Mt. Kenya's Friendliest Monkeys

Mt. Kenya

"Is that a monkey on your head?"

This past weekend, we travelled up to Mount Kenya with our friends Wendy, Laurence, Dana and Steve to participate in a wedding. It was a wonderful getaway. We enjoyed getting to know new friends and spending some quiet days on mountain. One highlight was visiting the Holden Animal Orphanage at Mount Kenya Safari Club. The many of the animals walk around in the open grounds and are very friendly!

Erica was kneeling to talk to a shy Colobus when she was surprised by a large Sykes monkey who wanted to hop on for a ride.

Red Monkeys

we love the little moustaches

This female Patas Monkey (also known as a Red Hussar), is one of the few red monkeys left in Kenya. They once were spread plentifully across West sand East Africa, but loss of habitat has drastically affected their population.

Aaron making friends with a little Sykes monkey

Mt. Kenya Trek (Post Three)

Sunrise on Mt. Kenya

Below Lower Simba Tarn

Please forgive the jumbled order of our posts, we have lots of photos from the four days on Mount Kenya, and later today we'll be sharing even more pictures with our friends (So, who knows, there may be a fourth post yet to come?). We had an incredible trip and shared some great experiences with our friends. We leave tomorrow morning for the remainder of our March Break Vacation with our children on the coast -- we couldn't imagine a more dramatic change from our four days on the mountain.

Erica on the long trek back to Old Moses (Day Three)

Aaron on the day three descent from Shipton's Camp

Taking a breather in tussock grasses and heather of the moorland on day two. This photo was taken about a km past the Meteorological Station where the Sirimon Route forks left on the way to the Liki North hut and right, down into the MacKinder Valley, we took the later path (going an extra 4 hours beyond Liki Hut to Shipton's Camp). When we do this again, we would like to try tenting at Liki Hut to break the long slog to Shipton's and give ourselves more time to acclimatize to the elevation and enjoy the scenic views from the ridge.

Refilling our water bottles in the Ontulili Stream

(Surprisingly, the water purification tablets

we used didn't taste so bad!)

We enjoyed lots of breaks along the trail to rest and

let our bodies get use to the higher altitude.

Crossing the Liki North Stream

A bird taking a rest on a Lobelia

We were impressed by the variety of birds from cuckoo shrikes and incredible green Malachite Sunbirds, to Kenrick's Starlings with amber feathers under their wings and in the forrest a black bird with fire engine red under feathers, we are guessing it may be a type of Starling but we are not bird watchers ourselves. Just one of the many beauties of the mountain.

God is an amazing artist!

Atalie and Erica on the climb

As we ascended the terrain and vegetation

continued to change dramatically

Day one and two were wet, in truth, day one was a miserable climb to Old Moses as we trudged through torrential rains. We were all soaked and chilled when we arrived despite our rain gear and warm clothes. We are so glad that Tim Bannister recommended we pack a camp stove and cream soup for when we got off the trail. It was a life saver!

Mt. Kenya is a cold mountain with temperatures dropping to -10 Celsius at night. It was strange to walk on frozen ground, snow and ice in Africa. Although the higher elevations only support lichens, it was surprising to see the variety of plant life that stretched up the mountain including many flowers from the cream coloured Protea to the fiery red Gladiolus.

Mountain Cabbage

On the trail

Day two was a 12 km trek that climbed over 1000 meters up a steep shoulder and down into Mackinder's Valley and back up to base of the peaks. Along the way we saw many plump Rock Hyrax and Mountain Mice, as well as a small antelope (probably a klipspringer).

Mel, Melissa and Kerry stopping for a break

before our last push to Shipton's Camp

Approaching the peaks on the Sirimon Route

through Mackinders Valley

Looking up on the backside of Point Lenana (4895 meters)

(Yes that is snow on the equator!)

Finally arrived at Shipton's Camp at 4200 meters

Just below the Batian and Nelion peaks.

The camp is so close to two of Mt. Kenya's twelve

glaciers, that at times you can hear them cracking.

The lonely outhouse at Shipton's Camp

surrounded by giant groundsel Senecio plants

(fortunately there are more convenient facilities inside the hut)

Mt. Kenya Trek (Post Two)

Dawn on day four back at Old Moses Camp

View from our tent

Aaron packing up our tent on the last morning of our trek

These little birds were very interested in us and even dashed

into our tent a few times for a look around.

At the Old Moses Camp Hut

Victory breakfast -- sausages, omelettes, and banana fritters!

