There
are moments in which you feel it is important regaining a bit of freedom from
the congestion of the daily routine, something that can fresh up your mind. Of
course it is not easy working in office then spending time in the traffic jam
of Kampala and breathing all air pollution every single day. However there are
those things which everyone knows can give you freedom: in my case, those
things are going cycling, trekking in the mountain and, to a different extend,
lying down in front of a beautiful sea. Well, I got my new bicycle ready for
new adventures; meantime, there was a trekking I postponed over the years,
waiting for the right time to come, the trekking of Muhavura Volcano.
We arrived at the peak, at 4127 meters,
when an icy rain started to beat our heads and we could not enjoy the crater
lake in the caldera. Of course even the temperature went down with the rain at
that altitude and a good warm jacked was necessary. On the other side, it was
very difficult to prevent the rain from entering our shoes and from making us
wet, however even this experience reminded me of some torrential rain beating
me while walking along an alpine route and the rain coat was never enough. It
took us basically four hours to arrive at the peak, keeping a moderately slow
speed allowing the body to breathe and also to enjoy the environment. The
descent was much faster, though a bit complicated by the wooden ladders which I
was trying to avoid all the time (but some acrobatic fall here and there was
inevitable). I was comforted by the fact that I did not feel to be unprepared
for the trekking; indeed I had a minimum training in the last period, though
not so much preparation. I was also comforted by the fact that the guide was
falling down much more often than I did, poor guy, I guess it was the shoes and
I felt sorry for him. During the descent, actually we had good panoramic views
of the valley in front of the Muhavura, we could see Lake Mutanda and Lake
Mulehe. By 4 in the afternoon we were back to the gate, I imagine this can be
an average time for completing the trekking. Walking
in the mountain is something that takes away my fears, which brings my mind
back to the ground, a kind of natural therapy.
Costantino Tessarin