How it feels being on Top of the World

“Can you take me to Mt. Kenya?” That is how this conversation started in February 2022.

Anyone who knows Marj can relate a lady who has her weekly running mileage on check. This lady starts running just before 5am and when she wants a friendly run, she will arrive 30mins before you. Her determination and resilience keeps me motivated every time we run together. When you plan for a 21km run, we would end up with a 25km finish.

My response to her climbing enquiry was an affirmative yes. We need to work backwards to ensure we are ready to attempt the climb and celebrate afterwards. Most climbers are always looking forward to sharing their stories - how it went during the summit. Am not a pro, however, I engaged Simon the Mountain Guide to be our leader on this.

I shared my little experience with Marj. I had only summited twice! She got all her ducks in a row and come rain or sunshine, Saturday March 26 was our climb day.

We spent the night in Naro Moru Town on Friday and Simon the Guide briefed us about this climb to ensure we were all at par. The park hours are 6am to 6pm we just need to bear that in our minds. Our route map was to start from Met Station and back, a distance of about 28km.

I find the Naro Moru route for those who have a strong mental strength. We started the climb at about 7am. Our drop to the KWS gate was smooth and we assured the Officer we shall be back by 6pm. The first 5km is usually tough as the elevation keeps increasing and the altitude gradually goes up. The terrain also keeps changing for every km. It flattens a bit before Mackinders Camp and then you have another 2.5km steeper climb before Point Lenana. The views are breathtaking whenever you stop for a water break and you get to enjoy the beautiful sunrise with birds chirping!

Today was rather quiet, all the stops we made, the huts were virtually empty. I understood that the Sirimon route was burning, as there was bush fires spreading from Timau. Probably, climbers were avoiding it for safety reasons. We even served ourselves tea at The Rangers Rescue Hut and looked like someone generously left a flask of hot tea for us. They knew we will need it before the steep climb!

I was not any worried about Marj. She was in safe hands. Her hydration was on point. She snacked correctly, we even took more photos at various points and Simon answered all her questions.

We said hello to Point Nelion and Batian as requested by the Queen of Mountains who summited Nelion the previous week! Who doesn’t know Viv Ayuma in our circles of running friends? I know she will be at Point Batian soon and my very best wishes to her! We saw Lake Lewis, Two Tarn, Lewis Tarn, Lake H?hnel and Point John at close range.

When we got to Austrian Hut at 1.30pm, I realized we were running out of time. Simon was worried too and that meant we were going to “speed run” when descending. We layered more, hydrated and tackled the last 800m to Point Lenana.

At the summit, Marj could not hide her excitement. She literally was running, threw her bag down and danced????. “You mean I can do this?” We paid our respects to Mt. Kenya, took enough photos and dashed down. Time was not on our side.

It was my first time descending via the Naro Moru route. My take, this is the best route and kind on shoes. I had my ASICS Trail Scout. This is my opinion though.

When you get a chance to summit with your friend(s), it is the stories after that we enjoy most. Did we know we will do this together? YES! Some of us, when our mind is made up, that’s it! We take off and are gone!

We ended the climb just about 6pm. Am so glad I did this with a friend and grateful once more to Simon for leading us.

This experience taught me a few lessons:

1. There are different ways of getting up the ladder!
2. When you can uplift someone, go as a team and keep encouraging one another. You achieve quite a lot.
3. You need to be guided when your goal has been set and the leader will be there to answer your questions.
4. Work with the time and resources allocated and get your milestones right in tackling the mileage ahead of you to meet your deadline.
5. It's not the words that we say that mean a lot, it's how you made someone feel.