Exploring Kenya

I planned to take some time off after working in Amboseli to explore a bit of Kenya. The obvious plan was to hike Mount Kenya, the second tallest peak in Africa next to Kilimanjaro. I invited a friend from South Africa to join who I hadn’t seen in over 3 years but kept in touch with regularly (we worked together at the Kalahari Meerkat Project). We tried to plan every little detail leading up to it – the transportation options from Nairobi to the trailhead of the mountain, the trek itself, food, gear, everything we could think of to be the most prepared. Little did we know just how different touring Kenya would be than what we read online.

Our original plan was to basically transect the mountain hiking up the East side and down the West. Mount Kenya is an extinct volcano that formed about 3 million years ago. Estimates suggest that the original volcano was about 7000 meters tall (bigger than Kili!) but was eroded by glaciers for thousands of years and now has the characteristic relief features of knife edge ridges, U-shaped valleys, and basins filled with glacial lakes. The glaciers that are left are shrinking rapidly and do not extend below 4600 meters. The highest peak you can trek to is Point Lenana at 4985 meters and the two highest peaks, Nelion (5188 m) and Batian (5199 m) can be reached by rock climbing routes. We wanted trek to Pt Lenana beginning in Chogoria and descend the other side via the Sirimon route. We planned to take matatus (mini buses) from Nairobi to Chogoria, then from Nanyuki back to Nairobi. This route would have crossed the equator and would have been about 70 km of hiking. We purchased a permit to enter the national park ($$$) for 5 days and planned out areas we thought would be good campsites.

Leon and I both arrived in Nairobi on February 28^th. I checked back into the same hotel, where I was called Elizabeth instead of Kelly, making me feel like an undercover adventure scientist, and swapped out the science bag for the mountain bag. The next day we wandered around Nairobi stocking up on spicy ramen, dried fruit, JetA ingredients (peanut butter, crackers, and chocolate chips), and gas to cook. We scouted out Accra Road where we had read the matatus are organized and we easily found many different mini buses heading up to Chogoria, and cheap – 1000 kenyan shillings (~$7 USD) to go nearly 200 km North! We had been warned that matatu travel was not the easiest or sometimes safest, but for a fraction of the cost of hiring a car we decided to try our luck. They were usually themed with something funky – like transformers or music artists.

The next morning we piled in to the matatu with about a dozen other people heading North. We actually sat in the front next to the driver and it sort of reminded me of the shuttles in Cape Town where I sat on the counsel since there weren’t any seats left! It was actually quite terrifying being able to see oncoming traffic as the driver swerved around boda bodas (motorbikes) and seemed to barely miss colliding with other vehicles. It was better to just look out the side window at the landscape and not be triggered to pump an imaginary brake. We actually overshot Chogoria after we assumed the driver would just stop and we didn’t have to tell him, but we blew through the city and hopped off the bus just a little north of town. There we flagged down a couple of boda bodas, each hopped on the back of one with our big backpacks, and asked to be dropped off at the national park entrance. The drivers rode fast on the pavement and I was even a bit concerned about falling off backwards with my heavy bag. But once we hit the dirt road into the park our velocity slowed as they navigated the bikes up and down steep hills, over bridges, and through ruts from a seemingly recent rain. We passed a lot of farms, specifically tea farms, and noticed more livestock as we entered greener landscapes outside of town.

We got dropped off at the national park gate and were faced with our first challenge… we were not allowed inside the park for more than a day without a guide. Rondo, the park ranger, claimed that we must have a guide to enter the park. Everything I had read online said that as long as you weren’t alone, you could enter the park. I tried explaining our experience, that we were on a budget, we would even like sign something to say we were liable for our safety, but he wouldn’t budge. Leon later told me he was happy he wasn’t Rondo with how persistent I was, even calling other entrances of the park to ensure this really was required. Eventually I gave up and we agreed to hire a guide, and of course Rondo had a friend who could take us in. Gitonga would walk with us to the summit of Pt Lenana, and he would tell us where we could camp. I do understand the danger of the wildlife at the lower parts of the mountain, encountering an African buffalo would be pretty scary. But he also insisted it was a technical hike, and that proved to not be the case as it was basically a walking trail the entire way. Gitonga was great though and was available to start walking with us the next morning.

