Mt Meru

Day 1

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Waiting to be taken to the gate...

Waiting for the guide and porters
to have their breakfast...

Waiting for the guide to arrange our luggage with the porters....

While waiting we could study the route...

Waiting is over :)

More than three hours after we were picked up in Arusha, we were finally ready to go... that means, only the two of us and Boniface, our ranger. Our guide, who was kind enough to carry my water bottle,  planned to catch up with us when he had finished organizing the porters. Obviously he had not told the ranger what route to choose, so we had to talk him into going the longest route, which is not so steep and better for altitude acclimatization. Nice trip, but missed my water bottle...

Rather "rainforesty."

The Fig Tree Arch

Mostly nice weather the first day, but we had to put on our rain gear now and then...

Excellent picnic site for an excellent packed lunch!! 

A cool guy in a cool landscape...

... and a cool girl in a cool landscape :) 

After a few hours we arrived at Miriakamba Hut, 2500 m.

The peak and the Ash Cone could be seen from the hut.

All by ourselves... :) 

Day 2

Rain, rain, rain...

Packing and making ourselves ready.

Foggy and rainy... 

Guide and ranger 

Getting closer, but still wet.
Little Meru in the background.

Almost there :)

Saddle Hut, 3500 m

 Soaking wet (I at least...), after a three hours hike in heavy rain, we arrived at Saddle Hut. Unfortunately we had not known that our porters would not start hiking from Mirikama until the rain had settled. That means, we had to wait for our dry clothes for another couple of hours...

Our packed lunch view (Kilimanajaro, if you don`t recognize it...

Trying to keep myself warm. Norwegian chocolate helps :) 

After a good rest the rain stopped and we had a very nice acclimatization hike to Little Meru. From there we could see the rest of the route all the way to the peak, excited to see the sunrise and the view in the morning, not knowing what was waiting on our 5 hour long night walk...

 Okay, as we started our nightly hike at 1 a.m. it also started to rain, and the rain continued till we were almost there. Then it started to snow!!! Oh yeah, what an enjoyable hike...  Dark, wet, cold, steep. I understand why April is low season... It was hard, but we made it to the top, 4566 m :) 

What a sunrise, and what a view....

Day 3

Down, down, down...

On the way down from the top, we were at least able to see a little bit of the view - now and then. Mt. Meru is an extremely beautiful hike with an excellent sunrise and stunning view!... I think... if you are able to see it...

Boniface pointing to where we`ve been.

The Ash Cone crater to the left.

It is not every day you have an 8 hours long hike before breakfast!! Some food and a little rest at Saddle hut, and then we descended all the way down, another 5 hours, included all the breaks...

Rain gear on and off..

Down, down, down

More down...

Almost down...

Legs and toes had a really hard time the last couple of hours. They had been pushed hard - 1000 metres up and 3000 metres down in a day!! Tired and hardly able to move our legs, we arrived in Arusha again, excited to fly to Zanzibar the following day, and looking forwards to just relax!