When we finished the game drive in the crater bottom, we drove back up to the crater rim on the opposite side from where last night's camp was and wound our way through the highlands to Nayobi Village, where we would pick up our guide and start our trek.
Oldoinyo Leng'ai means "Mountain of God" in Maasai, and can be seen straight ahead in the picture below. This is the only remaining active volcano in Africa and their 3rd largest peak (after Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru). We would attempt to climb this in a couple of days, and enjoyed the views as we crept closer to it during our trek.
As can be expected, Lukasz blew up a few balloons to give to the kids, while we were introduced to several Maasai and had our gear loaded onto 3 of the Maasai's "Range Rovers".
We were greeted by many Maasai, who also tried to sell us many bracelets and other handmade crafts, such as bowls and earrings. They made a lot of beautiful things, but I had already bought as much as I wanted from the last Maasai tribe. When they didn't take "no" for an answer, I sicced them on Lukasz. :-)
We didn't load up the donkeys that much, but I still felt bad because one of the three had a large open sore on his backside, near where the strap connects. I tried to make sure it stayed off of the sore during our trek, but I'm guessing that strap is why his skin was rubbed raw. Poor guy!
In addition to our guide, we had a member of the Maasai tribe join us. He was in charge of the donkeys. Because he moved much faster than Lukasz, I ended up spending most of the trek with him and the donkeys than with Lukasz and our guide. They said that there were no lions or cheetahs in these parts, but I still would have been more comfortable if our guide or Maasai warrior had a spear with them. At least he had a large knife strapped to his side, which was something. :-)
The last time Oldoinyo Leng'ai erupted was in 2007. Even though it's still active, many Maasai make their homes fairly close to the base of the volcano.
So... I took advantage of the downtime to talk with a few of the Maasai tribe myself.
We passed by many Maasai working in the fields or herding livestock. Many came over to say hi and watch us as we headed toward their sacred volcano.
The children were especially fun to watch and talk to. These girls were flirting with Lukasz, who was enjoying all the attention.
We walked along a sandy cattle trail surrounded by prickly trees, with fields and rolling hills flanking us on both sides.
These trees with thorns were everywhere, and if you didn't duck or move out of the way, you'd end up with a lot of cuts and torn clothes.
As slow as we were moving, it felt good to be walking rather than being cooped up in the Land Rover. And we weren't in a rush. Even at our "poli poli" pace, today's trek only took a few hours before we arrived at camp.
Here is a large beetle exploring Lukasz' sandal.
Being out in the bush, there were no toilets or running water. Everything we needed, we brought with us. We unloaded the donkeys, who immediately went off to graze and mingle with the nearby cattle, enjoying their freedom. The only thing I wasn't too happy with were the "Maasai Markets". About 10 of the Maasai followed us to the camp and tried for hours to get us to buy their jewelry. They didn't take no for an answer, and I was so annoyed after awhile that I went inside the tent to read.
Seeing his sandals in the picture above reminded me that before it got dark, I wanted to share some of what I read about this area with Lukasz. This is prime black mamba territory - one of the reasons I continued wearing my hiking boots and long pants despite the heat. Black mamba are considered one of the world's deadliest snakes, so it would be smart to ditch the sandals and pay attention to where you're stepping and sitting outside, especially if you need to go outside at night to pee. They are also very long (up to 14 ft) and one of the fastest snakes in the world. (If you've ever seen the movie "Kill Bill II", you may remember the black mamba that killed Budd when he tried to collect money.) Cobra also frequented the area - another extremely venomous snake. Luckily, we didn't see either of these snakes on our journey.
There was a full moon outside, which was lovely to watch, as it rose over the hills. We decided to eat dinner by the fire rather than in our tent tonight.
It rained all night, which is not unusual (we seemed to attract rain everywhere we went), but what was scary was that there was a thunderstorm with lightening and we were in the tallest tent made of nylon and metal poles situated under a very tall tree. It rained most of the night and through the morning. I was worried about our tent being struck by lightening, but luckily, nothing happened.
In the morning, it was raining so hard, that we all stayed in our tents, delaying the start to our hike by about an hour and a half. When the rain finally slowed down, we packed our things, took down our tent, and loaded the donkeys.
