Climbing Mt. Meru

Mount Meru ... where to begin .. how about that no one of us had looked up any information and knew not what we were getting ourselves into! So we pitched up (all fresh off the plane from Canada) at our first campsite on the fence line of Arusha National Park, with no idea what was in store ...

The next morning ... we were ready (and still smiling) to climb ...

Day One was a three hour climb to Mirikamba Hut, first into a vlei where buffalo grazed and then up onto plateaus with fabulous views and trees and baboons ... absolutely beautiful ..

I would really recommend, even if you don`t want to climb Mt Meru to do a walking safari there ... or a horse-riding safari (I only wish I had known about those before)

When we reached Mirikamba Hut we drank tea out on the viewing deck with Kilimanjaro in the background and celebrated Kev`s birthday ...

The next days morning climb took us some beautiful pathways, beneath old trees dripping with old man`s beard and mosses and lichen, to the midway point Mgongo wa Tembo (The Elephant`s Back) ...

Through moorlands to Saddle Hut which lay at the base of Little Meru Peak ..

We made the mistake of sitting and having our lunch outside in the sunshine but in a roaring cold wind ... making it hard to warm up. Aimee and Kev then climbed Little Meru with Harvey (a Brit) .. look at top left pic and you can see Saddle Hut far below ...

We had an early dinner and crashed as we had to be up at midnight to begin the 6 hour slog to the top. And slog it was ... the first hour was sheltered to Rhino Point (named because the full skeleton of a rhino was found here). From there it was a 5hr hard climb to the top in a freezing wind that brought the temp to just above freezing and the clouds hung so low in the sky it may as well have been raining. We trudged through ash and sand, traversed rocky slopes of 45 degrees and finally two hours from the top sheltered from the icy wind behind a large boulder. That is where I cracked and began a comically ironic tirade against Bruno and Raymond our amazing guides: `Whose idea was it to climb this mountain anyway`` It was great as everyone else was at cracking point also and were wondering why the dickens we were climbing this mountain .... and so we set off upwards again as a coherent team ... and all made the top ...

Then down we came ... another three hours to Saddle Hut, breakfast, crash for an hour then the 3 hr walk down to Mirikamba Hut where we hired the rescue vehicle to take us to the rangers camp (not cheating ... we had already climbed UP that section!) The road down was amazing ...

And what did we all think of Mount Meru - well certainly for me it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life ... and I think the others too. I only wish we had been able to summit in good weather as these were the views we would have seen ....

Next time huh!!!

Ummmm ... maybe NEVER! ... Stas, did I say I was going to climb Kili with you ...... maybe not .... or perhaps when I have gotten over the agony of that climb!!!