Oldonyo Lengai

After staying put in Zanzibar for a month, we made our way to the mainland of Tanzania. Our first stop was Moshi where we met up with our Tanzanian friend, Simon and his American fiancee, Tara. Together, we were planning to climb a volcano called Oldonyo Lengai. The volcano is revered by the Maasai people as "Mountain of the Gods." It's revered by tourists as a great place to watch the sunrise. The plan was to start at 1 am, in order to get to the top by 6:00 am. We were told that it's safe now to climb it, though it is sometimes active.


The drive to Oldonyo Lengai put our 4x4 to the test. The road was incredibly bumpy and laden with levels of dust that I had never seen before. The mid-day heat made us want the windows open, but we would rush to shut them again as vehicles passed us, kicking piles of dust into our jeep. We stopped for lunch near the volcano and from out of nowhere, were met by a trio of massai boys, clearly as intrigued by us as we were by the golf-ball sized sticks in their ears.

Arriving at our campground parched and caked with dust, we were stunned see a rushing river. We went on a hike upriver to a gorgeous waterfall where we rinsed and refreshed ourselves. Back at the campground, we ate and wound down quickly, in order to catch some Z's before waking up at midnight for the climb.

When we awoke under the moon, other campers were awake from the night before. We ate a midnight "breakfast" and embarked for another bumpy, dusty drive, this time in the dark. A close call on a steep section of road tested my alertness. We nearly tipped over, trying to scale a deeply washed out hill, but it was "hakuna matata" [no problem].

Headlamps lighting the way, we started our ascent up the steep slopes of Oldonyo Lengai. My mind focused on thoughts of home, pondering various expectations for my return to the life in North America. This served as a practical distraction from the moonlit mountaintop above. Unused to exerting itself at this hour, my body protested and I found myself trying to catch up with the others between rest breaks.

The hours went by and we made steady progress. The slope got steeper and I gained in alertness along with it. Simon, Tara and Liz were doing great. We would make it to the top for sunrise, our guide assured us.

5 hours later, we reached the surface of the moon - or at least that's what it looked like to me. Building-sized cones matched by equally imposing caverns leading to "the center of the earth" as Lizzie said. We walked to the sunrise side, passing vents of steam and climbing over crumbly white chunks of ash. It was like being at one of those national parks where there is volcanic activity (Yellowstone, Lassen) and walking in all of the places where you're not supposed to.

We watched the sunrise from a glacier-esque patch of hard grey lava. We ate our "lunch" and turned to descend.

Getting down was easier than climbing as my hiking shoes gripped the steep slope. Liz's running shoes were less cooperative, so as I had needed extra time on the way up, she needed it for getting down. We took our time, sipping our water and enjoying the spectacular morning view. It took us almost as long to get down as it did to get up, but at the bottom, Simon was waiting for us with some freshly cooked sweet potato. He was characteristically teasing the Maasai boys nearby that he wanted to buy one of their sheep, because he was hungry. "I need to ask my Dad..." was their reply "...he counts them."

Savoring food and wobbly walking, we looked up at where we'd been and agreed that we didn't know quite what we were getting into.

We had an eventful return trip with some jeep trouble, and a subsequent successful highway tow to a gas station. We were eventually deposited in Arusha, said goodbye and limped into the shower before going to sleep before our wildlife safari, due to start the next day.

Oldonyo Lengai