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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

MOUNT KENYA 4th January 2009

When we came down from the mountain, I was euphoric. The trip up Mount Kenya was nothing short of amazing. It has been the experience of a lifetime and I will never forget it.

I did finally arrive in Nairobi on the 1^stJanuary 2009, and I have already detailed the insanity that marked my flight from Montreal via Amsterdam. I spent New Year's Eve somewhere over the Atlantic, not exactly the best start to a New Year that I have ever had, but among the more memorable.

Once we landed in Africa, we met up with my mother and friend Anjali at the airport. The drama continued as Anjali and her boyfriend Brian were then promptly stopped by the local police and threatened with arrest. They had parked in the wrong spot! It was a rude awakening for me to see how aggressive the police here can be, and something of an embarrassment for Brian and Anjali who were there to welcome us to their Nairobi home.

The following day, still jet-lagged, we all left for our hike to the summit of Mount Kenya. However, even this trip was an adventure. We were four adults crammed into a tiny car, together with four huge packs, two tents, our water for a week and various other incidentals. A tight squeeze only barely begins to describe what we looked like. The drive went well though, until the car started wheezing, as it overheated while climbing up a hill. We all had to pile out out onto the side of the road with the car steaming and boiling away, and not really knowing what to do.

People started arriving from everywhere to try to help us. It was quite an experience. People from the village where we had broken down, came out either to lend a hand, or take a look at the ridiculous foreigners standing at the side of the road. Now this is the real Africa I had heard about.

Of course, no one could really do very much about our steaming car, but they all took turns at poking and prodding things while telling us that the closest garage was many miles away. Eventually though, the car cooled down by itself, aided by a heavy infusion of radiator coolant, and we were once again under way.

That first night we stayed at Nanyuki, at a really interesting place called rather incongruously, The Sportsman’s Arms. The benefit of having someone with local knowledge, while visiting a foreign destination was soon apparent. Anjali knew the best places to stay, and this hotel, while nothing fancy, had everything we needed.

We even enjoyed our first taste of local fare. And, it was while here, that we met up with our guide for the trip up Mt Kenya: Maina (Miner). He was going to be the leader of our 6 porters and our cook, and the climbing team of four bumbling idiots. He proved to be a great guy.

The next morning we took a matatu (a small bus like thing) from our hotel, and drove for two and a bit hours. Then we changed to a Land Rover to take us up to Chagoria.

This was the starting point for our trek. The drives were very slow and bumpy and we were more than happy when we arrived and could unload ourselves and start walking for a few hours. This little bit of exercise helped us to acclimatize to the altitudel.

That first night was easy, as we were all so excited to have started the trip proper, and everything was new and exciting. We started walking to Chagoria Gate the next morning and there was a definite spring in our step. This was going to be easy.

That first day we walked for only 3 and a bit hours, before pitching camp again. Once tents were set up, we had a quick lunch and headed out on a day hike to start adjusting to both the heat and the altitude.

Unfortunately, the rain started just as we were walking out of camp. Even though we had the right clothing, the rain was freezing and not long into the hike Anjali started having some problems. She isn't as big as me, with my "reserves of energy." We were all quite concerned about her as we were now a few hours out, and she was definitely feeling very cold and we were nervous about incipient hypothermia. We were perhaps fortunate that the rain stopped soon afterwards.

This was a rough preparatory hike, and I think it gave us an important reminder that this trek up the mountain was going to be hard work and even dangerous. The euphoria was not to come until the hard work was done.