I fell asleep last night at about 9 (not much to do with no electricity), woke up at 11:30 and then pretty much tossed and turned until 4.
I don’t know if it was jet lag, the altitude, my excitement or if God just wanted me to pray through the night, but last night was indeed a terrible night of sleep – but a great night of praying.
So I got up and caught up some on my 90-Day Trust Challenge (way behind) and had a good time journaling about JVP, E91 and all sorts of other stuff.
The great thing about being up was that I was up for both moonset and sunrise on Mt. Kenya. It truly was a glorious sight to see foot hills first lit up and then the face of Mt. Kenya. First by the moon as it slid over the west horizon. Then by the sun as it rose almost simultaneously from the east. It was like a choreographed light show with perfect clockwork.
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| Mt Kenya Moonset |
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| Mt. Kenya Sunrise from Bandas |
As I stood there and looked up to Mt. Kenya, four things struck me:
- How far away the mountain is
- How tall the mountain is
- How incredibly beautiful it is
- In three days I would be climbing it!
I have to say it was just a bit intimidating when I realized I huffed and puffed to get to 9,800 feet and I still had another 6,700 feet to climb.
After breakfast, we set out for our shortest trek of the Climb, just 7.5 kilometers and about a 1200 feet rise. Zachary said it was an acclimation day and after we got to camp, we would rest and then go out for a small hike. We crossed through some open plains and wound our way through some forests. The grazing herd of water buffaloes didn’t seem that concerned with our being in their turf, but we didn’t stay around to try to make friends, either. We arrived at camp within about 4 hours amd enjoyed my traditional tea, biscuits and popcorn.
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| Tea Time |
I completely crashed for two hours in my tent (thank
God for air mattresses) and then we set out for an afternoon hike to Nithi Falls at the bottom of the Gorges Canyon.
The climb down the canyon was pretty subtle all the way to the top of the waterfall.
It was drop dead gorgeous and reminded me of Kauai.
We then decided to go to the foot of waterfall and headed down the cliff that was pretty much straight down for 60 feet or so.
It was way too much fun grabbing branches and rocks as we scaled down to the bottom.
At the bottom, it was even more impressive as the waterfall had two tiers and a huge pool.
For a split second, the thought of a cold dip to take two days of sweat and grime was tempting, but I didn’t want to starlet my guide with a white “mzungu” skinny dipping before him.
Needless to say, the climb back up wasn’t as exhilarating as our descent.
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| Nithi Falls |
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| "African Sunrise" -- Beautiful Flora of Mt. Kenya |
As we walked home, the mist and fog completely set in and it appeared we would be socked in for our first night if tent camping.
It gets dark in Kenya at 6:30 so we ate dinner with our headlamps burning by dessert.
I knew I was starting to feel the effects of both the climbing and the exercise when I went to be at 8 – all my muscles were sore and as I lay in bed my resting heart rate as 96.
That night, I decided to see if the Double A’s of altitude climbing would help – Advil and Ambien.