The cattle that were by our campsite were all wearing cowbells, which reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit that Christopher Watkins did on "more cowbells". Their bells made music as they munched on grass in the fields.
We were looking forward to another hike in the rain. LOL We were going to hike for about 4 hours today. At the end of the hike, Ezzie would meet us and drive us to our next campsite, where we'd get ready to climb the Mountain of God. Lukasz asked what the purpose was for trekking if we were just going to meet Ezzie and get a ride to the campsite.
About an hour into the hike, he figured it out. The hike took us through the Ngorongoro Crater Highlands and into the Great Rift Valley.
Even with minimal visibility due to the rain and fog, the hills were amazing!
Off to our right was Oldoinyo Leng'ai, playing peek-a-boo with the clouds, and trying to look intimidating.
I've hiked through a lot of mountain valleys, but we don't have anything like this in the States...at least that I've seen. It was magnificent and the fog just added to its beauty. (And even though I looked around, there were no 4-legged creatures anywhere nearby.)
There were a lot of ups and downs, but it was an easy hike at a "poli poli" pace.
When we came out of the highlands, we descended into the valley.
The trail was muddy and there were a lot of rocks on the way down, but other than a little slipping and sliding, we all made it down without injury, including the donkeys. :-)
I stayed up in the front with the donkeys for about 3 hours, but soon, we were so far ahead of Lukasz and our guide that I decided it would be better to wait and finish the hike with them.
At the bottom of the valley was a small canyon that wound its way between the hills.
Here is Lukasz descending down into the canyon.
The rocks were both sharp and curved, and reminded me of some of our canyons back home in Colorado.
This was an Ethmostigmus trigonomodus, also known as the blue ringed centipede, which has a venomous bite. Another reason to avoid wearing sandals.
At the end of our scenic trek through the hills, we met up with Ezzie, said goodbye to our Maasai guides, and headed toward camp.
Camp was near a beautiful lake in a small Maasai village. This was an actual campsite that had running water, showers, and toilets. Needless to say, taking a shower was one of the first things we did upon arrival.
There were many small yellow weavers at camp.
If you looked above the walking path toward the bathrooms, you'd see all the weaver's nests high in the trees.
One of the local Maasai who worked at the campsite helped with the tent.
Once our camp was set up, I went exploring and Lukasz met some of the others who were camping near us. There was a couple who had just returned from their attempt at climbing Oldoinyo Leng'ai the night before. Before heading to bed, they talked with Lukasz about their experience and said it rained the entire time, and there were dangerous rock and mud slides, it was a very challenging scramble. They made it to the resting spot near the top, but due to lightening, were unable to finish the climb. They warned Lukasz that it was very slippery due to the steepness and water from the rain.
The way things were looking, we would also have rain and clouds, but there was nothing we could do about it. After lunch, we had time to kill and decided to hike over to the waterfall. We put on swimming gear and, since we'd be hiking through the water, sandals (or in my case, my running shoes without socks).
The canyon where the river flowed was beautiful!! This was our Maasai guide.
The first part of the hike was on a sandy trail with a few small slippery rocks.
My camera was stuffed in the back pocket of my swim shorts. It had all the pictures from my trip, so I was really hoping not to fall and wreck the camera on the rocks or in the water.
In a quarter mile, the trail was replaced by slippery rock as we navigated around the water along the sides, climbing up or down. I have very weak ankles, and although it wasn't appropriate to wear hiking boots, I probably should have put on my ankle brace. There were a number of close calls on the rocks with spraining my ankle, but luckily, we made it there and back without injury.
The scenery on this short hike was impressive, and once the canyon narrowed, the calm water turned into rapids.
There were several smaller waterfalls along the way, before we made it to the main one.
The guide in charge of the people behind us did not let them go in the water because it was too dangerous and slippery, but our guide had no problem with us going in the waterfall area. :-)
The water was warm, and although it was like quick sand in some places, we managed to make it under the waterfall without a problem.
