Mt. Kenya - Day 2

Hello,

Last night, I met a bunch of British military folks at the campground/lodge (Met Station). There were 6, 4 Army, 2 Airforce, out to scout the Point Lenana trail before a large group (I think 36) comes next week? During the hike today, I was thinking that since I needed to head that direction anyway, it would be fun to join that group - they looked fit and not your typical painfully slow pole pole muzungu, and while talking with them last night, they seemed like a pretty cool group. So when I bumped into them during the hike from the Met station to McKinders Camp, I decided to ask them. They were happy to have me along, but they were starting the day at 2am. Ugh!

Point Lenana is the highest peak non-technical climbers can get here - the third highest peak of Mt. Kenya. It's only an hour or so past Austrian hut, which I was heading to, anyway, so now I'll just be there at 8am or so, instead of 2 or 3 pm. Seems reasonable... I'm sure I can find some form of torture to inflict for the rest of the day...

Now, the scary thought, in my head, was that they would be going without packs since after the summit, they would pass through McKinders and grab their things on the way to leaving the mountain. I would need to take my pack since Austrian Hut was going to be my base camp. Well, my machismo ('it's always a competition') should make this plausible..

Speaking of which, I think I figured out one of the big differences between my Kenyan and TZ crews. Every break we take (they request them often), these guys bust out smokes. Well, we're hiking / camping at over 14k feet, no wonder they aren't as superhuman! I took weight from my guide's pack, so now I'm around 18 kg (40 lbs). Kinda heavy but now he (Mark) can mostly keep up with my nice, relaxed, enjoyable pace. I get in a zone and just look around and walk. I feel like I'm in another world - the plants are all totally unecognizable. Funky flowers, weird trees, etc. Neat!

I'll edit this and write more, but its 9pm and I gotta get up at 2am..

Joel