MT.KENYA A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: PART 1

WE made it to the top!!! That was like music to my ears...buuuut , lets go back in time a little. What top are we talking about? Every once in a while, a person challenges themselves to achieve impossible goals or so it seems. Mine was to climb Mount Kenya. I had stared at it all my life, I had dreams about it, fantasized about it, and then one day , i got the offer of a century. Lets put it this way, it was no longer going to be the history of the Mountain but about me making history on that mountain.

its the second highest point on the African continent and is easily accessible from my home location , Nyeri. Point Lenana , at 4,890 is described as "trekable" I'd practiced for months, walking long distances , up and down the hillsides in the surrounding , building up my strength, both mental and physical. I was sure that the mountain had never seen someone like me. I felt fit , i was gonna do this. Besides i was doing this for a good cause. I would be playing my part in contributing to the welfare of the children at Metropolitan.

The morning of the climb all courage left me. It opened a little tap at the bottom of my feet and left. I was asking myself impossible questions like , do i know my fellow climbers, am i going to fit into the group, will i like them, will they like me, do i have enough strength not to drag the team down? Fear....Gosh

Fast forward...luckily we had this awesome co-coordinator. The moment we got into the vehicle to drive to the Narumoro gate, it felt like we knew each other from centuries ago. We made friends , we made comrades , we made companions. I can do this i whispered to the wind. I can do this.

It had rained and therefore where we were supposed to be driven we walked. The first leg of the climb and i was lugging behind. Geez , id never known i'd feel heavy. The rest of the crew made walking look easy. But we made it all right. I was feeling up beat like a real climber. So this was the famous Met station. The sign was reading 10km to Mackinders. Easy peazy...i tell you i will never think like this again in my life.

The next task was to climb up to Mackinders. It looked like we could do it , no problem, but we were climbing up and i am not used to up. There was a light drizzle and i had fallen behind. The good thing is that somehow i had myself a partner in the crime of slow. We were gonna do this. The forest was nothing short of something I've read in a book , probably about magic and it was on a flying carpet. I did not think passing trees and pulling myself through that route could take the breath out of me like this. I have never liked being last , but last i was. I love our guide. He even had a nice biblical name , Steve. he never left. After exiting the forest and severally wanting to turn back, we finally got a rest. A rest and a small something to eat because climbing mountains is bound to reduce your stomach size.

Next, we were entered the moorland. Gosh...Woiiiiiiiii.. The rest of the crowd dissapeared out of sight
Me and my friend kept going. I've heard it said that you conquer the mountain, instead , honestly the thing conquers you. At some point it had stopped being my friendly neighborhood mountain. It had become the one thing that could remake me in various angles. My energy deserted and i started to really hate my bag and everything else i was carrying including my clothes. Soooo heavy....Every foot step felt like a burden and every stone became a hill. Lifting one foot in front of another was becoming a living day mare.

Yet we climbed. Climb we did. This up business could be really be tiring. Finally we met with the other half of the group and for about an hour we rested. That felt like a piece of heaven. I think when they say 10km they are telling you in a nice way, ten thousand!!! Haiya all this walking and we are not yet there. You know there is the temptation always to eat like a pig. Bad idea. The extra weight is so not worth it. I think this mountain needs more water than they let you know on all the tourist sites. Drink like your life depends on it because it literally does. Water here means life. It means oxygen because , that is the little secret that keeps mountain sickness at bay.

So we are past the break . The other people again who are light footed are way out there, i can picture them being like little mountain goats skipping all over the place happily and i must be the hulk with all this weight, my very own body being to blame on weighty issues. I was literally dragging my feet and i felt like crying for my mother every other two minutes. At Lunch point , which we reached 3 hours late, our guide actually suggested that we could go back down. That people quit here, that it is okay. I was like ...ohhhhhhh meeeeeee.....priiiiiiss ....Never!!!!. I suppose he was very dissapointed at my no , though he was smiling loudly.

Up we pulled our bodies, up and up , the higher we went, the rainier , wetter and colder and more emotional. This in my opinion was more of a spiritual journey than a physical one. I was not conquering my physical inabilities, i was  conquering my inner limitations. It reminded me of this one time somewhere in America when i climbed a zip line and i decided not to quit. I am scared of high places and all things wood, but i never turned back...so why should i quit at home, So we kept on. The three of us making the best team i have ever seen in the world. We tried different methods of walking , sometimes almost crawling, and now darkness was coming in.......