Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya

We were met at the airport by Kennedy, our guide to trek Mount Kenya, and his driver Joe. We drove to the small town of Naro Moru, about two and a half hours from Nairobi. We checked into a hotel on the outskirts of the town, surrounded by fields of crops. The hotel had a campsite and a poultry farm in the complex and chicken, eggs, and chips were the only items on the menu.

In the evening Kennedy came to see us because he had to return to the Masai Mara where he manages a tour company. Some people from Uganda had stolen things from the tourists in his camp and his second in charge was not able to handle the situation. However, he introduced us to Gerard who would be our guide for the five day trip

We sorted the gear we would need and the next morning we met Charles, our cook, and Boniface and John, our two porters. All the boys went to school together and belonged to the Kikuyu tribe. We only needed to carry small day bags with gear and snacks we would need while the porters carried our packs with our extra clothes and sleeping bags and then filled the packs with their own gear. Two primus cookers were attached to the outside of the packs and we set off from the Naro Moru gate of the Mount Kenya National Park.

We had stayed a night in Naro Moru to help acclimatise to the altitude as I had suffered from the altitude when we had climbed Mount Kinabalu, in Malaysia. The walk to Met Hut was 9 kms along a dirt road, and we rose from 2400 metres asl to 3049m asl and it took us 3 and 3/4 hours, which Gerard assured us was good going. Saw lots of elephant dung, antelope and buffalo spoor but didn't encounter any of the animals. There were four huts and we had one with about ten beds to ourselves. Next door was a German climber named Frank who had a hut to himself. The last hut had two English girls. The porters had separate rooms away from us and a small room for cooking beside each hut.

This Syke monkey stole a tub of chocolate powder from Frank and climbed up the trees to get into it. The porters all came to throw stones at him to get him to give it back. We had to be sure to lock our door whenever we left the hut to keep the monkeys out. Although the signs says the animals should not be fed, lots of people feed them so they can get close up photos.

In the evening these francolin birds came around to visit. We were told there were leopards, genets, and buffalo near the hut too, but only saw duiker.

Charles cooked soup, battered fish and vegetables, followed by fresh fruit for dessert and we could hardly eat it all there was so much. I couldn't sleep because of the altitude so I heard the tree hyrax calling each other in the trees outside our hut, and I heard the buffalo pulling on the grass under our window and chewing its cud. I wanted to go to the toilet but had to wait until the pulling and chewing stopped. Before going outside at night we had to check for eyes glowing in the dark. The closer the eyes together the smaller the animal we were warned.

The next morning we had a huge breakfast of eggs, pancakes and fruit and headed off about 7 am. Walked through the bamboo zone and then onto timberline forest with lots of African rosewood and giant St John's wort plants.

We had been taking diamox pills to prevent altitude sickness so we both felt fine but I had a lot of trouble getting enough air into my lungs and my diaphragm muscle hurt, similar to the stitch from overuse. Gerard kept reassuring us we were doing fine and the pace was good but I was not so sure. I felt he was trying to humour me. However, he did later tell us of clients who took 15 hours to do the climb so I felt pretty good that we had done the 10 kms in 7 and 1/2 hours, to 4300 metres asl.

Saw several colonies of rock hyrax and spotted a lot of hyena droppings on the trail but saw none. The giant forest lobelia at about 3 metres tall were like something out of a Dr Suess childrens' book. Some fluffy plants were called 'ostrich' plants and they were interesting as they started as a rosette of leaves and ended as a tall spiky fluff of leaves. There were a few clumps of gladioli and red hot pokers as well to add some bright colour to the view. Covering the ground were thousands of everlasting daisies with their paper-like flowers.

We saw a porter carrying Frank's ice climbing gear in a long narrow pack and another carrying his rock climbing gear in a similar pack and they looked so uncomfortable as the packs were taller than the porters and had no support for their backs. Other porters passed us with duffel bags which had even less support, or soft carryall where they had to loop one handle around the top of their head in order to carry the bags to the top. Our health and safety laws would never allow workers to labour under such conditions. We only hope they were generously compensated for such hard work.

At a place called Picnic Rock, Charles and the boys cooked up some noodle soup for lunch. We chatted to a couple of English girls who were taking a break at the same spot too.

Gerard carried a small solar panel to power a small light and for all the boys to recharge their cellphones.

Mackinder's Hut was made of stone blocks and it was absolutely freezing. We shared the bunk room with the two English girls who were suffering from bad headaches and felt unwell so we were grateful to have taken longer than they to get to the hut and not suffer such ill effects. Frank was in a bunk room by himself and he told us about all his climbing experiences in Europe, Sth America ( Aconcagua ) and last year when he was on Mount Kenya as well.

After an enormous dinner, we had an early night as John and Gerard decided to get up at 2.30 am to climb to Point Lenana, at 4985 metres. Once again I didn't sleep a wink but had decided not to go with them. They had to use their headlights to light the trail until the sun came up. John was thankful he couldn't see how steepthe scree slope was as he may well have turned back but was glad he didn't.

I spent the day walking around the trails near the hut and chatting about NZ to the porters and cooks left at the hut and listening to the hut warden talk about the climbers who had problems on the mountain.

John and Gerard had to detour to the north side of Point Lenana because there was an ice field on the direct route and they didn't have ice axes or crampons. They crossed the equator on their climb. The mountain was clear so they had a great view. It took them 8 and 1/2 hours and trekked about 11 kms altogether. I saw them descending through the binoculars and went to meet them in the valley.

We were joined in the evening by seven elderly Norwegians who took about 11 hours to get to the hut. One of the ladies was quite unwell. They must have paid a lot of money for their trip as they had waiters serve them food from their insulated pots and even had table cloths. They are so used to the cold weather and were well prepared with their puffy down jackets and even puffier down sleeping bags.

I had to buy a pair of track pants in Nairobi, but we were already carrying woollen hats, gloves, and thermal underwear, which had been used in Cape Town in June. Our sleeping bags managed to keep us warm even though we woke to sleet on the roof and frost on the ground in the morning.

However, once again I still didn't sleep and Charles, the cook, told me that he didn't on his first few trips to the mountain either and it was probably due to the altitude.

It took us just over four hours to get back down the mountain to Met Hut again. John caught up on some sleep at Met hut and in the evening we tried to spot the tree hyrax and catch the moles digging up the earth but didn't manage either. I thought I'd be low enough and tired enough to sleep but couldn't.

Gerard is an avid bird watcher so we spent a bit of time looking for birds and spotted this crimson chested bee catcher on the way out the next day.

We did manage to see a family of black and white Colobos monkey swinging through the trees on the way down to the park gates.

We drove back to Nairobi with Kennedy and Joe and found a room at the same hotel we stayed in last time and got ready to head to Lamu Island.