Summary

“Ol Doinyo Lengai” means “The Mountain of God” in the Maasai language. The summit of this strato-volcano is 2962 metres above sea level, and affords direct views into the caldera of Tanzania’s only officially-certified active volcano, and the world’s only carbonatite volcano; records of eruptions have been maintained since 1883, the largest of which deposited ash 100 kilometres away in Loliondo on the Kenyan border to the north west.

Trekking the Active Volcano

The usual climb of Lengai starts at about 2am (after a midnight wakeup, breakfast, then a 1 hour drive to the trailhead). It takes most people from 4 to 6 hours to reach the crater rim (near the summit), so they get there at dawn or just after. Then the descent takes most people from 3 to 4 hours. You do not need special climbing skills, but you do need to be fit and very determined to do it. The terrain is steep and exposed, and it’s a rigorous 1,700m+ alpine adventure route. Once you reach the edge of the crater rim on the active north crater, you walk along that rim and up to the true summit, which sits on a ridge which separates the active north crater from the south crater. The 30 minute climb to the summit affords you panoramic views toward Ngorongoro, Empakai and the Highlands to Lake Natron, and even you can see Kilimanjaro and Meru from a far if it is not cloudy.

The nearby are the Maasai BOMAS that gives you a chance to interact with the indigenous; learn their cultures, taboos and traditional.

Trekking price

As in other programs, the trekking prices is dependent on the group size. Please contact us for customization of the programa and to know the price of trekking.