Longonot Adventures

 

From my porch at RVA I look out at the the Great Rift Valley.  On a clear day I can see Mt. Longonot, a dormant volcano, in the distance. I see Mt. Maurgret, a random blip on the flat valley floor that some believe to be a mass of earth that was displaced by one of Longonot’s violent explosions.   I am told that about once a term a group of high school students from RVA leave campus on foot (at 4 am), descending to the valley and walk to the base of Longonot.  Then they make a trek to Longonot’s highest peak (about 9,000 ft.). From the base up and around the rim of the massive crater it is an 11km journey. Sometimes they camp out and then they walk home. Last weekend I had a Longonot adventure of my own.

You can be sure that I did NOT leave at 4 am.  Jessica, our new roommate Susan, and I took a taxi to the base of the mountain.  Our driver also doubled as our tour guide, instructing us on what to pack, offering to hike with us and telling us about a local muchomo joint where we could get roasted meat after our hike.  The day was absolutely perfect for hiking the sun kept appearing from behind the clouds to keep us warm enough at the high altitude.  It also occasionally went behind the clouds which was nice since we were soon gasping for air and hot as we made the steep ascent to the rim.  As for the climb I will let the picture testify that it was incredible! 

As we came off the mountain we kept saying how perfect a day it was and wouldn’t it just be amazing if we saw some giraffes in the valley or something.  About that time Susan pointed out a herd of animals grazing. I thought they were cows or, the very prevalent in Kenya, donkeys.  Above the herd on the hillside I could see something that looked like it was eating leaves on a tree.  Could that be a giraffe?  I decided to use my camera with the super cool zoom and get a little closer.  It was moving so much in the view finder that I still couldn’t tell so I snapped a picture and sure enough, it was a giraffe!  And on further inspection I saw about 3 giraffes.  And those “donkeys” were some kind of antelope with curvy horns.

Arriving at the base Philip was very glad to see us.  We had taken longer than he expected.  We were covered in dust and dried sweat and as Philip predicted, very hungry!  I couldn’t wait to get some of that chewy goat meat. Philip had us take off our shoes and beat out clouds of dust.  I also noticed he had covered the floor of his car with news papers. We were pretty gross.

 Philip drove us to the nearest town and pulled up to a little strip of dukas that were alternating butcher shops and restaurants.  The one we went to I think was called the “U and I Restaurant” right next to the “U and I Butchery.”  We walked in and Philip inspected the ribs and other hunks of meat on the grill being basted with salt water.  He didn’t like anything so he asked the guy to put something else on.  We proceeded into the little eating area and sat at a table next to some lacy curtains that are pretty standard decor.  In the corner was a TV playing Nigerian music videos with women and men in cowboy hats doing some kind of dance moves involving hip action that I am pretty sure would cause me to dislocate something.  Upon my reflection of my inabilities, Philip assured me that with lessons I too could posses these skills... I am skeptical.  Especially since most African children under the age of 3 have more rhythm than I can ever hope to have.  I was happy when after this song the latest hit came on... something in the lyrics about “sawa sawa”.  I really like the song but itunes isn’t up on the kenya top 40.... or top 2.  Philip said he would get me the CD.  Our kilo of meat finally arrived on a cutting board with some little piles of salt for dipping.  The “chef” or meat roaster person cut it up into piece small enough that if you couldn’t manage to chew, you could just swallow it whole.  And Susan and I set in on devouring it.  I think Philip was surprised at our ability to put the meat away.  He even order some ugali (something kind of in between corn bread and oatmeal) to supplement. It was great!  I really love going to local places. It was a great finale to our Longonot Adventure.