School Break & Nairobi National Park

Our daughters have been on break for the past two weeks. The French system, like the Swiss system where I taught for several years, divides the school year into trimesters. There are 2-week breaks in October, February and May which serve as separators between each term. It’s a positive and a negative that the May term is separate from Easter. A negative is that our vacations don’t mesh with those of our friends whose children attend other schools. It’s often nice for the kids (and parents) to go on holiday together – particularly since siblings tend to tire of each other after a few days of life with no school.

2025 Easter eggs

 

The upside of the different schedule is that it’s much easier to book travel when you’re the only school on break. So much changes in this country during the official school breaks. Traffic in Nairobi decreases noticeably as thousands of people are not ferrying their kids to school, often sending the kids "up country" to stay with extended family. National parks and hotels on the coast experience sharp increases in bookings. It’s always worthwhile to consider this phenomenon when planning anything involving travel in Kenya.

* * *

mountain biking

This May, all of that was less of an issue for us. As the humanitarian sector has taken a huge funding hit over the past few months, thousands of jobs have disappeared. The positions that so far remain are less certain. Financial prudence is paramount for anyone in this line of work, particularly until the dust settles a bit more. So we continue to tighten our belts and try to be more careful in the weeks and months ahead.

laser tag

For the kids, this translates to a bit less excitement than they are accustomed to this time of year. I have to say, compared to some kids, our girls do quite well when they are afforded some down time. They have non-screen-related hobbies and interests that sidestep the abyss of social media. But it does take some creativity to infuse some much-needed physical activity each day. 

girls' first every cake made all by themselves (for Mothers' Day)

 

* * *

Nairobi National Park

As the past two weeks wound down, we were able to find some time to venture out to Nairobi National Park. Each time that we go, we wonder why we don’t do it more often. It’s reasonably inexpensive and the gate, in the wee hours of the morning, is about ten minutes from our door. It’s an amazing gift for residents and visitors to Nairobi.

We have our game drive routine down to a science. We’re out of bed in the dark of early morning. Coffee is brewed. Hot chocolates are prepared and thermoses are filled. Priya usually focuses on the drinks and snacks and I assemble cameras, binoculars, wildlife books, etc. The girls tend to enjoy these outings so they are pretty good at dealing with the early morning and the stagger down to the vehicle. They get more excited as we approach the park, pass through the gate and head out into the green countryside.

It's not always verdant, of course. We are in the midst of the rainy season so the vegetation was at the peak of its lushness. In fact, we had had a couple of days of heavy rains and we had some concern about the roads. Some of the minor roads in the park can become impassable, or barely passable, either because of thick mud or the deepness of the streams or both. Generally speaking, however, if you stay on the main roads you usually don’t have any problems.

* * *

At first I thought this was some kind of owl given that it had a wide head. Turned out to be a black-winged kite.

It was a beautiful morning. The sun was up by the time we were in the park. Dawn is often a good time to be on a game drive since you can sometimes catch the tail end of the night’s activity. Dusk is often good as well, but the parks close at 6pm and limit you from staying out until the sun fully sets (remember that we’re near the equator so there isn’t much variation in the timing of the setting/rising sun year-round). An exception to the rule about being in the park at night is when you are on an approved, guided night safari which I’ve done only once.

male ostrich - Masai race

I’ve mentioned before that there are positives and negatives to being on safari without a guide. The positives are that a) you can leave the driving to someone else, b) you can tap into some interesting facts about the animals, c) they know the parks better than you and there’s less guesswork when coming to forks in the road, and c) since they carry VHF radios, you can benefit from their networking regarding key animal sightings.

African spoonbill

We’ve done a lot of both, but I tend to favor being guideless. I like the freedom of being at the wheel and making my own decisions. I know some of the parks quite well by now and can navigate fine without a guide or map. As for the interesting facts, having done this for two decades now, even the kids are steeped in knowledge about the animals. It’s not that we don’t have anything to learn. You can always expand your knowledge on the animals and their behavior. But it’s not like it was twenty years ago when we were hanging on the guides’ every word.

giraffe - Masai race

The challenge is always the last point about awareness of animal sightings. That’s the one that can put you at a disadvantage compared to the vehicles with guides. We did find out, however, that there are some limitations to the information sharing. In most parks, guides tend to communicate more with other guides from their respective company or, as we experienced in Masai Mara, guides from their own tribe/language. Multilingual guides can broaden their awareness on the radios if they’ve learned to understand other tribal languages.

