Marangu is the least difficult summit-bound path and the one that has the best facilities resulting in the route nick-named the cocacola route It is also the most popular route. The climb is very gradual and presents no great difficulty.
The forest path that leads to Mandara passes through grooves of century –old trees with parks of blue monkeys running around on either side and merging with the greenery.
It becomes a soft clay track, jumping from roots to boulders, from soggy stumps to carpets of leaves, threads its way between creepers and tree trunks, slips over wooded bridges, leaps over torrents, boldly cuts through the Forrest-but not in rainy season ,when the the rain- soaked earth becomes a horrendous skin pon, mushed up by the boots of the hikers, who slip up, one after the other, feet first and faces splattered with mud.
Suddenly, the forest clears. In the high grass, the path weaves between cracking nuts. Horombo! Shaded by the lichens clinging to the branches, the path enters into a savannah that was most likely a hunting ground for big cats before it became the realm of tourists with their little rucksacks and porters with their large ones.
