A Climb Up the Uluguru Mountains

Here I am at the beginning or our hike. It was very misty early in he day.


Several of us from the language school had nothing to do this weekend so we decided to climb to one of the peaks of the Uluguru mountains that overlook the language school. Three of the instructors from the language school went with us as our guides. It ended up being more of an undertaking than we anticipated. It is supposed to only take 3 or 4 hours to reach the peak. However, we hiked up the wrong trail for over an hour so it ended up taking us 6 hours to reach the top. All-in-all we were on the mountain for 10 hours. It was really fun and a great experience. However, we learned some important lessons as well. For example: When you decide to climb a 2,180 meter (7,100 feet) mountain near the equator in the middle of the hot season with temperatures in the 90’s (F), you should take A LOT of water.

Here is Amani, one of our instructors from the language school at the top of the waterfall. This was about half way up the mountain.

Here is the waterfall seen in the previous picture. One thing nice about it being the rainy/hot season - everything was very green.

Here I am at the top! The view was very nice from up there. Alex (nicknamed Mengo), one of the instructors from the language school is behind me. I probably wouldn't have made it if he had not been there to help me. Into the 5th and 6th hours of climbing (when we got lost) my legs got very tired and I became extremely dehydrated. Mengo took my bag and helped me climb up the difficult sections. Thanks Mengo!

We climbed back down and are now safely at the language school. Everyone was pretty sore for a couple days, but now we look back on it as an amazing experience.