wattled starlings on a rhino's back

* * *

great white egret

Within fifteen minutes of entering the park, we saw our first lion. Shortly thereafter we saw our first rhinos. Nairobi National Park is a home to the highest density of black rhinos in Kenya with about 76 indigenous black rhinos and 13 white rhinos. We saw some of both.

white rhinos

As you might guess, rhinos are neither black nor white. In fact, they are not distinguishable by color. They’re all some shade of gray. “Black” rhinos are browsers, with a pointed, prehensile upper lip for grabbing leaves and twigs, while “white” rhinos are grazers, with a wide, square-shaped upper lip for feeding on grass. They also differ in size, with white rhinos generally larger and heavier. You can see that the ones in these photos are white rhinos given the shape of the upper lip.

white rhino

We were told by a friend that the rhinos in this park are doing so well that they have begun relocating some to other places. Part of their survival depends on them having enough territory of their own. As big as NNP is, there is a limit to the numbers of certain animals.

savanna baboon

We would be out for about 3-4 hours before we decided that we would head out for some food. I could spend all day hanging out in the park but we all had other things that we needed to do that afternoon. We generally go to the same restaurant not far from the gate for a late breakfast. As I said, it’s such a great way to spend a morning. Hopefully we won’t wait so long before we do it again.

Nile crocodile

Ramadan

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan finished recently. I don’t generally spend much time in Somalia during this month, partly because we have reduced work hours. We don’t have a lunch break and we allow people to return home mid-afternoon (when they are experiencing low blood sugar levels). In places like Somalia, the prohibition of drinking water is often more of a challenge than the lack of food given the heat and humidity.

A second reason that I avoid this season is that a lot of meetings are postponed until after Eid, the celebration at the close of the month. It can be difficult to get meetings with government officials so there is less incentive for me to invest in the cost of being in Mogadishu.

A third reason is that I don’t want someone to prepare food for me while they are fasting. I generally don’t eat lunch, particularly when I’m in Somalia, but I normally do eat dinner. Given the security restrictions, I can’t go out to restaurants after sunset and join in on the breaking of the fast (“iftar”). I’m always told that it’s not an issue but it makes me uncomfortable.

All this is sort of a moot point given that our organization is under a travel freeze due to funding cuts. It means I wouldn’t have been able to travel there anyway.

* * *

Ramadan is an interesting time of year. It is a time of disciplining the body as well as deliberately turning to Allah. As with any religion, you have those who take it more seriously than others. But I’m always surprised at how seriously people respect these rituals. Many Muslims will read a chapter of the Qur’an a day and so read the entire Qur’an in the month of Ramadan. I have several colleagues that even continue fasting after Ramadan is over given that this supposedly provides adherents with additional blessings.

One of my female staff was telling me recently that for her, the fasting is less of a challenge than the sleep deprivation. Evenings are generally very full with the necessary time at the mosque as well as iftar meals with friends and family. In addition to the fact that these events can go well into the night, people need to wake early to have a robust breakfast before sunrise that will enable them to make it through the day.

Generally, throughout the month the streets are less crowded during the day. By late afternoon, the roads get very busy and people walk quickly to try and get home in time to prepare for Iftar. Tempers can increase. I was in a meeting a couple weeks ago and one of my team was uncharacteristically short tempered. He lashed back at someone who was on the call and a tense exchange ensued by two people who are normally rather mild-mannered. It’s not uncommon and I know that when I have low blood sugar, I can be short-tempered as well.

When the call to prayer comes, it’s time to eat. Many break the fast with a light meal consisting of gentler foods like water, juice, yogurt, fruit, or salty foods to replenish what was lost during the day. This prepares the stomach for the main meal. They then head to the mosque before having the big meal afterwards. 

Jemaa el-Fnaa

Priya and I happened to be in Morocco in 2007 during Ramadan. We were out in the famous main square of Marrakesh (Jemaa el-Fnaa) and restaurants were almost all full. People, mostly men, patiently sat at the tables with food in front of them awaiting the call from the towering mosque nearby. The moment that the call went out signaling that the sun had set, they dove in. No gentle breaking of the fast. 

mussels in Marrakesh

* * *

Ramadan is now behind us. My team has more or less returned to normal, though normal is not what it used to be. We continue to grapple with the effects of the massive budget cuts. We brace ourselves for more cuts coming from our European donors. It’s a strange and difficult time that we are living in. I have former staff who were terminated due to the cuts that spent Ramadan without an income. It’s terribly sad. And we’re not out of the woods yet.

