V6 - TRAVEL, By Trude Raizen

Conquering Sabinyo

By Trude Raizen

Because its third and highest peak is situ-ated at the point where Rwanda, Uganda and Congo come together, Sabinyo has long been alluring to me. Its appeal grew when I learned it could be sumitted only from the Ugandan side, with a system of crude ladders that sometimes stand completely upright. In Kinyarwanda, Sa-binyo means bad/old teeth, an apt name for the volcano with the jagged tops of three or four peaks, depending on the viewer's angle. I finally conquered the beast on Easter weekend. It's quite simple to get to Uganda's Mgahinga Gorilla National Park from Rwanda. It's best to cross the day before you climb the volcano, especially because Uganda keeps time one hour ahead of Rwanda (albeit with the same tendency for tardiness).

Look up the Ugandan Shilling (ush) exchange rate ahead of time if you are planning to change money at the border, or be prepared to get ripped off. To get to the bor-der, take a Virunga local bus from Musanze to Cyanika (400RWF). Once you've paid the $50 Uganda visa fee, you may bask in your ability to use English, but ignore the men who insist they have a "special car." Instead seek out a taxi to Kisoro, the nearest town. On the Uganda side of the border, a taxi is generally a normal 5-seater car which you may share with up to 7 other passengers (you will need local currency to pay the 4000ush fare). During the taxi ride, note what a difference a border crossing makes. There are still hills, but they are less compact. Less dense also are the people, their dwellings and their fields. More wood is used in construction because the cutting of trees is less tightly regulated north of the border.

You‘ll need to be at the park by seven am, so your best bet is to stay at the entrance, al-most an hour from Kisoro on a very rocky road. Transport to Mgahinga is 7000-8000 ish/person. Although the language just over the border is supposedly identical to Kinyarwanda, some of the numbers are different. Still, Kinyar-wanda is fairly effective in this region for nego-tiating transportation, asking directions or im-pressing people you meet. About 20 meters from the park entrance is a comfortable guest house operated by a local community cooperative. 10,000/night ($4)buys a hostel bed; bandas and camping are also avail-able. Food, beer and water were all available at the hostel; they will also watch your bags while you hike.

Get up bright and early (an hour earlier, remember!) the next morning, because if you are going to catch the overnight bus that night you really should start hiking by 7:30 AM. The guy taking the payments moves like a sloth, but gives Rwanda PCVs the PC discount (from $50 to $40) if you present both your PC ID and passport. Bring two liters of water and plenty of food (Cliff bars you keep telling your family to stop sending come in handy here). Note that if any other hikers are joining you, you should stress that you have a 7pm bus to catch and you need to be able to ascend and descend at your own pace; the park should provide an armed guard and guide for your party as well as the other. Otherwise, if the other hikers are slow, you may have a close call catching your bus. While this can lead to memorably frantic mo-ments, it is not entirely advisable, nor is it com-fortable to spend the night on the bus still wear-ing wet and muddy clothing. But I am getting ahead of myself. Climb-ing Sabinyo is an unforgettable experience, re-warding particularly for masochists and those who get thrills from climbing precarious ladders with no safety equipment and severe drops on either side.

Before you get to the ladders, you pass through grassland, bamboo, and several differ-ent altitude zones featuring unique types of for-est vegetation. There will be evidence of buffalo and elephants in the form of giant footprints and droppings; with luck you might see these ani-mals, or gorillas and other monkeys. Along the way up, the Ugandan countryside regularly peaks through the trees. These splendid vistas provide convenient points to stop- allegedly for a photo op but really to catch your breath and to vow to redouble your workout efforts when you return to Rwanda. The guides will inevitably alarm you by claiming you have two hours to go until you reach the first peak when really you have an hour and change. This tactic is used by guides on Rwanda's volcanoes as well; it's a neat psy-chological trick. As you near the first and lowest summit, you'll begin to encounter ladders. Don't be disappointed: angling at most 45 degrees from level ground, these are just the warm-up. They are made from tree branches nailed to each other and laid across steep parts of the trail; fur-ther up they will be secured to the rock-face with dubious means.

Reaching the first peak brings with it a fleeting feeling of accomplishment. Fleeting, be-cause you realize that you have two more peaks to reach. Still, you can leave some of your gear and water here if you'd like. As you set off for the second peak, any relief in heading down-hill for once is tempered by the knowledge that for every meter you go down, you must later go back up, and then some. This is why Sabinyo is a volcano particularly well suited for the maso-chistic. It will take forty minutes to reach the second peak and still longer to get to the third. It is on the ascent to the second peak that the ladders begin to take prominence in your climb. The guide thrusts his walking stick into the mud at the side of a ladder: from here on out, you'll need both hands. Utilizing different muscle groups, ladders represent welcome respite for your tired legs and a chance to shift some of the burden to your arms. No rest for the weary at the second peak; the guides push you onwards, towards the third.

You begin to descend again, and it's here that you encounter steeper ladders. Until this point, you've been lamenting the fog. All this work, four hours of climbing, and no view! But now, the fog comes in handy. To either side of the ladders, there appears to be a pretty severe drop-off, but all you can see are scrubby tree tops and the inside of a cloud. And the ladders! Why is there no safety equip-ment? This would never be allowed in the developed world! Watch out for the rotted out portions of this ladder and keep three limbs in contact with its rungs at all times. They wouldn't let tourists on these things if it were actually dangerous, would they? You cautiously climb upwards, grateful for the slight warmth and protection of your muddy gloves. You notice the grass growing from the cliffside behind the ladders, inches from your nose. Little dewdrops cling to the end of each blade. A little colder and the dew would be frost. You're wearing a sweatshirt, a fleece and a raincoat; bringing a hat was a good call. Stop to rest, perched in the crook of a rung of a ladder, and the cold drives you back into motion. At last, after perhaps a half hour of ladder-climbing, you reach the collection of rocks that represents the third summit. There, on one rock, is a distinct mark: the point where the three countries come together. Don't tell Peace Corps, but you just may have set foot in Congo for the photo op. The guide tells you that on a clear day, you can see not just Kinigi and Musanze in Rwanda, but the outskirts of Gisenyi, as well as Congo and Uganda. Still, on a clear day, your latent fear of heights and precarious edges may have prevented you from reaching this third peak; the views down would have been a curse on the completely vertical, completely terrify-ing ladders.

What goes up must come down, and vice versa: you'll be retracing your steps unless you want to call in an airlift to get off the third peak. This means you will actually summit Sabinyo five times, with the accompanying kumanuka and kuzamuka and fatigue. The vertical ladders are even more frightening on the descent. Indeed you must be a masochist, your legs tell you. Are they shaking from exhaustion, from cold, or from fear what lies on either side of this ladder you're attempting to climb down? You'll reach the first peak with enough time to collect the extra weight of your belong-ings and hurry onwards: it's well past 2pm! The way down from the first peak is a wet muddy slog. Sometimes it's easier just to slide down on your butt than to fight to say upright.

Upon reaching the bottom, on gelatinous legs and with shoes oozing muddy water with every step, you might look back and see that the fog has cleared. You might imagine that the toothy, bottom-jaw grin this vista presents is the face of Sabinyo, taunting you: now there would be views. But no matter, you got the best of the volcano and all three of its peaks, and when you next pass it on a bus in Rwanda, you can look at it and think, "I was up there!"