Being the closest national park to Arusha town, the safari capital of northern Tanzania, Arusha National Park is a multifaceted gem that is oft-neglected by adventure seekers, who miss the chance to discover a fascinating array of diverse environments on a short excursion. The entrance gate is home to a dark mountain forest where blue monkeys and colorful turacos and trogons roam. This is the only part of the northern safari where the acrobatic black-and-white colobus monkey is easy to view. In the heart of the forest is the breathtaking Ngurdoto Crater, a crater whose steep, rocky cliffs enclose a broad wetland filled with herds of buffaloes and warthogs.  To the north, undulating grass-covered hills encircle the serene natural beauty of the Momela Lakes, each one colored in varying shades of either green or blue.
Their shallows have been pink with flamingos in their thousands, while the lakes are host to a diverse array of both local and migrant waterfowl, with shaggy waterbuck announcing their impressive lyre-shaped horns in wetter reaches. Giraffes move effortlessly across grassy slopes, between grazing groups of zebras, as startled pairs of wide-eyed dik-diks leap into thorny bushes like overgrown hares. Despite the relative rarity of elephants in Arusha National Park and the absence of lions, leopard and spotted hyena sightings are possible in the early morning and late afternoon hours. It is during the hours of dusk and dawn that the cloud cover along the eastern skyline is most readily parted to uncover the snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro, which are just 50 km (30 miles) away.  However, it is its humble sibling, Mount Meru, Africa’s fifth-tallest mountain at a height of 4,566 meters (14,990 ft), that looms large on the landscape here. The peaks, as well as the eastern foot of Mount Meru, are encased inside the national park, providing a unique view of its sibling, as well as a hiking experience that can be enjoyed independently as well.

Dealing first with the wooded savannah where buffalos and giraffes often roam, the slopes of Meru itself involve initial forestage firing with red-hot pokers and dripping Spanish moss, eventually extending to the healthy upland heathage dotted with giant lobelias. "Eternal flowers cling to the alpine desert as klipspringers’ light-hoofed tracks indicate the passage of the hike. Majestic and unveiled, Kilimanjaro towers above and blushes in the rising sun as it per