Idaho

The idea of traveling to the US in March came to me as early as December. At that point, I figured the chances were slim that I would eventually go. In addition to concerns about our cash flow, remote work for two weeks is not easy to schedule given obligations to attend meetings and participate in work events.

Things changed when the US president announced that he was going to take down USAID, the largest humanitarian and development donor in the world. While our program in Somalia was not heavily impacted directly, indirectly the ripple effects began almost immediately. I won’t go into detail, but one of the impacts on my job was that I would see a dramatic reduction in funds to travel to Mogadishu. From a personal standpoint, the result of spending more time with family is welcome. It also allows me to gain more time in my week without the time-consuming treks to the airport and all that the commute entails, not to mention less exposure to insecurity as the situation in the country becomes more concerning. The downside, of course, is that I get less time with my team, with government counterparts and with other international stakeholders. I am prevented from visiting projects and meeting with people that we serve. It’s frustrating and, I hope, something that will not continue for too long.

In any case, given that I would be unable to travel for work, I returned to the idea of traveling to the US. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan throughout the month of March, was an additional factor. I’ve spent time in Somalia during Ramadan but it’s not ideal given that everyone is fasting and work hours are modified (no lunch break and shorter workdays).

The third motivation for travel was that I recently noticed that my US driver’s license would be expiring within the next couple of months. Having an expired license would be problematic. And there were other reasons as well that I won’t go into.

* * *

Thus, I made the call that I would travel assuming I could find a ticket for a somewhat reasonable price. I went online and, given that it is not a busy travel period, I found a relatively cheap ticket and proceeded to lock in my dates. Though I would continue to work full-time while I was there (waking in the wee hours to overlap with East Africa time), the effort to make the trip was increasingly making sense.

The first week of March, I would be on my way. My flights would take me through Brussels, then Chicago and finally to Boise. During my layover in Brussels, I was reminded of the Belgian culinary delights. It’s possible that there are lots of people who disagree with me, but one thing that stood out during my two years living in the country was the wonderful food, some of which is on offer in the airport.

Kimberly

I landed in Boise late on a Tuesday. The next day, somewhat jet lagged, I would pick up some things at our storage and by late morning my sister and I would be off to spend a few days with my parents.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I am there, I try to tackle projects like pruning trees, yardwork, cleaning (ex. like the garage we cleaned last summer). This time of year, there was less to be done. As such, after my 2am-10am workday, I would get a workout in and then spend time with the family. We would participate in on a couple of outings where my parents like to go as a part of their routines. Though not for everyone, I do like these drives. It’s a dose of nostalgia, often taking me back to my youth and to places of significance for our family history. I would probably go crazy if I lived there, but visiting is quite enjoyable.

 

the Hagerman Valley

Boise

By Saturday morning, we would return to Boise. My sister took me straight to the airport where I would pick up a rental car and I could regain some autonomy. I took full advantage, beginning to run errands to take some pressure off the errands I would need to run later. After a couple of quick days in the city, I would head north to New Meadows.

East Boise and the foothills

New Meadows

I went to college in northern Idaho for a couple of years and I barely remember driving through the small town of New Meadows. At the time, it was just another small town along the eight-hour or so drive from my parents’ house to my campus in Lewiston. I probably stopped there on a few occasions to refuel or use the restroom (my car was notorious for breaking down on these trips but I don’t remember breaking down there. But I never would have thought that someday I would be a property owner in Meadows Valley. Though I have wanted property in the mountains since I was a kid, this area wasn’t on my radar.

Since then there has been a gradual migration of family to the area and, when I was finally in a position to consider real estate in the mountains a few years ago, this valley made more sense. It’s less expensive than some mountain areas. It’s beautiful. And when I spotted the property we would eventually buy, it seemed to be a rather logical thing to do. Though the completion of the house was not smooth sailing, in retrospect, it was a good decision.

