'Facing Mount Kenya'

Meet Majel at Jom Kenyatta airport!! We drive out towards Naro Moru along the Nairobii-Thika superhighway, past a group of galloping giraffes (this road borders the Nairobi National Park), and later, the Del Monte Fruit farm in Thika-  emergency stop for pink guava flavour.  The landscape changes and is different to anything I’ve seen before –very flat and sparse - valleys, euphorbias, the odd house --  the Aberdare National Park stretching away to our left and Mt Kenya to the right (swathed in cloud today which hanging weirdly – you know there’s something BIG behind…). In Nanyuki we pick up Cyrus, who will be our guide for the next five days.

We have lunch at the Trout Tree Restaurant – built in a magnificent old fig tree – a mass of pulleys, ropes and step ladders, with beautiful wooden tree stumps, and bar taps screwed into the trunk (- all the brainchild of a Canadian Mzungo, apparently.). The garden below is a lush jungle of banana leaves, amazing trees and lilies – and beyond lie the trout pools which are home to over 80 000 rainbow trout. Fish man fishes us out two into a bucket – crunch time is a knock on the head and then straight in with a knife. All systems are go, and in five minutes unfortunates 1&2 appear chargrilled on wooden plates with butter and lime – wow! We also have smoked trout, smoked over sawdust made from ‘merry oak’ from the woods of Mt Kenya National Park. Bonus feature, a colony of beautiful Colobus monkeys have decided to settle here – black helmet of fur, comedy nose and moustache, and very beautiful and expansive plumed white tails (help them to ‘fly’ between trees…).

Onwards, to the Blueline Hotel – I wear a jumper, for the first time since I arrive in Kenya, and there are no mosquitoes!! Many species of amazing succulents, and a family of busy weaver birds in the peppercorn tree). Cyrus briefs us for the expedition, and Ann (goalie for Black Cat girls, climbing with us) arrives from Embu.

Mountain Morning 1, and the summit is clear. What an incredible profile. Our team of porters – Daniel, Patrick and Kamiro arrive and we fill the van with supplies, it’s all so exciting!! First stop, though, is the Equator at Nanyuki (6398 feet) – there is a queue of American Mzungos waiting to have their picture snapped, and some overfriendly ‘curio’ shop owners (at least, until you convince them you ain’t buying). Equatorial water demonstration (water turns clockwise 20m North of the line, and anti-clockwise South – yes, it’s true!) – flows straight down over the line itself. On into Mt Kenya National Park, to the Sirimon Gate where we will begin our trek. Kamiro (58) the cook seems to be famous among the well-initiated here – he reminds me of a very sprightly tortoise and has an amazing face (no teeth though –  sugar cane causes him difficulties). He, Daniel and Patrick load a seemingly impossible amount of gear and food into their own bags, and our large ones, and tie them together with string (all we carry is daysacks, hardly seems fair…) – the loads are SO heavy and they are bent double.  Cyrus carries the box of eggs tenderly. All are wearing trainers, and Daniel has on a pair of pin-striped trousers.

 Three hours of walking takes us to ‘Old Moses’ Camp 1 – we pass through the start of the ‘Afro-Montane’ habitat, complete with baboons and black eagles, fresh buffalo and elephant tracks, and an ever-changing forest of red cedars, African olives, Bamboo, Rosewood, old man’s beard and junipers. Keeping eyes peeled for the elusive Mountain Bongo. Happily we miss most of the rain, but it is certainly cold enough up here, about 5 degrees. Kamiro pumps up the kerosin stove in the dark kitchen,  and we have hot chai and popcorn. There are mysterious hunks of meat hanging up on nails (cold enough here to keep well) – this is for the porters, apparently – Kamiro cooks us tilapia and roast potatoes (goodness knows how!), and there are passion fruits and tomato fruits for pudding… The weather closes in and it really is cold! -many more bowls of chai are consumed, and we have hot water in our bottles for sleeping with (along with precious camera battery – to preserve life)

Mountain Morning 2: hot pancakes at 6am – today we climb to Shipton Camp. The weather is clear again and you can count the snow-capped peaks, all 50 of them... Kikuyus believe that their god ‘Ngai’ lives on the summit, and build all their houses facing it (they are buried too with their head towards it– all described in Jomo Kenyatta’s autiobiography ‘Facing Mt Kenya’…) We climb in the early sun past the summit of Tabletop Moutain to our left and out of the scrubland (badly damaged here by poachers in a fire which ravaged this side of the mountain) - mountain chatts warble, and I’m still hoping for an elephant, or at least a hyena… Slowly the cloud passes below us and the sky is BLUE! Banana skins are lobed over shoulder to feed the rock hyraxes (like very large, hopping guinea-pigs – ever so stupid, with a tendency to stop and twitch nervously in the middle of the path). Also many mountain mice, and incredible birds – my favorite is the turquoise blue-black sunbird – they have hooked beaks for nectar. The landscape becomes increasingly bizarre – giant lobelias, and tall and hairy giant groundsel with green-purple ostrich feathers. With the thinner air it is a hard last push to Shipton’s hut at 4200m, but we have made good time, and I am allowed to help make the porter’s ugali (and beef stew, of course!) – ‘mzungo food’ is cheese toasties, though.

