The moors of Mt Kenya

Mist over the lower plants of the mountain that grow at such altitudes: red hot pokers, tall lobelias, ferns and others unknown to me. PHOTO/RUPI MANGAT

What you need to know:

  • At the end of the concrete, we took a turn into a narrow muddy track through the mountain forest. It’s magical with more groves of red hot pokers and the spectacular hagenia trees with their sculpted trunks and branches, draped thick with green moss and a lichen hanging like wisps of an old man’s beard. It is a sign of unpolluted air.
  • The path got steeper and wetter with huge granite boulders strewn on the grass.  I caught sight of raptors gliding in the high skies and envied the lightness of flight while in the thick undergrowth; cute little mice  scurried around scouring for food.
  • It’s a great achievement because Trip Advisor’s polls are based on people giving independent opinions on their website. The warden also told us about the fence that’s being erected around the park. So far 53 kilometres have been fenced, but there are still 450 kilometres to go.

It was supposed to be a two-kilometre hike up from Met Station to the moors of Mount Kenya.

In my mind’s eye I pictured us – that’s Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, a freelance journalist covering a piece for the National Geographic about the great apes, and I – basking in the sun enjoying a picnic and steaming hot coffee.

We drove off from  the Batian guest house, after a leisurely breakfast on the verandah with a backdrop of the peaks of Mount Kenya standing against the bluest of skies with the sun casting a happy warmth on the day.

The road to Met Station nine kilometres away is lined with bamboo, towering podo trees and a rich unbroken tree canopy in the valleys.

In a split second a brilliant white in the green canopy of the tall trees caught my eye: the tail of a colobus monkey draped on a branch.

The mother and child foraged on the leaves of the tree undisturbed while we watched silently below. We parked the car at Met Station and took for the moors.

Two kilometres is an easy distance and I distracted myself with the beauty of the landscape. The plan was to spend an hour going up, an hour for a picnic and an hour for the descent.

The concrete path leads to tall trees, bamboos and the lower plants of the mountain that grow at such altitudes – red hot pokers, tall lobelias, ferns and others whose names I don’t know.

At the end of the concrete, we took a turn into a narrow muddy track through the mountain forest. It’s magical with more groves of red hot pokers and the spectacular hagenia trees with their sculpted trunks and branches, draped thick with green moss and a lichen hanging like wisps of an old man’s beard. It is a sign of unpolluted air.

The path got steeper and wetter with huge granite boulders strewn on the grass.  I caught sight of raptors gliding in the high skies and envied the lightness of flight while in the thick undergrowth; cute little mice  scurried around scouring for food.

NOWHERE IN SIGHT

But the moorland was nowhere in sight, even though it seemed as if we had hiked thousands of miles.

We reached the burnt forest of hagenia, where the charred trees looked like surreal sculpts with the mist descending on us.

What had promised to be a sunny day, had dramatically changed in a matter of minutes and with the mist  engulfing us, everything was invisible a few feet beyond us.

A group of porters appeared through the mist. They said the moorland was a 30-minute hike from where we were, but that was at their speed.

With my speed, it would take me more than an hour, but Carmen made it up there. I gulped down steaming hot coffee while enjoying a few minutes of watching the mist and then decided to return to base and leave the moorland for another time.

Six hours later we were nearly back at Met Station. The mist had vanished but the clouds were heavy.

“Mount Kenya National Park has been awarded a certificate of excellence by Trip Advisor,” beamed Simon Gitau Ngugi the warden of the national park, showing us the certificate.

It’s a great achievement because Trip Advisor’s polls are based on people giving independent opinions on their website. The warden also told us about the fence that’s being erected around the park. So far 53 kilometres have been fenced, but there are still 450 kilometres to go.

“There will be space in the fences for the elephants to migrate in and out using the corridors like Ngare Ndare,” he continued.

“Poaching is also down. For most of this year, we have had no carcasses whereas previously we had on average four elephants poached every month.” This success is partly because the local communities also fight against poaching.

Simon also told us that the bongo, an ivory-horn tipped antelope, might possibly be found on the mountain. The antelope was once a common sight in the high mountain forests, but poaching took its toll and most populations became extinct in massifs like Cherangani, Eburru and the Mau. Seeing free bongos on the high mountain would be something worth celebrating.

SCALING THE HEIGHTS

You can take a day hike up the mountain, or take several days to scale the peaks or visit the spectacular mountain lakes. Log on to the Kenya Wildlife Service website for a list of guest houses, bandas and camp sites – www.kws.org or email: [email protected]

They are great value for money. Batian Guest House, where we stayed, has four bedrooms and a fully furnished kitchen. All you need to carry is food to cook.