Mt Kenya - Day 5

Hello,

Today I had options. We talked about doing a circuit around the mountain (takes 6 hrs, though 2 Americans I met did the circuit and took 12 to complete it). We talked about hiking out the 3rd main route to see that side of the park. But in the end, I said I was exhausted, physically and mentally. I made a summit, I've been backpacking for a couple weeks, mostly at very high altitudes and in very low temperatures. I have nothing left. I'm done. Give me a hot shower, or better yet, a nice hot bath... Mmm...

So down the mountain. I'd paid the crew for 7 days in case I needed time for weather to clear, and today is day 5, but who cares, gimme a nice warm bed and some damn beer.

We were at Austrian hut, which is almost 16k ft. The park gate is at about 7k ft. That's 9000 ft of descending. Mark suggested we stay the night at the met station, at 10k ft. I said "we'll see..." By lunch time, we were at the Met station. Mark called our driver, and in the early afternoon, we were off the mountain. An hour later, I was in the shower at Batian's View. Mmm...

And what is today? It's that excuse to drink holiday, St. Patty's day. The group of volunteers who are doing some construction work for the locals showed me the "Silent Bar" (a small shack with no electricity that sells cheap alcohol and is full of local drunks) and we stocked up on $1 6.5% alcohol Guinness beers (stronger than most western Guinness, but not as strong or good tasting as Nigerian Guinness).

Writing this the next day: heh, 6 of those beers later, playing the surprisingly fun beer drinking game, Kings, my beer desire was met, I was drunk and content. Great way to finish a couple weeks of climbing.

Joel