Last day on the mountain.

After a night of bitter cold and tumultuous wind, the weather broke for the better in the morning. I had been bundled up freezing all night in my sleeping bag and was afraid to get out in the morning. When I walked outside, however, the air felt cool, but quite bearable. This first picture is the view from the top, which is distorted by the clouds. This is a cliff that overlooks the entire crater (If you look closely you can barely see the lake). I have no doubt that the view is quite astonishing on a clear day, but there was no luck this time around... being the monsoon season and all. I had a breakfast of fresh fruit and banana pancakes, complete with the aforementioned stout coffee.
After breakfast I put on a wet outfit, which was miserable. I had dry socks, but it didn't matter since my boots were soaked. There was no point in putting on dry clothes, as they would only be soaked within an hour. Even when it wasn't raining, we were walking through dense brush and trees that shed cool water as we walked through them. The weather had changed our plans that day. Since we couldn't see the summit and there was heavier rain coming, the guide said we should hike back down rather than stay the extra day. Having no dry anything and miserably wet feet, I didn't object very strongly.


The hike on the third day proved to be much easier than the first two. Funny how going down a mountain is so much easier than going up. The scenery was pleasant and the air felt refreshing and clean. Of course, it promptly started raining and the pancho came out once again, making it difficult again to get pictures. I was looking forward to going back to the hotel and drying up, but also was cherishing the nice hike. We would hike for 3 1/2 hours and eat lunch, then another 2 after that to the base, where a ride would be waiting to take us back to Sengigi.

Here is a picture of a very deep gorge just by the shelter where I had my last lunch on the mountain. We walked over many of these that day. The picture does not give a perspective of how deep this is. I was throwing rocks into this and couldn't hear them hit the bottom, and it was dead quiet in this spot. I could see how dangerous it could be to wander the mountain without a guide. There are plenty of ledges where one could step off and kill themselves, which has happened. After a lunch of fried noodles with eggs (pictured in "Food for thought") we set out on the final leg of our great hike. We walked non-stop until we reached the base, passing many more gorges and rivers, along with a field of oxen and villagers. We reached the base around 4:00, and took a bus back to Sengigi.

The drive was very scenic and took a good two hours. My favorite part of the drive was the presence of monkeys on the roadside. I had expected to see more on the mountain (I only saw one), so I was relieved to see these critters just hanging out on the side of the road. I must have seen fifty or so on the way back. Since I missed a day on the mountain the trekking company put me up in the same hotel. I arrived there a little before seven and put on my remaining dry clothes. Apart from having a meal on the strip and a couple of beers, I did very little that evening. My body was fairly sore and I was looking forward to a full day of relaxing on the beach. That night I slept very well in my comfortable, dry bungalow.