Mt. Longonot & The God of Immeasurably More

So, there's this inactive volcano right by Jikaze IDP camp and......WE CLIMBED IT!

A few weeks ago, some friends and I decided we wanted to take a hike! One of my friends, Libbey, had her boyfriend come and visit and wanted us to get to know him. Well, what better way to get to know someone than by climbing a volcano?!

My roommate, Christine (left), Sarah, Nathan, Libbey

Our view on the way up

The rolling hills

Moving on up!

Mount Longonot is a popular tourist attraction in Kenya and right off the road that you would travel to go to different safari parks. It does cost 30 dollars for non-residents to climb but that view at the top was definitely worth it. 

On the way up, sometimes you see zebra, cape buffalo, or giraffes in their natural habitats! I was obviously most excited about this part but we were not fortunate enough to come across any on the way up or down. However, I did see the evidence of their presence so I snapped a few shots of some tracks to prove it!

Giraffe footprint

Their trail

Once we reached the top, our mouths just dropped. WHAT BEAUTY! I had never seen anything like it before! You can't compare the beauty in that volcano to anything else beautiful you've seen. And I have seen the beautiful Rocky Mountains laden with snow and the Appalachian mountains dressed in fall colors and a beautiful sunset on the beach, but  this was just unlike any of those things. All beautiful in their own ways.

Christine and  I

Sarah, Christine, Me, Libbey

Walking around the rim trail (the view of the valley on the left)

Another angle of the forest inside the inactive volcano

At the top, you have the choice of just gazing around or taking your hike a little further and walking/running/hiking the rim of the volcano. It's about 7 kilometers around I think, but unfortunately, one of my friends was feeling sick so we did not make the full circle. I can say that what we did see was beauty at every vantage point we stopped. We could see Lake Naivasha, Crescent Island, and even Uhuru Child's greenhouses in Jikaze down below! It was incredible.

Some Pummus, volcanic rock we found around the rim!

A smaller crater next to the volcano

That white rectangle is our greenhouse!

The huge drop off into the crater

 Lake Naivasha

 Crescent Island

Once we were finished sight seeing at the top, we headed back down for the rains were coming in. As we started nearing  the bottom, the thunder rolled in and so did a hasty sprint down the mountain. Now, this was a feat in itself because these were not smooth hiking trails, but rivets in the ground where the water runoff had created a trail. At times, it felt like you were walking through craters in the ground, but when a thunderstorm is rolling in and you're high up in the clouds, you don't really care what the ground looks like as long as you make to the bottom! 

One of the better parts to hike. Most of the trails were worse!

Fortunately, we made it down right as the rain downpour began! Even though we didn't see any animals up close or go all the way around the rim, I was so thankful for the experience! I had been avoiding doing Longonot because I hadn't really had the desire to hike an inactive volcano until my friends were going. I AM SO GLAD WE DID!

 I can't believe how much of God's beauty I missed out on just because I have been lazy or formed my own conclusions on what it would be like. I have learned so much more about myself and have applied this to other areas of my life where I choose to stay comfortable instead of stepping out in faith and trusting that what God has in store will be worth it and far better than what I could imagine it to be. Iwill fight not to rely on my simple understanding or limit the God of immeasurably more.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 

[Ephesians 3:20]