It was fun to stand on top of the rocks directly under the heavy spray of the waterfall. Lukasz bent over to get a back massage and I was simply trying not to lose my sunglasses or contacts. Getting off of the rocks was a little bit tricky, but it's not like we weren't already soaking wet, so even if we fell in the water, as long as we didn't hit any rocks with our heads, it would be okay. :-)
Once we finished the hike, we made a little side trip through the Maasai village to see the view below.
And while Lukasz took that picture of me with my camera out, I was taking a 360 video of our surroundings to try and give you a better idea of how beautiful it was where we were.
The sun popped out through the clouds, which gave us a chance to dry off some on the hike back to camp.
Along the way, we saw more Maasai children playing in the grass.
And got a good look at the volcano we would be climbing in a few hours.
The sun was going down as we arrived at the campsite.
We had dinner and got some sleep, hoping for good weather on our climb.
At 11:30 pm we were woken up, had some coffee and crackers, and got in the Land Rover to drive to the base of the volcano. It was not only pitch dark, but the 4 wheel drive trail was full of water and mud, and disappeared in several places, leaving Ezzie to try to navigate what looked like an impossible route. We did manage to get lost a couple of times and temporarily stuck once, but considering the other 2 groups behind us didn't make it as far as us, big kudos to Ezzie for his mad crazy driving skills!!
This is what it looked like getting out of the car to begin the hike. We put on our headlamps and day packs, grabbed our hiking poles, and set off!
The trail was much steeper than Mount Kilimanjaro, and even much steeper than Mount Garfield (back in Colorado). It rained for a short bit, but then stopped right after we put on our rain gear, teasing us with little spurts of rain and drizzle, so we left our rain gear on. We made our way up very slowly through the dark, with the moon occasionally popping through the thick layer of clouds above us. Although we couldn't see the official summit from where we were, the area close to the top didn't look that far away. It did, however, look incredibly steep, and as if our guide could read my mind, he mentioned that the trail would get much steeper and to take care. It was too difficult to use the hiking poles without slipping, so I'd use the poles in one hand and hold on to the rocks with the other hand, keeping my eye out for snakes.
At about 3:30 am, I was sick yet again, and had to find a place to go to the "bathroom". (This was not easy as it was terribly steep and there was nothing but rock and drop-offs on both sides of us.) I dropped down on the left side and had to hold onto the rocks to keep from falling. Never a dull moment... When I went back to pick up my gloves, jacket, and day pack, I noticed one glove was missing. Lukasz and our guide spent about 10 minutes with me trying to find the missing glove. I felt a little bit silly as it ended up falling out of the jacket I had picked up off a rock and tied around my waist, but was happy to have it. Then about 10 minutes after we started climbing up again, I had to go to the bathroom yet again. :-( Seriously? And when is Lukasz going to get sick??? Grrrrrrr.
We took a million breaks along the way as we scrambled up the volcano's unforgiving side - pee breaks, food breaks, rest breaks, water breaks, breaks to put on or take off layers, and the last 2 bathroom breaks, so I was surprised the other groups hadn't caught up with us yet. Despite all those breaks and the slow pace it felt like we were traveling, we arrived at the main resting area by 4:00 am, and were told we had to wait until sunrise before completing the final 500 ft of elevation gain due to areas of hot rocks and steam. So, we sat down in the dark and cold on the wet rocks for about 1.5 hours and shivered as we waited and willed the time to move more quickly. I asked why we couldn't have just left an hour or two later, and the guide said that most people go much slower than us. Huh.
But, after an hour, the other 2 groups arrived and we all crammed into a very small rocky area to wait, and chatted for about 30 minutes until it was bright enough to finish the hike. I was still feeling very sick and just praying I could hold off until we got back down. There really weren't any places to use the bathroom near the top! The very top was the most steep, but also the most fun to climb. When we made it up, we were completely immersed in a cloud and could see nothing but fog. We walked around the crater rim, but instead of seeing spurting black-colored lava from one of the hornitos inside the crater, we saw nothing but clouds. Oh well. The rim we were on was about 9500 ft. We had climbed 5500 ft of steep volcanic rock, and that was an accomplishment in and of itself.
