Hi All,
The third of the three days was our trip to Mount Longonot. We set off at 6am at sun rise, as to not drive in the dark. We were all very excited to get up there and conquer the mighty beast that is Mt. Long. However, we didn't have any idea what to expect of the day...how long it would take, how tough it would be, and therefore, what we should take. We had a bit of a blunder, as we thought we'd be done by lunch time, and therefore didn't bring any food. Jodie was our saviour, as she has fortunately brought some passion fruit and a couple of sweets. This also meant that we didn't bring nearly enough water. Both james and tristian thought it would be clever to bring NO water at all! Tristian didn't even have a backpack...genius! I think we had 6 litres of water between the 6 of us...not nearly enough for a 5 hour hike in 35 degree heat, and not a cloud in sight!
Climbing Mt Longonot is a three stage process. Firstly, you need to get up to the rim of the crater, which takes about an hour, and is extremely steep, and tiring with only sand under foot. Once you've got to the top, you can them walk the circumference of the mountain, which is 8km, and took us 4/5 hours. This is because there is another assent, to the summit of the mountain, as seen in the pictures. To give you some context, we had ran out of water before we got half way around the rim of the mountain! Fortunately, we came accross this asian coulpe, who noticed we were struggling, and they kindly gave George a 2 litre bottle of water - life savers..literally. Fortunately, none of us fainted, even though george did have a quick nap for a minute mid-assent!
I'd definitely say this was my greatest physical achievement so far in my life...much more challenging than the cycle ride.It was an amazing thing to do...worth the 30 dollars entry fee!
After our climb, we quickly rushed back to Pembroke, but had a bit of a sticky moment. Between Naivasha and Gilgil, there is an old toll gate, which is patrolled by police occasionally. In Kenya, they are very strict on seatbelts, and because there was 6 of us. we had 4 in the back. As we approached the gate, we tried to look an innocent as possible, but having passed the gate, we were waved over by a policemen. If you are caught, and white, they immedieately think money. Fortunately though, he was waving at a truck behing! If we were caught, it would have been 5,00 pounds fine, and imprisonment for the driver (george). We were very lucky!
I'll try and post daily from now on. Been particularly bad this week!
H
X
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