It was beautful and brutal. My friend and fellow volunteer, Maria, and I spent the last 3 days climbing Mt. Meru, the second largest mountain in Tanzania. It is 4500 meters and some change. For us Americans, that translates into just shy of 15,000 feet.
You can do it in 3 or 4 days, and we opted for the 3 days. The plan is to hike the first day to the camp site at about 8000 some feet, then the second day hike to the next camp at 11,700 feet. You then sleep for the afternoon, and head out at 2am for the 3-4 hour hike to the summit, and then come back to camp for breakfast and the total descent. The weather had been consistent for the past few nights of pouring so hard that it would wake me up for hours as I waited for the roof to collapse. We met a group descending our second day who had not been able to summit because of the weather. Our guide suggested we could try summiting during our second day instead of waiting, as we are "strong Americans".
As also logical Americans, we figured the weather wouldn't change for our sakes. So...we hiked to camp 2, rested for an hour, then headed for the summit. 6 1/2 hours of climbing. We did it. 2 1/2 hours back to camp. in one piece. Hot tea and dinner in our sleeping bags. Many more details you probably could care less about. Like I said, it was beautiful and brutal. Very exciting accomplishment.
We descended the rest of the way today, savoured our shower, and are heading to bed for hopefully a very long night. Love to all, and good night.
4 comments:
Wonderful climb! We are so happy you went for it. Much love, from Hawaii ... stay safe!
4500 meters? Is that in Celsius or Farenheit?
6.5 hours of climbing?! One time I ate 15.5 pieces of pizza.
Amber it sounds so wonderful. Please tell the CA people hello. I can't wait to see you when you get back and hear more about all of this. Thinking about you, even though I don't always leave a comment. Bonita
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