And so on to Kenya (country 27!)
I arrived in Nairobi in the evening and one day later i left to climb Mount Kenya! The first day all we did was climb to the first hut called moses camp 3300m above sea level - so we were already 3 times higher than the top of Ben Nevis.....!
The tour company I was with had one porter each and one guide for me and another for the Dutch couple I was with. We also had a cook! So it was quite a party of people and staff that we had on out trip!
The first camp was really nice and we arrived in cloud. Walking up through the foothills we saw bush buck and although we didn't see any elephants we saw plenty of evidence of them!
The second day we woke up to freezing temperatures and magnificent views of the summit and of point Lenana - the second highest point where you can trek to without ropes and technical climbing, and that's where we were headed!
The next day was fun, heading up the Sirimon route towards the Shipton hut at 4200m. The flora and fauna began to change a lot at this point and we saw a lot of mountain cabbages - see photos!
Arrival at the Shipton hut was fine (for me). Funnily enough all the people there from Holland began to feel pretty ill!
I felt right as rain and went outside and chatted to the porters and guides and went to see the rock hyraxes and generally had fun!
The next day was acclimatisation and we headed up the actual summit route until we got to the saddle above the hut. The view was breathtaking as the hut sits in a valley and we could see all around us - including 2 of the 3 glaciers on Mt Kenya.
Getting to the saddle took about one hour and still no altitude sickness for me at 4600m!
The next day was possibly the hardest physical thing I have ever done but I am so proud of myself and it was amazing to stand there on the top.
We got up at 2am and left at 3am after some tea and food. Using our torches we climbed very steeply up a very loose and slippery path to the summit. It took 3 hours to get there. I was the first person to touch the top! Myself and an Irish guy called James were the first people on the summit. I was the only Scottish person on the top that day!
Standing on the top of Point Lenana was stunning and breathtaking at 4985m or 16334 ft (approx). We could see the clouds way below us and then at 6.20am the first ray of sun broke over the curve of the earth and above the cloud line. To our left was the summit and the 3rd glacier and to our right was Kilimanjaro.
It was amazing, worth every step.
On the summit I still felt as right as rain, it had been hard work getting to the top and progress was slow at best!
The route we chose down was the Chagoria route as it had been recommended to me and it was a lovely day we had wandering down. We went pretty slowly as by then none of us had any appetite and our heads were very painful. We also had pretty bad sunburn despite all precautions taken when we started at 2am!
The last camp we stayed in was lovely as we had real beds and hot showers and log fires and buffalo wandering around outside at night!
The last day was a walk out to where we were picked up by land rover and then Matatu to Nairobi (in Kenya they are called Matatus, In Tanzania they are called dallah dallahs) and they are minibuses that came out of the ark and they are designed to fit 15 people so they squash around 30 in them and drive at breakneck place in order to get to the next village to get the first pick of the people needing transport! Its pretty scary actually. Sometimes it was worse than India - and that's saying something!
I was so glad to have climbed Mt Kenya and it was one of the things I really wanted to do on this trip.
The last blog will be the last days of my trip that I spent in or around Nairobi.
I arrived in Nairobi in the evening and one day later i left to climb Mount Kenya! The first day all we did was climb to the first hut called moses camp 3300m above sea level - so we were already 3 times higher than the top of Ben Nevis.....!
The tour company I was with had one porter each and one guide for me and another for the Dutch couple I was with. We also had a cook! So it was quite a party of people and staff that we had on out trip!
The first camp was really nice and we arrived in cloud. Walking up through the foothills we saw bush buck and although we didn't see any elephants we saw plenty of evidence of them!
The second day we woke up to freezing temperatures and magnificent views of the summit and of point Lenana - the second highest point where you can trek to without ropes and technical climbing, and that's where we were headed!
The next day was fun, heading up the Sirimon route towards the Shipton hut at 4200m. The flora and fauna began to change a lot at this point and we saw a lot of mountain cabbages - see photos!
Arrival at the Shipton hut was fine (for me). Funnily enough all the people there from Holland began to feel pretty ill!
I felt right as rain and went outside and chatted to the porters and guides and went to see the rock hyraxes and generally had fun!
The next day was acclimatisation and we headed up the actual summit route until we got to the saddle above the hut. The view was breathtaking as the hut sits in a valley and we could see all around us - including 2 of the 3 glaciers on Mt Kenya.
Getting to the saddle took about one hour and still no altitude sickness for me at 4600m!
The next day was possibly the hardest physical thing I have ever done but I am so proud of myself and it was amazing to stand there on the top.
We got up at 2am and left at 3am after some tea and food. Using our torches we climbed very steeply up a very loose and slippery path to the summit. It took 3 hours to get there. I was the first person to touch the top! Myself and an Irish guy called James were the first people on the summit. I was the only Scottish person on the top that day!
Standing on the top of Point Lenana was stunning and breathtaking at 4985m or 16334 ft (approx). We could see the clouds way below us and then at 6.20am the first ray of sun broke over the curve of the earth and above the cloud line. To our left was the summit and the 3rd glacier and to our right was Kilimanjaro.
It was amazing, worth every step.
On the summit I still felt as right as rain, it had been hard work getting to the top and progress was slow at best!
The route we chose down was the Chagoria route as it had been recommended to me and it was a lovely day we had wandering down. We went pretty slowly as by then none of us had any appetite and our heads were very painful. We also had pretty bad sunburn despite all precautions taken when we started at 2am!
The last camp we stayed in was lovely as we had real beds and hot showers and log fires and buffalo wandering around outside at night!
The last day was a walk out to where we were picked up by land rover and then Matatu to Nairobi (in Kenya they are called Matatus, In Tanzania they are called dallah dallahs) and they are minibuses that came out of the ark and they are designed to fit 15 people so they squash around 30 in them and drive at breakneck place in order to get to the next village to get the first pick of the people needing transport! Its pretty scary actually. Sometimes it was worse than India - and that's saying something!
I was so glad to have climbed Mt Kenya and it was one of the things I really wanted to do on this trip.
The last blog will be the last days of my trip that I spent in or around Nairobi.
posted by Amy | 1:53 AM
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