A Morning at Mount Kenya

March 01, 2025

As the rainy season is just around the corner, I decided to make the most of the ephemeral sunny skies by travelling. Mount Kenya seemed like an ideal place to go on a day trip, because I did not intend to spend five days climbing to its summit but was happy to simply see the majestic peak. My driver picked me up at my house at five o’clock in the morning. We proceeded – with one break for breakfast – all the way to Nanyuki, a town at the foot of Mount Kenya, where we were joined by the guide who would lead me on a little walking trip.

I forgot the driver’s name within the first minute of speaking to him and was too embarrassed to ask him to introduce himself again. During our ride, we discussed a few topics, though I was rather tired after my short sleep. I was glad that just as with my last driver, the conversation veered into the realm of controversial political speculation: my driver was of the opinion that Africa – at least at present – was not suited to democracy, and that every country in it would prosper if it were led by someone like Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. Kenya, he said, was far too tribalistic for democracy to work, with people voting for politicians purely based on their ethnicity. He admitted, however, that the younger generation was different, and that many young people don’t even speak the native language of their parents.

Once we had sorted our paperwork at the entrance to the national park, we drove up to Old Moses Camp, a base 3,300 metres above sea level. The hike took around five hours. Stopping a few times along the way, the guide led me along a trail that cut through the grassy hillsides dotted with cabbage-like lobelias. He told me that these plants provide sustenance to hyraxes, but we did not see too many wild animals during the hike beside a few birds hopping around and waiting for scraps, two wild hen families, and a distant waterbuck. Still, it was useful to learn that one should avoid letting an elephant catch one’s scent, and that one can startle a buffalo to drive it away, for example by rapidly opening an umbrella or beating a metal water bottle.

We crossed several ridges until we reached the edge of a deep valley. Above it towered Mount Kenya’s snowcapped mountaintop, which had by then attracted a whole host of clouds floating in from the Indian Ocean. After eating our packed lunches, we headed down again.