Katesh Off The Beaten Path

Views are great whether looking down on Katesh, on Lake Balangida, on the escarpments of the Rift Valley or on the endless green and brown plains dotted with tiny settlements and small lakes and carved with lines that are roads.

Once we reached Mt. Hanang's "back'' the rib became much narrower. The walls besides us were steep and deep.

We were now hiking on a narrow rib on top of a mountain almost 2000 meter above the surrounding area! There were open views to the left and to the right as far as one could see! Just breathtaking !

Up from "one tree" where we initially even passed a relatively flat part, we came across the very steep short ascend to the "backrib" of the mountain.

The mountain, looks -with some fantasy- like a horseshoe, or a huge armchair. The summit is on the north, the approach is on the rim either on the west or east.

On the top of the first steep hill (that seems to be the summit but isn't) is "one tree", which is even visible from the settlements at the base of Mt. Hanang.

Many Barbaig tribespeople have a strong belief in nature spirits and bring offers to the mountain. Regularly they go up to visit this special single tree and worship around here.

"One tree" is reached after about 3 hours from Katesh.

After almost an hour of slightly ascending through undulating farmlands we finally reached the forest, where we followed a not too steep buffalotrail for about another hour.

Then the thick forest became lush scrub and grasslands, giving away the first fine views over the Rift Valley.

When we looked up we could see our first target, a steep grassy hill with one single very obvious tree on top. It even has a name -well, guess-: "one tree".