There are so many beautiful landscapes to discover in Kenya, and hiking is the perfect way to experience the true beauty of the great outdoors.

Mt. Suswa is one of the most spectacular and unique mountains of the Rift Valley in that it’s a crater within a crater comprising of a 12 km across double crater system and obsidian caves which are the main attraction. There are over 30 cave entrances, most of which are collapsed roofs into these caves.

The mountain is characterized by an outer and inner crater rim which makes the scenery astonishing. The inner crater is covered by pristine tropical forest while the outer crater is dotted with Maasai manyattas (The maasai homes)

Inner crater rim from a distance…

the inner crater rim at a close range…

The manyatta…

Getting to Mt Suswa is quite simple, although a proper four-wheel-drive vehicle is highly recommended.  It’s about 120 km from Nairobi to Mt Suswa. We covered the 90 Km within an hour and a half as there were a lot of trucks on the road causing traffic on the Nairobi-Naivasha road .The remaining 30 km took almost 2 hours driving up the mountain towards the outer crater as the dirt roads were very rocky and in some parts almost non-existent.

The rough roads in Suswa..

The 30km drive felt like 1000 km drive. That was one of my longest rides. We were now ready to hit the trail. It took us about 1hr to get to the first peak which is about 2250M. The view was stunning.  At this point, the clouds were forming and becoming a threat but that would not stop us. We had a target to hit.  Considering it was an afternoon, the weather was so perfect which made it easier to keep climbing. After another hour, we managed to reach the summit of the inner volcano, Ol Doinyo Nyokie (the red mountain), which is 2,356m (7,730 ft).  By this time, the threat became a reality, the hailstorm! We could not wait for the rain to stop, so we had to descend in the rain. It has always been fun descending from mountains as I always do it very fast but this time round the rain wouldn’t allow me.  The rocks and the surface were slippery. Although the weather was becoming unbearable, it was a great experience to hike in the rain.

The climb….

the peak from afar..

By the time we got back to the campsite, it was dark and we were soaking wet so a hot cup of chocolate and bonfire came in handy.

We almost burnt our feet and shoes….Almost is the wrong word, i burnt my shoes 🙂

The night was amazing as we got to see an insane amount of stars at night due to the absence of electric light.

Sleeping next to the mountains was magical…

The morning after…

patiently waiting for the sun to rise..

Sun Rise!

Mt. Suswa is a high recommendation to anyone looking to have an amazing off the beaten track weekend.