Mt Kenya Day 1

Hello,

My first discovery is that Tanzanians really are super-human. My Kenyan crew is merely mortal - they suffer on uphills, sweat tons, and need breaks from time to time (I would guess once an hour, for 10-15 minutes). Heh, after racing along at TZ-porter pace, this is strange... We're alking at a normal backpacking pace (very easy for me). At least my ankle basically rested.

Weight-wise, I'm a little heavier than "normal" since I have my harness, helmet, some gear, plus a pair of leather heavy boots (no way I'll use them for hiking... Damn, those days of heavy feet sucked!). I'm using my vinyl heavier climbing pack instead of the GoLite because some of the rock climbing involves pack hauling and there's no way the GoLite would survive dragging against rock for hundreds of feet! I also have a tent - we decided to go wth one of the Batian View Mountain HArdware tents since there's a reasonable chance of rain and waiting for climbing opportunities might involve sitting around a lot. I would guess I'm at about 16 kilo (35 lbs) with a couple liters of water. My crew though, is carrying a lot more. It's a total disregard for lightness!

So why are their packs so heavy? It's not the stove, they don't use the 14.5 kg monstrosity of Kili teams, they use what they call a parafin stove - I dunno what exactly the fuel is, I thought parafin is solid at room temperature, and this stuff has the viscosity of water but the weight of a very light oil. Stove looks like an ordinary pump stove.

Anyway, the weight is probably the fruit. They brought tons of fresh fruit. I mean, for the four of us, 4 pineapples, more than a dozen mangoes, etc. I think about 2/3rds of a 70 liter old school pack (prolly weighs 10 lbs empty) is full of fresh fruit! Insane! Not that I'll complain, I love fruit... Other weight adders include a steel tin of jam, stainless utensils, plates, etc. Unlike Kili, there aren't scales at every station, so I have no idea what their packs weigh - looks like at least 25 kilo (55 lbs) if not more.

Anyway, the day started at BAtian's View, 7000 ft, and we drove to the Naru Meru park entrance. We then walked to 10,000 ft to the weather station, where there's a Lodge (seen lots of whitey going in, must be the norm here). I pitched my tent right in front of the lodge on the lawn. Hey, that's what the ranger said to do. My crew is sleeping in the huts - its free for locals. You can actually avoid bringing a tent on most Mt Kenya routes - you can pay to sleep in huts (many people in one big room) or lodges (cabins at a few locations, bed and room provided, use your own sleeping bag). It's not as clean (the huts) as a tent though, but the lodges are.

Ahh. Also, there are LOTS of monkeys of various species here. Most of them sound like dogs. It's pretty strange to hear a pack of dogs barking as if they're fighting, only to find little human-looking things standing on two legs, barking at each other. Probably what we look like to other animals when we argue. A couple monkeys roaming the area of the lodge are looking at my tent. I'm told that if I leave it partially open, they will go in looking for edibles...

And my final coment for this post - paramythrin or whatever that spray on insect repellant is (got it at rei, it's for clothes and cautions against getting it on skin, can be sprayed on or laundered into your clothes) is damn good. I used that on my nylon clothes before kili (pants, shirt, hat, and running shoes), with the plan of using my deet-based repellant on exposed skin. Today, I never got around to deet, but I watched my crew get covered with insects while only the occaisional beetle landed on my clothes. I can't recall the name of the biting fly that causes sleping sickness, but those were biting my crew on all their exposed skin. I didn't get touched! Usually, if there are 20 people in a group, I'll be the only one attacked... Awesome. And I don't have deet all over me!

Ok, time to find signal...

Joek