One of my goals in Q3 2017 was to organize an event/activity for our team. I set this goal for myself because I know this will help me build soft skills that I want to strengthen for myself. And so the activity that I have chosen is - go hiking at the Masungi Georeserve.

• disseminated the information to our team
• got the headcount of who wanted to participated; collected their payments
• coordinated with the Masungi Reserve management
• reserved a van for our transportation, and 
• arranged a place to dine after our hike

It was one of the most stressful two months of my life (😅joke, just exaggerating a little). I single-handedly executed the tasks listed above. I had to learn some lessons the hard way, but that's okay since I believe this is the best method to learn stuff in life.

Hiking Day!
Because the location was a few hours away from the city, we had to start our journey earlier in the day. Thanks to Waze, I was able to calculate the appropriate time to depart our meetup location to be on time on our reservation slot in the reserve. We actually arrived there several minutes earlier than our schedule, so we stayed a few minutes in our van. A staff of Masungi then informed us that we can now enter the grounds and arrange the start of our trail.



Most of the surroundings of the reserve were covered with limestones. Our guide told us this is because the whole reserve was once underwater hundreds of years ago. It was so amazing to learn that.

Their comfort rooms are so beautiful. 😍

They even have potable water that has undergone natural filtration. Thanks to nature!

The whole hike lasted for around ~4 hours. There were several stops along the way wherein we spent sitting and drinking some water. All of the trails have stairs-like steps (unlike those in mountains) so it was an easy hike. Your only enemy is your endurance.


By the way, our group started at around 11AM. I was anxious that it would be hot that day because it was nearing noon (I've been checking Accuweather for weeks before this trip) but thankfully the weather was just right. It was cloudy, with a little bit of drizzle (the weather prediction was accurate! That's Accuweather indeed! 😎). In one part of the trail, we saw a snake. It was my first time to see one that close! It was tiny but long. Our guide told us it was sensitive to sound, so we have to make our steps very light and silent. We waited for the snake to crawl further from the trail before we proceeded our hike.

Our whole group happily hiking Masungi. (📷: Mark H.)

The steps along the trails are easy, but I would warn you on one thing: some parts involve climbing down (almost 90 degrees) on ropes. So if you are afraid of heights, brace yourself for this challenge!  I am confident you'll do fine as there are nets at the bottom so you won't really fall onto the rocks, if that's what you are worried about. 😅 Climbing down the ropes was my favorite part of the trail, actually.

I was the first one to climb down this rope trail. The first few seconds were frightening, but as I continuously stepped down, the fear was changed to adrenaline rush.

The infamous web. Can you spot the spider?

After several minutes, we left the reserve and headed down to a restaurant where we booked our lunch: Park, Rest, and Dine. Before our visit, we've already preordered the dishes we wanted so when we arrived there, they served our food within minutes. The owner of the restaurant was very kind and warm. I recommend you to stop by this place after your tiring hike at Masungi!

Perfect place to eat after the hike! 😋

I'm very glad things went well for this trip. We created happy memories with our colleagues. Hard work really pays off. 😂

Thank you friends for the support.
Cheers to the first group activity I've solely organized!!! 🎉🎉🎉

~o~
Masungi Georeserve | Official Site
Park, Rest & Dine | Facebook