We set up camp right there at the ranger station and indulged in our first spicy ramen dinner. For the rest of the evening Rondo was chatty with Leon and not so much with me, which was understandable given our rocky first impressions. We were surrounded by forest and took some walks just outside of the park looking for birds and cool new plants. I was so curious what it would look like higher and when we would see the summit of the mountain. The entrance of the park was actually about 20ish kilometers from the trailhead. We could walk it, but Gitonga recommended we hire boda bodas to take us up there. We hired two drivers with their bikes to arrive at 6 AM the next morning and take Leon, Gitonga, and I (plus our packs) up to the trailhead. This meant the two of us on a bike with a driver and Gitonga and our packs on the other bike. I was skeptical at first but sure enough everyone and everything fit. Leon and I swapped out of the middle about halfway as it was some serious hip stretching to be jammed in between two other people riding on a bumpy road. The road was somewhat decent most of the way, but at one point we hit some mud and the bike slipped a bit under us so we had to hop off. James, our driver, had graduated college with a chemistry degree but couldn’t find a job so he was making ends meet by being a driver. Leon later helped him set up a facebook business page for offering the boda ride from Chogoria to the park, since there was also a hotel up there that people are brought to.

We arrived at the trailhead, and second park checkpoint, around 7:30 AM. The ranger here counted the number of plastic bags we were carrying and noted it, we assumed to check us on the way out that none were left on the mountain. The three of us began our walk through the first valley before starting to ascend. We weaved around elephant dung piles and kept our eyes peeled for wildlife. We saw some waterbuck, but otherwise just the prints in the dirt from other animals.

Gradually we climbed up a gentle slope, out of the forest and into shrubs, then into chaparral. We would not be doing the route we had planned, instead deviating a bit farther North to camp at Lake Ellis. We also would not be doing as many kilometers a day that I had hoped for, Gitonga had a route he guided and that was that. I tried not to be too bummed and since we stopped each day around 1 PM, Leon and I would explore around the campsite. I think Gitonga also focused on helping us acclimatize, so he had these altitudes in mind for us to sleep. Leon came straight from sea level (Cape Town) and it’s not like Germany is very high, so this was probably for the best anyway.

The lake was beautiful and we were beginning to spot giant groundsel (left pic), a plant that is endemic to high altitudes in the Afrotropics. We also saw Lobelia telekii (right pic), super tall fluffy looking plants – some were as tall as me! From our campsite we could see the summit in the distance. The stars were absolutely amazing at night, it felt like you could reach up and touch them they were so clear and bright. We were around 3400 meters high at this point and could tell our hearts were working a little harder.

The next morning we broke camp and started walking around 7 AM. We dropped a bit of elevation crossing a valley, then climbed steadily up another 1000 meters. Our goal could either be Lake Michelson, or Camp Mintos – we chose Mintos because it was actually part of the route we originally wanted to do. We were in full sun all morning as we were now above tree line, and we took quite a few breaks to catch our breath as the oxygen decreased. There was a fun scrambly bit before we topped out at Camp Mintos, which overlooks Lake Michelson. We set up the tent and hid from the sun most of the afternoon, I was super sunburnt at this point despite reapplying sunscreen constantly. In the evening we walked along a massive cliff overlooking the lake. The landscape was unlike anything I had ever seen. And now we also had a clear view of the summit, just another 1000 meters above us.

It got really cold that night being so high, and we had a 4:30 AM alpine start time to get to the summit the next morning. The plan changed again and we would not be able to continue down the opposite side of the mountain, Gitonga would take us back the way we came after we summitted. Therefore we left camp set up since we would sleep there another night and just brought a daypack up with us the next morning. There was ice on the trail as we navigated by headlamp across another valley of groundsel, which looked sort of eery in the dark. The trail then climbed up the loose gravel side of the eroded slope. The last 500 meters were slow, as Gitonga led and kept us at a consistent but easy pace to keep breathing. The last bit was almost via ferrate style with a bolted ladder to Point Lenana. Leon didn’t realize we summitted what we wanted to (since the plan kept changing) and I found this hysterical since we literally posed smiling next to a sign that told us we summitted – perhaps the altitude did get to his head a little bit.

We hung out on the summit despite an icy wind. It was pretty incredible to be so high and to be able to see so far out as the mountain sprawled in every direction below. We saw what was left of the glacier, a small dirty chunk of ice. I tried to imagine what it maybe looked even just 20 years ago. We could see some climbers going up Batian, Gitonga told us that also required a guide and a much pricier one. Eventually, some storm clouds started to roll in telling us our summit time was coming to an end. We scampered back down, much easier descending and gaining oxygen! As we returned to camp it began to rain and we later found out this would inhibit the parties coming up after us on a successful summit – so we got pretty lucky with our timing and weather window.

