I thought I would share the journal notes from my trip to the summit of Mount Meru in Tanzania.
Day One
Picked up at Mwangaza. Stopped for sun crème (sunscreen) at
store in Usa River area. At Momella Gate entrance to the Arusha National Park I
waited 2 hours for enough hikers to
form a group.
Baboons were around the
waiting area. One sat four feet from me waiting to steal my food if he could.
Our group left Momella Gate at 12:30 pm. There were three
other hikers- a French woman who lives in Canada, and a Belgian couple working
in Dar Es Salaam, Joris and Jennifer.
The Park Ranger attending to the group was “Good Luck.” He's the one with the rifle.
My guide was “Honest” and he is from Moshi, Tanzania. He's a Cubs fan I guess. The other man was a porter.
The trail followed a road most of the way to the first huts
where we stayed the night.
At 2:15 we stopped to rest at “Fig Tree Arch.”
Two Norwegian brothers joined the group later in the afternoon.
They lived in Tanzania several years as children of missionaries and were
mid-twenties.
We passed several monkeys in the trees. Blue monkeys were
jumping from tree to tree as an old white bearded monkey called to them.
A large long tailed Colubus monkey with a small baby
clinging to it was sitting watching us go by.
Buffalo dung piles littered the road in spots, but no water
buffalo were seen. We were told the buffalo like to walk the road, reminding me
of Yellowstone, where buffalo also walk the road. One of the guides said one
pile of dung was from a giraffe. I have no idea how he could tell, it all
looked the same.
I was the oldest in this group of mountain climbers. One of
the Norwegian boys was named John, so the Park Ranger called me “Papa”-
grandfather. They took care of me, my guide carried my backpack for a while,
not that he needed to.
I slept very well that night.
The long walk tired me and
dinner was very filling- tea, chicken soup, small pieces of fish, fried
potatoes, vegetable salad (carrot, cucumbers and peppers), and cooked
vegetables (carrots and green beans). There was too much food to eat, but the
guide said eat as much as I could to get ready for the next two days.
The food and the altitude cause lots of gas, so I am taking
acid reducer before every meal the next two days.
My phone is at 65% and this is the last place to charge, so
if I want pictures, the ranger will need to charge the phone before we leave.
Day 2
I woke with a dry mouth, reminding me that I need to drink
more water today.
Today was much harder. It is steep and took four hours to
get to Saddle Hut- our second camp. Breakfast at 7 am, leave at 8. Arriving at
Saddle Hut at Noon.
Four hours walking the winding trail to Saddle Hut.
It was
really hot and dusty. I put sun crème on my face before we left. Walking in a
short sleeve shirt, I wanted to put sun crème on my arms, neck and ears, but I
had packed the crème in my large pack that the porters took to the next camp.
Luckily Jane from France let me use some of her SP 50+.
It was very windy when we arrived at Saddle Hut. I imagine
it will be cold when we leave for the summit of Meru after midnight.
After resting, the group climbed Little Meru and come back
to camp.
It was one and a half hours up and back and will help us acclimate to
the altitude.
Day 3
Wake up at Midnight. Hike to the summit starts at 1 am. What
a time to come down with food poisoning/traveler’s diarrhea. I didn’t feel like
eating any breakfast. Just some soup.
I felt so sick that I stopped to sit for a few minutes and
told the rest of the group to go on. I thought about turning back, but Honest
convinced me to keep going- “It’s only a little farther”. Rhino Point- somewhere halfway to the summit from Saddle Camp.
After several toilet breaks- choo is Swahili for toilet, one
of the words I remembered- I felt better, leaving behind reminders of my
presence on the mountainside. Nothing like leaning against a rock and letting
go. Luckily, I had wet wipes and Honest handed me a roll of toilet paper. No pictures of this.
It was harder than I anticipated. There were rope chains to
help trekkers as they made their way over and around the exposed mountain,
requiring me to pull myself along the edge of the bare rock. The final ascent
to the summit involved climbing a rock wall.
Honest and I reached the summit at 6:45 am. Sunrise was at
6:30- which is why you leave camp so early. The others passed us on their way
back- it was too cloudy to see the sunrise, so I didn’t miss anything. We sat
on the summit for five minutes- took pictures and headed back the same way we
came.
We arrived back at Saddle Camp at 9:30 am, and was
congratulated by Good Luck and Jane who had waited outside of camp for me to
arrive.
I had two hours to rest before we started back down the
mountain for the first hut. All downhill, we made it in 2 hours- the others
seemed surprised I was able to keep up with the fast pace. I hadn’t eaten
anything all day, worried that it would quickly pass through me. That didn’t
help my energy level.
We still needed to walk to Momella Gate. Honest suggested I
call a Land Rover and catch a ride rather than walk the rest of the way. I
agreed since I was too tired to walk.
When we arrived at the gate, our ride wasn’t there. He was
having difficulty with his pass to get into the park, so Honest called a taxi
to take us to the pass gate. I shared a taxi with two Tanzanian men, one who
smelled of alcohol and the other was muslim. At the pass gate, I was driven
back to Mwangaza to rest before I flew back to the USA.
Leaving the park, we passed troops of baboons by the side of the road.
The driver is wearing the red hoodie.
