Kenya continued: A Little Walk Up a Mountain

After dropping Bill and Rita off at the airport in Nairobi we made our way back to Jungle Junction Backpackers, a haven for overlanders, with laundry service, free wi-fi, walking distance from grocery stores and restaurants and loads of fellow travellers to swap tips and stories with. We spent a few days there adjusting to life without our travel companions, emailing, skyping friends and family and met up with Steve again and had two great meals together. Steve put us in contact with Mohammed, a trekking organiser for Mount Kenya. After a couple of calls we nervously booked ourselves to summit Point Lenana over three nights- yikes!

Getting out of Nairobi on the way to Mt Kenya proved more difficult than we had anticipated. There was a petrol shortage in Nairobi, causing horrendous five-car-wide queues leading out of the one and only petrol station that had fuel. Without much choice, we joined the queue and waited for two hours before filling up! Whilst waiting in the queue, we acted like real South Africans and gave a lecture to a driver next to us who jumped the queue :-)

We eventually made it to Nanyuki River Lodge (a rather dodgey 'lodge') our destination for the evening and were reassured by Mohammed that we were in good hands. We were given equipment to trek the mountain for free including beanies, big jackets, rain trousers, hiking boots, goose-down sleeping bags and gloves for me and mittens for Grant :-) The next day dawned, we were piled into a matatu, along with our guide and two porters/cooks and our trek began! From the very first step, i was out of breath and totally exhausted- turns out 4 months sitting in a car have not been good for the fitness levels!

The first night we slept at Old Moses Hut, 3300m. The second night at Shipton Hut, 4200m, and were woken the next morning at 3am to begin the climb to the Summit.

 

 

After 3 exhausting hours of pure uphill hiking in the snow and rain, the sun came up and we found ourselves surrounded by the most beautiful sight: snow-covered jagged, rocky peaks on top of the world! Words can't describe the splendour and majesty of those mountains! What a Creator! The summit was rather technical, something we had not anticipated- we were required to use our gloved and mittened hands (in Grants case) to scramble over snow-covered rocks and cling on to icy ledges (ok, not really, but it felt like that).

 

 

 

 

We eventually made it to the top; the altitude and exhaustion gave me the hysterics and the heights made Grant paralysed with fear (no joke). Grant: I must interject here. Although Ange's account is completely accurate, one must bear in mind that I was attempting to summit the second highest mountain in Africa wearing mittens. While they do keep your  hands very warm they are not suited to holding onto icy rocks in the attempt to keep yourself from falling down the side of a mountain. I am pleased to say I made it and in so doing have become the first man to summit Mt Kenya in mittens. Beat that Sir Edmund Hillary.  After asking our guide, Sam (no relation to Frodo's) to assist us with the descent (he'd kind of left us in the lurch on the way up), we tentatively made our way back down the jagged rocks and icy ledges. The rest of the day involved 26km of downhill (ouch) until we arrived at the Mt Kenya bandas, nice rustic huts with hot showers and a fire place! Throughout the trek we were fed so well by our cooks, we had popcorn, biscuits and tea every afternoon when we had arrived at camp, and all the meals were outstanding!

 

 

 

 

Things Ange has learnt:
1. It is possible to hike a mountain and look good- staying at the huts with us was a group of medical students from Hong Kong- the girls woke up extra early each morning to apply layers of make-up and hiked in black leggings and denim mini-skirts!! i kid you not!
2. Summiting a high mountain calls for an emotional response- hey Ross?
3. Making snow-angels is as fun as I expected!

Things Grant has learnt:
1. While it is not a new lesson for me, I now know that I am terrified of heights and this fear does not decrease the higher i get in fact it gets worse.
2. Mittens are great for taking hot things out of the oven but should be left behind when climbing a mountain.
3. Times flies like the wind and fruit flies like bananas. I have learnt to appreciate every minute we have of this trip. Time is few.