairobi's hideous traffic, only to be told that the office's credit card machine had broken five months ago and still wasn't fixed. But could I go online and try to rebook, maybe the credit card problem had been resolved? No, it hadn't, and in the meantime the price had gone up $50. So I sent an email to the address I had been explicitly told to email if I was still having problems and...it bounced back. Precisionair fail. So I booked a Fly540 flight instead, leaving from Wilson Airport, the smaller airport in Nairobi. Which doesn't have a departure lounge, you go to your airline's individual hangar. Unfortunately, I didn't know this and my taxi driver dropped me off at the entrance to the airport, about half a mile away from the Fly540 hanger. Lesson learned.
We all eventually made it to the Kilimanjaro Airport and on to Arusha where we spent the night before being picked up Friday morning to head to the base of Mt. Meru to begin our hike. Because there are a number of buffalo on the lower slopes of Mount Meru, you have to do this part with a ranger (with a gun). There was a "ranger shortage" so we ended up with a group of 8 other people for this part, and democratically chose to take a longer, gentler 6 hour hike instead of a steeper 3 hour hike. It was lovely, first grassland, then big trees, then interesting mountain shrubs.
The next morning, we set off on part two of the hike, which we were told included 1,000 steps and would take about four hours. After extensive counting, I would like to report that there are actually 2,677 steps, which is quite a difference. But we powered up those steps and reached the second stopping point, Saddle Huts (elevation 3,570 meters) in 2.5 hours, at about 11:30 am.
At this point, most people spend the rest of the day relaxing, go to bed early, and get up at 1 am to begin the (very challenging, 6-hour) hike up to the summit for sunrise, when the weather tends to be clear. However 1) we are kind of crazy 2) we were hiking at solid pace, faster than the estimated times and 3) we were hiking in the rainy season and it was quite cloudy at points. Thus, the guide suggested that we take a quick break at Saddle Huts then hike up to the summit and back that afternoon instead since it was not looking like it would rain that afternoon but was raining almost every night. So off we went.
It was a solid hike, first a steep climb to Rhino Point (3,800 meters) then along a sloping outer ridge of ash that forms the outer wall of the crater and sheer cliffs of rock that form the inner wall of the crater to Cobra Point (elevation 4,350 meters).
We reached the summit, Socialist Peak (elevation 4,566 meters) in a record breaking (or at least pretty awesome) 4 hours, after a final steep climb across rocks. It was wickedly cold and totally surrounded by clouds--it felt like we were on a rock island in a sea of clouds, and more silent than maybe anywhere I have ever been.
And then, just when we were about to begin the climb down, the clouds began to clear and we had the most amazing views of the ash cone below to the east (Mt. Meru is an active volcano and last erupted in 1910) and the lush countryside at the base of the mountain to the west.
On the way down, we went in out of clouds, but were above the cloud line for much of the hike, giving us some really beautiful sunset clouds views as well as a sudden and brief glimpse of a snow-covered Mount Kilimanjaro, 70 miles to the east.
We made it to back to Saddle Huts about 8 pm, hiking the last hour or so in the dark (headlamps= greatest invention EVER). After about 10 hours of hiking, we ate and collapsed into our sleeping bags.
The hike down the mountain the next day was beautiful as well, with rapidly changing landscapes.
A giraffe (twiga in Swahili) sighting about a mile from the end of the hike bought us some precious enthusiasm to get us back to the trailhead.
On the way back into town, the clouds cleared long enough for us to see what we had just climbed in its entirety. We were pretty impressed with ourselves.
We made it back to Arusha in time for some much needed hot showers and an amazing dinner for us three absolutely famished hikers at the Bayleaf Hotel (think lobster ravioli, brie stuffed figs, and chocolate puddle cake), and an early bedtime. After a few hours wandering Arusha's markets in the morning (review: same stuff as in Kenya but more expensive), we headed back to Nairobi.
Landing at Wilson Airport again I had an amazing view of downtown as well as Kibera, the massive slum that dominates Nairobi's south-eastern side and was made famous in The Constant Gardner.
Easter is a big holiday and Kenya and we had Friday and Monday off from work. My two roommates, Caitlin and Caroline, and I wanted to go somewhere interesting and we ended up deciding to go hike Mt. Meru, Tanzania's second highest mountain and Africa's tenth highest mountain. By "we decided" I mean that I was in the US and said I was good with anything, email me when you decide what you guys want to do and I'll buy a plane ticket." Fortunately I live with excellent decision makers.
