People climb mountains for all kinds of reasons. Some
really want to summit the highest peak – to conquer. Some people really want to
know what it is like in that other world of the mountain forest and alpine
zone. We have been gazing up at Mt. Meru for the past 3 and a half years, with
both of those motives, wondering when we might finally get to walk those
slopes. Finally, this past week, we did it.
We had actually booked this trip for the May Day holiday
weekend with Memorable Safaris. That
plan went out the window when we departed Tanzania in March for the COVID
lockdown. And good thing too! It was pouring down rain non-stop here in Arusha
until the beginning of July, so it would have been miserable, slippery hiking
through rain and mud. Memorable safari was happy to rebook us during this super
dry month of October, and we were very happy to give the business to a company
run by friends from our church. The plan was for Paul and Oren to summit, and
for David and me to stay back at Saddle Hut and wait for them. Both because of
David’s age and our mutual fear of heights, that seemed like a wiser plan.
DAY ONE
We had a relaxed start to our trip, which was good, giving
us a chance to double-check all our gear and wash the dishes before our departure.
Our head guide, 'Sunday', rolled up in a coaster bus at around 10 am, with five porters
already aboard. Our fellow traveler Ellen was also already on the bus – she’s
married to the guy who runs the company, so we were pretty sure things would go
well! We also met our second guide William and the cook Emmanuel. While we
drove, we quizzed Sunday about his experience and learned that he has been working
to support treks for almost 20 years (first a porter, then a cook) and guiding
for 9. We did the math and estimated that he’s probably summited Kilimanjaro 400
times, and Meru probably half that many. That’s a lot of experience!
When hiking in Arusha National Park, it is mandatory to
be guided by a Park Ranger with a gun, because the forests are full of dangerous
Cape buffalo and the odd leopard. Ranger Julius was not a lot taller than David,
armed with a very cheerful smile and a thirty aught six hunting rifle (an
old bolt-action WW I design). Julius led the way up a steep
dirt/gravel road heading up the mountainside – a road that we had actually
driven twice when we did day safaris in Arusha National Park.
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Overhung trees
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We were
definitely sweating during this part of the hike, with the sun beating down on
us, but then we got into the shade and started to experience delicate
fragrances and multitudes of butterflies as we came up into the tropical forest
zone. After about 90 minutes, we arrived at the fig tree arch, a natural
monument where 2 strangling fig trees came together and formed an arch big enough
to drive through. At this point, we caught up with the other two groups who
were traveling with us – a single retired German guy, and a family group of 7,
probably from Switzerland. Both of them were climbing Meru to prepare for
summiting Kilimanjaro later in the week.We continued walking uphill along the road for another
hour or so, spotting interesting wildflowers here and there, including impatiens
native to the 3 taller volcanic mountains in this area. Huge trees are overhung
with Spanish moss and bearded lichen epiphytes, with branches that twist and
stretch out in unlikely shapes.
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Forest path
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At that point, I also realized that Oren was not doing so
well. Both he and Paul had woken up Monday morning with the beginnings of head
colds. But Oren was really sniffling and feeling chilled as we walked. He
really just wanted to arrive at our campsite, and it was pretty tough for him
to enjoy the walk. David had fun watching a family of black and white colobus
monkeys passing through overhead. But shortly afterwards, he decided that this
whole hiking thing was no good at all, wanted to go back home, and started throwing
large sticks in his frustration.
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David with Julius, the Wazee
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At that point, it was a good moment to break
out a chocolate bar and force feed about half of it to him and Oren. Managing
David was definitely a challenging task during the first two days of the hike,
as we walked endlessly uphill. Ranger Julius sort of adopted David as his
fellow “elder” Mzee and said that David was in charge of the pace of our hiking
and instructed him to walk second in line. That certainly helped.
We had another two hours of hiking up increasingly steep
slopes on this narrow path, and I won’t lie, my heartrate must have been up to
at least 140 bpm. I was really glad when Ellen started recounting stories from
her life to me, because I was so out of breath, I couldn’t get out more than
one sentence at a time. I just kept asking her questions. 😉
Still, I was thoroughly enjoying myself!
