Ol Doinyo Lengai - Mountain of God

This blog is long overdue.  A few weeks ago myself and 3 other volunteers embarked on an adventure with one goal in mind.  To conquer the active volcano in the Eastern Rift Valley in Northern Tanzania.  We hired a local driver/friend Ernest to drive us the 6 hours to the base of the volcano.  So the four doe-eyed volunteers and their trusty driver set out early one Friday morning.  Ol Doinyo Lengai is an active volcano located south of Lake Natron and had its last eruption sometime in 2009.  There are many villages located around the base of Lengai and the Tanzanian government has tried many times to "relocate" the people who live in those villages due to the dangers or living at the base of an active volcano.  The local people say there is no need to relocate because they can determine when the volcano is going to erupt and therefore get to safety before any "real" danger is close.  They described a "fool-proof" system for detecting volcanic eruptions.....watch the animals.  If the animals in the surrounding areas are acting strange/migrating at abnormal times then the local people are aware of unrest in the volcano.  Who needs fancy geological equipment when you have an old Maasai trick?!

On the way to Lengai

We bought some gum and candy to give to 

Maasai children on our drive.

Ol Doinyo Lengai

We arrived to our final destination around 2 PM after a very long and dusty car ride.  Ernest negotiated us through some pretty hairy terrain, sometimes a road wasn't even apparent to us, but not to Ernest who has a GPS implanted in his brain.  We secured a place to stay for the next couple of nights and negotiated with a local guide to take us up the volcano.  Lengai has to be climbed in the dark.  Our guide explained the reason for this is because it would be way too hot (from the sun mom, not the lava..) to climb it during the day so they do it in the cool of the night.  But afterward we all new better, they make you climb it at night because there is no way on Earth anyone would climb it if they saw what they were about to do up close.  It is simple as that.  So we had a little lunch/dinner, checked out the local village and crawled into bed at 9 PM for a couple hours of sleep before we drove the hour to the start of the trail.

At the start of the trail.

If we only knew what we were getting into!

After negotiating dried and not so dried river beds on our drive to the base we took a couple minutes to gather ourselves and prepare for our 6 hour hike to the top.  The first 2 hours of the hike were fast paced but not very steep.  Although pitch black we could make out what seemed to be bottomless crevasses to our left and right as we hiked up the mountain.  Taking frequent water breaks we made it about half way and the light from our truck was well out of the range of sight.  We took "moments of silence" to look up at the amazing stars (you could actually see the ring of the Milky Way) and to take in the eerie effect that total silence has on a person.  As we continued to climb the terrain got steep, very steep, almost 45+ degrees steep.  Soon we were sprawled on all fours trying to keep our balance as we slowly but surely made it up the mountain.  Due to the duration of the climb an interesting thing happens to ones equilibrium after a period of time looking down at your feet while climbing.  If you turn around and look the opposite direction your equilibrium resets itself and you go through a period of dizziness and disorientation, not ideal when one slip equals a tomahawk tumble down the face of a volcano....although, if you had to go, it wouldn't be a bad way to do so.

The easy part of the climb.

Finally, we got to what had to be the top or what I thought to be the the top but of course like a father on a long car trip, our guide said it would be just a bit more.  I figured out later that this was a tactic used to keep moral boosted.  "How much further until the top?"  "20 minutes." One hour later:  "How much further to the top?"  "15 minutes."  Tanzanian time is great.  We finally came to two large walls on either side of us that was the most intense part of the climb, but we knew we really were getting close to the top.  When we got through the two walls we could see the top, a steep sandy slope upwards to the top of the volcano.  We reached the summit at 7:00 AM.  Just in time to see the sun rise.

A happy group at the summit.

Right side: Volcano crater

Left side: Down the volcano

Our guide on the left meeting up with his buddy at the summit.

Our guide and I taking a walk around the crater.

Our guide and me at the summit.

When we got to the summit we thought that was the end of our climb but our guide insisted we take a walk around the crater edge to the other side in order to get a better view of the sun set.  We walked around the crater with impending doom on both sides.  On one side we had the bottomless volcano pit and the other the face of the volcano all the way down to the bottom, we treaded lightly.

Taking a little stroll.

Our guide then told us that we needed to head back down the mountain in order to beat out the sun.  We would fry if we were on the upper half of the mountain when the sun got to the top of the sky so we headed down the volcano.  This was by far the worst part of the experience.  You don't realize as you are climbing up that you will of course have to climb down.  Seems logical of course but you just don't even think of it!  Knees, shins and toes were burning by hour 2 and I think we had all had enough of the downward climb by hour 3.  After 6 hours climbing down the mountain our truck could be spotted in the tall grass, we were home free.

Macon and I taking a break on the way down.

Our guide would run, yes, run down 

the mountain and take little naps on perches while the 

soft white folks took their sweet time....he had the patients of a saint.

He didn't take a single sip of water or a bite of food during the 12 hours of hiking...

More of the climb down.

Our trusty leader Ernest was waiting for us at the bottom to take us back to camp for the rest of the day.  We had a quick nap and then went and explored the water falls which were also beautiful.  The next couple of days were spent exploring the local village and just relaxing after our long climb.  It is a good thing we were in Africa because there is no way we would have been able to climb the volcano without training, ropes, proper equipment and a trail that doesn't change day to day and about a thousand release forms.  I don't regret a second of it and if they chance arises I would even do it again.....perhaps in a couple years.

After conquering Lengai.

Everything else has been going pretty well.  I have been working on getting to know the purchasing process here at Peace House and have also been working with some teachers to get a tutoring schedule set for students to be helped in math and other subjects.  This week the kids go on break for Easter so it will be quiet around here for a about a week and a half.  Perhaps a trip to the coast is in order to take in some of those fantastic Tanzanian beaches I have been hearing about.  Sorry for the lack of posts, they will be more frequent from now on!