We sit around the kerosin stove all afternoon for warmth (I am wearing all my clothes). Kamiro is boiling chicken - water boils here at 90 degrees - there are lots of cheeky chats who flutter around (rich pickings for them here, including the hanging hunk of beef which has travelled with us). Later we take biscuits out in search of the ‘tame’ rock hyrax, and can see our summit point,  Lenana ( the name of an old Masai chief, who had two sons, Nelion and Batian… these two highest peaks are said to resemble the black and white of an ostrich feather, hence the nickname ‘Mountain of the Ostrich’). Early bedtime with another hot water bottle - we are SO well looked after and the stove is never off (actually becoming slightly problematic - it keeps exploding with a giant plume of flame – bad for the eyebrows, but it’s nice and warming…). The porters stay up in the kitchen and we can hear them talking loudly- ‘eh, eh’ (Masai affirmative…).

Mountain Morning 3, and Majel has had an interrupted night due to our dorm mates - the mice- one felt the need to squeak in her ear…  I sleep pretty badly too, maybe it’s the thin air. 6am brings a spectacular sunrise and I go out in the freezing air to ‘make photo photo’. Kamiro is melting the oil (solidified) to make the pancakes, and we have weetabix with hot milk. I am still wearing all my clothes, and washing doesn’t really feel like an option – the water is FRESH, to say the least (even my suncream has frozen).  What an incredible blue sky!! We do a morning acclimatization walk to two turquoise lakes. During the afternoon the rain sets in and some more weary clients arrive with their group of porters – 2 of them are crying and sick from the altitude - how strange, as none of us 3 are feeling anything. Patrick renames me ‘Magicko’ – meaning tall… The other group of porters let us share their jiko (stove) for warmth, it is really very cold.

(Funny old life as a porter – slogging up and down, carrying massive loads, to arrive and spend all your time freezing and cooking all the food you have carried for your clients (it is obviously somewhat of a competition to present your offerings as elaborately as possible) - endless plates of popcorn, ‘bisquits’, hot chocolate, fruit -  while you eat plain ugali and a cut off the beef hunk, when they have gone to bed…..)

I sleep deeply until 2am, when a mouse runs across the neck of my sleeping bag… 2.30 am is chai and bisquit time (sadly the milk has run out, and the hot chocolate…) and we leave at 3 for a headtorch ascent of Lenana – so exciting!- ‘pole pole’ (‘slowly slowly’) in step behind Cyrus, crunching on the frozen ground. Our headtorch beams pick out the shadowy forms of giant lobelias, groundsel and frozen glittery succulents, and the sky is FULL of stars. We reach the scree slope and climb steadily for 2 hours,  it is very steep. Break at the snowline (feeling a little bit sick!) – still pitch black  and extremely cold, and it is just possible to make out the dark forms of Nelion and Batian high above. (Another summit group is some way below us – you can see their headtorch beams flicking around  - stupidly this makes me feel rather competitive…) From here it is just one more hour and Cyrus times our arrival perfectly as the sun breaks the horizon at 6 o’clock – WOW!! What an incredible view. A huge ridge hung in cloud curves downwards towards Naro Moru, a sea of cloud conceals the peak of Kilimanjoro behind, and Batian lies in front, with a huge horizon and the many other snow-topped peaks lit up in orange by the sun. The Kenyan flag is flying at the summit, 4895m. Flipping awesome.

It is absolutely freezing (about minus 12, plus wind chill), and poor Majel finally succumbs to the inevitable and starts throwing up – the sun has finished arriving and it’s time to leave. Quite scary seeing what we came up with our eyes closed! The perfect sunrise turns into a perfect morning, not a cloud to be seen – Cyrus hasn’t had a run of weather like this for a long time – and we arrive at Shipton by 8am, an hour ahead of schedule. I wash for the first time since Blueline, and risk removal of the thermal leggings. More hot weetabix and pancakes on offer, though Majel’s in no mood to eat (she has been sick several times since), and Ann and I feel a bit weird, too…but it is genuinely ‘warm ’in the sun, and a family of hyraxes come out to sunbathe. The other group of porters are still waiting for their group to arrive and set up a breakfast table outside, complete with masai shuka tablecloth (they think they are winning the secret competition). Make the long step back to Old Moses in the sun - life is good and the bags are light! Patrick lets me make the chapattis, this is amusing, apparently...

Last Mountain Morning - we leave for the gate leisurely  and arrive ‘pole  pole’ after 11am  - soldiers from the ‘Kenyan Wildlife Services’ (they are hunting poachers) give us a lift to the tarmac in their 4x4, where Kioni and Oti are waiting for us. Back in Blueline at  Naro Moru,  I am very sad to say goodbye to Daniel, Patrick and Kamiro and more tired than I realized. And in great need of a hot shower (this is not immediately forthcoming, TIA). PYJAMAS, soap, oh boy.