I will also note that it was Kyla's birthday today, and we had dedicated this hike to her. I said a special prayer for her at the top and then we started our descent back down the mountain, which would end up being much more difficult and dangerous than the ascent.
The top 500 feet smelled strongly of sulfur, and reminded me of being in Yellowstone. Most of the pictures we took were on the way down when we actually had light. It was odd to have climbed up the rock at night and then to not recognize any of the landscape once it became light. I looked down the route we had come up and none of it looked familiar. (This was actually pretty cool, because it made it less boring as if we were climbing down a completely different rock!)
There were numerous crevasses and cracks toward the top that had steam coming out of them.
Although we weren't able to see much inside the belly of the Maasai's "Mountain of God", it is known for being the coolest volcano in the world. While most volcanoes have basaltic lava coming out of it, Oldoinyo Leng'ai produces natrocarbonatite lava, which is an odd mixture of potassium and sodium. Because of this odd composition, the lava erupts at "only" 500-600 degrees C (1/2 the temperature of most volcanic eruptions).
Within a few hours immediately following an eruption on Oldoinyo Leng'ai, the black looking lava and ash turn white. Then, about 6 months later, the lava becomes a yellowish-brown sand (which looks like the yellow mud in the picture above). No other volcano in the world has rock that looks like this one. :-)
This picture is very misleading as it doesn't look steep at all. In reality, because of the way the sides were sloped, this 200 foot section was almost like an illusion of being more flat, but having the rocks fall quickly and feeling gravity and a sense of steepness without looking that way. This is also the area where I had dislodged a large rock / small boulder that rolled over by foot and lower leg. It was very heavy and hard to roll the rock off of my leg, and I was worried that I might have a large gash or damaged something, but was still able to continue climbing down and just took a strong pain med to make it more bearable.
Once we got to this part, it looks like a drop off, but was really just an even more steep part to go down. You can see the Great Rift Valley below, where we started the climb, and if you enlarge the picture and look very closely, you can see 3 dots that are our vehicles.
One of the guys in another group actually fell down in this area and almost couldn't stop himself as there's not much to grab hold of and it's a lot steeper than it looks. Lukasz reached out to try and help him, and he almost ended up going down with him. Luckily both guys were okay and only had a few scrapes and bruises. Our guide told us to be very careful and to lean backwards. That way if you fell, you'd end up sliding down on your butt. We fell or had a number of "near misses" quite a bit on the way down.
You also had to be very careful with all the loose rocks and yell "rock" if you knocked one down. There were many times rocks would fly by our heads - most small, but some large enough to do damage if they hit our heads. Lukasz went a little bit slower, and being quicker on the downhill was actually not a great thing, as it meant being the target of all of the rocks that fell from people above you.
Despite the challenges of descending such a steep rock, the scenery was beautiful! The sun came out from behind the clouds occasionally, and this is a picture of the shadow of the volcano. It not only looks cool, but kept us from getting sun burnt as there was no other shade on the way down.
Our guide had a small lunch / snacks for us. I didn't want to stop for breaks as I felt like being sick again, but it gave the knees a well deserved break and I was able to check out the damage the rock did to my leg.
It looked like I wouldn't need Lukasz to stitch anything up after all (thanks to the thick hiking boots and expedition thick socks). However, I did sport a super cool bruise that faded into yellow with splotches of red by the time I came home. And as I type this 5 weeks after the climb, that area is still a little bit tender.
The last hour of hiking was the easiest as the steep climb was done and we just had to descend through the valley toward the waiting vehicles. (This is a look back up toward the mountain, whose top was once again covered in clouds.
The entire hike took about 10 hours and Lukasz was happy to call it a day, though for someone who doesn't hike or climb a lot, he did a really great job!! :-)
I have to admit that it was a lot more challenging than climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro, even if the views didn't quite compare. And we definitely couldn't complain about getting a great morning workout in! (Though I doubt Lukasz will let me do the planning on any future trips...)
Now that we have successfully climbed up two of the three tallest peaks in Africa, what do you say about skipping the Zanzibar beaches and climbing up Mount Meru to hit all 3??? (Just kidding Lukasz!!!) Time to return to camp and take a well deserved nap.
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