After packing up from our last day in Maasai land, we were off on yet another full day of travel. The night before was quite an early night, and the day was spent with a fair amount of napping in the safari trucks. Though, Lake Natron and surrounding areas are the hottest place in Tanzania (and thus one of the hotter places anywhere) so sleeping wasn't always the most comfortable of options. Apparently last time our group leaders were here in '07, the low at night never went below 85. As we arrived at our camp before dark, cards were played and bedtime was at sundown after an early dinner. Why so much sleep and so many early nights? Well, because we woke up around 11:15 PM to eat breakfast, pack up, and go climb the nearby active volcano: Oldonio Lengai (The Mountain of the Gods in Kimaasai). As we head out in the middle of the hot night (a little cooler around 80) we began our 6000 ft assent up a fucking steep mountain. We had to leave so early in order to hopefully summit by sunrise and beat the midday heat on our way down. As we climbed we soon entered a cloud and the mountain became a torrential storm of mud, water, and overall bitter coldness. But, even with the dark cravasses on each side and a skinny trail of mud up a steep mountain in the middle of the night, we trudged on. As we reached the halfway point a few hours later we came upon a group of French guys who were ahead of us on the trail. A little higher up, the soda ash from recent eruptions had turned the top half of a mountain into a giant slip and slide of soapy death. So, naturally, we had to turn around. I was pretty pissed to say the least that the gods on this mountain decided to fuck us. Especially since the next day happened to be one of the coolest days of the year at Lake Natron and the mountain would have been perfectly fine to climb during the dry day. Bummer. But, after getting back around 6 am, at least it was cool enough to sleep in a tad and begin the next part of our day.
After washing an immense amount of cow poop water out of my sleeping bag, blanket, and a few clothes I wore during my homestay, it was time for yet another hike. Though not as cool as the top of the volcano could potentially have been, we hiked up a river in a beautiful canyon to absolutely on of the most gorgeous set of waterfalls I've ever been too, and probably that anyone has ever been too. The steep canyon walls were lined on top with palm trees that dropped into a canyon you'd expect to see in Utah or eastern Oregon. The water was warm and clean and we had a great time frolicking in the sun and the water. Sooo nice, there will be pictures on facebook eventually probably.... When we returned, we packed back up into the Unimog and rode down to the lake where we saw the classic scene of thousands of pink flamingos chilling out on the lake. Pretty cool, nothing too special though.
We then packed up, yet again, for another full day of driving and our last day of safari. Some sad moments were had as we passed the last heard of zebra and waved goodbye to the unanimous best month of our lives. After a few games of bridge (yes, we have gotten really into old people card games), we arrived back in Arusha in the Ilboro Safari lodge to chill out before the next independent study portion of our program. Side notes, now two more people have Malaria probably. Note to self: continue taking malaria meds. Also, if any ya'll wanna skype or something or whatevs, the place I'm going to be camping at (the compound for the safari company we've been with) I'll have internet access so just shoot me a message on facebook or something and we can figure out a time. Tutaonana tena!
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