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A number of people climb Oldoinyo Lengai each year. It is not a technical climb, but it is a very demanding and sometimes dangerously steep walk and scramble. You should be fit, strong and above all VERY determined. Everyone who has climbed has their own experience to tell and their own advice to give; here is mine.
Oldoinyo Lengai lies in Tanzania and should be approached from the south (i.e. from Arusha and Mto wa Mbu) or (more difficult) from the west (from the Serengeti Plains, Crater Highlands and Olduvai Gorge). It is in theory possible to approach from Kenyan territory to the north (from Magadi). However I emphatically do NOT recommend this; the track is totally unmaintained for much of its length and above all, it is against the law to cross the international frontier here. If you enter Tanzania here and were to be picked up by security officers you would be in big trouble.
You need a four wheel drive vehicle with good clearance to reach Oldoinyo Lengai; it may be (just) possible at some seasons to do it with less, but I would not recommend it. Approaching from Arusha, you take the tarmac road west out of Arusha (signposted to Dodoma) and leave this road at Makuyuni. Take the right turn to Mto wa Mbu (this is also the road to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti). A few kilometres east (i.e. before) Mto wa Mbu there is a poorly marked earth road to the right, north across the Rift Valley floor. This is the road to Oldoinyo Lengai.
You cannot rely on public transport and hitching rides to get to Oldoinyo Lengai; you could get as far as Mto wa Mbu but after that it would be impossible. There is no regular public transport to Engaruka and Ngare Sero (two of the little villages on the rift floor north of Mto wa Mbu); the occasional lorries and landrovers that come by are likely to be over crowded already, and this is certainly not an area to find oneself in with nowhere to go when dusk is falling.
Assuming that you do not own a 4WD vehicle in Tanzania, then the choice is between renting a vehicle and driving it yourself, or going with a commercial tour company that will provide the vehicle, driver, camping equipment and (if you get the right company) experienced guides to get you up the mountain and down again safely and in reasonable time.
My sense is that if you are on your own, it is much better to go to the extra expense of a tour company; it is just too problematic to face possible vehicular and personal breakdowns without other people at hand. If you are a group of reasonably experienced and bush wise people, it is feasible to get out to Ngare Sero yourselves and negotiate with someone in the village to guide you up the volcano.
Why not just climb the volcano by ourselves, you may ask. After all,
it is right there; impossible to miss it! How can one go wrong with a 2000
metre cone in front of one; all roads lead to the top, don't they? In fact
it is perfectly possible to get lost on Oldoinyo Lengai; the lower slopes
are deeply gullied and covered in thick tall grasses. You can easily go
in the wrong direction and end up on the wrong side of an impassable ravine;
even the young and fit will have no energy to waste trying to get back
on the right track.
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If you want to go in relative comfort (nothing can make Oldoinyo Lengai
an easy climb!) go with Dorobo Safaris Ltd., P.O. Box 2534, Arusha, Tanzania.
The Peterson brothers (David, Thad and Michael) have been taking people
up Lengai for over 15 years and their employees are also highly experienced
and very reliable. Contact them through telephone Arusha 2300, fax, or
at their email address, dorobo@yako.habari.co.tz
A warning - they tend to get very booked up, especially at peak holiday
seasons, so contact them well in advance. Another company that runs
trips is Nature and Discovery run by Eric Christin; his email address is
NatureDiscovery@ark.eoltz.com
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During 1998 and early 1999 there were some incidents of armed robbery of tourist vehicles in the area around Oldoinyo Lengai. Some tour companies, including Dorobo Safaris stopped taking groups to this region for some time. However other people have visited the region, climbed Oldoinyo Lengai, and returned safely. In July 1999 I climbed with Fred Belton and Chris Weber; we had no problems on our journey or on the mountain itself. The same was true of July 2000; the security seemed to be considerably improved. I have also heard from others who have climbed since then, most recently in October 2000 and January 2001, that all went well. My personal suggestion is that intending climbers should check with Dorobo Safaris or with other tour companies in Arusha, Tanzania, before making firm plans for your journey. We can only hope that the Tanzanian government will be able to maintain security in this area. I would welcome hearing from anyone who has up-to-date information about the security situation in this region.
