Vertical Kenya Above the tall grass of the vast plains soars one of Africa’s highest peaks. Writer Olivier Bleys recounts his ascent of Mount Kenya. Day 1 As I look out of the car window, I Day 2 We make an early start after filling are perennial well above sea level. But the see the landscape turning greener, the out the paperwork for entering the temperatures drop like anywhere else. In undulating plain with the metallic gleam national park. Before us rises a majestic order to survive, lobelias secrete a sweet of pineapple trees and, farther off, the wall of mountains, including the three solution which, mixed with the water on hills covered in tea bushes, more matte in peaks of Mount Kenya. Ouwalk ay be their leaves, prevents them from freezing. appearance. As we leave Nairobi behind, heading to the shortest and lowest of the The higher we go the more unfamiliar the mountains grow bigger under a capri- three crests, but it’s still nearly 5,000 m the fauna and flora becomes. On a dry cious sky: clouds, heavy rain, streaks of high. The track traces two peaty lines plateau 4,300 meters up, we are no lon- sunlight on the tarmac. When the road through marshland teeming with birds, ger able todentify a sge speces. ar- turns into a track, our transport meta- then starts to ascend, before narrowing mot-like animals with snouts like morphoses too, as we switch from a into a path shaded by red cedars. martens nibble on columnar plants with Japanese car to a classic Land Rover— In the afternoon, our tents are put up on feathery plumes. Bright blue scarlet- robust and sharp-edged, its bodywork the mountainside, at a camp with nothing tufted sunbirds perch on the giant raw under the scales of rust—which has but a welcome sign and a table with groundsels, chirruping pleasingly. Where room for all of us, a guide and six por- benches under a roof. At dinnertime, this are we? Naturalists talk about the Afro- ters. They’re required to carry the large table is covered with a red blue-checked Alpine zone but to our eyes it’s another quantity of food and gear we’ll need for cloth, the same one the head porter wraps planet, a world apart that people living the trip up to the summit. We stop off at himself in when it gets chilly. Together down below would never guess existed. the gas station. The hose from the pump with the aluminum dishes, a vacuum flask It’s a realm of rolling mists and fluores- passes through the passenger compart- of boiling water and a pot of instant cent moss, as poor in oxygen as it is mean ment to the tank under the driver’s seat. Kenyan coffee, this tablecloth will form with sleep: that night, I couldn’t get any The camp is located at an altitude of the decor for all our meals, which are beneath the frozen pyramid of the tent. almost 3,000 meters already. It’s the begin- cooked and served up whatever the ning of the dry season, one of the best weather and location, altitude or terrain. Day 4 3am. By way of encouragement, times to make the climb. Yet our hut is the We carry a stove and a supply of pink fuel tea is served in the corrugated iron shelter, only one occupied. At one time, electricity in a can wrapped in a knotted dish towel. where the porters, who’d retired for the may have run through its wires and the After setting our bags down, we set off to night early, had wrestled with their own shower water may once have fulfilled the explore the brush. Head guide Peter leads insomnia. We were soon following in the promise of the red dot on the tap, but the way, while James, his assistant, an guide’s footsteps again as he ascended an they’re now just distant memories. No elderly man with a slight limp, brings up icy valley in the moonlight. If I hadn’t been matter. Our cook, Daniel, fires up a log in the rear. We move slowly, our footsteps struggling to breathe and to put one foot the fireplace. The landscape provides fur- synchronized with his. This merely height- in front of the other, it would have felt like ther consolation. Emerging from a bam- ens the impact of the landscape, a strange walking in a dream. Am I beginning the boo forest, we had set up camp on a composite of resinous bushes, giant plants ascent of Mount Kenya or am I watching grass-covered plateau graced by large rose- with prickly blossoms of the kind that my own efforts to reach the summit from woods. The ground between the scattered must have grown in the time of the dino- behind a television screen? My oxygen- huts is strewn with large leaves, which the saurs. A waterfall suddenly appears in the starved mind gave an ambiguous answer. ranger spears and puts in a pile. jungle, reinforcing the impression of a Yesterday, my walking companion, Alexis, Even this high up, nature is a vibrant journey back in time. Nature here is very had been suffering from acute altitude sick- presence. Red-winged starlings have alive, but monochrome, with the excep- ness, but today he’s out in front. I continue made a nest at the end of a branch. A tion of a lit red fuse here and there, like a walking with the only strength left to me: samango monkey wearing a perma- fire igniting in the vegetation: this solitary the force of gravity. I lift my feet and they nently stunned expression moves about flower is a Kniphofia thomsonii, part of fall back down. I count my steps. At every in the vegetation. A little way down from the Liliaceae family, which includes nar- fifteenth step, I pause. Each series carries the camp is a waterhole reflecting the cissus and lily of the valley. me a few meters farther on. My gloves are mountains, where waterbucks come to too thin to protect my curled fingers. Four drink. A sign warns us that dangerous Day 3 The guides have furnished our degrees below zero. My fingertips hurt, animals roam at night, perhaps hyenas, tents with camp beds and pillows. In the preventing me from taking a photo. whose tracks are visible in the earth, or morning, the canvas glistens with dew in Yet the landscape is sublime. At times we even elephants, which leave round lumps the colder air. We will soon be feeling the advance under crystal-like stars. These of dung containing straw by the side of effects of altitude. As well as thinning out jewels, scattered from one horizon to the the track, like the horses back home. the vegetation, it also shortens our breath other, dissolve one by one as the sun rises. First meal by the light of our storm lamps, and weighs down our movements. As we With infinite slowness, I earn the respect a delicious butternut soup with ginger and pass 4,000 meters, Mount Kenya breaks of the surrounding peaks, hauling myself green pepper, served in metal dishes. We use through the mist, startlingly close. up to the highest with one final groan. our sleeping bags for the first time south of In Europe, high altitudes bring snow and I’m standing on Point Lenana at last, the the equator because it turns unexpectedly ice. This is not the case south of the equator, one just below Mount Kenya, at 4,985 m. chilly when night falls around 6 o’clock. where the rock can stay dry and the plants The whole of Africa lies at our feet. 115