In an effort to escape the monotony of Dar, last Friday afternoon me and four girlfriends piled into a surprisingly roomy compact and headed for the hills. Destination: Morogoro. Set at the base of a mountain, it’s a town that manages to feel much smaller than its population of 300,000. Armed with our guidebooks, we had our sights on Lupanga Peak, 2189m above sea level and a “challenging” 6 hour return trip.
Checking into the oddly (but maybe aptly?) named New Acropol Hotel, our less than warm reception was offset by the fresh cool(er) air of in-land Tanzania. The oddly dilapidated nature of the grounds was fodder for a number of crime related jokes throughout out the weekend and made for some interesting pictures (click title). In fact, that was one of the themes of the trip – we saw a lot of surprising things, many of which we captured through my lens.
Because mountain climbers need energy, after checking in we headed to a local pizza joint to ‘carb load’. The highlight by far was the pure garlic sauce they served, of which we spread copious amounts of on everything we ordered. Justifying it afterwards, we decided it would have the unanticipated positive effect of warding off insects the next day, which arrived after a turbulent sleep at our very weird guesthouse.
After an early breakfast and a negotiation about park permits, we set off for the peak at about 9 am. This involved walking about half an hour to the base of the mountains. At this point, we were already traveling at a pretty steep incline. Incredibly, I found myself longing for the switchbacks of the Himalayas. When we asked the guides how long it would take, we got mixed answers, some that suggested it would take 6 hours to the top, which we laughed off as a misunderstanding. As it turns out, the misunderstanding was ours (and the Rough Guide’s). About three hours into our ascent we asked again and were told that we were still about 4 hours from the peak. FOUR HOURS. Recognizing that it was unlikely we could make it up and back down by a reasonable hour, we decided on a compromise that would have us hike to a picnic site that was a more reasonable 2 hours away. That was until half an hour later when the steep ascent started to become a vertical climb. Scrambling up rock faces and the tangled roots of the rainforest, concerns about our descent began to creep in. After a brief discussion, we agreed to head back down, but not before stopping to take in the spectacular view of the Uluguru Mountains and the town below.
Hours later, having reached the bottom and headed back to the hotel, I found myself idle, waiting for the electricity to come on and power our shower. A sense of dissatisfaction began to blossom in the corner of my mind. Should I come back and try again? Should I forget about it and worry about the next peak? For those of you who have been faithful readers, you’ll remember that this is not the first mountain I’ve failed to summit in the last year. I wonder, what is so important about reaching the top of a mountain/hill/volcano? In many ways, it’s an arbitrary marker: in terms of requisite skill, exertion, even vantage point. Maybe it’s as simple as falling short of a goal: to make it to the top. By this measure I am able to let myself off the hook. My goals were to spend some time in the company of women I enjoy, experience the beauty of the country that I live in and climb to Lupanga Peak. As the saying goes, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. But don’t be surprised if the peak makes another appearance in this blog before the year’s end!
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