Mt.Kenya

Mount Kenya!!
Africas 2. highest and according to experts most beautifull mountain!

First part of the hike goes through dense bamboo forest. A very strange walk wich reminded me of the chinese movie "house of flying daggers"
A the first campsite monkeys hung out with us in the day time and our sleep was disrupted by grazing buffalos.
The buffalo is regarded as one of the most dangerous animals in Africa as it is almost as unpredictable as the hippos and apparently gets really vendictive and can bear a grudge for several days.
We first saw a youg male grazing at some distance from the camp, later when it was dark our dinner was disrupted by a big female traversing right between our tents, as these huge beast can be quite curious and at the same time are utterly unpredictable we all moved closer to the lights and talked in hushed voices. As we went to bed we could hear them chewing in the thicket. At some point during the night i had to get up to pee (altitude makes u pee all the time) I exited my tiny little tent with my headlamp on, decided to stay very close to the tent but risked looking around in the dark with my tiny torch. The whole camp was sorrounded by huge grazing beasts! suddely all I culd hear was their munching, snorting and puffing, I stood very still finished my business turned off my light and just stood in the dark for a moment listening to these huge animals going on with their grazing.. Finaly i snug back into my tant and actually managed to sleep.

Cheeky monkeys hanging out by the tap.
these cute little fellas obviously lived close by and came by ever so often to check out our rubish og bags and have a sip from the tap.

flora and fauna in the mist, The landscape of the mountain changed every few hundret meters, from ghostly semiforest to openplains, most of the first day we hiked od a vertical bog, in the wet areas uit felt like walking on a sponge and we all tried to step exactely where Christopher did.
During our days on the mountain we saw tracks from elephant, hyena, jaguar some antilope and off cause buffalo.

The first peek to the peak! We are heading to the little knoll on the right.. actually its some 60m. lower than the wery top, but going to the actual peak requires mountainclimbing equipment and expirience..

The Group rests

Our porters overtaking us in full speed. most of them climbed the mountain several times a week and Christoper our guide was no longer able to count how many times he had been on the top.. All climed that this was the best job they had ever had, most of them never did anything else..

The happy hiker!

even cheekier critters posing for the photographer before attempting to steal our food.

More on these later..

Our basecamp "Naro Moru river lodge" at 4300 meters.

campsite and lodge, I chose to sleep inside as I was very cold the first night.

half an hour before this pic was taken I was completely unable to move due to altitude sicnes.
Basically I got out of bed too fast..
I had on purpose not been drinking much the evening before so that i might be lucky not to have to get up (in minus 10 degrees) to pee.. So when i woke up in the morning I figured that Id better gulp down a liter of water.. i then had to pee off cause. Jumped out of bed ran out peed and got seriously ill.. Nausea, banging headacke, vomiting. Felt like the worst Tequilahangowers I ever had multiplied by 5.
I went straight back to bed and curled up in featal position and whimpered.. untill some 10 min. later when the rest of the gang came to tell me that we were going to climp the peak in half an hour "are u ready?" I never felt so NOT ready in my whole life.
I managed to get up and joined the others for breakfeast, had one piece of pineapple and went straight out and threw up again. Needles to say I did not feel like climbing a mountain.
But then our guide Christopher took charge. He looked me straight in the face and asked me if I wanted to come. when I said yes he started pouring me black tea, no milk only a lot of sugar and a little lime. after 4 cups i started to feel like standing up. I was given 10min. to pack and get ready and off we went!

The original plan had been to stay at Naro Moru lodge for a full day acclimatizing and climbing the final peak from 3 am in the morning to catch the sunset on the top, but a nightly snowstorm and the promise of another one the following night promted us to push on straight away despite my sorry condition.

Our trusted guide Christopher, with his trusted umbrella.

Lisje in the snow

At the austrian hut the clouds liftet once more to show us point Lennana and allow us to rest a bit in the sun.

The clouds opening to reveal a look down on other clouds. The wievs were truely fantastic and the weather changed from minute to minute. Bright sunshine and wonderfull wievs one moment and fog , snow and rain the nxt.

Looking down on Mountain lakes

The happy climbers at point Lennana, we didnt stay long at the peak as it was quite cold and ione of the girls got altitude sick right at the top.. good thing about altitude sickness is that it gets better by the meter as u go down.

The hike down was done at almost running pace, it rained all the way down and everybody was eager to get down!

OOh yes the Quizz!!
The critters (not the monkeys) seems to be perfect for a quizz!
These little cuties were quite tame and seemed to be waiting to be fotografed.
first question! what are their name! (Liesje, who is e vet and does strange things to animals, hit one of them with a stick as it was stealing her candy and it loudly uttered a sound wich clearly sounded like their actual name!

second Qestion! to which large animal are they related?
Hint: Christophers trusted umbrella was brought along partly to scare of these animals and was acording to him most effective as lonfg as the wind is in your face..

correct answers will be rewarded somehow in Kenyan style!

So what have I learned about mountain hiking?
1 go slow very very slow
2 take time to acclimatize
3 bring loads of varm clothes and a good sleeping bag
4 eat plenty and lots of sugar and salt
5 drink even more! sugar and salt water tastes like.. well salt water but is very very good for u!
6 Bring proper footwear and extra shoes to use in the lodge
7 always trust ur guide
8 rain gear and sunprotection is a must

Did i enjoy it?
Ohh yes every moment (almost) was great!

Will I do it again?
No.. some other mountain maybe. Killimanjaro is still waiting in the mist!

Why did it take me so long to get this post up?
I was actually sick for almost 3 weeks after this climb. Some stomach infection. havent really found out what it was but i am fine now.

Last week we had a kyoto protocol top meeting here in Nairobi! more on that in nxt blog!

over and out for now Oh and congratulations to Søren and Christina and Mette and Kristian on their new borns! I have a new cousin! and a new.. 2.cousin(?)
:-D