Mt. Gahinga, Mpora Mpora

Mpora mpora is a Runyankore phrase meaning "slowly slowly," and that's exactly how I had to take this volcano. My hope is to eventually climb all three of the Ugandan Virunga volcanoes, but for starters I attempted Mt. Gahinga. The easiest of the three hikes, it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought (henceforth mpora mpora). This picture is from the way back down the volcano, probably two thirds of the way to the gate. I thought I was smiling. Promise. That's just how worn out I was.

We stayed in a banda (I guess roughly translated as a cottage) at the Mgahinga Community Campground. As far as location, you couldn't get any better. From our banda to the gate was probably 100 yards. The buffalo wall (intended to keep Cape Buffalo and Forest Elephants inside the park) was at most 5 yards behind the banda. Though it had no electricity or running water, the nearest hotel was 20 minutes away and we only had to pay total (not just me) $25 for two nights plus breakfast one morning plus a broken lock.

After a breakfast of eggs and toast we headed down to the park office to pay and get our guides. Each trek comes complete with a guide and two guards, presumably because of the danger from the buffalo and elephants in the lower part of the park, but in truth because of a rebel attack that killed 6 tourists in 1999 (which isn't all that surprising considering the unrest in the 90s of the two countries bordering the park, though don't worry...there's been no rebel activity in the park since). We then took off for the peak.

Unfortunately it appears some bad food sidelined Jared early on (food poisoning being not exactly uncommon for bazungu in Africa). He probably could have raced up the mountain ahead of all of us, but something in his stomach had other ideas this day. The guide and the rear guard went back with Barry and Jared and I continued on with the front guard, John. A Munyankore from Mbarara, he's been going up the volcanoes for a year now (whereas the guides seem to have all been there at least 14 years). Fortunately, not being a Uganda Wildlife Authority guide, he's not yet programmed to talk his head off about every little thing you come across on the hike, which, though less informative, made the hike more enjoyable.

There are several different ecological areas you pass through on the way to the top. The first is Zone 2, which until the early 1990s was farmed by Batwa Pygmies (one of the guides was telling us about when they were forcing the Batwa out of the park and how he had to be careful because they had spears). As a result the vegetation is not as thick nor as tall. The rest of the park falls in Zone 1. It begins with a forest that is a mix of big trees and bamboo before entering a thick bamboo forest. Part of the way through this initial forest is a flat clearing from which you can see the volcano really well (as pictured).

The bamboo forest is just flat out thick. You could have someone standing 5 feet away from you and have no idea that they are there. This marked the last easy (though still huffing and puffing, just not near as much as I soon would be) part of the climb. The hike takes some time to get up to the base of the volcano itself, and this initial part of the hike is more of a gradual rise. Then you reach a point where the terrain just starts to go up. This point was one of the few times where John actually said anything: "This is the start of Gahinga." Which was good to know, because once you get in the bamboo forest, as thick and high as it is, there's no telling where you are (unless you are the guide, who has a handy Garmin GPS).

The beginning of the volcano is where things really started to get tough. It didn't take long for my calves to begin hurting badly. I'm used to walking everywhere, just not uphill, and so it didn't take long to hit the wall with my calf muscles. Even more discouraging is that the bamboo seems to go on forever and so I began to wonder if I was really making any progress at all. It was at this point that I am fortunate that God made me somewhat stubborn, because it was will and determination alone that kept me going. There was no way I was going to start that volcano and not finish. At one point what kept me going was thinking "well, my calves hurt but they haven't stopped working yet, so I know I can take at least one more step."

Then all of a sudden the bamboo thins out some and you can see out to the left. The most heartening part of the whole hike was looking over and seeing another arm of Gahinga stretching out. Finally I could see that I was actually up on this thing and making good progress, and suddenly reaching the top seemed much more achievable. Not long after the vegetation changes from bamboo to big trees covered in moss and lichens and you can see out over Kisoro and Mt Sabyinyo. The views were incredible, and I stopped every opportunity to take them in (though at times more for the rest than for the view).

To be honest I wish I had more pictures from the way up but I don't. Most of the time taking pictures was the last thing on my mind; usually taking the next step totally consumed me. At this point (having pushed through the wall and reached the second wind for my calves) not muscular but respiratory. Between the altitude and my being out of shape I just couldn't get enough air. Plus at this point the climb was incredibly steep, and whereas earlier you would go up some, then wind back with a straightaway before going up again, at this point it was just up, up, up.

Then, towards the top, came the ladders. With one or two exceptions they weren't at such incredibly steep angles that you were climbing straight up, but rather were making up for the trail being so steep and washed out that the normal way of fashioning steps just wouldn't work. Usually John just walked up them upright and relatively quickly, whereas I slowly made my way up leaning heavily on my hiking stick. To make matters worse the upper reaches of the volcano were really wet, so the ladders were a bit slippery. In fact everything was a bit slippery, and I was therefore even more glad to have taken the time to fashion that hiking stick (Eucalyptus pole: 200 shillings. Blacksmithed knife in market: 2000 shillings. Shredded tire tube for rubber grip: 300 shillings. Not falling off the side of a volcano: priceless).

Then, finally, the top. After 3 and a half hours of huffing and puffing, of aching and pushing, I had made it. Courtesy of a love for hiking and praying, which had my muscles (except calves) in perfect shape for this task, and a stubborn determination to finish, both gifts from God, I successfully summitted my first volcano. And what I found was like a whole other world. The crater is filled with a swamp unlike any I've ever seen, and the plants around the rim were just different. Add in the fact that most of the time I was literally sitting inside of a cloud, and it was like being on a different planet.

Yes, once again I could have sworn I was smiling. And this is the kind of picture you can get when you have no choice but to let the Ugandan guard take your picture at the summit (there were a couple of others he took, but this is the only one that shows the swamp...and probably my best smile of them). One of the most interesting things was that the cloud wasn't damp. I mean I know that a cloud is water collected around dust particles, so I was expecting it to be wet like fog, but it wasn't. Anyway, we spent about 20 minutes on the peak, eating a lunch of Cadbury chocolate, glucose biscuits (kinda like shortbread cookies) and stale toast before heading back down. We flew down, by the way, reaching the HQ hut in 2 hours. Total hike time: 5 hours and 30 minutes, an hour faster than the group that had gone the day before.

Now for the brief advertising portion of this blog post: if you ever need to get a good backpack, get one of these basic Jansport ones. Perhaps I have an unhealthy attachment to this backpack, but I've now had it for over 10 years and it's still going strong. If I've traveled anywhere in the last 10 years, be it for a night or a month, this pack has been there. I retired it from school use in high school, and every other school backpack I've had has broken within 2 years, yet this one just keeps on going. It's even lost an entire seam but, thanks to good double-seam construction, keeps on going. Not even the zippers have given me problems. So I couldn't help but take it's picture on top of Gahinga.

This trip overall could be summed up by being overwhelmed by God's creation. From lush mountainsides to towering volcanoes to clear lakes to gorgeous sunsets to bamboo forests to otherworldly swamps to the most incredible night skies, there was no escaping the vast diversity an enormity of the works of God's hands (or, more accurately, the works of His words). I thank God for this opportunity to be surrounded and humbled by what He has made and to praise Him for the magnificence of such a tiny little portion of what He has created.