Meru, Day 1.5

On exploring round our camp after putting our sweat soaked packs to rest, i followed a track out of camp. Our camp is in the middle of the jungle and only 50meters from the boundary from the camp, a troop of baboons came out of the undergrowth crossing the path. I managed to quickly shoot of a few snaps before the noise of the camera cause the leader to raise his brightly coloured backside and hurry back into where they had cut from the undergrowth. Moving quietly I found that they had actually come from an obvious and wide trail, having little better to do at that moment in time, and hoping for a better picture, I followed the path under the canopy for a couple of minutes before finding it terminated at the drying remains of a watering hole.

The majority of the pool was not actually a pool, but rather a black mud sculpture, dried like concrete with the relief of many paw prints, but in the far corner there was still a dank pool remaining, buzzing with flies. In spite of the outside heat, the jungle itself was pleasantly cool, a warming, rather than baking heat providing a welcome change from the scorching sun on the exposed hiking route. Shafts of light coming down through the canopy, illuminated the long strands of hanging moss like ghostly fingers reaching down from the trees to caress the souls of hikers and animals alike.

Under the shade of the trees, the baboons seemed largely more interested in climbing from the boughs and mating randomly, than avoiding my camera lens. Their play pausing only briefly to squawk at me and jump around each time i would clumsily tread on a stick as I approached further, this flurry of activity would normally cease after a moment of two. Certainly these appeared wild baboons, not those greatly accustomed to humanity as the animals which happily sat for photos at Ngorogoro crater, before leaping to attack Mayhem after he pushed his luck.

My prize for waiting patiently in the cloud of buzzing insects, apparently oblivious to the DEET I had practically bathed in, was seeing the alpha male walk through his group, at least half as big again as the largest animal I had previously seen out on the road. His fur a rusty brown, providing a contrasting comparison to the grey brown of the rest of the group. He largely ignored me, content to walk through his troop with a commanding air. Unfortunately i was unable to get a shot of before he had returned to the thicket which was being used as a veritable jungle gym by the young members of the troop.

After several more minutes of watching the troop in action a bark emanated from the jungle, and the baboons bounced from their makeshift climbing frame and headed deeper into the jungle. Fed up with the buzzing of insects in my ears, and contented that I had taken some promising pictures, i turned, camera in hand and headed back to camp, where hopefully dinner was nearly ready

Coming back to the camp, we passed the time with the Americans playing Gin Rummy. The porters and guides apparently content to listen to a football match, being broadcast from a grainy radio.
We paused our game when we saw the beautiful sunset occurring outside of our window, scrabbling for cameras the four of us poured out onto the little wooden balcony, and watched as the sunset behind us. However it was not the actual sun we were watching, but the colours it was causing in West, casting in Kilimanjaro in a stately relief across the valley before us. Even the clouds enrobing the mountains feet, simply added to the majesty. If this is the views at only 1/3 of the way of the mountain, I can barely conceive of what the sunrise from Meru’s peak will be like!

As I have been writing this entry in my bunk at 10pm, listening to the jungle burp, fart and twitter around me, I’m finding that typing has become quite clumsy, coupled to my eyes getting quite heavy now so I'm going to call it a night