* * *

I would stay at my sister and brother-in-law’s house in a wooded area a few miles from town only about fifteen minutes from the property that we purchased. It’s a gorgeous log home with a driveway that can be tricky to navigate in the winter. With my relatively small rental car, it wasn’t clear whether up to the task. I will say, I’ve always made it up in previous years driving front-wheel drive rental cars, so I was cautiously optimistic.  In the end, I didn’t have any problem. Admittedly, I was aided by some sand that they had poured towards the top just before I arrived.

My brother arrived not long after I did. We would settle in for the next several days hanging out, watching college basketball, eating yummy food, cutting wood, skiing, etc. I still need to deal with early bedtimes and early wake up but, given the circumstances, I was happy to be able to get it all done. 

the Intersection

Wood

One task that was on my list was to attack several slash piles on my property. The piles of wood were created about a decade ago when the previous owner cut down all the trees across the 16-acres of land and milled the wood. It left a barren landscape and piles of leftover scrap wood that are a bit of an eyesore. When talking to people from the area about where my property is, it’s not uncommon to hear, “Ah, that property with the slash piles.”

The felling of those trees was a tragic event. Some of the remaining trunks are over four feet wide. They must have been massive and majestic. The job left for me as current owner is to clean up what remains.

While I was in Boise, I picked up a new chainsaw. I already had a cordless one, hoping that my environmentally sound alternative would be powerful enough to do the job. But after taking a stab at it last summer, it was clear to me that I needed something far more robust.

After a somewhat failed attempt to attack one of the piles on Wednesday, by Friday I was there again. I was out the door relatively early, braving the sub-freezing temperatures. At first it seemed like a ludicrous thing to be doing. We had made a trail through the deep snow just to access the pile. The south side of the stack was accessible but the north side, exposed to less sun, was still covered with a thick layer of snow. Some of the logs were frozen to each other and impossible to move. But as I fired up the saw and began to have some success, I began to feel good about the decision to push on.

the piles are bigger than they look in the photo

Very quickly, it became apparent to me how massive these slash piles are. After three hours of cutting and amassing an impressive heap of cut timber, I was less than halfway through the first pile. Some have suggested I just torch the piles. Though it would be much easier, it’s environmentally problematic and wasteful. There is so much fuel in these piles that the fires would be massive, burn for a long time, and benefit no one. Having said that, it is inevitable that I will torch some of it, especially the smaller limbs. I assume that over time it will become clearer to me how much. So the plan for now is to extract a few tons of wood that I will stack behind my shed and provide more firewood than the family will ever need.

Skiing

When I set up the trip, it did cross my mind that by mid-March there still may be an opportunity to go skiing. And yes, it is one of my favorite things to do. But at a time when we are trying to save money, the idea seemed a bit self-indulgent, and I did want to get work done on our property. As it worked out, the weather would dictate where I placed my focus. Not only was snow continuing to fall and creating fantastic ski conditions, it was making my wood cutting plans more complicated. On top of that, my brother would be unable to ski due to an injury and he made his equipment available for me to use. The gods were politely encouraging me to spend some time on the powdery slopes. I accepted their invitation.

fresh powder

My sister and brother-in-law are now retired and have spent an enormous amount of time skiing this year. They offered to take me along and I joined them on Thursday and Saturday. On both days, we arrived early and made sure we were among the first to board the chairlift. The reward was untouched fields of powder.

Admittedly, deep powder is a challenging way to start given how seldom I ski. But muscle memory kicked in and before long I was carving my way down the mountain. Though I’m in pretty good shape, I did find that I need to stop from time to time to catch my breath and give my thighs a break. It’s a good workout. But the views were stunning, and it was wonderful just to be on the mountain.

The snow on Saturday was amazing, but the wind picked up by mid-morning and there were blizzard conditions on the top of the mountain. I was planning on returning to Boise in the afternoon, and the lack of visibility was making it easier for me to decide to make my exit. By late morning, we skied to the lodge. I had a quick bite to eat and then headed down the road.

Return to Boise

Once in Boise, it was time to continue running errands and wrapping things up on the trip. Work was less demanding given that it was the weekend which facilitated my ability to spend time with family, squeeze in workouts, do some shopping and make my final trip to the storage.

Overall, I can’t complain. It was a successful trip and a good time with family. Having said that, I was anxious to get back to my wife and daughters, my routines, etc. 

