My Promo-Mentors Writing Challenge: Our journey climbing Kenya's last active volcano - Photo blog (9 Photos)

Hi fellow Steemers,

For today's blog, I wanted to recount my adventure of climbing up to the top, and all the way around the rim of one of Kenya's tallest volcanoes and most recently active (having erupted last around the end of the 19th century); the mighty Mount Longonot (2780m). This blog is also my entry for the #promomentors-challenge, details can be found on the profile of @futurethinker! Enjoy!

Our adventure began at 4am, when we left our campsite along the shores of lake Naivasha in Kenya and drove towards the foot of the mountain with our ambition to be to reach the peak before sunrise. However, as we arrived at the foot of the mountain, we saw that it was surrounded by thick clouds and mist. While it was a shame to miss the sunrise, the thick cloud cover made the mountain seem even more mystical and beautiful.

Luckily, as we had arrived so early, there were no other hikers around, allowing us to have the whole volcano to ourselves. The climb started gradually, but became harder and harder as we made our way up. On the bright side, this allowed us to take a few breaks along the way, giving us ample time to soak in the beautiful scenery around us.

After about two hours of climbing, we reached the rim of the crater. This gave us a nice opportunity to look  down the mountain at the way we had come, and on the other side, all the way down to the bottom of the volcanic crater in the middle. Our next task would be to walk all the way around the rim of the 11km Crater and while also reaching the highest peak along the way.

Thankfully, as time past, some of the mist and cloud cover over the mountain started to dissipate allowing us to appreciate the full scope of the huge volcano we found ourselves on. One of my favorite parts of this experience was being able to see a full 360 view of all of our surroundings as we slowly made our way around the crater. What was particularly fascinating was the changes in the natural diversity between the northern side of the mountain which was closer to water and thus much more luscious, while the southern side was much more arid.

The path around the rim was also an experience within itself. At some points, the path was wide allowing a few people to walk abreast, while other times, the path was very small was embedded at least two feet into the ground due to the amount of people having walked on it throughout the year. The only thing which remained consistent was the sheer steepness of the cliff face on either side of the rim of the volcano. In some places, a mere misstep could lead to a very dangerous situation or even death!

Luckily though, our journey continued safely and after about 4 hours of walking around the rim. We made it to the top of the highest point of the mountain. From there, we could see the entire way around the volcano and we were thankful to observe that we only had to go downhill from there.

The final descent down the side of the volcano was perhaps the best part as my two friends and I ran as fast as we could down the path, jumping like gazelles and racing each other to the bottom, while my girlfriend responsibly walked down, probably to help us if one of us fools fell and hurt ourselves haha! Thankfully without any injury, we made it to the bottom and all celebrated the end of a fantastic journey together.

I hope you enjoyed this story and the images which complemented it. Let me know in the comments if you would like to hear more stories like this from our incredible 2 months trip to Kenya this summer!

Until next time,

Tristan

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