if your Christmas was just half as good as mine then I know you had a great holiday! Going up Mt. Meru was an awesome experience. I had planned to do it in two days, to save some money. But they won't let you do it the guide later told me that they used to allow it, but stopped offering it). While the price diff is substantial (210 vs. 140) don't regret having taken three days. Otherwise I would have missed a spectacular sun rise on Little Meru (3800m), watching the awakening of Kilimanjaro for the day.
Getting to the start was more difficult than the climb itself. There is no public transit. The only options are going to a Safari operator (Lonely Planet said it'd be $100), take a cab (I was also told this is around $100) or take a bus to the village at the turn off and hope for a ride (Lonely Planet called them sporadic...). I didn't want to take my chances, so when I took a taxi to the wedding in Arusha on Saturday, I inquired about the fare to Momela Gate. "40,000". Wow - a lot less than expected! I told him to pick me up at 7:30 and off we went. We came to the first Gate and I paid all the fees. Then the taxi driver refused to continue. He thought I meant that gate. Fortunately he did acknowledge that I said Momela Gate, and the guards talked to him for five minutes before he surrendered. I was in no mood to walk 15km before hiking up the mountain...
I will keep the report blog-friendly and post a longer report later.
I was paired with a couple from Austria, glad to have some company. Our guide Manuel was nice. We were one of the few people to take up the longer route on the first day. And I was one of the even fewer to not make use of a porter and carry all my stuff. To save on weight my diet for the three days consisted of 2.5 loafs of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a few cereal bars and a bag of peanuts. I also meant to bring seven liters of water, but due to an oversight or maybe poor maths skills I bought seven 1.5l bottles and I had one liter of mango juice. The first day my bag was kinda heavy (maybe 23 or 24kgs - the porters carried 20 kgs...)
After a very nice walk through the woods, seeing very pretty butterflies and some monkeys, we made it to the first hut. We were all in agreement to strive off from the usual program and the next day went to the second hut, took a quick break and continued on to the summit at 4500m. Doing it this way would get us down earlier on the last day. It was a tough six-hour day but well worth it. Going from the first to second hut was very scenic, strolling through nice wooded areas. Just three years ago they built some stairs, for two reasons. One, because the climb was very steep. So forget about that one. I will only talk about the second reason, to prevent soil erosion. That fits in with my sporty mind and my thesis subject...
The climb from Saddle Hut (the second hut) to the top was not easy at times, climbing over some rock fields where I was just hoping I wouldn't slip down and end up a few kilometres later at the wrong side of the mountain (e.g. not where the huts or the gate are...). But we didn't make a dent in the stats, all reaching the summit (the guide said in the five years he has worked there, all Austrians, Germans and Spaniards have reached the summit. He also said most Americans make it, but mentioned that "Japanese, Chinese and people from India are lazy"... We reached the summit on Christmas Eve, so I gave a Christmas present to everyone - in form of a Corny cereal bar (that were individually wrapped so I didn't need to use my standard gift wrap, which is newspaper...) There were five of us - the two Austrians, the guide and one porter.
I am glad we did it in daylight and not in the darkness, like some other groups.
The third day we got up early and went up little Meru (about 40min) to see the sun rise. It was extremely beautiful. We also saw the sun rise the day before from the first hut. Equally stunning. Going down, especially from the first hut on, was less fun. Somehow going downhill is more annoying, and also the shorter route is, with a few exceptions, less scenic than the longer one. But we did see one giraffe on the way.
After receiving my certificate for climbing Meru prenAeen8at the gate I tried the "sporadic" pickup thingie. Same as the guide. We finally could hitch a ride. I sat in the back of the pickup truck, while Manuel had climbed to the front. I got a few "thumbs up" on the way. I guess Mzungus aren't seen in the back of the trucks too often, and many use the Landrovers from the Safari operators for a more convenient ride. But I enjoyed it tremendously. Manuel had told me that I should expect to pay about 10,000 (much m ore than my travel guide said), but when I climbed off the guy left before I could even say thank you. And Manuel just paid the 500 shillings for the Dala-Dala, so my return ride was actually free!
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