Mt Kenya more pics

Day 1 on Mt Kenya, up the Chogoria route on the east side of the mountain.  We drove up to around 10,000 feet for the start of the trek (the diesel cruiser barely making it up the road at that altitude!)  Our stuff, along with that of the porters, is spread out to organize.

Soloman, our guide for the trip.  Unfortunately he got sick the second day and had to descent, but two others from the group became our capable guides for the rest of the trip.

A short stretch at the start had trees, but quickly we went above the treeline and stayed their for the 5 days.

Bundled up for the cold; Cristina knitted us all scarves, mittens and hats. 

Up above treeline were all manner of unique afro-alpine plants, like these found near a waterfall by our first campsite

Waking to a clear sky the on day 2.  Mornings were often sunny, with clouds rolling in around noon.

Finicky about our coffee, we use the hot water at our breakfast to make filter coffee.  Our cook did a great job with food.

The boys found lots of rocks to practice rock scrambling.

Mt Kenya is a classic extinct stratovolcano, with long broad shoulders stretching some 20 miles out on each side, surrounding the central peaks which are the old volcanic plug.  The area was heavily glaciated, and has eroded valleys off the shoulders, such as the Gorges valley here that we hiked along for most of the trip.

Hyraxes, small mammals that look like marmots (but actually close relatives of elephants) were our constant companions in the rocks around the campsites.

Sunrise nearing the summit.  Our campsite was at the lake which is visible as reflected light at that hour of the morning.

Nearing the peak on a scree field, this was slow going!

The last push to the top.

Batian, the highest of the central peaks, as seen from Lenana which we climbed.

Glacier at the base of Lenana, at least what is left of the glacier these days as it melts due to climate changes.  Likely not that many years before glaciers will be absent from the peaks.

Looking back down the mountain, the direction that we came up from.

On the way down, through a forest of weird high altitude plants.

Day 4 we left the high camp and visited Lake Michelson on the way to our last campsite.  This was a beautiful lake in the Gorges valley.

More hyraxes, here a whole family

Campsite at Lake Ellis, our last stop

Malachite Sunbird, the high altitude of hummingbirds in the states

Uji, a porridge that is a Kenyan staple at breakfast, on day 5.  I've had ok and bad uji - maybe it was because we were camping, but this was great uji!

Done with the trip, the ubiquitous supa-loaf truck.  The Kenyan equivalent of "cheap white bread" in the states, we make a lot of jokes at the expense of this bread...