San Francisco on the way back to Kenya (a bit of a detour)

 

Mt. Kenya - Day 5

The plan was to get up by 6:30 and leave camp about an hour later. It didn’t really happen that way but we were on the trail a little after 8am.

The hike to the park gate was uneventful. My legs were tired and my feet were sore. We were not in a huge hurry, but we also knew we had a long drive ahead of us to get back to Nairobi at a decent time.

We took the time to observe the animal tracks on the trail. I’m not good at identifying them. But there were some that appeared to be lion tracks. Some hyena tracks. They were fresh enough to have been either during the night or earlier that morning. There are definitely lions in the area and there were recent sightings. But there isn’t much of a history of them attacking hikers in this area so we didn’t worry about it much.

We arrived at the gate with a sense of accomplishment (and fatigue). It is customary to not only tip the guide and porters, but to do so in a somewhat formalized manner. This happened after the Kili hike where they even had a little ceremony, sang, and gave us certificates. This time the porters lined up and we all had to express our gratitude for their support over the past five days. We had to announce the amount that we were giving them (which was a bit weird) and present the cash to the guide.

swollen and sun burnt hands

After twenty years in East Africa, I’m familiar with the frequent desire for/custom of ceremony. Though I grew up differently, I have learned to accommodate some of these things I’m uncomfortable with.

tips for the porters

We were delayed a bit getting on the road. It wasn’t clear what was going on but Lance said something about a tree blocking the road. Eventually, the four of us, two guides and all of our packs squeezed into a small Toyota and off we went. After about twenty minutes of bouncing down the road towards the town of Chogoria, we found what appeared to be the tree that had been blocking the road. It was cut and moved aside by this point, but the culprit appeared to have been an elephant. They are notorious for knocking down trees and this stretch of the road had tons of fresh elephant dung. Mystery solved.

After another fifteen minutes or so, we came upon the van that we used in our drive from Nairobi to Chogoria. In the interest of time, it had made its way up the hill to collect us. It also allowed the little Toyota to turn around and retrieve the porters. Unlikely that they all would have fit in the little thing but stranger things have happened.

We stopped in Chogoria on the way out and decided to have some lunch. It was fast and cheap and allowed us to avoid traveling on empty stomachs.

I made the mistake of sitting in the front seat. I have a hard time watching the road when a driver has vastly different driving instincts from my own. This guy seemed to be in no hurry and was frequently busy on his phone. Kenyans tend to be pretty aggressive drivers but this guy was everything but. It’s like he was being paid by the hour and was trying to drag this out as long as he could.

craziness in the backseat

An even worse offense was his choice in music. Most of the trip we were subjected to 80s-90s cheesy ballads including Lionel Ritchie, Luther Vandross, Celine Deon, etc. My apologies to anyone who is a fan, but I think it’s the worst era in history of music – like several hours of fingernails scraping a chalkboard. Africa, or at least East Africa, seems to have adopted these songs since you hear them everywhere. When we go to the coast, our hotel always plays this crap. I had previously thought it was because Africans think Westerners like it. I don’t know. It seemed like it was this guy’s playlist. Anyway, it’s an alternative to waterboarding.

We arrived home a little after 5pm. We dragged our dirty selves up to our apartment and began to sort through tons of dusty hiking equipment. It was indeed a successful trip, in spite of the fact that we didn’t all make it to the summit. It’s now a race to see what lasts longer – the soreness in my legs and feet or the crappy songs going through my head.  Hopefully neither last too long.

Mt. Kenya - Day 4

Tea/coffee was in the porters’ tent. Each tea/coffee time they offered popcorn and some biscuits. Kinaya had a hot chocolate and I had two cups of instant coffee. By a little after 3am, we headed out into the night. Our headlamps lit up the trail in front of us. The sky was clear and there were as many stars as I had ever seen in my life. It was mesmerizing to gaze up at such an amazing sight.

There was a group of Brits in front of us. You could see their four headlamps off in the distance, snaking up the mountain in the direction that we would be heading. The pace was slow and we made frequent stops to catch our breath in the thin high-altitude air.

After a flat to relatively gradual incline, the trail became much steeper. It was gravelly and sometimes hard to keep your feet under you. We trudged on in the dark, talking little and grinding out each step.

Eventually we made it to the ridge where we would veer to our left and slowly traverse the front of the mountain. I found this section to be more enjoyable, not only because it wasn’t as steep but because of the increasing glow of the coming sunrise.

