MT. KENYA...16,000 ft...I DID IT!!!

We left on Monday, April 9th at about 7 am. There were six of us on the trip. Bill and Jan Bevins are a married couple who organized the whole trip. Daylan one of my very close friends that I live with and we were also joined by a couple other friends, Simon and Megan. We loaded all our things into the Bevins’ Land Cruiser and headed for the town of Chagoria. The drive was gorgeous, and this picture is of some of the tea fields we saw along the way.

Once we got to the town we had to transfer all of our stuff from the Bevins’ Land Cruiser into a REALLY REALLY old Land Cruiser. We had to stop about four times during our three hour drive up the mountain because the vehicle kept over heating. Here is a picture of us while we were waiting for it to cool off.

Ok so I know you can hardly see anything at all but this was my first sighting of an elephant in the wild. There were actually two of them out in the field. It was really cool to see them.

Although we never got any closer to them, that we knew of, they left their tracks and traces all over our campsites. We saw big holes the dug and HUGE piles of “dung”.

The first night we stayed in the Bandas, which are these buildings that we are standing in front of. They had beds, toilets, a kitchen area, and a fireplace. It was quite nice. After eating dinner, Daylan, Megan, Simon, and I played speed Scrabble and then headed to bed. The next morning we packed up our things and began our journey up Mt. Kenya. This picture is me, Daylan, and Megan just before we began to hike. Notice how dry and happy we look!

The hike on the first day (Tuesday) was only 3 or 4 hours long and fairly gradual. It began to pour down rain part way through, and this trend continued throughout the day. When we made it to our camp, we frantically pitched our tents in the rain. Three girls trying to get dry in a 2-man tent is not as easy as it may sound. I needed some fresh air so I put on my poncho and sat out in the pouring rain drinking my chai.

After a few hours of rain and a small hike to the most amazing waterfalls and caves I have ever seen God blessed us with a few hours of beautiful warm sun shine. Our guides quickly made a fire and went searching for any possible dry wood. They helped us dry out our clothes by making stick clothes lines for us around the fire. They even held our clothes around the fire to help them dry faster. The dry weather lasted just long enough to get warm again and then we ran back to our cozy tent to hide from the rain.

The second day of our trip was also my best friend Monique Sondag’s 23rd birthday. Mo, I am so sorry that I missed your birthday and couldn’t even call you. But I wanted to make sure that you knew I was thinking about you so I made this sign for you! LOVE YOU!

We woke the next morning (Wednesday) in a damp fog and no one had really slept much at all. We ate an awesome breakfast that our wonderful cook Manaka (young man) had made for us. The hike was so beautiful. It was about 9 km but we went up about 4,000 ft in elevation, which added difficulty. Here is a picture of Daylan, Simon and I at a brief stopping point, still smiling!

This picture of Jan and Bill is also from the same day looking out onto an amazing valley and waterfall off in the distance.

After stopping for a lunch we continued our hike and it soon began to rain. It was raining pretty hard which was bad enough, when the hail started. Then after hailing for awhile the snow started. Needless to say we were quite wet, freezing and over all just miserable.
We hiked for a while in these conditions and then came to the place we would camp, called Minto’s. The only sort of building here was what Lonely Planet calls “a nasty hut”. This hut is for the guides, porters, and cooks to cook and sleep in. We were soaking wet. And cold. We stood in the hut probably for 30 minutes in our wet, cold misery, trying to figure out what we should do. There were probably about 20 people crammed in this tiny building, and eventually Daylan, Megan and I decided we would try to change into dry clothes. We created a sort of changing room, surrounded by 20 men in a dark, damp room. It wasn’t exactly the high point of the trip. Eventually it stopped snowing, and we went out and pitched our tent.
For the second day in a row God gave us a few hours of warn sunshine to dry out some of our wet clothes. We were not able to make a fire because there were no trees at this high of elevation, but we were thankful for the break in the rain. This is Simon, Daylan, Megan and I standing on a little cliff behind the lovely shack at Mintos.

That night we didn’t sleep at all. We went to bed while it was still light out because it was raining and we had nothing else to do, and also we knew we had to get up at 2:30 am to start hiking. I remember just laying in bed, feeling horrible, thinking is it time to get up yet please. And if you know me, that is a very rare thought! We began our journey at about 3:15 am because we wanted to make it to the summit right at sunrise. We started off singing Lion King songs as we walked along in our warmest possible clothes by the lights of our head lamps. The beginning wasn’t bad, but as we got higher, many of us began to feel nauseous. When our guide said we still had 2 hours left to hike, it was only will power that kept me going. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done! This picture is super blurry but it is the only one I have of our final hike to just give you a taste of the conditions we were hiking in, notice the inches of snow on the ground. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in Africa.

After three hours of one foot in front of the other we all finally made it to the top(16,000 ft)! Here is Daylan and I at the top. The peak behind us is about 1,000 feet higher but can only be done by rock climbing (no thanks)! The smiles are completely fake because we were sick, freezing cold, and completely miserable. But it was totally worth it – the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I forgot to mention what as we hiked, we watched the sunrise above the clouds. The cool part was that we were above the clouds already, so we got to see the sun rise to meet us. I have never seen such rich shades of pink and orange, and the reflection off the snow on the mountain was indescribable.

After soaking in the beauty for about five minutes and drinking some chai, which the guide had carried all the way up for us, we were ready to start descending. When we got to level ground and turned around to see the peak we had just summitted, we couldn’t believe how far away it was! I’m so glad we were hiking in the dark and had no idea how far we needed to go. The peak in the center of this picture is the peak we summitted, called Point Lenana.

The rest of this day was spent hiking all the way back to the Bandas where we started from. It was a loooonnnnggg day. We spent probably 10 or 11 hours hiking, and though it was incredibly beautiful once again, we couldn’t wait to be done. Pounding feet downhill is a lot hard on the joints after a while. Here is the four of us again just after we ate another delicious lunch.

There was elephant and buffalo poop everywhere at the Bandas, and this sign explains why. Apparently on our first night (Monday), a guy got chased by an elephant. We saw both elephants and buffalo, but we were fortunate to see them from a distance. When we finished hiking, we were able to take hot showers and sit by the fireplace in the Bandas. It was so nice to hear the rain outside and know that we would be completely dry and completely warm.

The next morning (Friday), we ate breakfast and headed for home. Here is a picture of just a few of the guides and porters that helped us make it to the top! They were really fun to have on our trip, and I learned a few new Kswahili words Twende- lets go! We fit 13 people inside this land rover on the way down the mountain! Pretty amazing. The hike was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but as I look back on it, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope you all get the opportunity to do something like this one day.
I have so many more pictures that I can’t wait to show you all in just a few weeks! See you soon!