"The Girls" on our last day at Mt. Kenya National Park

Aaron with our guides Cyrus and John

from Twinnings Safari Company

Melissa Dunning, Erica, and Atalie Dougherty

Mel McKee and Kerry Jividen

On the way down...

Leaving Old Moses Camp at 3300 meters in elevation, we left of the moor lands, that had stretch up toward the mountain top, and descended back through the belt of bamboo thickets and down into the forest of Cedars and Podocarpus trees, a good 8 km hike back to our van at the park gate. This part of the hike is where hikers often see Elephant and Cape Buffalo, but we only encountered a few bush buck on our ascent. While it would have been amazing too meet an elephant on the trail, we were glad that we made it through without any trouble.

By the time we walked back to the main gate we were all ready for a quick lunch at Nanyuki, and getting home for a hot shower and our soft beds back in Nairobi. It was an incredible trip. we are so thankful to our guides and porters who made the trek so enjoyable.

Mt. Kenya Trek (Post One)

Hiking Mt. Kenya

Our Mt. Kenya Adventure

To begin our March break holiday, we joined a group of friends, from Nairobi, for a four day trek on Mount Kenya. Just 16 km from the equator, Mt. Kenya towers in the central highlands of Kenya at over 5000 meters in elevation. The glaciers create an amazing terrain and unique ecosystem that has earned Mt. Kenya the rare honour of being both a Unesco World Heritage Site and a Unseco Biosphere Reserve. While the two highest peaks, Batian (5199 m) and Nelion (5188 m), can only be reached by mountaineers with technical skills and support, the third highest peak, Point Lenana (4985 m) can be reached by hikers.

Kerry, Mel, Erica, Melissa, and Atalie

Setting off on the second day of our expedition

Aaron gearing up for the long hike

from Old Moses to Shipton's Hut

A view of Point Lenana from the beautiful Mackinder's Valley

We had a cozy night sleep in our tent

exhausted from a full days hike

We'll have a few more pictures to share tomorrow...

Dry Land Training

Mount Longonot, Kenya

Looking into the 2 km wide crater, from the serrated rim of Mt. Longonot

Over the March break, we are planning on a four day camping trip to climb Mount Kenya with a group of friends. To help prepare ourselves, we've been making 5km hikes every second, or third, day over the past few weeks (after school or early morning on the local nature trails mostly). But on Monday we took "dry land training" seriously, as we finished up work with the Guardians of Hope in Mai Mahiu just past noon and headed up the 1000 m climb on Mt. Longonot, a dormant volcano that rises from the dusty floor of the Great Rift Valley.

Views across the dry valley from Longonot

Atalie and Erica on the hike up

Our pal Atalie joined us for the field visits in the morning and for the afternoon hike. She is also a member of our six person Mt. Kenya ascent. After the brutal heat and heavy sand track of Longonot, we are all looking forward to the cool breezes and firm footing of Mt. Kenya. Please keep us in your prayers as we begin our trek this Saturday. Our children will be staying with our friend Wendy during the four days that we are gone. We are looking forward to the week's vacation on the mountain and with our kids when we return.

Erica and Atalie on the rim!

If your feet are cold...

There is a wise saying that "If your feet or cold, put on a hat". We don't often have cold feet living in Kenya, but this coming March, Erica and I are planning to climb Mt. Kenya with a group of friends and expect to see snow on the mountain top. In preparation for the trek, we had our children help test out some of our gear, including our small collection of winter hats. It was a fun Friday night with our friends Amy and Sammy Murimi.

Mommy and Emma sporting our Mountain Touques

Ava and Sammy Getting Ready for Hilarium

Hilarium is a party game where players draw cards with all kinds of wild actions on them. Then everyone acts, yells or just sings out what's on their cards--all at once! It is crazy. Every card has an exact match, so you must try to find the other player who is acting out what's on your card. When you find that match you score!

But don't get stuck with the Gotcha Card...that one will cost you.

Aaron and Amy gathering up their Hilarium Bucks, after our big game

Emma, Tristan and Ava trying our winter hats on for size

Ava showing Daddy and Mommy a thing or

two about keeping warm by dancing:

"shake shake shake... shake shake shake..."

Tristan's Sixth Grade CFS

Rosslyn Academy Cultural Field Studies

Sixth Grade Trip to Central Province, Kenya

Last week, Tristan went on a three day trip with his sixth grade class into Kenya's Central Highlands where the students learned about the Kikuyu Tribe and visited villages, schools and parks. Some of Tristan's highlights were seeing chimpanzees, having an elephant walk into their camp and just hanging out with his friends.

Tristan with his teacher, Miss Dunning, and some of his classmates hiking at the base of Mount Kenya