Mt. Kenya

Kristine and I decided that Mt. Kenya would be a great place to celebrate christmas. We traveled to Nanyuki, a 2-3 hours busride north of Nairobi, depending on the bus and driver. The town itself is a dirty place like many of Kenyas smaller towns.

The main street in Nanyuki with Mt. Kenya in the background

To find a company to organice a trek for us was no problem, in fact they found us the moment we stepped out of the bus. We followed mr. Johnstone of «Montana trekking & information centre» to his office.

The office of mr. Johnstone

I had brought all my mountain equipment to Kenya, partly to make my wilderness trips cheaper and partly beacause I prefer sleeping in a tent to very simple and dirty huts. Besides I have more flexibility when choosing routes. Being a norwegian and used to walking in the mountains, I asked for a deal to carry my own backpack and bring and cook all my food (something that I discovered is VERY unusual here). Kristine hired a porter. We also hired a guide, something I feel was ok, but not really neccesary with an extensive norwegian outdoor background. The price for a six days trek staying in my own tent and bringing and making my own food including transport was then 2300 NOK (Kristine payed 3300 NOK including the porter). Most of the money goes to Kenya Wildlife Service in the form of park and tenting fees.

At the park gate

The first day we met Patrick the guide and James the porter outside the office at 09:00. Then we drove from Nanyuki (1950m) to the Mt. Kenya National Park gate at Sirimon (2650m). After some paperwork taken care of by the guide we set of along a dirt road through a nice forest. There where recent traces of both elephants and buffalos, but we only saw a gazelle and lots of eagles and other bright colored birds. It took about three and a half hours to reach Old Moses camp at 3300m. Here I had to really convince James and Patric that I actually wanted to put up the tent myself! After a nice dinner (Toro from Norway) we walked to 3600 m to aclimatise. Noone else in the camp did this. A norwegian family arrived from up the mountain and only the girls had reached the top. The boys had suffered from altitude sicness.

Patrick and James

Old Moses camp

Old Moses seen from our acclimatisation trip to 3600 m

Next day we started at 08:00 for Liki North camp, a little used route that has a slightly gentler ascent rate. We walked at a easy pace and reached a high ridge with fantastic views over the plains below and the Aberdare range to the west. After reaching about 4200 m we decended into the Liki North valley between giant Lobelia and reached a fantastic camp below the peaks Terere and Sendeo. The hut where Patric and James stayed was the worst I have seen in my life, but they didn't seem to give it a thought. We celebrated christmas eve with pancakes (again Toro) and singing of Bob Marley classics like «Buffallo soldier» and «Three little birds» together with Patrick and James. Only drawback was that Patrick had forgot to tell us that there were no cell phone network in this camp, so all christmas call had to be postponed. I slept very little that night and got a little nervous as I suspected it was due to the altitude.

Porters of a big group of indian students

Liki North valley

Christmas portrait

The camp

The Liki North hut

Singing of reagge classics around the fire at christmas eve

Sunset in camp

Next morning the tent was covered in frost and our water had frozen! Christmas day we started at 08:00 again and headed straight uphill again. We climbed to 4200 m and I felt really tired this day. On the top we got cell phone coverage again and could send all our christmas sms'es. Then we descended down into the Mac Kinders valley and had the main peaks of Nelion and Batian in sight as well as point Lenana that is the peak that one can reach without climbing. I got weaker and weaker althoug we were down at 4000 m again that was the same as our sleeping altitude. I slept for half an hour beside the trail and forced myself to eat some sweet biscuits and nuts, but I just got worse. With Shiptons camp in sight I started to get a bad headache, nausea, dry cough and was quite dizzy; all the classic symptoms of altitude sicness. As I have suffered from this in the past I didn't want to take any chances and decided that I had to turn back to Old Moses camp. At this point I was quite dissapointed with Patrick, as he tried to get me to go on. I insisted on turning and he had to accept it. James who had gone in front had to return after me with the tent, but he didn't catch up with me before I was almost down at Old Moses camp. I was very tired when I reached camp and couldn't manage to eat more than a couple of spoons of «real turmat» before I fell asleep.

Christmas day, the tent was covered in frost

Looking at Batian and Nelion and Mackinders valley

Patrick and Point Lenana

Next day I slept and rested without energy to do even a small trip up the mountain. At around 15:30 Kristine and Patrick returned after being the first to reach point Lenana that day. Kristine was very happy and said Patrick had done a great job getting her to the top. The last day we returned to the park gate and was picked up by mr. Johnstone and returned to Nanyuki for PIZZA!

Rest day at Old Moses

Kristine is back from climbing Point Lenana

Even though I didn't make it to Point Lenana, it was a great trip and it was really different than the Kenya I have known until this trip. It was much like walking in Norway, but higher peaks and the plants and animals gave it a new dimension.

Important equipment: Tent: Hilleberg Allak Sleeping bag: Mammut Goose bay (extreme temp -3) This is the minimum for this mountain! Matress: thermarest 3,8 cm ¾ length Stove: primus omnifuel on kerosene Water: MSR mini works + 2 dromedary 4l water bag 1l Nalgene bottle + ½l Nalgene bottle