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I was lucky enough to get a few extra days off over the Christmas / New Year holidays and so was able to get away for a solid two weeks - a very much needed break!! A friend came down from Germany and we headed immediately for Mount Kenya as soon as she landed. We had a 6-day trek planned and we were full of energy and excitement to get going. The drive to the base was fairly long and by the time we arrived it was the afternoon. We had only 9km to reach 3340m on the first day. We arrived at the camp, had something to eat, did some yoga to stretch our muscles and went to sleep. It was a lot colder than we had anticipated especially for the first day but were told that the next two huts were more protected and not any colder. Good news but wrong news.

Early the next morning we set out, especially wanting to get a head start on the big group that was also on the same route as us. It was a long slog that day getting up to 4236m. The scenery was amazing and changed quite a bit. The last few hours were a bit miserable with the weather alternating between rain, hail and snow. By the time we got to the camp that day we were freezing, soaked, totally miserable, and wondering why the hell we decided to put ourselves through this. We held cups of tea in our hands not to drink but to try to get warm – to no avail. I didn’t close the lid of my water bottle tightly enough and emptied about a liter of water in my day pack soaking everything in there including my camera :(

That night we basked in our suffering feeling entirely sorry for ourselves but the scenery the next morning was incredible. It had snowed overnight and the craggy mountain peaks around us had a light dusting of white. While some people summit from here we were to take another route and circumnavigate the peaks. We went up the mountain. And down the mountain. And up. And down. Another long day but the scenery was again amazing. The altitude was definitely taking its toll and moving a more than a snail’s pace was a challenge especially on the scree slopes.

We made camp that night at the best hut of the trip and met a few interesting people. It was Christmas day and we had a small little party with German Christmas cake and rum. And tea. Always tea. That night we tried to get to sleep early as we had to be up at 1am in order to summit for sunrise.

The next day was probably the hardest day of my life and there were a few times I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I was so sick (and had been for the previous 30 hours or so) and since I had no appetite I was extremely low in energy. Good thing it was pitch black out otherwise if I could have seen where I needed to go I might not have even attempted to climb the snow covered scree slope that led to the summit.

After a few hours the sky started to lighten and we arrived at Austrian Hut for sunrise. In front of us was a white tablecloth of clouds and rising up from the other side, the sun, deep orange and larger than usual. It was extraordinarily beautiful.

The next challenge was to climb (and I mean climb) to the summit of Point Lenana (4895m)– the only summit which can be reached by non-technical climbers. Thankfully my friend had lent me her trekking poles as I probably would have fallen off the cliff without them. We finally arrived at the peak and enjoyed it for a while. Actually, my friend enjoyed it, I was just to sick to do anything but feel miserable and half-dead.

After some time we descended down down down. At the peak we could see waaay off in the distance the hut we left from some 5-6 hours before and in the other direction we could see the hut waaaaay off in the distance where we would arrive some 5-6 hours later. The scenery on the way down was, again, fantastic. And there was even enough snow on the ground for my friend to slide down on her butt. If I had snow pants on too I would have done the same – it looked like fun!

After a long long struggle I finally arrived at the hut around lunch time feeling even sicker than before and just wanting to sleep, so I did.

The next day was our last real day on the mountain and although I had been feeling so bad I was sad to see the trip coming to an end. We started the day in a thick fog tramping through an ice bog (very cool!), but the end of the day we were in full hot sun walking down soft green valleys and hills that were very Scottish (or so my friend tells me). The more we descended the more our spirits lifted and the more we were amazed at what we had just accomplished.

That night we camped in the same place as a group of French trekkers and ended up drinking beer and playing some drinking games (caps and then a dice game). The big night of drinking amounted to two beers each. We were all tired.

The following day we walked through a bamboo forest, were picked up by a 4x4, brought to town and picked up from there and brought back to Nairobi. We prepared ourselves and our bags and headed downtown to catch a bus to Mombasa on the coast.

