Up the mountain again

Yet another trip up Loleza Peak, with two other colleague friends. Very nearly made it to the top. Loleza Peak is 2656 metres high (8714 feet), and as Mbeya is about 1700m (5577ft) high, that’s about a 3150ft climb. You make a lot of height in a short space of time, and on reaching the big white cross you seem to be deceptively near to the peak. The next section was a steep scramble (though we came down a slightly more sensible path on the return) only to find the ‘peak’ was the first of three. Possibly suffering a bit from the altitude, one of my friends decided this was far enough, but I continued with my other friend to what looked like the peak, only to find this was the second peak. The third one didn’t look too much further or higher, but we thought we should get back; beyond it the hillside was adorned with phone towers! We weren’t the only ones climbing that day, and I’m not just referring to other hikers, there were also some boys out with their cows a good half-way up, and even higher there were some goats. We were happy to get back, ease hot feet out of boots, take cold showers and have a drink!