We have just got back from a 3 day trek on Mt Meru which was a combination of a walking safari and hill walk. We organised the trek through a local company which supplied a guide, 3 porters and a cook - just for the 2 of us - felt like a colonial Shiab and Mem-Shaib ! Still it was not our guide who did most of the guiding, but a national park ranger, who carried a WW1 vintage mauser rifle just in case a buffalo got too frisky. The climb to the top hut (or village of huts to be accurate) took 2 days. We saw lots of interesting wildlife and birds including: hornbills, sun birds, blue monkeys, baboons and buffalo. The flora was initially very tropical, with wild bannanas, fig trees, maiden hair ferns but changed as we climbed and the temperature to have lots of ferns, lichen hanging from trees and was quite evocative of a tolkein story.
At the top hut - Saddle Hut - we did a climb up Little Meru 3800 m during the afternoon. We got some good views and R and I both felt good and well acclimatised. We were up at 4.30 the next morning to climb up to Rhino point to watch the sunrise - the rest of the people at the hut had got up between midnight and 2am to climb to the summit - not something either of us had a burning desire to do. As we climbed the star filled sky slowly lightened and coulered red in the east. We did get to see the top of kilimanjaro poking up out of the cloud before it dissapeard in more clouds. Meru summit was shrouded in cloud - so we were secretly pleased not to have bothered trying to get to teh top! The views from Rhino point were excellent, down into teh surrounding national park and teh ash cone of the meru volcano itself. There then followed a long 2300m descent back to the park gates - but on the way we saw warthogs, baboons and giraffes and really close too. I will post pictures when I can get a decent computer to use - this one is a bit slow and old! Tomorrow we get on the bus for a 9 hour trip to Dar es Salaam where we overnight before heading over to Zanzibar for 5 nights on teh beach for a little R&R!
Cheers, Murray & Rhonda