The adventure started with trying to buy a plane ticket on the same flight Caroline was going on. The website refused to take my credit card multiple times, so I selected the "pay at office" option. This necessitated a dreaded trip downtown to their office, battling Nairobi's hideous traffic, only to be told that the office's credit card machine had broken five months ago and still wasn't fixed. But could I go online and try to rebook, maybe the credit card problem had been resolved? No, it hadn't, and in the meantime the price had gone up $50. So I sent an email to the address I had been explicitly told to email if I was still having problems and...it bounced back. Precisionair fail. So I booked a Fly540 flight instead, leaving from Wilson Airport, the smaller airport in Nairobi. Which doesn't have a departure lounge, you go to your airline's individual hangar. Unfortunately, I didn't know this and my taxi driver dropped me off at the entrance to the airport, about half a mile away from the Fly540 hanger. Lesson learned.
We all eventually made it to the Kilimanjaro Airport and on to Arusha where we spent the night before being picked up Friday morning to head to the base of Mt. Meru to begin our hike. Because there are a number of buffalo on the lower slopes of Mount Meru, you have to do this part with a ranger (with a gun). There was a "ranger shortage" so we ended up with a group of 8 other people for this part, and democratically chose to take a longer, gentler 6 hour hike instead of a steeper 3 hour hike. It was lovely, first grassland, then big trees, then interesting mountain shrubs.
It ended up taking about 5 hours of steady upward hiking to reach the Mirikamba Huts (elevation 2,514 meters) just in time for a cup of tea, dinner and an early bedtime. The clouds briefly parted for a rather nerve-racking glimpse of what lay ahead for us to climb.
Also, we were maybe not the most prepared hikers ever. Hiking boots??? Who needs hiking boots? A pair of hot pink Nike running shoes should do the trick nicely.
At this point, most people spend the rest of the day relaxing, go to bed early, and get up at 1 am to begin the (very challenging, 6-hour) hike up to the summit for sunrise, when the weather tends to be clear. However 1) we are kind of crazy 2) we were hiking at solid pace, faster than the estimated times and 3) we were hiking in the rainy season and it was quite cloudy at points. Thus, the guide suggested that we take a quick break at Saddle Huts then hike up to the summit and back that afternoon instead since it was not looking like it would rain that afternoon but was raining almost every night. So off we went.
It was a solid hike, first a steep climb to Rhino Point (3,800 meters) then along a sloping outer ridge of ash that forms the outer wall of the crater and sheer cliffs of rock that form the inner wall of the crater to Cobra Point (elevation 4,350 meters).
We reached the summit, Socialist Peak (elevation 4,566 meters) in a record breaking (or at least pretty awesome) 4 hours, after a final steep climb across rocks. It was wickedly cold and totally surrounded by clouds--it felt like we were on a rock island in a sea of clouds, and more silent than maybe anywhere I have ever been.
And then, just when we were about to begin the climb down, the clouds began to clear and we had the most amazing views of the ash cone below to the east (Mt. Meru is an active volcano and last erupted in 1910) and the lush countryside at the base of the mountain to the west.
On the way down, we went in out of clouds, but were above the cloud line for much of the hike, giving us some really beautiful sunset clouds views as well as a sudden and brief glimpse of a snow-covered Mount Kilimanjaro, 70 miles to the east.
We made it to back to Saddle Huts about 8 pm, hiking the last hour or so in the dark (headlamps= greatest invention EVER). After about 10 hours of hiking, we ate and collapsed into our sleeping bags.
The hike down the mountain the next day was beautiful as well, with rapidly changing landscapes.
A giraffe (twiga in Swahili) sighting about a mile from the end of the hike bought us some precious enthusiasm to get us back to the trailhead.
On the way back into town, the clouds cleared long enough for us to see what we had just climbed in its entirety. We were pretty impressed with ourselves.
We made it back to Arusha in time for some much needed hot showers and an amazing dinner for us three absolutely famished hikers at the Bayleaf Hotel (think lobster ravioli, brie stuffed figs, and chocolate puddle cake), and an early bedtime. After a few hours wandering Arusha's markets in the morning (review: same stuff as in Kenya but more expensive), we headed back to Nairobi.
Landing at Wilson Airport again I had an amazing view of downtown as well as Kibera, the massive slum that dominates Nairobi's south-eastern side and was made famous in The Constant Gardner.
Emma, thank you for sharing your life and photos. :)
ReplyDeleteSlawek