And then, suddenly we reached Miriakamba Hut – actually a
series of wooden buildings, including 3 dormitories, each containing 12 4-person bunk rooms, with pillows on the beds
and solar lighting in each room. There were separate buildings for the support
staff, a kitchen, and a dining hall. There were even toilets and a sink or two
with running water. We actually had expected much more rudimentary
accommodation, and so it was surprisingly comfortable. Unlike any backpacking trip
I’d taken in North America, we had no need to set up camp (or carry our gear).
All we had to do was change our shoes, wash our faces in warm water (prepared
by the porters, who had hustled up the mountain much faster than the 5.5 hours
it took us), and then show up at a table in the dining room to enjoy popcorn
and hot chocolate as the sunset. After all that exertion (10 km and an
elevation gain of 1000 m), dinner of fried fish, potatoes, and vegetables tasted
amazing.
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Sunrise at Miriakamba, Meru in background
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Sunday joined us at the table after dinner to do medical
checks, which he repeated every morning and evening throughout the trip. He had an oximeter to check how we were
managing the altitude gain (we were up to 2500 m, 8200 ft) and asked about any
other symptoms. Oren was already struggling with nausea and loss of appetite,
which was kind of worrying. But we gave him medicine to treat his cold and sent
him to bed early. Thankfully, none of us ever had a real problem with the
altitude at any point. The hike is well planned to allow for acclimatization,
and we live at 1000 m already.
DAY TWO:
We set off up through more Montane Forest on a very steep
path. Much of it was actually paved with concrete because otherwise, it would be
slippery and impassable in the rains. And there were sections that were
literally at a 45-degree angle. One of the highlights of the morning was
briefly spotting a male turaco, as it jumped from one tree to the next,
flashing a ringed eye and vibrant red wings. We took frequent breaks to make
sure David could keep up the steep walk and entertained him by playing “I’m
thinking of something” (20 questions). Ellen was such a good sport, playing
along with these family games and helping David stay in good spirits. Oren just
put in earphones, listened to music, and concentrated on putting one foot in
front of the other.
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Dusty heathlands
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Thankfully, there was never any point where we needed
to traverse steep drops or the edges of cliffs. Instead, we wound our way back
and forth up through the forest and then into the heathland further up above 3000
m. It was amazing to see how the vegetation completely changed at a certain
point, with totally different wildflowers and low shrubs. There were tiny orange
gladiolus and little bluegrass lilies down lower, which changed to golden
yarrow, St. John’s wort, and thistles up higher.
The paths were also extremely dusty. We also found that
we could not help but kick up huge clouds of this volcanic dust as we walked,
and so we had to keep some distance between ourselves.
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Meru peak looming above saddle hut
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Finally, after about 4.5 hours, we arrived at Saddle Hut,
at 3500 m / 11500 ft. The view was amazing in all directions! We had a little
time to enjoy lunch and then Sunday encouraged us to take a siesta for a while.
I tried to sleep, but David was very keen to explore, and so then we went out
to sit on a big concrete pad and looked around. We spotted a bushbuck on the
slopes of little Meru to our left and were fascinated by the flight of the huge
white-nape Ravens, soaring up into the saddle. Unfortunately, by this time,
Oren had developed a full-blown fever and was lying under 3 sleeping bags. We
were all supposed to take an acclimatization hike up to the top of Little Meru
(3860m). But we decided that Oren really needed to stay back and rest. So,
Paul, David, Ellen and I went with our two guides, Sunday and William, to climb
Little Meru. Again, it was pretty steep and dusty, with switchbacks up the
northern edge of the saddle. And as we suspected, it was an incredible view
from up there in the late afternoon sun. One funny thing: halfway up Little
Meru, my phone suddenly got reception, and I heard the chimes of my work email and the news notifications. I took a moment to enjoy the fact that I would not
be checking any of those items until Thursday afternoon. It was especially great
to take a break from politics! My only social media engagement was sending a
few photos to the grandparents to let them know how we were getting along.
We had an earlier dinner, and then Ellen and Paul
prepared themselves with all their gear and clothes for summitting. Oren had
planned to go with them originally, and I had no doubt that he could do it
physically. But there was no question of him starting a midnight hike when he
was running a temperature. So, unfortunately, he did not get to experience that
part of the hike. I’ll let Paul tell that part of the story…
TREK TO THE SUMMIT: Midnight to 10 am: Paul writing: I think there is something instructive about human nature to understand how one enters the perverse 'logic' of summitting this peak. Like contestants on a reality show such as 'Survivor', you must voluntarily submit to entering into a series of tests of endurance, that can seem almost contrived, even absurd in their increasing difficulty. Add to this, that unlike a reality show, you are paying thousands of dollars for the chance to participate, only to achieve an ephemeral reward if one completes the quest.
