Mount Kenya - In Search of the Lost World

I can see the formidable silhouettes of Batian and Nelion, the twin peaks of Mount Kenya, in the blue-black half light. There are what seems like a million stars twinkling above me and the distinctive smudge of the Milky Way is visible due to the lack of light pollution. Apart from the sound of a few cooks and porters moving around inside the hut kitchen, Shipton Camp is silent as I watch my clouds of breath in the still night air and pull my down jacket up a little higher. It’s a moment of perfect peace and serenity here on Africa’s second highest mountain.

We have spent two days reaching Shipton’s Camp and will spend two nights here taking in an acclimatisation hike to help our bodies deal with the thinning atmosphere. We will then have an early morning start as we trek to Point Lenana, the highest trekking peak on the mountain. 

The camp, named after the famous mountaineer, Eric Shipton, who made the first recorded ascent of Nelion, is gorgeously situated in a sheltered bowl surrounded by the soaring peaks. Our route started at the Sirimon Gate on the North Western side of the mountain. As we filled in our paperwork and met our support team we watched huge, shaggy baboons charging across the scrubby grass nearby, young males stopping in front of one another baring wicked looking fangs and barking aggressively. 

Our journey started along a vehicle track climbing steeply through lush forest. Our guides pointed out gouges in the mineral rich clay banks that lined the route showing where the forest elephants had excavated in search of salt licks. We saw enormous piles of elephant dung, fabulous humbug striped Colobus monkeys hooting their way through the treetops and glimpses of antelope and zebra as they moved through the dense vegetation. We crossed the Equator, moving into the Southern Hemisphere and we ate hearty portions of chicken stew and rice at Judmaier camp where we spent our first night at 3350 metres above sea level. The camp is named after a young Austrian climber who had a remarkable escape after falling on the mountain and breaking a leg. It is a sobering reminder that mountains are places of challenge and I am grateful we have such a fantastic team of local guides with us to ensure our safety.

Day two sees us leaving the forest behind and moving onto vast tracts of scrubby moorland before dropping down into the Mackinder Valley, a kind of Conan Doyle-esque Lost World. The descent is steep, the valley squeezed between towering outcrops of volcanic rock, but it’s the unique flora and fauna of this remote area that really grab the attention. Eagles soar overhead on thermals, Rock Hyraxes which resemble gophers or guinea pigs but are actually the closest living relative to the Elephant, eye the skies above them nervously from well positioned lookouts. We will later notice that the Hyraxes around the camps are substantially fatter than their valley dwelling relatives! The slopes are dotted with prehistoric looking plants, Giant Groundsel and Ostrich Lobelia which look more like something from a Jurassic Park filmset than the twenty first century. It’s a spectacular landscape and as we start one last climb out of the head of the valley the intimidating peaks of the summit loom in front of us once more, a reminder of what is still to come.

Mount Kenya may not be as famous as Kilimanjaro, but that is one of the reasons to come here. For long stretches of the journey we have had the mountain to ourselves. The feeling of remoteness and quiet stillness are still real here. The local Kikuyu people regard the mountain as the sacred home of their God, and here, in the near silence of a Kenyan night alone with my thoughts I can think of few places better for a deity to call home.