Soon our headlamps were off and we could see more clearly, not only where we had come from, but also where we were heading. The summit still looked far away, but I was increasingly optimistic that we were going to make it.

As the sun came up over the horizon, you could slowly begin to feel some warmth. The contribution was countered by the dropping temperature as we continued to gain altitude.

The last push required some bouldering. It wasn’t overly difficult but I could imagine it might pose a challenge for someone who hadn’t done it before. A slip in this section would be costly.

The “trail” then wrapped around the peak to our right and we would reach the actual summit from the back side.

amazing to be at the top

I’ve always been thrilled by summitting mountains, large or small. This was special because I had my daughter with me. Though she looked relieved, I could tell she was cold and didn’t want to stay too long. She had accomplished what she wanted to. I was able to get her to touch the rock outcrop that was the true highest point. She tolerated a few photos and then she started making her way off the summit. Fair enough. It was very cold and there was no point in staying any longer. After she and Lance went over the side, I took one last glance around me, trying to soak it in, headed down as well.

looking for the exit

* * *

The trip down wasn’t overly eventful. Given that most of our trek up was in the dark, it was interesting to see everything in the light of day. I remembered the same phenomenon when we climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. I took lots of photos of the stunning views, all the more beautiful in the low morning sun.

heading down

The legs were fatigued but it’s always an easier task to hike knowing that you’ve tagged the summit.

the long way down - helicopter off in the distance below us (tiny black dot)

still chunks of ice in the streams as we descended

We arrived at Mintos at about 10am. We would have an hour to have a bite to eat, regroup, and then head all the way down to Roadhead where we would meet up with Priya and Kiran.   

I think it was about three and a half hours from Mintos to Roadhead, but it felt like a lot more given the six-hour summit hike we had already done. I could feel the blisters accumulating and one toenail that was in jeopardy. The worst, however, was the exposure. There is absolutely no protection from the sun the entire way. I had slathered on the sunscreen and was wearing a hat and sleeves, but, I would find out later, I missed a few places that I would pay for.

Kinaya beaming as she arrives at Roadhead after the long hike down

As we neared Roadhead, Priya and Kiran could see us coming in the distance. They had received the news that we had reached the peak that morning and they gave us a warm welcome as we entered the camp. As glad as I was to get off my feet and have the family back together, I felt bad that they weren’t able to have summitted as well. It seemed unfair after all the two of them had put into preparing for the trip.

We spent the rest of the afternoon recounting stories and having our early evening tea. We would stay there for the night and begin making our way back to the gate early the next morning.

Mt. Kenya - Day 3

I looked back at our Lake Ellis camp several times as we trudged across the rather uninteresting landscape to start the day. It was so sad to leave Kiran and Priya behind. I had to re-convince myself that we had made the right decision for Kinaya and me to carry on.

After about two hours of steep and exposed climbing, we reached an ever-elusive ridge. From here we would veer to our right and follow the ridge for another couple of kilometers. It was the first time that my ears popped, and I began to feel the shortness of breath from the altitude. It wasn’t problematic; it just meant that we were stopping more frequently to catch our breath. Lance didn’t need to stop, of course, but Kinaya and I did.

Off to the left of our ridge, there was a steep drop-off into Nithi Valley/Gorge – a beautiful valley that develops steep walls as it ascends the mountain. At the top end of the gorge is Lake Michelson, a stunning body of water surrounded by high walls of volcanic rock.

Lance pointed out the location of some airplane debris near the top of the ridge across the gorge. In fact, this ridge has a bit of a history of crashes. I had to do some reading to fill in some of the gaps of what we learned from Lance.

debris from the 1976 crash

The earliest recorded crash on this ridge was in 1976 when an Emirates Air Transport plane prematurely descended in the clouds, crashing into the ridge and killing the four passengers. Some of the debris is still visible after nearly 50 years.

Then, in 2008, a Bell Longranger helicopter carrying some travel agents was flying low over the lake when it caught a skid, flipped on its back and went into the water. Amazingly, the pilot and two passengers were able to escape the craft and swim across the icy water to safety. The one fatality was unable to escape the helicopter as it sank.

the lake where the helicopter crashed

We would end up seeing a few helicopters buzzing around the mountain during our hike, one of them swooping down very low as it passed through the gorge. It would be fun but apparently, it’s not without risk.

