Research about Meru

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From http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstories/africa/dec00mtmeru1.shtml

"I don't know if I like this," remarked Neil, my hiking partner. "I've never liked exposed heights. I don't know if I can make it." I sympathized with him. While our surroundings were awe-inspiring, they inspired a lot of fear as well. To our left, the soft black volcanic sand sloped away at an almost 45° angle until, many hundreds of metres below, it plummeted over a completely vertical cliff-face. To our right, the same steep open sand slope extended down to the tree line far, far below us. We were walking along a knife-edge ridge, as screaming winds threatened to blow us off our path down to the forest. '

I'm properly scared of heights. I think that may cause some problems.

'However tall it once was, it certainly erupted sideways, rather like Mt. St. Helens, a few million years ago, leaving the northern, southern and western slopes intact, but obliterating the eastern slope of the volcanic cone. From above, Meru is now shaped like a horseshoe opening east, with a new tiny cinder cone forming in the bottom of the devastated crater, and huge cliffs extending up the crater walls almost to the summit. The crater floor and the lower slopes are densely forested, but the upper slopes are barren expanses of black volcanic ash and occasional massive boulders of lava. '

'Meru is just outside Arusha, the staging post for safaris to the Serengeti, yet despite this proximity - only 23 km by road - it is annoyingly difficult to get to the base of the mountain.
Various safari outfits offer a price of US$50 each way to hire a 4-wheel-drive for the trip; Arusha city taxis will offer as little as US$20 , but their decrepit vehicles are unlikely to make it over the rough road. Neil and I took the local bus to the turnoff from the main road, and then waited several hours for a lift with an overloaded Land Rover full of local villagers returning from Arusha market. It was cheaper but agonizingly slow; having your own transport is infinitely better.
There is only one route officially open to the top, although unscrupulous safari touts in Arusha will offer illegal sorties directly up the western slope . Neil and I were nearly taken in by one of these offers, but prudently backed out at the last minute.'

(remember this)

'The first day's walk, about six leisurely hours up into the relatively flat crater floor, is very pleasant. A huge fig tree forms a natural arch over the path that is large enough to accommodate a Land Rover. There is a stream for bathing andlunching! beside, and later on, during the final climb up the crater wall to Miriakamba, there is a spectacular view across to forests and a high waterfall on the opposite (southern) inside rim of the crater. The dense forest is full of vervet monkeys and butterflies and, it is rumoured, leopards. '

'In late June, when we were climbing, Meru was perpetually cloud-bound below 3,500 metres, and this second stage was through the clouds, making for a very wet, sweaty and physically demanding climb. Both Neil and I lost our footing a few times, slithering down the path on our backpacks for several metres before coming to rest against the trunk of a tree. '

From Saddle hut onwards, the forest was far less dense and lush, as we were above the usual cloud line. Forty minutes of hard climbing brought us to the edge of the tree line, near Rhinoceros Point.
This curious name arises from the discovery at this spot - some 3,800 metres above sea level - of the skeleton of what must have been a disoriented or highly eccentric rhino. Rhinos are not usually keen mountaineers.

From here, the path ran along the steep, spectacular knife-edge ridge on which, quite soon, Neil briefly lost his nerve.

Our first view down into the crater from Rhino Point was breathtaking. The summit, atop hundreds of metres of sheer grey cliffs, loomed vastly high above the crater floor far beneath us. On the western edge of the crater floor, huddled against the massive cliffs, was the tiny-looking new ash cone that has built up, very slowly, after the massive eruption that tore Meru apart long ago. Puffs of steam showed that the new cone was still active, although it seemed to produce far more steam than lava. To the east, the only feature rising above the sea of clouds that covered the earth, was the distant but still enormous square white peak of Kilimanjaro. We paused for photos and to don more clothing (it was colder, and very windy above the treeline) and then set off again. '


The fierce winds sweeping up the inside of the crater, over the knife-edge and down the outer slope of the volcano, created plumes of white cloud at the crater rim, a wind-tunnel-like effect that I tried unsuccessfully to capture on film. We paused frequently for breath, and the summit seemed not to get any closer, although we were making our way steadily counterclockwise around the crater rim.

At one point we asked Michael how long it would take to reach the top, and he told us that we still had two hours to go. We scoffed, but as our progress slowed and we started panting more and more heavily, it was indeed an hour and 40 minutes before we stumbled up the last, boulder-strewn, hundred metres, to reach the iron cross at the summit.

The animals are the reason why hikers need a game warden, armed with a rifle, as a guide; buffalo are aggressive, territorial animals, and it would be bad publicity to have tourists run over and gored on the way back to the park gate. Mt. Meru lies within Arusha National Park, and safari companies offer lots of game-watching safaris through the plains at the base of Meru.'

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