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Looking down at the ash cone
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I spent a year in the Himalayas in high-school and am not unfamiliar with mountaineering. My last serious climb though was in college, Mt. Kenya, so it has been a while since I have been on a summitting expedition. Meru is not like anything I have experienced in terms of a peak. The Meru range is actually the south side of what was once an enormous volcano (much bigger than Kilimanjaro). About 2/3 of the mountain collapsed leaving a large jagged-edged semi-circle of peaks like teeth in a lower jaw. What this means is that the ridge is extremely narrow and the approaching slopes are very steep and frankly treacherous. The summit is 15,000 feet, lower than Kilimanjaro, but more difficult due to the amount of scrambling and bouldering necessary to move up. Other hazards include very high wind whenever you cross the ridge which can conceivably blow you off the top.
The apotheosis of the challenge though is the necessity of starting the climb between midnight and 2 am, and doing almost the entire climb in total darkness. At 12:30am when my alarm went off, I seriously considered not going. I knew I was not entirely well, with the remains of a cold. But knowing 2 guides and Ellen were all preparing I did get up and have some tea and chapatis prepared for us in the dining hall.
At 1am in full winter gear (it is below freezing on the summit), and a strong headlamp the four of us started the trek. It was a new moon so it was impossible to see anything outside the range of the headlight. Fortunately, the sky looked clear and it was not too windy. I was worried that walking for hours in the dark might be like fighting sleep during a long drive, but it was nothing to be worried about. We started up a series of steep switchbacks to a small peak called Rhino Point, then went down a bit and onto a ridge. At this point, we had to traverse a slope as crossed over the ridge. The slope was so steep that we had to hold onto a chain to keep from sliding down into an oblivion that we could not see during the night. (Note: I could not take photos on the way up, so all photos were taken from the peak and on the way back down.)
From the chain, we started up a very long steep ridge of... slippery gravel and sand! Again like an obstacle designed for a game show. At this point ascending was very exhausting and progressed with a 'two steps forward, one step back' rhythm--an expenditure of precious energy as the air became increasingly thinner.
At different times we crossed the main ridge which was immediately evident, even without light because of the intense gusts of wind that assaulted us as soon as we were exposed on both sides.
By 4:30 am we were aware of some larger jagged peaks looming ahead of us, but it was impossible to tell how far or how much higher they were. In fact, a number of times I thought we were nearing the highest summit when it just turned out to be one of the jagged peaks along the way.
The graying morning came just before 6am, although we were on the side of the ridge away from the sunrise, and still a half-hour from the summit. We passed a last small saddle in the ridge and I looked up at the giant last jagged tooth looming before us. The climb to the summit, at that moment, seemed as far and unattainable as it did 4 hours earlier. The air was thin and the last climb was very steep. Another climb of scrambling and bouldering to the top. Only this time with a stop to rest and catch our breath every 3 or 4 steps.
At 6:30 am we reached the summit and looked over a very cloudy day far below in the valleys on both sides of the ridge. It was quite clear where we were though, and we could easily see to Kilimanjaro and down the ridge from whence we had come.
It was quite cold and windy up there and we did not stay more than about 10 minutes before starting our descent. Happily, the return takes about a third of the time of the ascent, and difficult spots like the slippery sand were great for bounding and sliding quickly down. The rocky parts though were quite treacherous, and it is quite a revelation to see some of the places we were walking in total darkness.
Sunday our guide said that it is actually better to hike in the dark, 'goallessly' because if you are always seeing ahead of you it can be very discouraging as progress is so slow and the path ahead so treacherous.
By the time we reached the saddle hut base camp at 10am, we were shot. The steep descent was quick but really painful on the knees and toes. We had hiked for 10 hours, 18 kilometers with only a little sleep the night before. I laid down in bed for a short nap knowing we had to make another 5km, 1000 m descent to the first base camp before the day was done.