The third crash happened in 2013. This was a small plane (Aeroprakt A-22) containing a renowned Kenyan conservationist and a cameraman for Discovery Channel aviation show "Dangerous Flights” (hmm). Given that it’s the most recent incident, and reportedly didn’t go in the lake, it’s likely the larger of the two debris piles we saw.

* * *

Anyway, back to the hike.

As we continued up the ridge, you could feel the temperature cooling and see the foliage changing. Apparently, there are different labels given to these zones (biomes), but the ones that I’ve heard the most to describe these levels in the East African volcanos are rainforest, moorland and alpine desert. You could very much feel the transition from moorland to alpine desert. Vegetation doesn’t disappear, but it becomes more sparse and very different. One of the more prominent plants that thrives in these conditions is the giant lobelia. These weird looking plants can take many forms as they grow to maturity, which generally lasts about 70 years!

lobelia cleverly storing water

This part of the hike consisted of ups and downs but, unbeknownst to us, we had gained most of the altitude we were going to gain for the day. Given the delayed start, Lance had anticipated that we wouldn’t arrive before about 4pm. That’s actually quite late given the drill of having tea, setting up the tent and getting settled in, then dinner and then getting to bed super early in preparation for the 2am wake-up.

arriving at Mintos Camp

In the end, we arrived at Mintos Camp by around 2:30pm. Either Lance miscalculated or we moved at a quicker pace than expected. Either way, it gave us time to have tea, relax, read, etc. Kinaya and I were both walking on tired legs and resting up would be critical to try to summit the next day.

Mintos, at least for me, is a magical place. You’re by a lake surrounded by about 270 degrees of towering rocky peaks. The temperature fluctuates radically when the clouds move in front of the sun. In my opinion, the camp could be a wonderful destination in and of itself. Even if arriving at Minto’s was all we did, it would still have been an amazing trip. But yes, we had our sights set on Point Lenana.

* * *

Officially, Mt. Kenya is made up of a number of peaks. The highest point, Batian, clocks in at 5,199 m. (17,057 feet). Just next to it is Nelion at 5,188 m (17,021 ft.). To be honest, they’re sort of like the same peak. But officially, they are separate. Point Lenana is officially the third highest at 4,985 m (16,355 ft), though some, including me, see it as the second highest.

our destination - the peak left of center

Anyway, most people who say they’ve climbed Mt. Kenya have climbed Point Lenana. Batian/Nelion require gear and skills that are out of reach for most people, including me at this point in my climbing career.

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At Mintos, we had tea soon after arriving. They prepared some amazing mandazis (like square donuts). They were still hot and, without a doubt, some of the best mandazis I’ve ever had. Kinaya suggested that the setting had something to do with my impressions of our tea snack. Maybe. But it felt pretty fancy for our 4,200 m./14,000 ft. and highest camp.

After tea we did some reading and hydrating. I did some walking to loosen my muscles a bit, but I wasn’t too keen on doing anything strenuous. We had dinner around 6pm and by 7pm we were in the tent. One suggestion prior to the trip was that we bring hot water bottles to be filled each night. I have to admit, it was a brilliant perk. Once the sun went behind the mountain, the temperature plummeted. By the time we were in our tent, it was already below freezing. Clutching a hot water bottle as I slipped into my sleeping bag made the ensuing night a bit less intimidating.

Before dinner, Kinaya didn’t look well. She said she had a headache and it made me a bit nervous as to whether or not this might jeopardize the summit attempt. A light headache is not abnormal at that altitude; I had a slight headache myself. But if her situation were to deteriorate, we would need to call off the summit push and get her to lower altitude. I had her take one of her children’s headache meds and then I would give her a half Tylenol PM just before bedtime. She passed out almost immediately after getting into her sleeping bag and she would sleep peacefully until our 2am wake-up, barely moving at all during the night.

The night was cold but we were both wearing nearly all our layers. We were warned about the frigid nights up there and, as it worked out, the cold didn’t end up bothering us. Lance came by the tent at 2am to tell us that tea/coffee was ready. I, unfortunately, had already been awake for a while and quickly checked with Kinaya to see how she felt. She said she was fine and, after three days of hiking, it appeared that our summit attempt was going to happen.

clutching our warm drinks in anticipation of the climb