Ol doinyo Lengai is the biggest mountain in surrounding and even if there are other volcanos nearby, Lengai looks like standing alone mountain. Also the “wall” of Rift Valley does not change this picture.

We started at midnight with our climbing. I went there with Masaai guide/ranger and  Patson.

The start of the climbing was very easy and flat. There was a path inside of huge fields with high, yellow grass. So high that it reached till my shoulders. In the light of our head torch, we could see some Zebras and eyes of wild cats. I could hear the silence. Really, I could just hear our steps and our breaths, but when we stopped – the silence was everywhere. Only silence. It was so perfect that I felt a little bit like disturber in this perfect world ( with my unnatural light source).

It was completely dark. There was no other light source than our head torch. And the sky full of stairs. I have never seen something like this before! The sky was so full of stairs that there was no space for nothing more. And the Milky Way was so near that I thought I could touch it with my hand.

During the short breaks we just switched off the lights and were watching the sky in silence. The temperature and air were very pleasant, so that it was sufficient to wear just a T-shirt (normally the nights there are cold, but because of climbing it was is sufficient)

After reaching the foot of the Lengai it started to be very steep. There was necessary to use hands in many places. We were moving in very deep ash (knee deep, so it means –two steps up and one step down…) or just climbing yellow-white rocks (lose!)  or walls, in some places covered with black volcanic ash. Some rocks were covered with white (and cold of course) lava.  It felt like covered with.. a soap! My black trousers and backpack were white after contact with it.  Like covered with white layer of … soap;)

After a few hours climbing we reached small cave where we should stay till sunrise. I was so good in shape (yes:))) that we reached  the top 1,5 hour too early.  So we decided to sleep in this cave till the sun is there. It was freezing cold. It was necessary to wear everything we had and try to ignore this coldness and sleep anyhow. But what is worth mentioning here … the smell. There was very intensive smell of H2S. This smell made us feel sick. It was not possible to drink or eat something, because I was not sure if it would stay there where it should stay.. . The smell was so bad that my last thought before falling asleep was : “Will I wake up at all?”

Shortly before sunrise, we climbed last remaining meters to the top of Lengai. The last part is completely black, with some (warm!) stones. In many places it was possible to see the smoke going out from holes in the ground. We have got used to this terrible smell, so there was nothing disturbing us anymore.

The feeling and the view from the top of Lengai is so special and amazing and it is really difficult for me to describe it. It doesn’t matter what I would write here and which words I would use – everything it not enough to show the real beauty and power of this view.

We could walk around the huge crater on narrow path. The crater is still “open” and we could see black lava spewing a few meters in high. It looks like there was somebody cooking black soup! Cold lava was white and many parts of crater were covered with that. I suppose it felt like soap, but I haven’t checked it there;) This “cooking lava” was making a very special noise. Like a big motor or something like it. And blubbering like a boiling soup 😉

Do you  know how I was feeling there? I was so overpowered with this view that I was just thinking how powerful the nature is and that we (humans) are just very weak and small in comparison to it. And that we should just respect it (and not think that we are the most important in the world) .

From the top of Lengai we could see endless Massai step, Rift Valley, Natron Lake, Kilimanjaro… The sunrise there was one of the best in my life.

Going down was a real challenge. It was incredibly steep (what we could not see going up because of darkness) and very slippery. We were sliding all the time and falling. And it started to be very, very hot. I was sure I would get the sun burn, but my sun protection passed this exam. During the descent, there was breathtaking view of Rift Valley and Natron Lake. And endless Masaai step…

After I reached a camp, I was so full of different feelings and emotions. Even today, I am think very often of this special atmosphere there.

I hope that by mean of this short description it was possible for you to go for a short time in “Lengai world”. And feel the magic of this place. And when you are so far and you are there in your imagination, just multiply this feeling with 10 or 100 (depending on it how good my description was and how good you are in imagine the things) … And that will be Lengai feeling!