We made our way down the coast near the border with Tanzania to a place called Mwazaro Beach near Shimoni. This place was built by a German doctor who had been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer and who decided to enjoy the last years of his life to their fullest. That was 12 years ago. The hotel was a combination of houses constructed with coral in the typical Swahili style and makuti huts (thatched grass huts), all of which looked out onto the Indian Ocean and faced the sunrise. We were to stay the better part of a week in one of the makuti huts.

There was also a larger tukul (round, grass-roofed structure) that had the bar and the dining room. Every day for lunch and dinner all the guests would gather at one long table to enjoy delicious food was served according to the recipes the owner had created himself. We met a few interesting people and shared good conversation, good food, good drink, and even a few good games of Jenga (again??).

My friend and I, along with a Kenyan couple also staying at the hotel, went on a boat trip out to the coral reefs for some snorkeling one day. This was only the second time I had done it and the first time was only for about 15 minutes, and I thought it was amazing. The different kinds of fish and the colours they had were incredible. Even some of the coral glowed with a fluorescent blue colour. After the return trip we were taken to a restaurant on a nearby island for traditional Swahili food – fish, octopus, coconut rice, fruit. We visited the village and then returned to the mainland.

That night was New Year’s Eve and we had heard of a party up on Diani Beach near Mombasa – about an hour’s drive north. We managed to find somebody willing to transport us there and back so the four of us decided to go – the two Kenyans, my friend and me. We really made sure to keep the party going in the vehicle on the way there. Despite the clock changing while we stood in line to buy tickets we were in good spirits when we finally got in.

Dancing in the sand to the music of a few UK DJs; sitting on a couch on the partially lit beach; people offering camels rides along the shoreline; sound of the ocean – it was sort of surreal.

The next day was a day of total relaxation (and recovery), but the day after we went back out on the boat. This time we were going diving and for me it was my first time. This time when we were going out to the reefs we were lucky enough to encounter a pod of dolphins on the way out. We arrived at the reef and were given our instructions. After I jumped in and the instructor had released some air so I would sink I had a split second of panic as I hadn’t tried breathing through the mouthpiece before jumping in. I imagined struggling to relieve myself of the air tank and weight belt to no avail. Thankfully the panic subsided almost immediately as I found it wasn’t so hard.

I was completely enthralled with it. The way you move in the water is very similar to the way I fly in my dreams which was very cool to experience lucid. We saw so many fish (including a few of the poisonous lionfish), different kinds of coral, some kind of eel, and really weird looking sea cucumber which really just looked like a long blob. Finally we had to surface but we took the opportunity to jump right back in to join the others for snorkeling. Again on the way back we stopped on the island for lunch, but seeing as this tour was definitely more upscale than the other one, the food was even better. Crab, fish (many different ways), seaweed, polenta, cassava, etc etc. It was delicious!

The last day was spent just puttering around, reading and relaxing. We made it back to Mombasa by the afternoon, found a hotel to leave our bags at and wandered around town until we had to catch the train back to Nairobi at 7pm. There was a Shia religious festival that was going on there and so the town was flooded with men in long flowing, usually white, kanzus (long tunics) and knitted caps, and the ladies were in a style of hijab that is very different from what I see in Garissa.

At 6 that evening we made our way to the train station, collected our tickets and found our car among the many that made up the very very long train. We chugged along at a fairly slow pace for a total of 15 hours before reaching Nairobi (the bus took about 7). We read for some time, had supper in the dining car, and went to sleep. The next morning we spent most of the time looking out the window and saw a number of gazelles, antelope and even some buffalo and zebras. I also was fascinated by the scenery as we passed through the industrial areas of Nairobi and some slum areas – areas I wouldn’t get to see otherwise. All the children come running to wave at the train as it passes and my arm eventually got tired from waving back.

It was then back to work for me that afternoon, sunburned and windburned but no longer burned out.