Mountains of the Moon by J. R. Rain & Aiden James & K. T. Tomb

Author:J. R. Rain & Aiden James & K. T. Tomb [Rain, J. R. & James, Aiden & Tomb, K. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rain Press
Published: 2016-10-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” —John Muir

The Greco-Egyptian writer, Claudius Ptolemy, who was also a well known mathematician, astronomer, geographer and astrologer in Roman Alexandria vouched for Diogenes, as did several other African-Arab contemporaries. Since the first century, when Diogenes had recorded his findings, there had been a great deal of speculation as to the actual location of the Mountains of the Moon, why they were called by that name and if they even existed.

Some had given consideration to Mount Amedamit in the Ethiopian Highlands. Mount Amedamit, which was once thought to surround one of the sources of the Blue Nile, just like the shepherd in Ethiopia told them, formed, with two other mountains, two semi-circles like a new moon and many argued that, by their shape, they deserved the name of Mountains of the Moon.

Another theory purported that a particular basin near the summit on the western slope of Mount Kilimanjaro was shaped something like a crescent moon. The fact none of Kilimanjaro’s rivers emptied into the Nile made the theory preposterous.

Henry Morton Stanley, for whom Mount Stanley was named, had argued that Diogenes said the natives called them the Mountains of the Moon because of their perpetually snow-covered, glacial summits. The argument against the Rwenzori Mountains, however, had been that it wasn’t the greatest contributor to Lake Victoria and, consequently, not the main source of the Nile. For our purposes, however, it was, perhaps the right source, if not the main one.

“We’re not looking for the main source,” I reminded Ishi, using his own words yet again. “Besides, I really don’t want to go back to Ethiopia unless absolutely necessary.”

The following morning, after arriving in Butare, we were looking for a way out of town that headed north into Uganda; more specifically, Kasese, Uganda, the nearest town of any significance to the Rwenzori Mountains. By mid-morning we had attained a ride taking us as far as Kidaho on the Rwanda-Uganda border.

We set up our tents outside of Kidaho for the night, and actively started looking for a ride north the next morning, and then we camped outside of Ntungamo the following night. On the third day of our latest journey, we finally made it all the way to Kasese, which had been established as a copper and cobalt mining town in the 1950s. It had grown to a population of more than 100,000 since those early days.

To our surprise, we were able to find lodging in a five-star hotel in Kasese and were delighted to have a hot shower and a decent place to sleep. We treated ourselves to a mini-vacation the following day before going in search of the Mountains of the Moon.

“Okay,” Ishi began his update the evening of our day of rest. We had gathered around him like as we had in Butare. “We’ll get a ride to Mubuku and follow this road that closely follows the Mubuku River. Then we’ll follow it up to this point at the Ruboni Community Camp where the road ends and enter the park on foot.

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