Fred Belton is running a trip to
Oldoinyo Lengai in July 2001; contact him at the above email address for more
information.
Things to take with you:
Good comfortable supportive hiking boots, though you do not need mountain boots or rock climbing boots. However this is not the time to economize, to use those dear old worn out boots one last time or (worse) to wear in some new ones. I have lost several big toe nails on the way down Oldoinyo Lengai (actually they turned purple and hung on for a few months before falling off in the shower...)
Long trousers rather than shorts will protect you against rugged rocks and scratchy vegetation. Wear shorts under them and you can take off the long trousers when it gets too hot or you get into the crater.
LOTS of water. If you go with Dorobo Safaris they will take care of this for you. If you go on your own, make sure you have enough good water for the climb.
Lots of sunblock; solar radiation can get very intense at nearly 3000 metres.
A good (not too heavy) flashlight with ample batteries; it takes at
least 4 hours to climb (I take 6 hours!) and it makes good sense to start
before dawn and get the worst of the climb done before the sun is scorching
you.
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Whatever light food you find suits you best when putting out maximum energy for 4 to 6 hours. Personally I can eat very little (my digestive system seems to decide it wants no part of the whole experience) but I have enjoyed dried fruit, oranges and the occasional square of chocolate or mint cake.
Lots of film. You do not need a big heavy camera or a long lens; the views are spectacular enough not to need embellishment unless you are a really serious photographer. The illustrations on this site taken by Burra Gadiye were taken with a disposable camera!
Attitude: take it slow, take it steady, stop when you need to. I would not go so far as to say that climbing Oldoinyo Lengai is all in the mind, but the right mental attitude will make a great difference.
Above all, remember that however tough it is going up, most of us find the descent even worse! If you are in charge of your own climb, make sure you leave enough time for the descent, that is at least 4 hours. The lower slopes of Oldoinyo Lengai in thick grass and between deep gullies are not a place to be as dusk is falling, which it does quickly in northern Tanzania.
If you are not comfortable with heights and above all exposed, steep windy heights, Oldoinyo Lengai is NOT the place to be. If you really want to see what the summit crater looks like, why not charter a light aircraft from Arusha and take an overflight? The only problem is that you cannot be sure when you take off in Arusha whether or not the summit will be covered in a cloud.
For those of you who do get to the top, safety
in the crater of an active volcano (we hope it will be active when you
get up there) is definitely an issue. Fred Belton has climbed several times
and has got very close (possibly even too close) to the liquid lava. He
has allowed me to include his safety warnings; which follow below. For
more of Fred's experiences on Oldoinyo Lengai and his spectacular photographs,
see his site,
SAFETY ON OLDOINYO LENGAI by Fred Belton
"The late Katia Krafft, one of the world's most experienced "volcano chasers," once described Oldoinyo Lengai as a "toy volcano." In one sense she was right, because the small cones inside the crater often seem to produce harmless miniature eruptions and cute little spatters of lava. Even the lava is not very hot compared to other volcanoes in the world. It is really a pretty safe place to be, and I have never heard of anyone being killed or seriously injured there. But while spending a total of 24 days in the crater in very close proximity to activity, I had several close calls and one minor injury, and have seen some other people have narrow escapes. Here are some hints on how to be safe during your visit, and examples of incidents that have occurred recently. Of course you can visit Oldoinyo Lengai and avoid most of these risks completely if you keep your distance from the active part of the crater, but that would not be as interesting, would it? Definitely not!
1. Be cautious around the large fissures on the crater rim. I saw a very experienced volcano climber fall into a fissure because he was pulled off balance by his heavy backpack. He became pinned under his pack and could not climb out without assistance.
