Oldonyo Orok

Just 10 more minutes.  I realized, after the third time we asked, that 10 minutes to our Masai hiking guides could mean anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours!  The Masai are semi-nomadic people living in Kenya and northern Tanzania.  On Sunday, a teacher and several class 8 Masai students from a school near the Tanzanian border led our group up Oldonyo Orok.    

View of our destination from the parking lot ...kind of.

Pointing to the mountain, someone asked our guides where we going.  One of them answered, "behind that one."  I should have realized then that it wasn't going to be a short hike! The hike started at the local school, which was a several kilometers off the main road and over a river.

As you can see, good use is made of the outside walls of the school buildings: a map of Africa and the world; diagrams of a heart, tooth, flower; an explanation of communicable diseases (such as malaria); and a decimal chart.

We met our guides at the school at 10 in the morning.  One of the students, Daniel, said that they hike Oldonyo Orok every Sunday.  However, they normally run up the mountain.  And, I'm sure they've never timed it!   



Daniel and another guide.  The Masai are easily recognized by their customs and dress (bright colored cloths, beads, earrings and streched earlopes.  

 

While most of us wazungus (white people) wore hiking boots and carried packs full of food and water, our guides wore thin sandals and carried only a spear/hiking stick...

and, of course, a cell phone! 

The hike started out hot and dry.  The vegetation was varied, and we found ourselves ducking under branches and pushing aside thorny bushes (I've got plenty of scratches to prove it!) .

Unfortunately we didn't make it to the summit, as time was running out, dark clouds were moving in, and thunder was rumbling in the distance.  But I heard it was only 10 more minutes to the top.

 

A wet, but happy group of hikers!

 Just as we turned around, the downpour began!  Then came the thunder and lightening!  Of course, just as we reached the bottom, it stopped.

A last minute addition to the soggy group - Gordy's brother, who is working in Nairobi for 6 weeks!

 

Luckily this was not our fate!