Kilimanjaro & Meru - Page 2

Mt. Meru: Momella Gate - Miriakamba hut

Early Richard picked us up from the lodge with the whole team of porters. In good spirits we drove the short distance to the Ngongongare gate at the National Park. Richard had to do some formalities here, then we continued to Momella Gate. On the way we got our first impressions of the local wildlife: caribou, warthogs, colobus monkeys. Baboons crossed the road here and there. At Momella Gate we had to wait for some tourist groups to gather. Then Gordwin, an armed ranger, came and gave everyone a briefing. Later I asked Richard what dangers lurked here. He explained to me that the buffalo in particular sometimes react aggressively to people. There are also leopards, but they are probably too rare or too shy, and elephants are more likely to be seen at night. Richard once walked tiredly into an elephant that was helping itself from one of the water tanks 🙂. But it didn't affect him.

So our group, about 10 men, Italians, Dutch and us, meandered up the increasingly steep paths. At the Arched Fig Tree bent fig tree, we were joined by 2 Frenchmen. The path was easy to walk on, the rainforest thickly overgrown and the trees covered with lots of Spanish moss. Further up, on a wide plain, we had a wonderful view into the valley. After about 5 hours we reached the Miriakamba huts. The fast porters had arrived long before us, had already distributed our luggage in the spartan huts and had made coffee. We were travelling during the day with only a light daypack, which contained rainwear, a few snacks and plenty of water. We should get into the habit of drinking at least 3 litres on the way to higher altitudes.

The Miriakamba huts were at an altitude of 2500 m, not yet a challenge, but we were already getting respect for the coming heights. Here we made our first acquaintance with the disgusting standing toilets, a hole in the floor, and if you're lucky, you're still standing there early in the dry 🤢. It was foggy today, raining from time to time. That's why we talked a lot with Richard, he had been a guide for 19 years and had some stories to tell. Our travel company and our super organiser Timo had done an interesting interview with him: here. For us, as for him, the most important thing was that we could laugh together, that we had the same sense of humour. So the atmosphere was excellent, our cook was a genius. We only had to get used to the early darkness. From 7 p.m. onwards, you could only go out with a headlamp.

Miriakamba hut - Saddle-hut - Little Meru

The next morning we were woken up at 6am with coffee by the bed, 7am we had breakfast and 8am we started. Well, almost, it always took a while until the ranger had his group of strolling tourists together 🙂. The times were also the same for the next mountain days, except for the 2 summit days. The path became steeper right away today, at some point it went through the clouds. For a while, dense fog hung in the humid rainforest. But then it suddenly shone bright blue through the trees and you had a wonderful view of the closed white cloud cover below. Every now and then, Kilimanjaro peeked through the dense overgrowth in the distance. It had become very warm in the last few hours. Richard recommended putting on a sun hat, the sun becomes more aggressive with increasing altitude. We arrived early at the Saddle Hut at 3500 metres, which was the plan. For acclimatisation reasons a detour to Little Meru was planned for the afternoon.

After the delicious lunch and an hour's rest, we marched with Richard and Caspar, one of the porters, up Little Meru at 3820 metres. Richard always did this: on every summit he took someone with him who could go back with one of us in case of an emergency. However, after three quarters of an hour of climbing over dusty paths, we stood at the summit and enjoyed the brilliant panoramic view. Again down at Saddle-Hut we chilled for a while with a view of Kili 70 km away in the distance. Baboons and ravens fought at the water at the watering holes when the cooks were disposing of the leftovers. As he did every evening, Richard joined us for dinner, inquired about our sensitivities and explained the next day's schedule.