I woke up to a gray and rainy day at the HEART Lodge -- certainly not what I had been hoping for the week.
We left by station wagon at 8 am for the town of Chogoria (about 3 hours) with Evans (guide operator) and Josephat (porter) and had lunch at the Miandas Café, where I met Zachary (climb guide) and Naftaly (cook).
It was these three men that I would come to be friends with over the next 5 days as they would serve as my climb team.
We then transferred to a vintage Range Rover for our 4x4 ride to the Chogoria Park Gate. The road we took was a red ribbon of snot-slick mud and foot deep ruts.
We rocked and rolled and bounced half way there.
We stopped as the driver announced “we had to add chains because the second half was ‘going to get rough’"…my kidneys fully agree with that understated assessment of things to come.
I think if you could package this ride and put seat belts on it that it would be a real hit at King’s Island.
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| Not your typical "Hoosier snow chains" |
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| From Chogoria to Bandas |
With about 10 kilometers to go, we unpacked and Zach and I headed out a 2.5 to 3 hour trek to Meru Mt. Kenya Bandas (Huts) where we would spend the night at 2,900 meters (9,512 feet). The rain had stopped, but there was still a heavy mist in the air which made visibility only about 500 feet or so. The first half of the walk was uphill with some flat spots of relief --- I was thinking this wasn’t going to be too bad. But the second half was a steeper uphill climb and it never broke --- I quickly changed my mind as I huffed and puffed for the next hour. Clearly, my walks in the Indiana flat land had done me no real good to prepare for this altitude.
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| Zach leading the way |
With my steps getting closer and closer together, it really gave me a lot of time to enjoy the hardwood and bamboo forests we were walking through.
Although we saw no big game, we saw plenty of signs of big game: big piles of elephant dung and water buffalo hoof prints in the mud.
As we made it to hiking cabins, I was completely drenched in sweat despite it being about 50-55 degrees.
The “huts” were rustic, but at least they had a mattress and a toilet. Dinner fixed by Naftaly over a camp stove was a homemade delight (squash soup, tilapia and mash potatoes). As I went to sleep that night, I looked forward to my last comfortable night before sleeping in tents and much colder weather as we ascended the mountain.
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| The "Huts" in the mist |
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| They discouraged us from taking "night hikes" |