DAY THREE
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Morning at Saddle Hut (David's photo)
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Back at Saddle Hut, Oren and I didn’t get much sleep. He
woke up several times, with fever and sore throat. And then there were each of
the various groups getting up in the middle of the night for their summit. We
also found we needed to shed fluid at night several times (i.e. go to the
outhouse) – on the other hand, that was a great excuse to go outside and look
at the stars in the dark, clear night. As we went to bed, Scorpio was all
curled up around the crater rim, with the Milky Way stretched overhead. At 2
am, Orion was rising in the East; Mars was high. There is nothing like seeing
the stars at high altitude.
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Oren and I at top of Little Meru peak
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Thus,
we split up for a couple hours of optional hiking on Wednesday morning. I
really enjoyed getting to climb Little Meru again, for a totally
different view in the morning, with a lot more cloud cover sweeping in and out.
With the binoculars, we were able to track David’s progress up the Rhino point switchbacks
and see the groups of hikers coming back along the crater rim. I was so glad
that Oren was able to accomplish something tangible on the trek, and for
myself, it was another chance to marvel at the goodness of God’s creation and
praise him for it. “This is my Fathers world” was the hymn playing in my head
for most of those four days.
By the time we got back down to Saddle Hut, Paul and
Ellen had arrived back and crashed. So, the kids and I played cards for a while
and passed the time. Eventually, they got out of bed and ate some lunch (though
they said they would have preferred sleep to food). And finally, around 2 pm we
set off back down the mountain towards Miriakamba.
The amazing botany was still all around us, but I must
confess that those 3+ hours down the mountain were pretty hard. And I had not
even summited! I still can’t imagine how Paul and Ellen stayed on their feet.
It was just so steep that there was no way to avoid some agony in the feet and
knees.
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St. John's Wort
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Paul, David, Ellen and I played a lot of “Contact,” and then tried to
share as many riddles or jokes as we could think of, just to distract ourselves
from the pain. Oren was somewhere way ahead with Julius, just trying to push
forward to the next time he could get back in bed. We had some more great
Colobus sightings, and also spotted a couple of buffalo crashing through the
forest 100 m away. By the time we got to Miriakamba, Paul and Ellen could
hardly stand it, trying to wait for dinner to be ready. We had to go find
Sunday and beg him to complete our medical checks early so that we could go to
bed! All of us were tucked in by 7:45 pm.
DAY FOUR
I woke up at quarter to six, very refreshed after a solid
10-hour sleep, and just in time for sunrise. Again, it was magical to literally
watch the sun rise through a blanket of clouds over Arusha, and then shine back
on the crater wall and the ash cone. I even had a few minutes to do some birdwatching
before breakfast and identified the Kikuyu White eye and the Northern
Double-Collared Sunbird around our camp.
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Homemade Bao
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We set out promptly at 8 am for more downhill walking. It
wasn’t quite as steep as the afternoon before, but still wasn’t super
comfortable. Sometimes we walked through forest, but other times we took a
straight path through long open rocky clearings on the mountainside. Every view
back was breathtaking. On one long stretch of exposed lava rock, I noticed two
parallel rows of six little indentations in the rock – it was a homemade Bao game,
drilled into the rock by Chagga shepherds long ago, a way to pass the time
while they kept an eye on their livestock. Even on the way down that day, there
were small wonders to notice and appreciate.
Finally, we hit level ground in a familiar place – the path
to a marvelous waterfall we’ve visited before on walking safaris. We were glad to
cool off in the spray of the waterfall, sit down for a few moments, and
appreciate how far we had come. From there, we had just a short walk back to
Momella gate, with plenty of game to see along the way.
Our only disappointment
was that we didn’t see any giraffe on the plain that morning. We were almost
back to the road when suddenly Ranger Julius spotted a tiny giraffe – probably only
5 days old. It appeared to be alone and it gazed shyly at our group for a while
and then settled itself down on the ground for a rest, just 3 m from the road. This
was an absolute treat for us. Hopefully mama was somewhere nearby, but we never
saw her.
So, we survived! We got to the gate and enjoyed a box
lunch, which Emma had prepared for us in advance. David climbed Micro-Meru. We received
certificates for each of our achievements in climbing. We offered words of
thanks and appreciation to the crew and gave them tips. And finally, we got
back on the bus and were delivered, one by one, to our homes, very tired, very
dirty, but very thankful for the challenging experience.
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Wild jasmine on the plains
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tiny detailed alpine flower
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