Mt. Longonot: is it long, or not?

Yesterday we hopped on the bus at 7:30am and ventured to Longonot National Park! The park is in Naivasha, Rift Valley Province and consists of 52km2 for wildlife like buffaloes, elands, lions, leopards, Bushbucks, common zebra, giraffe, grant gazelles, Thomson gazelles and antelopes. The big attraction however, is the one and only Mt. Longonot, a stratovolcano which rises 2,776 meters above sea-level. The name comes from the Maasai word oloonong'ot, meaning "mountains of many spurs".

So we started around 9:30 and we were at the summit by 11:00. Although it's not as long of a hike as some in the Adirondacks, it was straight up and very dusty and slippery at times. We had an awesome guide (shoutout to George, who hiked in his converse). He pointed out the "Maasai perfume" (
Tarchonanthus camphoratus L.) which they can also use the cotton like flowers to literally carry fire with them. You can light the flower and carry it in your pocket, have the embers burning and not get burned yourself. He also showed us the areas where lemongrass grew, which smells amazing. On our walk up we also saw antelopes grazing in the fields below and giraffes in the hills!

So we reached the top and you could walk around the crater which would take 3 hours, but I didn't go around. We hung out at the top and one of the program leaders/ professors Sinnary took a nap and the rest of us just enjoyed some gorgeous views!

Overall it was an awesome day and so nice to be out in the fresh air, even if today my glutes are killing me!