We had a long lie! Didn't get up till 07:30 and I'm really stiff,but Charles has made fried egg butty and pancakes with lemongrass for breakfast, and my appetite is improving, so he kept some pancakes back for mid-mornings.
Meanwhile, Elijah and I went to see Nithi Falls ("th" as in "there"). The top fall is only metres from camp - we could hear it all night.
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| Upper Nithi Falls |
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| Upper Nithi Falls |
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| Looking down towards Chogoria |
The second one is less easy to see, but absolutely beautiful...
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| Middle Nithi Falls |
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| Middle Nithi Falls |
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| Sisyrinchium? |
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| Near Nithi Falls |
The third fall is huge - maybe 100m high. We crossed the river to get to the top of the falls, where we could see the water disappearing over the drop, and we climbed down a bit, but the path to the viewpoint was too dangerous with my bad knee - it had got quite badly twisted when I slipped on the scree on the way to the top yesterday morning. We crossed back over the river, and I thought that was it - no view of this waterfall for me - but Elijah bashed a way through an old trail to a viewpoint where we could see almost the whole falls - spectacular to say the least! The vegetation makes these falls really exotic - we're now in giant heather country with proteas, but in the gorge there are enormous giant lobelias.
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| The top of lower Nithi Falls |
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| Lower Nithi Falls, from near the top |
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| Lower Nithi Falls |
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| Lower Nithi Falls |
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| Elijah bashing though giant heather |
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| Protea |
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| Looking uphill towards the top Nithi Falls |
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| The top falls again |
Back at camp, Charles has packed up and moved the stuff to the roadside. We have more tea and I finish my pancakes and then off we go. "Road Head" it may be, but very little traffic uses this road - it has not just grass but bushes down the middle, and there are huge washed-out sections with slippery red mud. After the junction where the road goes off to Lake Ellis it looks more used, by fishermen apparently, but it is still very "interesting" even for a tough 4x4.
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| Sisyrinchium |
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| Rough road - especially with packs like these |
We heard elephants as we got nearer to Mt Kenya Lodge, and Elijah reminded us we must keep together. There was a pretty boggy section as we reached the river, then it was a short rise through meadow-like grassland to the gate where we signed out but told the rangers we are staying at Mt Kenya Lodge overnight.
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| Red-hot Poker |
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| Alpine Ladies Mantle |
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| Looking back across the river |
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| Chogoria Gate |
We have a chalet with living room, kitchen, bedroom (just for me) and bathroom with hot shower (very hot or rather chilly - the adjustment is a bit random!). There's only me sleeping here; Elijah and Charles re with the other guides and porters - I still find that a bit weird... No electricity, but there are Tilley lamps and a wood fire, and the shower is heated by a wood-fired boiler behind the hut.
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| Mt Kenya Lodge |
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| The hot water system |
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| Peaks in the mist |
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| You have been warned! |
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| Woods and meadows |
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| Face tree |
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| Maybe a Snake Eagle... |
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| Last sighting of the peaks from Mt Kenya Lodge |
Elijah and I tried to find elephants or buffalo at the 2 nearby waterholes at sundown, but there was just one waterbuck at each of the waterholes.
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| Waterbuck near Mt Kenya Lodge |
Anyway, Charles had made another great meal and - finally!!! - we all sat together round the table and ate it. This has been one of the things I found quite strange about the mountain - a fairly strict demarcation between the "clients" and the "staff", even though we are walking the same trails and talking together on the way, I was fed on my own and Elijah and Charles ate a few metres away. It was the same in the huts on the way up - Mark and Steve and I had our meals in the main dining area and shared bunk rooms, but the guides and porters ate and slept apart from us. It felt a bit colonial... After our meal, we had a few Tuskers and talked about Kenya and Scotland, wild animals, national parks, mountains,... I had to draw a beaver for them, since they don't have them in Africa, and apparently there's an animal that burrows underwater and steals arrowroot as it grows, so that when the farmer goes to harvest the arrowroot there's nothing there!
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| Living room at Mt Kenya Lodge |
I have to be up at 05:00 to let them in to make breakfast, but I must keep the door locked overnight. I've just heard a growl/scream from some animal outside - you don't go out alone here after dark! We found buffalo, elephant, hyena and leopard poo around, so it's best to be careful...
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