R WE MAD?: The old man finally reveals himself

We drove through, what seemed like never ending Sisal on our way to Marangu. These spiny cacti give the landscape a very dreary, scruffy & patchy appearance, much like my new beard.Facial hair aside, today we should see Kilimanjaro, but as we made our way along the arrow straight road we could see huge, dark rain clouds, Kili was not going to reveal himself too easily, and certainly not today. As we turned off the main Dar-Arusha highway, we were surprised to see a crane trucks cab protruding above the surrounding buildings. When we investigated we could see what had happened, the crane had obviously been trying to lift one of those huge three sided billboards into place, I would assume the billboard was heavier than the truck and the whole lot collapsed on to the roofs of the buildings leaving the crane truck "standing' on it rear with the cab 10m in the air. What was amazing is that it was 'business as usual' in the half demolished shops below the crane & billboard. (Photo especially for Manuel)

On to a very wet, but surprisingly clean Marangu, the set off point for the majority of climbers who attempt to climb the highest mountain in Africa. We soon 'chickened out' of camping, we would spend the night at the Capricorn Hotel. A rainy day is a good opportunity to catch up, so Anka & I decided to update the blog. This involved driving around town, trying to establish a reasonable signal. We finally found a spot below the Zain cell tower and by inching back & forth, we finally connected. Believe it or not that was the easy part, I had prepared 2 posts, but after 90 minutes to upload the first 150kb, we decided to call it a day, we would have to try again closer to Arusha.

In the morning the clouds still hung heavily, I have read that Kili, the highest free standing mountain in the world, can remain hidden for 2 weeks at a time. But we were in luck, the clouds started to drift away to reveal 'the old man'. It was a surreal experience seeing this African icon for the first time.

We had intended to camp outside the Arusha National Park to try to save on the steep park fees, but as always the campsite was a grotty place, close to town and ever present blaring music. So $170 poorer we entered the park gates for the night. Arusha NP is not only home to both Mt Meru & Little Meru, Uli has climbed both conical shaped peaks, but it also has the Ngurdoto Crater said to be a mini version of Ngorogoro. The forest around the rim is spectacular.. Shards of sunlight find their way to the forest floor, which is covered in lush green ground covers and tiny colourful flowers. There are several lookout point along the rim, allowing us to see the crater floor about 30m below. We get to see Sykes Mangabey, Black & White Colobus as well as big herds of Buffalo & other plains animals. Our campsite is in a clearing in the forest at the foot of Mt Meru. Fruiting trees filled with monkeys make for a pleasantly noisy night. We awake early to the sound of the ever elusive forest birds, but we are lucky today getting 3 lifers including a new Turaco & Trogan species. Our plan for the day is to drive the 4x4 track approximately halfway up Mt Meru, what a fantastic drive it turned out to be. Icy, crystal clear mountain streams tumble though the forests. Old mans beard & other fungi & mosses hang from the branches of the trees and fallen logs. We eat breakfast of Rye bread & local Irente cheese at the Kilimanjaro picnic site before tackling the last section of the road. The forest tree species change subtly as we head higher, we estimate the straight trunked trees to be in excess of 50m tall, their leaves resemble those of the Cypress family. All around is signs of animals including a lot of fresh Buffalo dung, we occasionally hear the warning bark of Bushbuck but animals are difficult to spot in the dappled light. The forest floor becomes covered in yellow & orange coloured Knifophia spp and blue Aristea as we climb the final 100m to the end of the track, 2300m above sea level. A dagga bull, the name given to old Buffalo bulls that have left the herd, stares at us as we gaze at the dramatic views across to Little Meru & Kili in the distance. Sadly we have to head down to avoid having to pay park fees for another day.