Taking advantage of an Easter holiday for the first time in 15 odd years, and the fact i didn't have any kids to take care of, I thought it would be a good time to do some serious mountain climbing and promptly drove off early up to Mount Kenya one morning. The plan was to stay 3 nights and do 4 days hiking. The plan changed.
Once i got to the entrance of the Mountain with a guide and a porter (though the porter was only carrying food as well as his own things, which i think may have been somewhat unnecessary--i'd think the guide and I could have managed that) we started up towards the mountain. It looked a very long way away. We started at 2,500m altitude and began up a tarmac road, quickly crossing the equator (as marked by a sign) and after an hour had picnic lunch. Another hour or so hiking and we reached Old Moses camp at 3,300m. It was only 2.30pm and I was not aware that we were done for the day. Not wanting to do nothing the rest of the day, I decided we'd do the start on the next 5-6 hours walk that was supposed to be the next day's task.
Once we left Old Moses camp, we were offroad and quickly above the altitude where trees grow. Now it was just heather, small bushes, and plants. Having only come across one group whilst we'd stopped for lunch, we didn't see anyone else the rest of the day. There was a great view back towards the plains around the mountain but we began making progress towards the peak. I was hoping it wouldn't take 5-6 hours. Just before the official half-way point up the mountain there was a fairly steep part which was fairly tough because of the altitude.
After the half-way mark it was only a gentle uphill walk along a river, but it was a long walk. 4 hours after leaving the camp it was getting dark so we took the torches out just as we started up another fairly steep part, and at this point, after more than 7 hours of hiking up hill, my legs were beginning to feel it. In the dark, of course, it's not possible to see where the end point is --so i was desperately hoping to see a light bulb or something in the distance where we'd stop for the night. After a false alert, which was a campsite, eventually we made it, and once i sat down in the cold hut, I immediately got cramp.
The guide went out to look for the porter who was somewhere behind us and once they came back they cooked dinner. Meanwhile others in the camp were dancing to try to keep warm. The camp had some lighting from solar panels, and was a solid building, but it was cold. Below zero. Quickly everyone was putting on lots of clothes and jumping into sleeping bags on the bunk beds. Possible because of of the altitude and partly because of the cold (the camp is at 4,300m), even though I was exhausted it took me a while to get to sleep.
We were supposed to get up at 3am to hike up to the peak for sunrise, but I was not too keen on doing that during the dark, without much sleep, and without much time for my legs to recover. So I told the guy at 3am we should leave at 7am instead. A good decision... by 7am, I was feeling better and it was light. And the path was really tough, almost 90 degrees scrambling up a cliff face for more than 2 hours at high altitude which meant going very slowly and having to stop frequently. It was hard work, it was slippery, and the peak still seemed a long way away!
After an hour we had caught up with a group that had set off at 4am trying to get the sunrise but with a large group had not made much progress. At this point there was only rock, no plants or anything can grow at this altitude. After another hour and a half we'd made it to the top of the Lenana peak, around 5,000m up. There's another peak slightly higher but it requires mountaineering equipment to scale that.
Of course the views were incredible and the feeling of accomplishment fantastic. It had taken about 10-11 hours over the previous day and that morning to get there. At the top there was even a phone signal (there was not in the valleys where much of the walking up took place). Then the long long trek down the hill, and it was really far away. The initial hour or two was very steep and fairly tricky; then there was another 6 hours or gentle descent through beautiful terrain that reminded me sometimes of the original Jurassic Park movie, with some strange plants, some large valleys and small ponds.
After a while I started to feel like I was getting blisters but eventually, after some very windy paths which were very indirectly going to the end, we made it to the next camp. It had taken about 7 hours to get all the way down and we'd been walking fairly quickly and done a fair distance. I think something like 40,000 steps each day. This camp was down at 3,000m and was not too cold. We'd arrived a day early, and since I had some things to do back in Nairobi, then got picked up from the camp the next day (the camp is on a small track) to drive back. This last camp is actually still 30km from the main road, but few people walk that, though it was downhill and fairly pretty.
I had needed the night's sleep before the 4 hour drive back to Nairobi that morning. And I needed a nice milkshake with some sugar once I was back in Nairobi. It was the highest mountain i had climbed, and probably the most walking i had done in a day, but it was enjoyable and worthwhile. The photos are great, and the memories will last a long time! Some photos are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamsphotos/albums/72157680787302861
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