As the last post eluded to, the KG guys were great. I was still a little concerned however as we pulled up to Sirimon Gate since we still could not see the top of the mountain. Additionally, I still had it in the back of my mind that as we watched the flight tracker on the way over, it took a REALLY long time to reach the altitude of the top of the mountain. Did I mention that we would be above the clouds? Yeah, that might seem like common sense when the summit was over 16,000 ft high but I hadn’t pieced that together. I wasn’t so sure about this whole idea of climbing a mountain but there was no escape. Before I knew it, our private matatu with LOTS of bags, our guide, our driver and a porter crammed in turned off of the real road and onto a dirt road of Mount Kenya National Park. After a bumpy ride we arrived at the gate.
Sirimon Gate
It was our very first day in Kenya. Robert, our driver,arrived early in the morning and drove us out to the mountain. After a quick stop to pick up our guide, Mark, and the rest of our supplies we entered Mount Kenya National Park. On the way into the park we passed a few zebras on the side of the dirt road and it finally started to kick in that we were in Africa. When we arrived, Ephraim, our cook, had a lovely lunch waiting for us. A baboon watched as we ate and the porters finalized all of the packing. After a quick picture, we were off and before we knew it, Mark was explaining animal evasion techniques and Katie really started to question what they were doing!
The four of us ready to start hiking in front of the Sirimon Gate.
Lunch was sandwiches and fresh fruit and ramen noodles I believe. This was the day that I learned that oranges are really like a yellow green color but taste just as good in Africa. We also had a chance to sample passion fruit which is great but has a weird slimy texture mixed with the seeds. After plenty of pictures of the baboons and of the four of us in front of the gate we were ready to start the trek which on the first day was mainly on a dirt road. The animal evasion techniques were scary in the fact that we had to learn them (seriously?!?!? there could be large animals in here!?!?!?) and also in how simple they were:
Example:
Mark our guide: “If you see an elephant charging, run down wind from it since elephants ‘see’ with their sense of smell.”
Katie’s brain: “What if the elephant is downwind from me? What if i am frozen in place? What if I can’t tell which way the wind is blowing!?”
Mark: ”If a buffalo comes for you, run to the first tree and then run around it twice. Then run to the next tree and run around it. Don’t worry…this will confuse the animal.”
Katie’s brain: “What if it is a smart buffalo? You have got to be crazy! What if there are no big trees?”
Mark: ”If there is a lion, just stare it down. They are timid animals.”
Katie’s brain: “TIMID?!?! STARE IT DOWN…I WOULD BE FREAKING OUT!!”
Mark: “And if staring it down does not work, just pick up some dirt and toss it in its face.”
Katie’s brain: “If that animal is close enough for me to toss dirt in its face, Andrew and I will no longer be on speaking terms…and toss?!?!? I would be chucking it!”
It was at this point that I REALLY wondered what the heck I was doing and how this my now husband (but at that point only boyfriend) had talked me into this.
Don’t worry. Mark assured us that we wouldn’t see many animals on the way up because the Sirimon route is very common but the Chogoria route which we would be coming back down provided a much better chance of seeing something.
The Sirimon Route is in blue and the Chogoria Route is in red. Chogoria is less traveled and extremely beautiful but we will get to that in a little bit. The orange circle surrounds the three main peaks of the mountain.
