Immediately after Kilimanjaro myself, Sue, Kevin, Toby and Cormac spent six days on safari. But even there you can’t couldn’t escape the geology.
While we’d marvel at the remarkable profusion of wildlife in the Ngorogoro Crater, the crater is a marvel in itself. Whoever first found it, and recognised it as an almost perfectly round volcanic crater must have been beside themselves with excitement. It is the world’s largest inactive, intact, and unfilled volcanic caldera. It’s 610 metres (2,000 feet) deep and the floor covers 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). The volcano that collapsed in on itself to create the caldera must have been a whopper, possibly similar in size to Kilimanjaro.
And on our flight from deep in the Serengeti back to Arusha aboard a tiny Cessna 208 single-engined turboprop plane we circled the spectacular Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano, or “Mountain of God” in Maasai. The volcano is unique among active volcanoes in that it produces natrocarbonatite lava, which means the lava erupts at such relatively low temperatures that the molten lava appears black in sunlight, rather than having the red glow common to most lavas.
But after two and a half weeks in Africa it was all over. The trip of a lifetime, which started taking shape towards the end of 2013, was now over and done with. We’d climbed the mountain, judgement of which was still clouded by the brutality of summit night; visited Ngorongoro and the Serengeti; and got as close to some of the most magnificent creatures on earth as you could possibly wish. The cost remains a mystery but whatever it was, it was worth every penny.
And my epiphany? The moment that changed my life? The realisation that work and careers and material possessions are insignificant and falsely rewarding compared to your own spiritual existence?
Didn’t happen. But that’s fine, I wasn’t really looking.
After three and a half days back at work, I was bored. All the cold, discomfort and pain of Kilimanjaro was forgotten and I was ready for another adventure. So what’s next?
Go to Chapter 14: Gunung Kinabalu