Mount Kenya Traverse

If you are flying in to Kenya then we can help with airport transfers to Naro Moru, evening arrivals will mean at least one night in Nairobi before transferring up to Naro Moru on the western side of Mt Kenya. There is plenty to see and do in both Nairobi and Naro Moru where we can also help to arrange extra nights accommodation, city tours in Nairobi or day trips and Moving Mountains project visits in Naro Moru, we’re more than happy to discuss all options to ensure your time in Kenya is everything and more than you expected.

Today all the guides and porters will meet us in Naro Moru and we will load up the vehicle(s) for the short 15km drive up to the Naro Moru gate of Mount Kenya National Park. There are often baboon, zebra and bushbuck wandering around the area as we sign in to the park. After lunch at the park gate we head up along the track through the forests of bamboo and hardwood trees which leads to our first camp at Met Station, located close to the edge of the forest where buffalo often come out overnight to graze.

From Met Station we follow the track a bit further before turning off on a footpath through the Hygenia forest and then out onto the more open heathland. From here you get a fantastic view back over the treetops and down to the plains beyond. The heath and moorland continues as we trek past Giant Cabbage Groundsel and Giant Lobelia Deckenii making our way up through the over-dramatically named ‘Vertical Bog’ to the outcrop known as picnic rocks, we’ll stop for lunch here. From picnic rocks we continue on the moorland for a bit longer before joining the edge of the Teleki Valley and winding between Giant Tree Groundsel and Ostrich Plume Lobelia and then onto grasses in the valley floor as we cross a river and follow it on a gentle approach to our next camp at MacKinders Hut, on an outcrop of moraine.

Today we will take a day-walk from MacKinders Hut to aid our acclimatisation. There are a few possibilities and we are most likely to walk up to a pair of small lakes called Hut Tarn and Nanyuki Tarn, collectively known as two-tarn! From here we get a great view straight across at the south west face of the main summits and the glaciers that hang from it. It is also possible to walk up to the foot of two of these glaciers, the Darwin and the Tyndall, but it is a slightly more difficult route. We will be back at MacKinders for lunch and for an afternoon of R&R and final preparations for our early morning start to summit Point Lenana for sunrise.

Today we will be up around midnight for hot drinks before starting our ascent to Point Lenana. After a short flat section we are onto the frozen screes by torchlight (on clear nights we can use the moonlight), climbing up and up to reach Austrian Hut at 4790m. At the hut we will take a break, the duration of which will be decided by our speed so far, the idea being that we arrive at Point Lenana just before sunrise and don’t have to wait in the cold. From the Austrian Hut we follow a ridge all the way to the summit. The ridge is initially quite broad but it does get narrower and we will take our time over the short sections that need hands as well as feet, there are steel cables on the upper two thirds of the route and though they are not really necessary, they can be reassuring. The sun will rise around 6am and we will drink in its warmth as well as the spectacular view before dropping down by either re-tracing our ascent route or alternatively traversing right over and down the north side before turning to the east and down to Hall Tarns for breakfast. After enjoying the amazing views of the cliffs of the Temple and Lake Michaelson we will set off further down the mountain to camp at Lake Ellis.

This morning we set off again downhill. The path can be quite indistinct at first on this less-used trail but we generally follow the line of a watercourse until we hit the 4×4 track that takes us down to the forest boundary. Here we have the option of heading straight down to Meru bandas (cabins) or a diversion around to the beautiful Nithi Falls. Back at the bandas, or just a little after them, we’ll meet up with our 4×4’s for the drive back down through the forest to Chogoria town where you’ll meet up with any kit that you didn’t take on the mountain with you (we’ll have transferred it around the mountain and it will be in a secure room in our Embu Guest House). It is possible to get back to Nairobi on this date, however if you have time then a couple of days in Embu is well worth it (Embu is a 60km / 1 hour drive from Chogoria). Aside from our own Moving Mountains projects, Embu offers a safe and lively nightlife, a number of outdoor swimming pools and some great walks and other activities in the surrounding hills .

Other options include tailor made safari’s, climbs on Kilimanjaro, visits to other Moving Mountains projects and Game Reserves around Mount Kenya or transfers back to Nairobi for city tours.