Climbing Mt. Meru

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Since moving to Arusha, Daniel has become fascinated with volcanoes. This is probably because, on a clear day, we can see two of them from our front yard. The closest one is Mt. Meru, which we see everywhere we go in town. In fact one of our favorite games to play while in the car is watching Mt. Meru. Mt. Kilimanjaro is the other volcano and is actually north of Moshi on the Tanzanian/Kenyan border. On a clear day we can see the tip of the mountain just to the side of Mt. Meru. We found out that if we went to the Arusha National Park, just about a 40 minute drive from here, we could drive up the side of Mt. Meru. So, no, we didn't actually "climb" the mountain, we drove up part way in our car. 😊


Before driving up the mountain, we spent some time driving around the park and seeing which animals we could spot. We saw baboons, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, buffalo, wildebeast, colobus monkeys, and many birds. We also drove around the rim of the Ngurdoto Crater. It's an old vocanic crater, but is covered over with grass and trees. After drving around the park and eating some lunch, we started our drive up Mt. Meru. We turned on a little dirt road and had not gone very far when we saw a stream running across the road in front of us. It was not very deep, but very fast moving. We saw fresh tire tracks on the other side so concluded that it must be safe to cross. We crossed over about 4 more streams, saw two waterfalls, and almost hit two giraffes and several deer. I think the most memorable moment was when we saw another car heading our way. The road was narrow and winding and had a rock wall on one side and a dropoff on the other. Well, the car in front of us drove over as far as he could toward the rock cliff. That, of course, left us to pass him on the side with the dropoff. Let's just say there were a few prayers going up at that moment!! Also, on the road was a fig tree larger than any I have ever seen. It had a hole in the trunk big enough for our car to drive though!! We spent a couple of hours driving up and then finally, when it started to get dark, had to turn around and come back down. I am not sure how high up the moutain the road goes, but we decided next time to drive up Mt. Meru first and see just how far up we can go.We hope you all have a good weekend!!Love,The Bakers

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Photos

Ngurdoto Crater
Looking down into the crater.

Road Block
Baboons blocking our way.

That Was Close!
This is one of the giraffes who darted out in front of our car.

More Giraffes
We saw more giraffes than anything else.

Hakuna Matata
This was a favorite phrase of the day. :) (From the Lion King)

Zebras
We saw many zebras from far off, but none up close.

Where's the Bridge
This is the stream we crossed.

Comments

[Grammy]

Where's the chicken nuggets?
Lunch didn't look like it included the requisite chicken nuggets, fries, and catsup.... wasn't there a Burger King in the park? With view and sights like you all saw, I don't guess anyone missed the 'fast food'. What fun times you are having ! Save some of the fun for when Grammy, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Kathryn come. Your pictures show that God certainly did make a beautiful world for us to enjoy. Love you to Mt. Meru and back! Grammy

[Trina Gee]

good pictures
Glad you all have a good time. Lovely pictures...nothing is more beautiful than nature itself. I enjoyed reading the blog. TG

[Katie B]

Publisher's Quality
Wow! The pictures you took are of great quality. I imagined for a moment that I was looking at a National Geographic magazine. You all are seeing God's beautiful creation and making it possible for the rest of us to see it too. I will continue to pray for you journey. Love you all, Katie B