Rain, Fog, Snow and Rain Forest

These four characterized each day of my expedition to Mt Kenya last week. It was indeed my first official trip as Williams Travel co. Starting from the offices in Naromoru armed with all the necessary gear and equipment -(anticipating rain); we head up to sirimon gate in a caravan of 3 vehicles- [as usual the good old KRB to bail us out incase we get stuck in the mud]. In the farmland before the plantation Mt kenya reserve, we are warned that many cars are stuck up ahead . With my uncles 4x4 leading- we should give it a name....maybe {The Green Buffalo}; he tows one of the matatus through the deep mud hole.

Driving the farmlands to Sirimon Gate

 After a quick lunch and packing up; we have a welcoming message from the a KWS official - Major Karanja- " Pretty much to take precaution and respect the mountain as the hazards are real and the risks too great"

Quick introduction of the Team- William (guide), Robert (asst guide), David (cook) and a crew of 10 porters one of whom will collect the litter on the mountain. - LNT policy of Williams Travels. Then Team Promulgate introduces themselves and what they do, where they are from and why they want to climb mt kenya. i.e. Charlene(mayor), Al(The Negotiator) , John (the story teller), Jane (official photographer), Martha (photographer 2) , Meredith (team motivator) , Tony (breaks no sweat), Lukas (stripper) , and Chris(the dancer).

 DAY 1; Just rain with snippets of sun to Old moses (3300M), through Bamboo and afro alpine of Hagenia to the edge of the moorland. its a gentle climb taking 3-4 hrs and covering 12km of 650 M altitude. At the camp are people from different organizations and media people who have been to the summit of lenana to put the new constitution.

The track through the rainforest NW approach of the summit

DAY 2: After breakfast and group pic we scale through the bog to the met station  (3790m) and traverse the ridges and valleys- Ontulele and Likii into the U-shaped Mackinders valley on which after lunch at a ideal spot we trudge to the head of it. Shiptons camp is just below the peaks, but this time, its so foggy that you can only see around the camp house.

scrambling to the summit of pt Lenana.

DAY 3; Has an early rise and we start off the climb to Pt Lenana. It has been raining last night and i know this means wet ground which is good on the vertical climb to lenana as at times the sand and gravel is shelled together on cold nights. Again the fog is too much and you can barely see 5m ahead with a headlamp. At around 4 am it starts snowing and this is also good because we'll have a thin layer of snow on the ice on the steep drop from lenana to Austrian hut. With fog and snow, means no sunrise for us but nonetheless we get to be the first group to see the new constitution of Kenya on the summit- hence team promulgate!!

Frozen Flag at 4985m summit

The descent to Mackinders camp (4300m)  at the head of the Teleki valley is fun and easy compared to climb up to lenana!! After breakfast we decide to sleep for 2 hrs-AL and Meredith are already sleeping. Descending to met station was  a different trip by itself. This is the vertical bog and it has been raining for daysl. Its definitely supposed to be a challenge course as its just brutal!  Full of black mad and water, we hiked through the night and opted to just walk through it not minding the water and mud. The jungle in the afro alpine zone to met station was a mud pool; we got muddier here than we had the entire trip.