Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Jane & Malcolm 18 July 1975 –

I would love to get up to the snow and glacier level on Mt Kenya though I doubt if I could get right up unless I did some training – although there’s a fairly easy route up, the altitude makes life difficult for many people. It is supposed to be better to get acclimatised at half way level for a day or so staying up at one of the climbing huts, before attempting the top. We have some keen mountaineering friends on the compound (Tony and Barbara Charlton) who sprint up and down in under 24 hours doing the first and last bit in the dark, but I don’t think we will try to emulate them !

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 13 Jan 1976 –

Last week we went up to Mount Kenya as this is the best time to walk at high altitudes. We camped at the top of the Sirimon track to the north of the mountain at an altitude of 11,000 ft which was quite an experience. The van couldn’t climb up the steepest gradients of the road once it got over about 9,500 ft but we were given a tow up by one of the National Park lorries who had a temporary camp at the top of the track. The temperature was 33 °F (0.5 °C) in our tent with all five of us sleeping in there when the sun came up in the morning. The stream outside froze over in places at night, but being only about a mile from the equator the sun soon warmed us up and we were well prepared with plenty of blankets and warm clothing. Fiona was the only one who suffered from the altitude – she was very lethargic and lost her appetite completely. The Park men were very kind and took the children out for little walks and made them hot drinks and generally kept an eye on them so Graham and I could leave them with an easy conscience. The men were taking stone down to the bottom of the National Park for road works but as each trip took over an hour the three men stationed at the top of the road weren’t exactly overworked and I think were glad of the diversion.

Graham and I had some marvellous walks over the moors – the views were fantastic of course as most of the surrounding countryside is only about 6000 ft and the peaks themselves are magnificent with plenty of snow and ice. On our last day we set out early and climbed up well above the snow and ice line and did some real rock climbing and reached about 15,000ft. The peak area is heavily glaciated so the climbing up is quite exciting. Of course it would be too dangerous to scramble around on the main peaks – that’s proper mountaineering, but we found we could quite safely climb on some of the smaller peaks – the main difficulty is that the altitude makes you breathless when climbing and we found it quite a struggle to walk the 10 miles or so back to camp – however a hot drink and rest soon revived us and we were able to drive the 150 miles home that evening quite comfortably.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 2 Mar 1976 –

The weekend of 21-23 Feb we went up to Mt Kenya again. We went up a different road which was very windy and at one place where the road went over a wooden bridge there was a notice saying ‘Elephants Are Requested To Walk In Single File’ ! We camped in a clearing in some bamboo near the Ranger Post. This weekend was our half-term weekend so we didn’t have to go to school on Monday. On Sunday we went for a walk up the mountain. It was a long walk at a height of about 12,000 ft. Daddy took Helen and I on to a big waterfall, the water from one of the glaciers we could see above us. At the bottom of the waterfall we found some snow. Snow ! So near the equator ! On the way up we met about 30 English soldiers staggering up with a 50lb pack. Altogether it had been another of our ‘wonderful weekends’.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 4 Mar 1976 –

Over half-term we went up to Mt Kenya and camped up the Naro Moro track at about 9,500 ft in a clearing in the bamboo close to the Ranger station. This track is the quickest way up to the peaks, only about 5 or 6 miles to Point Lenana, the highest peak one can reach without being a real mountaineer. As it is well over 16,000 ft you can imagine the nature of the walk up to it ! In fact you climb nearly 4,000 ft in the first three miles, first through beautiful deciduous forest with patches of bamboo and then up the ‘vertical bog’ an area of giant heather and tussocky grass; finally you come out onto the real moorland with magnificent views over the peaks and surrounding lowland. The higher you get the weirder the vegetation becomes with patches of giant lobelia and giant groundsel, sometimes many feet above our heads and lots of alpine type flowers. The children did very well and Graham took Juliet and Helen up to the snowline at 14,500 ft which was a great experience for them and they were only a little way from the glaciers and rocks, which seem to hang up above. Even Fiona got up a very respectable way but we felt we shouldn’t risk taking her to very high altitudes without getting her acclimatised first – the thin air definitely has quite an effect and some people become really ill. One day we left the children at the camp and walked up to the Lewis Glacier at over 15,000ft which was quite exciting. Because we had to get back to camp that day we couldn’t spend long exploring but hope to do that on our next visit when we will leave the children at home and camp at high altitude. We also hope to take some photos up there – there are some beautiful tarns and waterfalls as well as the glaciers and peaks. Because the atmosphere is so thin the sun is amazingly powerful – it’s almost exactly on the equator and we have to take elaborate precautions against sunburn. During the day it is difficult to remember how low the temperature falls at night, but there was a heavy frost even where we camped at 9,500 ft.

Letter from Juliet to Nanny & Grandad 5 Mar 1976 –

On our big walk up Mt Kenya we met some hyraxes which were very tame. Hyraxes are small creatures rather like a guinea pig only about three times the size. They are usually dark brown in colour with a little white spot in the middle of its back. It is actually a relation of the elephant because of its structure.

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 6 Oct 1976 –

Graham and I did a trip to Mt Kenya while the children were away in August but it was a failure as we both felt rotten and finally gave up and came down after 4 days. The slightest headache seems to inevitably turn into a migraine for Graham if he’s higher than 11,000 ft or so which is rather a disappointment. We’ve decided the only way to get to Lenana would be to go up and back in a day as Tony and Colin did so we may attempt that in December.