THE MOUNT KENYA TRIP










DAY 1:

The annoying ringing of my alarm woke me up at 5 am. I woke up with mixed emotions; I was excited, scared, nervous. I hurriedly prepared myself, checking that everything was in order before I left home for what was to be an experience of a lifetime. I bid my mom goodbye and we left home as soon as possible. The weather was cold and rainy; definitely not a good start of a trip. I think I was among the first to arrive at school and as my father drove off I made my way to the high school office. It did not take long for people to start trickling in and by exactly 6:20 am the buses were fully loaded with excited students all ready to tackle Mount Kenya.

It was an extremely long drive from school and despite our efforts to keep ourselves active, it was no use. After five hours, we pulled up right in front of the entrance to the mountain trail. ''We are here!'' We got out and I took a huge gulp of fresh air and just had a quick glance at the journey 'ahead.' We met with our guides and porters as we got ready for the long walk to our first camp, Old Moses Camp, nine kilometres and two hours away. After getting our things in order and knowing our porters, we started the walk. Two hours is not such a short time when you are walking through a forest with a fully loaded day back on your already tired back. By the time we reached camp, wew were tired, hungry, sweaty and just wanted to fall down. That night,we had lots of fun as we played cards and got to know each other. We were happy we ad made it that far, but we had no idea what was about to come. The journey had just began!

( As we took a break )











DAY 2:

The next day, we were woken up at 6 am! We barely slept the previous night, so that was kind of an insult to us, at least that's what some thought. We packed up our bags and made sure we were ready for the day. We then had a very filling breakfast and immediately departed. Till then, everyone was quite okay; no one even regretted their decision to avail themselves for the trip yet. Our next camp location was approximately 5 hours away, the LikiNorth Camp Site, where it was an actual camp, complete with tents and everything. Even worse, it was apparently the coldest camp ever! But we still marched on, with small breaks in between. After around six whole hours, we could see the camp site from a distance. I can swear I almost ran to the camp; I was more tired than ever. As the days progressed it seemed, the longer the hard things lasted. That night we did not have much to do other than just playing cards and talking. In fact I think that is all what we did before we went to sleep, or before we were forced to go to sleep.
( The Liki North Camp )

DAY 3:









I don't think I have to tell you what we did, mostly because the drill was the same: wake up, pack up, prepare yourself, take breakfast and start walking. This time we were heading to the Shiptons Camp, the highest camp on the mountain. We made our way up and around a hill and then went up all the way. temperatures were decreasing, guys were getting sick, others were getting fed up with the trip, me being included. One of us was not able to continue and had to turn back; lucky him! A few more hours down the rainy road, we made it to the camp. We were excited but something dawned onus. We were to summit the following day. Just the thought of that made a huge number to just give up at that stage. And to be sincere, the guide did not help at all by telling us how many unlucky guys have died trying to climb the mountain. That night I even doubted if I will be able to summit. We had to sleep early, so we did not do much that night.
( Shiptons camp Banner )

( A view of the peak from Shiptons Camp )
( When we had just arrived )

DAY 4: THE SUMMIT DAY

You might think that the drill was still the same this day. To tell you the truth, this was going to be the hardest day ever. By 2 am we were up! And if you think that is crazy we had to eat porridge and biscuits; note that we HAD TO meaning we had no choice of a sausage or a slice of toast. We only had to pack our day bags and by 2:30 am we had to start the summit. A four hour ascent up the tallest mountain in Kenya and the second tallest in Africa and up to its third highest peak of Lenana! I could swear the slope was up to a 60 degree tilt! It was hard, cold, and I mean freezing cold. I think I almost cried! But through it all, around 22 of us summitted. The feeling was awesome as we saw the beautiful horizon and views. I felt like I had done something no man has ever done ( or so I thought; I mean the guides summit on a weekly basis! ).
( A picture of Point Nelian from Lenana )

( The Horizon )
( We made it! )
So we had made it. But that was only a quarter of the day done. You remember Old Moses Camp, the very first camp; apparently we had to walk all the way to there! That was the time we wished that we had private helicopters with pilots who don't care about rules. So we got down to Shiptons, took a well deserved second breakfast and down we went all the way to the Liki North Valley, where we took our lunch in the rain ( and I'm not kidding ) and then made pur way through rain all the way to Old Moses! Talk about a long day! We were so happy! We would go home the next day and finally take a bath. We did not do much that night ( so don't expect any pictures ) and we slept like babies. What an experience it had been!

DAY 5: WE GO BACK HOME

So, we had to wake up ( obviously ) pack up and get ready to walk back to our buses, which we did. We said goodbye to our porters and guides ( to the mountain some wished it could kill itself for all it had made us go through! ). We finally took off a few minutes later and headed all the way to Sagana, where we took our lunch and then we were back on the road and after two hours we were back to school, where it all started.
Surebthe journey was tough and I most probably will never go back there, but it did teach me that however great the mountain, however hard the journey and however long it takes, with the right attitude and a lot of hard work you can accomplish quite a lot.






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