It went moderately steep, intensely steep, moderately steep, intensely steep, and so on in a repeating pattern... for 10-12 hours. Unfortunately for the men, it quickly became apparent that if we were all going to make it to the top, they were going to have to do most of the lifting. We're not weak, every single person in our little group has a history of over-night high-mountain climbing, but we all struggled with this one.
Don't get me started on the ascent to the campsite. That was just hiking uphill on loose ground that would literally give way and roll you backward. You had to dig the hiking sticks in before taking a step or run up. (Yes, we had to go back down the same way. Yes, everyone fell.) This was hard work that really pushed us and made us question our sanity for spending our precious few vacation days on this. What the hell were we thinking?
Then we saw it... a massive caldera filled with crystal blue water and a little smoking chimney. Suddenly, the hike didn't seem that bad anymore. It was perfect. Better than we could have hoped for. After six months of planning, we were looking at what had before just been an image on our computers, another name on our bucket list... and it was better than any of us imagined. It's not often that something actually looks better than the photographs.
So, was it worth it? Absolutely. We summited twice. Once for sunset and then again for sunrise.
The guys carried most of our gear (clothes). While the porters carried everything else and a little extra. They literally carried a watermelon up this volcano. Sitting in a circle, chowing down on fried bananas, noodles and watermelon on top of a f*ing 3,000 m mountain, it was decided that they were getting a massive tip. The porters were also nice enough to share other things with us, like some hand-rolled local cigarettes to celebrate with at the summit. It was a great time.
We were extremely lucky to have such a great team that took care of us. There were definitely some less fortunate groups on the mountain. We're experienced hikers who know to pack rain gear, but when it started to pour on the way down, they pulled out ponchos for us that they had packed just in case. I didn't see any other hikers getting free ponchos. One greedy lady came up and even asked for ours. Poor unfortunate thing. Luckily, the rain held off until we were almost off the mountain and through the trickiest climbs. We practically ran down the last few sections, jumping over roots and quickly expanding mud puddles.
On this trip, we hiked with Hajar Trekking and our guide's name was Oggy. Great guy. Highly recommend. We bonded over music, relationship problems and good tobacco. This is the kind of hike that resets the bar on what you think you can accomplish as well as on what you think mother nature is capable of. It's short, only two days and one night, but a game-changer. From here, we went on to do two days of diving at one of the nearby islands.
Images courtesy of Louis :)
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