A Day on the Mountains by Jim Lovett

A Day Hiking in the Mountains around Suji by Jim Lovett.

Haya is o.k. in Swahili, so haya boys and girls.

Last Saturday we all went on a twenty mile hike from our valley – Suji

-  bypassing the nearest big village,  Chome, and continued on to the

foothills of the highest mountain in the northern chain, it is called

Shengena Peak and stands at 7,800 feet. Aine – Mayo, Aisling –

Leitrim, Belinda and Aaron – Donegal an mesel comprised the Irish team

and representing Tanzania was; George,  Eneza T Eneza,  Solomon James,

Elihinaki,  Abbas,  Abihudi and Togolani try saying that with a

mouthful of rocks, in fact try sayin anything …

We set out at daybreak, six o clock, without a guide, because ‘one’ of

us had just lost all patience, we weren’t long gone when he turned up,

Remani Kiangi, and the day would not have been the same without him.

Remani is 75 years old an comes from the nearby town of Gonjanza -

also in Suji, self educated, he spoke English very well and was a mine

of information. His strengths were on the German and English

occupation of the area, they started the mining operations – gold and

semi precious stones – and the various cultivations – potatoes (a

blight in 1943 nearly wiped the place out), cabbages, carrots, coffee,

cocoa, tea, pepper - and the biggest industry alive today the

cultivation of sisal, introduced in 1892 when just 62 plants were

brought over from Florida, it is today the biggest money producer in

the area. You might say money for new rope … well I might…He was also

well up on the medicinal properties of the forest flora so that such

and such was good for settling stomach ache etc, etc and he is 74 and

getting younger be the minit. At one point on the way home I thought –

out loud – that it might rain soon, we were assured that there would

be no rain for at least 3 to 4 hours. It rained 5 minutes later. The

same as if we were at home … by God. We arrived back in the valley …

slidin down on our respective a**es and drowned like rats. But a great

day had been had by all; it was a ten hour hike.

The assault on Shngena Peak cannot be made from here, might start in

Chome. Number of monkeys seen – zero. Number of elephants seen – zero,

but then again they haven’t been around here for thirty years.

Or something like that.