2. The hornitos (small cones) on the crater floor can collapse under you if you climb on them. In 1998 the flank of a cone collapsed under me and I fell waist deep into a steaming hole. At the base of the same cone a few days later, one of my legs plunged hip deep into the soft flank just as a fast moving, very fluid lava flow was bearing down on me. By the time I extracted my leg the lava was only a couple of feet away and closing fast, and I avoided serious burns with about one second to spare. In a third incident, the flank of a cone collapsed into a deep pit less than 12 hours after a woman and I climbed on it, revealing that a large section of the flank we walked on had been only about 2 inches thick. In general, it may be safer to climb on hornitos that are black from recent activity than on old hornitos that are white and brown from weathering, but one never knows for sure.
3. Cones can collapse on top of you. The summit area of a large cone containing a lava lake collapsed less than 3 minutes after I left its rim. The section of rim where I had been standing was struck by large boulders and then broke off and fell into the lava lake.
4. Lava spattering out of lakes and from the tops of cones can burn you because it is around 950 degrees fahrenheit. This is important to consider, since it is very tempting to get close to this type of activity for photographs. I have received several dozen small burns from tiny blobs of spatter landing on me, but in July 1999 I was struck in the face with great force by spatter from a bursting lava bubble in a lava lake. The lava adhered to my face, giving me several second degree burns above and below my right eye, and leaving me with a scar. My sunglasses saved me from a serious eye injury. The lava melted two small parts of the glasses, one location being INSIDE the lens. Thus, if you want to get really close, always wear glasses, and even better, safety glasses. Stay completely away from places where you can see spatter landing and accumulating. Wear as much clothing as possible, including long sleeves, long pants, and a hat. A thick wool sweater provides especially good protection. If a lot of lava splashes high into the air and you think some of it may hit you, turn your face away IMMEDIATELY. If the lava does hit you, much of its heat will be absorbed by your clothes, but they might start burning. (I once had to "put out" my pants!) This all assumes that the amount of lava involved is quite small. Contact with more than a few "spoonfuls" of lava would be very painful and might cause serious, scar-producing burns, and being "drenched" by a large volume would probably be fatal. Lava can also damage expensive equipment, as I discovered when it melted a hole in my camera.
5. If you walk around in an area of lava that is flowing on the crater floor, (it will be black during the day and dull orange at night) be sure to test your footing before you put all your weight on a flow. If the lava is moving, it will definitely not support your weight. At night, a flow that is glowing orange will not support you. Even lava that is not moving may be liquid inside. I once burned up a shoelace by sinking into such a flow but was not injured because my leather boots provided good protection. I heard of one person who sunk into lava while wearing running shoes and ended up with third degree burns.
6. I heard of one occasion when a previously inactive cone suddenly exploded without warning, throwing some large rocks a couple meters away from its flank. This is probably a rare event, but it indicates that no place in the crater is totally safe from sudden activity. Cones have also been known to collapse and release a flood of fast moving lava that could overtake an unprepared person.
7. If you camp on the crater floor, be aware of where lava is flowing and be sure it doesn't invade your camp during the night. I have never heard of anyone having that problem, but it could easily happen. Such a lava flow would probably be moving very slowly and would not present any danger unless it caught you completely off guard.
8. There are sometimes caves and lava tunnels that are large enough to explore for a ways but this might not be wise due to the possibility of a high concentration of carbon dioxide inside. The cave might also become active and rapidly fill with lava.
9. Oldoinyo Lengai has a history of occasional
explosive eruptions, usually with quite a few years between them. If any large
explosions or eruptions of ash clouds occur while you are in the crater, it
might be a good idea to think about going down fairly soon. The most recent
explosive activity occurred in the southern part of the crater in 1993".
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| We made it! St.Lawrence University students on the university's Kenya Semester Program climbed Oldoinyo Lengai in February 1995; Kristen Hall gave me the photograph on the left. | I made it! Fred Belton took this photograph of Celia Nyamweru resting on soft powdery lava after climbing from the west on 23rd July 1999. No surface ever felt softer! |