The next morning we got an early start to head back down the mountain before the second wave of rain. I hiked covered with a combination of a buff, sunglasses, and a scarf and my face was now swollen it was so burnt. We descended all that we climbed over the first two days and eventually made camp in the first valley with all the elephant poop. After setting up camp, we walked another couple of kilometers to the hotel to enjoy a cold Tusker – Kenya beer! We hopped on the wifi and coordinated for James to come up with the boda boda and pick us up the next morning. We had some extra ramen to share with Gitonga and we couldn’t quite tell if he was a big fan of the level of spice.

That night, around 3 AM, I was woken up by the most horrifying sound I’ve ever heard in the forest. It sounded like a huge creature was a few meters above the tent weighing down a branch that made it creak, then the animal would scream in intervals that started out at a high pitch and then get lower. Then another creature of the night would answer it from maybe a few hundred meters away. Somehow Leon slept through this. Was it a bird? A monkey? My mind raced as I tried to imagine what this animal looked like and if it I should be nervous. We later figured out what it was after weeks of googling scary screaming animal sounds in Mt Kenya forest, if you’re curious ask me 😉

We met up with our boda bodas at the park gate at 10:30 AM. The ranger never recounted our plastic bags, and we were sad to see quite a bit of trash around the camps on the mountain. I dodged the middle space on the boda boda this time and we cruised our way down past the ranger station with Rondo and into town. We stopped at an ATM to pay the boda boda drivers and Gitonga, then asked James about a cheap hotel in town where we could get a shower and a good sleep. He dropped us off at a really lovely little hotel, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves as we sipped beer in the garden and recounted memories from the mountain. We had fish fingers and fries for lunch, a tasty alternative to ramen, and got some lotion to patch my face back together.

The next day we caught a matatu to go back to Nairobi, this time sitting in the back so we couldn’t see the near crashes. It felt like a faster trip back to Nairobi as we sipped on juice made from sugarcane and ginger. From Accra road we took a taxi back to the hotel and checked back in feeling very dirty and out of place as a wedding party was arriving.

We also were interested in checking out the coast of Kenya for a couple days. Leon organized taking a 6 hour train ride from Nairobi to Mombasa and found a beachside airbnb to relax. On the train ride to the coast we could see elephants out the window and actually passed part of Amboseli with Kilimanjaro towering in Tanzania. We were greeted with 42 degree celsius heat stepping off the train, now with both the science bag and mountain bag since we would not be returning to the same hotel in Nairobi. We spent the next 2 days strolling the beach and walking way out into the warm ocean during low tide. We saw starfish, urchins, and crabs and enjoyed beers in cabanas along the beach. We accidentally crashed another wedding as the house next to the airbnb was hosting a beach wedding and we had to scamper across to get back. The ocean was actually so warm we didn’t swim to cool off, it felt like bath water! We were brought some freshly caught fish for dinner and went out to the beach again at night to watch the crabs hunt. It was polar opposite to our adventure on the mountain and a perfect way to end our trip.

We took the train back to Nairobi where I needed to prepare some samples on dry ice to fly back with to Germany. Leon and I parted ways but my flight home ended up being delayed due to strikes within Germany, I didn’t really mind. Eventually I got myself and the baboon samples back into Germany. Since then it’s been a lot of work in the lab and gearing up for the next field season. I work in South Africa from mid June to mid July, then Amboseli again mid July to end of August – with a planned little vacation driving the Garden Coast and Wild Coast in South Africa in between 🙂

I did have a European adventure (with another friend from the Kalahari!) skiing a peak in the Swiss Alps. I hadn’t been on skis in maybe 4 years or so, and I was definitely more graceful skinning up than skiing down, but it was a blast and something I hope to do more of while I’m here. Borders in Europe are crazy too – we drove through 4 countries without getting stopped including a detour to Italy for a cappuccino and a pizza before returning to Germany… so different than the process in South America!

Also a quick update on the eDNA project I was working on in Chile – my colleague retrieved the last camera that we were unable to retrieve when there and she will send me my water samples to process in Germany! This sampling site was full of dogs so I am hoping to have detected some of their DNA in my samples!

A good song to plan/get psyched for a trip here 🙂