In light of my upcoming Kilimanjaro expedition, I have recently embarked on a hike to Mt. Longonot with my friend Oliver from Austria. It was meant to be a warm up exercise to test my readiness for early morning walks in Kenya and Tanzania. Haven't done much walking over the past months, I was just too eager to find out if and how I would cope with cool morning-mountain air filling my lungs while walking up steep hills. Crawling out of the tent at five thirty was the first challange. I must confess that over the years of sleeping in houses and real beds only, I had totally forgotten how cosy such as a tiny tent can be, especially shortly before getting up, just about at the time when one is finally feeling warm inside the narrow sleeping bag (I never understood why it can't be the other way round - warm sleeping bag when falling asleep, cold and clammy sleeping bag when forced to get out of the tent - that would make it so much easier to face the cool morning breeze outside the tent!).Leaving the camp at dawn, we faced the second challange: an encounter with a male single buffalo a short distance from the camp. God damn it, why aren't there any trees on this stupid mountain, was my first and only thought. But the single male buffalo was obviously not interested in two lonely hikers, and so we managed to survive the encounter with a fast pulsing heart, but otherwise unhurted. From there onwards, there weren't many challanges left - except walking up and up over steep slopes and rocks. Due to morning mist, we missed the sunrise, which was our original (and foremost) incentive to embark on such an early morning walk, but even without that, Longonot proved to have enough beauty on offer to keep one moving on, up the mountain and down the mountain! Some of it I tried to capture on my digi cam, but believe me, it's even more beautiful and scenic in real.
Advice for those of you who felt inspired by the pictures and want to discover the beauty of this place, too: There is a nice campside inside the park, just behind the gate, with toilets. There is no water, so make sure you have sufficient water. If you bring your own fire wood, you are allowed to light up a fire. If you plan a sunrise hike to the top of the mountain, make sure you dont leave the camp before dawn, since there are some male buffalos roaming around. Otherwise, make sure your legs are faster than the one of the buffalo :)
