Mount Hanang

We woke up early after a thirsty and restless night, and crawling from the tent, licked the dew off the plastic bottles that had formed overnight. We were camping at 3000 metres on the summit ridge of Mount Hanang, ill-equipped and under-prepared.

We first saw the silhouette of the mountain two days previously, from around 60km away, and decided to make detour to hike to the summit of Tanzania’s fourth highest peak. The impressive mountain is a result of the ancient volcanic activity in the area, and rises 2000 vertical metres above the surrounding plains.

Due to the time frame of our trip, we couldn’t dedicate a full day to the climb. The obvious solution was to ride into town in the morning, hike to the summit that afternoon, camp on the summit ridge, hike down the following morning and cycle on that afternoon. All in all it seemed a pretty fool-proof plan.

The enticing silhouette of Mount Hanang

We arrived in Katesh, the nearest town to the mountain, and found a guest house that would let us leave our bikes and other kit in their courtyard overnight. Having ‘engineered’ a pannier bag each into a rucksack using old inner tubes as straps, we headed for a calorie rich lunch before setting off on our hike. Over lunch we got chatting to a local guide who offered to take us up the mountain, we declined his offer instead opting for the traditional, and more British, adventurous approach. Shortly after, another older gentleman arrived to inform us that we had to pay $30 each for a permit, but not inclined to forking out money to everyone who asks for it, we said we would pay at the park gate (knowing full well that there was no park gate).

So off we set, heading out of town and up the valley, aiming for one of the ridges that led to the main ridge and the summit. After two hours of pleasant hiking up various hunting tracks, the path started to become less distinct, before petering out completely.  We realised that we had taken the wrong approach, and the ridge we actually wanted was some 200 metres to the North on the other side of a small ravine. Not having time to retrace our steps back to town we took a direct approach, hacking our way through the dense bush. It took two hours of hard bushwhacking to cover the 200 metres to the other ridge, and we emerged scratched, splintered and dehydrated, reassessing our chances of reaching the summit at all.

Pad models the new pannier-rucksack conversion kit

We decided to press on, with another hour of daylight left we hoped to reach the summit ridge by nightfall, we could then hike along the ridge at dawn to the summit, before return back to town. All went well, but we started to realise we had under-estimated our water consumption, and the bushwhacking had further depleted our reserves. We tried to conserve as much water as possible, and as a result our 2-minute noodles were a little crunchier than usual.

The night passed uncomfortably, with dreams of flowing streams or cold soda when ever we did drift off. Every few hours one of us would wake up with a mouth like sawdust:

“Shall we have a sip of water?”

 “yeah just a small one”

Dawn finally arrived and we were pleased to find a slight dew had formed, and not wanting to waste a drop, licked this from the plastic bottles we’d left out the night before.



Dawn breaks on our high altitude campsite

Leaving out tent where it was we reached the summit in a little over an hour, and were rewarded by a spectacular sunrise along the way. Dwelling a moment to enjoy the view, we then turned and headed back to our tent to pack up and head down by a far easier route than we had come up.

We measured out our water and had about 1200ml between us, which was to last the further 4 hours it would take to get down. We were met on the way down by the same guide we had seen the previous day, who had been sent up by his boss to request we paid the permit fee.  With our only focus on getting some water ASAP we said we would go to the office in town once we had been for food and water.

The stunning sunrise above the plateau below

As we descended the heat began to return after the relatively cool temperatures of the higher altitude. We would walk with a mouthful of water for as long as possible to keep thirst at bay, but were both now suffering the effects of serious dehydration. As we returned to civilisation we located a local water font, where the locals were filling their canisters, and were glad of the opportunity for a much needed drink- each taking on 2 full litres for starters!

Immediately feeling better, a spring returned to our step and we looked forward to a hearty lunch and some celebratory cold beers. The guide, who had escorted us down, said we first had to visit the town office to pay the ‘village tax’ for climbing the mountain. At 5000 shillings (2 pounds) this seemed a preferable option to the $30 quoted previously, so we happily paid and headed on our way to the nearest restaurant, thinking ourselves lucky to get away so cheaply.

As we walked down to the road with the guide who had been won-over by Paddy’s charming Swahili, a police jeep and motorbike pulled up and said they’d take us into town. We politely declined the offer saying we were happy to walk, but the policeman replied “You must take a lift with us- you are now in custody.”

Sucess! The summit of Mount Hanang at 3417 metres

It transpired that the village tax we had paid was an additional charge to the permit, and the boss of the permit office had called the police for fear of loosing out on his $60. In the end it was a fairly jovial affair, and as soon as we agreed to pay (which was as soon as we were sat down in front of the Chief Constable) the mood relaxed. Hand shakes were made all round and we handed over our crispy American dollars.

Relieved to leave the Police Station with not so much as a fine, we quickly headed for lunch and to start the rehydration process, both of us swearing never to find ourselves so short of water again. It was a bit of an epic, and could have been avoided with a bit more time, more planning and the services of the local guides- but, as we reminded ourselves, mountains are supposed to be challenging and adventurous and buying your way to the summit just isn’t what it’s all about. Enjoy the journey, relish the challenges, but don’t forget to take enough water!