Mt. Meru Tanzania Hike day 3... that was tough!

If you haven't already, you really should read day 1 and day 2 of this hike!

Before we get into the summit hike itself, I wanted to explain a little bit about Mt. Meru. It's a dormant volcano that had half of its cone somehow collapse 8,000 years ago. So the remaining part of the cone is what we were climbing. You make your way up and along the ridge of the cone itself, with the 2,000 meter (6,600 feet) sheer cliff walls on one side, and a steep volcanic slope on the other side.

In 1910, Mt. Meru came to life again. It erupted from October through December of that year, and a smaller inner ash cone developed. Then it went quiet as suddenly as it started, and it has been quiet ever since. The views of the newer ash cone are really interesting.

Mt. Meru is "only" 4,566 (14,980 feet) high, compared to the more famous neighbor Kilimanjaro that is 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) high.

However, Mt. Meru is a physically tougher hike, involving some technical climbing over rocks. Kilimanjaro on the other hand is more difficult because of the altitude.

So, with that knowledge, we were awakened at midnight, we had a small breakfast, drank some more water, and set off at just after 1:00am.

The group of seven international travelers had set off about 20 minutes before us. Some of them were in training to do a planned Everest climb in May. One of that group was 44 year old CNN Correspondent Arwa Damon. She was fun and interesting to talk to. And no, she has no plan to climb Everest. She acknowledged that this Meru hike was about her limit, although she would like to do Kilimanjaro another time.

Their group leader was also interesting. He has climbed Meru 7 times, and Kilimanjaro 16 times. And Everest once. 

Our new friends James and Spencer left shortly after we did. And the group of 11 Russians left at 3:00am, which was a very late start for doing Meru. 

The temperature wasn't that cold. I'm guessing around 3C (37F). But we were going to climb 983 meters (3,225 feet) over 5.7 kms (3.5 miles). It was a steep climb at altitude over some rough terrain. Anyhow, we were told to get bundled up with all of our cold weather gear.

Trudging along at 1:20am.

Ruth and our guide Mudy at Rhino Point. 

3.800 meters (12,467 feet) at 2:45am.

It was a fairly steep climb uphill, but we felt we were doing pretty good. We were too warm though. You can see Ruth has her outer coat and her wind breaker open. I wasn't even wearing my gloves most of the time!

But, it did get colder.

Looking back at Little Meru.

Taking a break.

I didn't take many photos on the way up. After all, it was dark... although we did have an almost full moon. 

Hiking higher.

Looking back at Rhino Point in the dark.

It did get colder, and there was a point where the wind picked up. It may have got down to -4C or so, and we may have regretted not having the amount of clothing that we did. Still, we will need that clothing for Kilimanjaro where it is almost guaranteed to be colder. The only part of me that was cold was my toes... a problem I have always had when we used to experience winter in Canada.

The sun is starting to rise. This photo taken at 6:30am.

The idea is to make it up to the summit for sunrise, but that wasn't going to happen for us. We must have been doing okay though. Mudy was telling us that we had lots of time. And our friends Spencer and James were still behind us, and they are much younger. 

We were beat though. The summit didn't seem to be getting any closer! There were times when Ruth looked absolutely exhausted, and I didn't feel much different. But Mudy kept telling us we were doing fine, and we kept plugging along.

Eventually, we met up with the international group who were on their way down. They encouraged us, and told us we might have another 20 minutes to go. The CNN lady told us that Meru "kicked her butt" and she has a whole new respect for the mountain. She said she was just about done.

We plugged on, scrambling over some pretty steep rocks.

As the sun rose, Mt. Meru cast a big shadow!

Kilimanjaro in the distance.

This picture gives you a good idea of the circular cone that makes up Mt. Meru.

We had climbed up along parts of that ridge in the dark!

But we are not at the top yet!

A couple of times, Ruth wanted to give up. She never actually came out and said that, but I could tell that's what she was thinking. And I was definitely beat, but there was no way I was going to quit this close to the top. Fortunately, Ruth didn't quit either.

It was 8:15am when we reached the summit.

We made it!

Does Ruth look exhausted? Well she was! So was I.

I compared it to the two other really difficult hikes we have done. One was the Santa Maria Volcano hike in Guatemala in February of 2013. That hike was definitely easier, but we had such a hard time with it because we were carrying much heavier packs, and the weather was terrible. 

The other tough hike was Laguna Ahuac in Peru in October 2019. That was also a tough hike. We think this one was just a little tougher, especially when you consider the rocky terrain. Also, we have decided that we don't want to ever do anything more difficult than Mt. Meru was!

We sat up there for a half an hour and relaxed and took some photos. We also welcomed James and Spencer a few who arrived maybe 10 minutes after us!

A beautiful view with Kilimanjaro in the distance and the 1910 eruption ash cone in the foreground.

Kilimanjaro.

The ash cone.

Posing with the sign.

Unfortunately the sun was behind us so the lighting isn't that good.

Relaxing at the top.

The sign needs to be replaced soon!

Another marker at the top.

More scenery.

But, it was time to head back down. We were already behind schedule.

We both had a minor headache which is fairly common due to the altitude. But neither one of us ever felt nauseous or dizzy, although there were times we felt a little unsteady. But the terrain and exhaustion didn't help. Fortunately, as you descend, the altitude related symptoms tend to disappear.

Now that it is daylight, we could see what we had climbed in the dark!

Taking another break at 9:45am.

Rough terrain.

"Karibu" is welcome in Swahili.

Another view of the ash cone.

Yes, we had been up there!

The other side of that is a sheer cliff.

Ruth and Mudy.

Mudy and Shabiru looked after us really well. They are your lifeline when you are on the mountain. If you have any health issues, they are strong enough to help you to the bottom. As it was, they helped carry some of our heavier gear as it got too warm for us to be comfortable. They work very hard. 

Heading back towards Rhino Point in the daylight.

Yes, we had come down this way in the dark!

Us, with the peak in the background.

We arrived back at Saddle Hut at about 1:30pm. We had hiked 11.4 kms (7.0 miles) and climbed 983 meters (3,225 feet) up and back down and it had taken us over 12 hours.

We were hungry, dirty, and tired.

But we weren't done yet.

The plan was to have some lunch, have a sleep for an hour, and then head yet another 6.0 kms (3.7 miles) downhill to Miriakamba Hut for the night. We tried arguing that with Mudy, saying that we were simply too tired, but he said to have something to eat and have a nap and see if we felt better.

Trust me, we did not want to put our boots back on!

But we did it. I wasn't in the mood to stop and take photos, we just wanted to get there. And we did. It took us another two and a half hours.

So we did 17.4 kms (10.8 miles) of rough steep hiking over a 17 hour period.

We had dinner and went right to bed. I slept for nine hours straight. I haven't done that for years!

Day 4 coming up tomorrow... the animals!

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