Mt. Meru Tanzanian style-- Pole Pole
"Pole pole" (POH-lay POH-lay), which means "slow, slow" in Swahili, is a favorite phrase here in Tanzania. People seem to say it in every possible context from a kind of "just relax" to a more literal "go slow."
Every minute of our trek up Mt. Meru, the rangers, guides and porters kept repeating "pole pole." And every one of us foreign hikers was going crazy with impatience. Many of the hikers were using this as an acclimatization hike to prepare for Mt. Kilimajaro. Mt. Meru is only 40 miles away from Kilimanjaro and measures 14,977 feet. (According to Wikipedia, it's the ninth tallest peak in Africa, but according to the sign atop Mt. Meru, it's the fifth tallest peak.)
The National Park requires all trekkers to have an armed ranger accompany them to protect them from buffalo attacks, and you are not allowed to hike faster than the ranger. Rocky, our ranger, was hiking so slowly that I had to really work to stop my feet from stepping. Everyone was grumbling, especially during the first day when we had hardly reached high elevation at all. Another hiker asked me at the end of the first day, "Have you ever hiked this slowly before?!"
Summit day, the alarm went off at midnight. I had not slept at all. Haroula and I stumbled out of our beds and drank some hot water and ate a little so we would be ready to start hiking at 1:00 a.m. I've never pulled an all nighter for school, but hiking, yes.
Haroula and I are another Lonely Planet Thorntree success story! I posted for a hiking mate with the idea that we could share the costs of an organized trip, but she was prepared to do it independently. So we did it ourselves, which mostly meant that at meal times while everyone else was eating warm multi-course meals on a table cloth, she and I were eating cold sandwiches or cereal. And while every other couple had 4-6 porters, we had two. We did save over $200 doing it ourselves.
So Haroula, seven other folks and I started hiking in the dark and cold, led by the pole pole master, Rocky the Ranger. Our goal was to reach the summit by sunrise to see the light reflect off Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was a long, dark hike scrambling over some slippery class 3 rocks, balancing on ridges, and slogging through deep volcanic sand. The trail glinted like it was paved with diamonds from the frost reflecting the light of my headlamp. I kept checking myself as I got higher for any symptoms from the altitude, but I continued to feel really strong. I was really nervous because I'd had such a bad reaction to the high altitude when I summitted Mt. Whitney (14,505 feet) last summer during a marathon one-day, twenty-two mile hike.
I reached the summit of Mt. Meru around 5:45 a.m., the first in our group to reach the summit.
I was so happy and surprised because I felt perfect! Even though this was higher than Mt. Whitney, I felt great.
I spent over an hour on the summit of Mt. Meru, watching the sun's rays reflect off Kili. It was the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen.
I felt great the whole way down too.
It made me think, maybe there's something to this whole pole pole thing. . .
Every minute of our trek up Mt. Meru, the rangers, guides and porters kept repeating "pole pole." And every one of us foreign hikers was going crazy with impatience. Many of the hikers were using this as an acclimatization hike to prepare for Mt. Kilimajaro. Mt. Meru is only 40 miles away from Kilimanjaro and measures 14,977 feet. (According to Wikipedia, it's the ninth tallest peak in Africa, but according to the sign atop Mt. Meru, it's the fifth tallest peak.)
The National Park requires all trekkers to have an armed ranger accompany them to protect them from buffalo attacks, and you are not allowed to hike faster than the ranger. Rocky, our ranger, was hiking so slowly that I had to really work to stop my feet from stepping. Everyone was grumbling, especially during the first day when we had hardly reached high elevation at all. Another hiker asked me at the end of the first day, "Have you ever hiked this slowly before?!"
Summit day, the alarm went off at midnight. I had not slept at all. Haroula and I stumbled out of our beds and drank some hot water and ate a little so we would be ready to start hiking at 1:00 a.m. I've never pulled an all nighter for school, but hiking, yes.
Haroula and I are another Lonely Planet Thorntree success story! I posted for a hiking mate with the idea that we could share the costs of an organized trip, but she was prepared to do it independently. So we did it ourselves, which mostly meant that at meal times while everyone else was eating warm multi-course meals on a table cloth, she and I were eating cold sandwiches or cereal. And while every other couple had 4-6 porters, we had two. We did save over $200 doing it ourselves.
So Haroula, seven other folks and I started hiking in the dark and cold, led by the pole pole master, Rocky the Ranger. Our goal was to reach the summit by sunrise to see the light reflect off Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was a long, dark hike scrambling over some slippery class 3 rocks, balancing on ridges, and slogging through deep volcanic sand. The trail glinted like it was paved with diamonds from the frost reflecting the light of my headlamp. I kept checking myself as I got higher for any symptoms from the altitude, but I continued to feel really strong. I was really nervous because I'd had such a bad reaction to the high altitude when I summitted Mt. Whitney (14,505 feet) last summer during a marathon one-day, twenty-two mile hike.
I reached the summit of Mt. Meru around 5:45 a.m., the first in our group to reach the summit.
I was so happy and surprised because I felt perfect! Even though this was higher than Mt. Whitney, I felt great.
I spent over an hour on the summit of Mt. Meru, watching the sun's rays reflect off Kili. It was the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen.
 |
| View of Mt. Kilimanjaro at sunrise |
It made me think, maybe there's something to this whole pole pole thing. . .
 |
| Me, Haroula, and Rocky the Ranger, the pole pole master |
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