Hiking Mt. Longonot

On Saturday I got to see this part of Africa from a whole new perspective - the top of a volcano! Early in the morning, six of us drove the thirty minutes or so out to Mt. Lonogonot in the Great Rift Valley, a jagged volcano with a 2-mile wide, almost circular crater in the top, left over from an eruption in the 1840's.

The first great part of the day was the group of people. Out of six friends, we had two obnoxious Americans (Joe and I), a South African (Carmen - happy birthday!), a Zimbabwean (Phil - the Zimbabwean equivalent of Jim Carrey), a Brit (Bethany - the newest ACTS volunteer), and a Kenyan (Deborah - ACTS's volunteer coordinator). I love times like that with people from so many backgrounds, and it leads to a never-ending supply of amazing stories!

Our group set off up the mountain at about 7am, walking near small groups of antelope and even a spooked herd of Cape Buffalo. We hiked up a steep trail through grass and small bushes for about 40 minutes to reach the rim of the crater. What an amazing feeling - struggling up to a thin ridge and seeing a gigantic crater stretching away in front of you, ending in an even higher rocky peak on the other side, while looking behind you out onto the vast expanse of the Great Rift Valley - one of those moments that simply take your breath away! Over the next few hours we made our way around the crater rim, stopping to take crazy pictures and fighting up a total of about 2000 feet of altitude to the peak (an ascent made more difficult by the fact that peak is at about 9000 feet above sea level...whew). One of the most interesting parts of the climb was checking out all of the animal tracks along the way. Phil is a professional hunter in Zimbabwe, so he led us in tracking buffalo, zebra, and even a leopard around the sandy and rocky rim of the crater. It was amazing how he could look at a leopard print and tell if it was male or female, how big it was, and when it had passed through. Also amazing was how much he could tell from digging through the leopard droppings we found!

After reaching the peak, the guys took off on the downward-sloping half of the crater in a run...really an exhilirating feeling. There is just something about running your heart out in Africa - looking out on the bigness of creation, soaking in the warm sun, laughing and yelling with good friends - that provides a feeling of freedom, and I love it. I believe people experience and worship God in all kinds of different ways, and I think that is one of the amazing things about how humans are created. For me, there is just something about the natural world that calls the eyes of my heart heavenward to our Creator and brings me to a place of undeniable worship. Running down the slopes of Mt. Longonot provided one of those moments in its purest forms - a feeling that I can't truly describe but that I am so, so thankful for!