Mount Gorongosa

Climbing Mount Gorongosa was at the top of our to do list since reading about all of the mythology associated with it, but it proved to be much more difficult even to find somebody who would guide us to the mountain. But the whole process turned into a great adventure.

After a couple days of asking around Gorongosa town and the national park we finally found Montinho, a wirey soft spoken young man, who was 20 years old but looked more like 15. He turned out to be a great guide, and quickly became our friend. Montinho told us that we had to go visit the chief to get permission to climb the mountain before we went, and that we also had to buy supplies for the chief to perform a ceremony to bless our journey. He needed two meters of black and white cloth, a bag of leaf tobacco, 2 packs of cigarettes, a box of matches, a jug of wine, and a bottle of rum. Sounds like a hell of a ceremony, I guess the Regulo has to have a party in our honor before we hike. The chief was named Regulo Canda, and he seemed like a good guy, although a bit hung over. I was disappointed he didn't share any of the booze, but before we left he pointed to the mountain with a smile and said paridiso, which made me really want to get up there.

We rode our bikes about 27 km to actually get to the mountain. We left our bikes at a base camp at the foot of the mountain, and cooked lunch before we started hiking. I was glad the no shoes rumor was bogus because the grass was so tall and the trail was so overgrown that I couldn't see my knees let alone what was under my feet. but it was a beautiful hike through the golden grass meadows at sunset. We arrived to a dense forest just after sundown, and set up our tent there for the night.

The next morning we got to see just how beautiful the forest actually was. It was much denser than most of the forests I've seen in Malawi, and Wiz said it actually reminded him of the rainforests in Hawaii. It seemed like there was life absolutely everywhere, all interweaving and climbing over each other Some of the trees must have been hundreds of years old because they were massive, and looked all the more ancient because all of the layers of vines growing over them. It was a bit of a slippery walk over the wet logs, and moss covered rocks. The forest went all the way to the top, and then seemed to stop abruptly at the top of the mountain.

The top was actually a massive plateau with wide open grass meadows and clouds that were right on top of the grass pushing across the field through to the distant peaks. We climbed the the nearest peak to us, which was the highest and had a radio antenna on top. The last section got real slippery and sketchy with big cliffs on all sides, so that was the only section that I did barefoot. There was a watchman living at the top living with his family. I found there secluded lives up there fascinating, kind of like an old man living up in the lighthouse. It would take a very content soul to live that life, and certainly seemed that. He had a warm welcoming smile, and he leisurely walked up to the top with us. We shared a few bread rolls with peanut butter and honey with him as we lingered to enjoy the view. A couple times the wind pushed some holes in the clouds beneath us so we could just how far we had climbed. It was magnificent!

We climbed down the other side which was an even denser forest. The trees weren't as tall but it was much bushier, so it seemed like the trail was a tunnel bored straight through the forest. That was a long steep down hill hike, but the reward came at the end with a huge three tiered waterfall. We took a long break there to climb around on the rocks and play around in the mist.

Then we rushed to get back to our bikes before it got to late. We ripped down the dirt paths on our bikes racing the sunset, and got back to the tarmac road just after dark. The last eight km on the smooth road were very welcome after the long day we had. We stayed with Jared and Tara a Peace Corps couple in Gorongosa, and shared the stories from our hike over a hearty pasta meal. We were surprised when they told us that they nor any other Mozambique volunteers still hadn't climbed the mountain yet, which made us feel all the more proud of having checked it off our list.