The Adventures of Suswa

One of our highlight activities during dad's visit to Najile was our trip to Mt. Suswa. Mt. Suswa is a dormant volcano that stands just outside our front door. We've always meant to climb it but haven't had many opportunities. While dad was here, we decided that we'd try to go from our front door to the tip of Suswa and back in a day. It seemed ambitious, but worth a try!
We started out at 6am, leaving with our friend Simion who was acting as our guide. We headed past Najile, town the road about 30 minutes before diverting towards the mountain. It was almost 8pm before we reached the last house at the foot of the mountain and we estimated we'd already walked a solid 6-8 miles. We had a long way to go.
We pressed onward. We hiked and hiked and hiked. We walked through dry riverbeds, through tall grasses, through forests of whistling thorn trees. By about 10am, it was starting to get hot and we began to wonder whether we'd reach the summit.
We climbed on. After each ridge we hoped that we'd see the crater beneath us, but it seemed to keep moving further away from us. Finally, as the sun rose and our spirits sank, we decided the next cliff would be our "summit." We stopped, enjoyed the view, ate sandwiches and ignored the fact that 1. we were still quite a distance from the summit and 2. had to walk all the way home.
We turned around. Down the mountain we went, hurrying home before the sun reached its full intensity. Soon all of us (except Simion) felt tired. My shoulders were burning from carrying the backpack, and all of our legs were well beyond jello-stage. We kept walking and walking, soon it was noon and then 1pm. Finally, by 2pm we reached Najile, stopped for some Chapati and rested. We made it home safely before crashing for multiple hours on our bed.
Despite not reaching the summit, we still had a great time and had a good workout (we estimate about 24 miles of walking). We still plan on summit-ing the mountain someday, but for now, Suswa: 1 Us: 0