Mount Meru

Last Thursday I returned from my trekking holiday in Tanzania, where I successfully scaled Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro.  I am slowly (as always) sorting through the photos and they will be the subjects of the next few posts.  First some plugs and excuses.  For the plugs, the trip I took was expertly organised by mountain instructor and international mountain leader, Rob Johnson, using local operator Ashante Tours.  I highly recommend both, should you be planning a similar adventure.  As for the excuses, the sole goal of this trip was to summit Kili. Everything else was secondary, including photography.  Combining a hard day in the hills with taking great photos is tricky at the best of times.  Add the extra difficulties that come with high altitude and the task is much tougher.  So the photos that follow are unlikely to win any competitions.  They are a record of an amazing journey (to sound like a X-factor finalist).

So, on to that journey.  The first task of the trip was to climb Mount Meru, a 4566m peak in the Arusha National Park.  The goal was to spend a couple of nights “sleeping high”, for pre Kili acclimatisation.  Actually summiting the 5^th highest mountain in Africa would merely be the cherry on top.

Day 1 took us from the Momella Gate (at 1500m) to Miriakamba Hut at 2500m.  On the bus trip through the park to the start gate we saw zebra, water buffalo, baboons, warthog and dik dik.  Sadly most of these encounters were too quick garner photos.  White necked ravens became our constant companions and were with us at every camp on both Meru and Kilimanjaro.

 

The rainy season had not long finished (ours was one of the first trips of the new season) and the countryside was a lush green that we were assured would not last long.  All the trees were covered in lichen, a sign of excellent air quality that is rare at home.

Accommodation on Meru was hut based, meaning we needed fewer porters and support crew than would be the case later on Kili.  However, due to the wildlife, especially the baboons and buffalo (the latter of which kill more people than lions), we also had to be accompanied on the walk by an armed ranger until we reached the 3500m point.  

 

Day 2 we climbed another 1000m vertical from Miriakamba Hut to the Saddle Hut (3500m).  After lunch and a brief rest, a few of us climbed the subsidiary top of Little Meru (3,820m).

 

Meru is a volcano that had a major, Mount St Helens style, eruption approximately 8000 years ago.  Two thirds of the crater rim remain with an ash cone in the centre.  There have been minor eruptions since (the last in 1910) and it is still categorised as an active volcano.

The above photo, a 5 shot stitch taken from Little Meru, shows the final route to the summit, from Saddle Hut (bottom left) around the crater rim to the high point of “Big Meru” (at the back at roughly 12 O’clock).  At their highest point the sheer crater wall cliffss drop almost 1200m to the floor below. 

 

This picture (taken on the way back from the summit) shows the ash cone at the centre of the crater.  The cloud inversion behind was a constant for all the 9 days spent at altitude on both Meru and Kili.

Summit day (Day 3) began when we were woken at midnight.  A quick bite to eat and we started walking at 1am, lit only by the stars and our head torches.  Normally scrambling is something I enjoy.  But doing it by torch light, whilst feeling the effects of altitude, is another experience entirely and one I would heartily recommend to my very worst enemy.  For anyone wanting a similar experience, without the exotic travel, I suggest taking on an easy scramble such as Halls Fell Ridge in the Lakes, in the dark, with a bad hangover and emphysema.  

After 6 long hours, I eventually dragged my sorry ass to the summit and was rewarded with the sight of sunrise behind the distant Kilimanjaro, the only other feature visible above the cloud.  Once, whilst climbing Carn Mor Deag, I looked behind me to see Ben Nevis appear through an inversion.  I had always maintained that it was the most beautiful thing I had seen in my hillwalking career.  Until, that is, I saw Kilimanjaro.