Ok sorry for the delay, I have been in Hong Kong and been very busy. I landed last Thursday and everything went smoothly. Lee arrived later that night and we made it to our apartment room for the night. We were under the assumption that Taylor was coming in the next day, originally we thought he was coming in on Thursday too but he booked a flight to leave on August 2nd not arrive then. But no big deal we would get him the next evening. Well Trout being Trout was joking around that Taylor was probably not going to be on his flight. We had not heard much from Taylor the days leading up to leaving so we were a bit worried. On Friday morning we went to a coffee shop before heading out to sightsee that day and Trout logged onto his email. To his amazement and all the people in the place (he was laughing very loud; as were we) Taylor had missed his flight and was not coming in until the next day, saturday morning. He said he could not describe the entire story why but he had missed his flight. But I will save more for the next post. We have been sightseeing and Taylor is here now fine but I went to finish Mt. Elgon.
So back to Mt. Elgon and "Dead Man's Wall." This area of the hike is the hardest on the entire mountain. The name was given because before recently ropes were used to get up the rock cliff and many people fell to their deaths. Now there is a much more safe way to climb up with a couple wooden ramps to assist in certain areas. But this by no means it is actually that safe or easy to climb. The area is full of mud you can sink almost 1 ft; it is slippery, full of small and large rocks, and there is about only a couple feet between you and the edges of the trail. So all this combined it is still quite challenging. But as they say in swahili, "pole pole ndio mwendo" or rather slow is best. So both myself and Moses trekked up dead man's wall and we made it just fine. My porter, who was not wearing shoes got up even quicker than us! After the wall you have now entered a rain forest and the trail is a lot less steep but still very muddy and wet. Since I had not eaten since breakfast the altitude (which was not that much at this point) and the quickness we had been moving to get to the camp before evening made me a bit lightheaded and I got quite tired. But I pushed on and continued to drink lots of water. The rain forest is very beautiful and I will post more photos a little later. There are also pockets of bamboo forests within the rain forest area too. We finally reached the first camp in about 4 hours, which most do it in 6 so it was grueling. The camp was still in the rain forest and we joined with another group, a guide and a Canadian couple who were hiking up the mt. and had been in Africa touring for 2 months. I set my tent up and the porter and guides got a fire going to make dinner and just relax. This would be how the rest of the days would go. Hiking in the morning and getting back to a camp by mid afternoon before it rained. Then the evening would be just relaxing, taking a nap, eating, or just enjoying the company of the guides or Chris and Zoe the Canadian couple because they would follow me the entire time. That night I slept in my tent, which I rented, and it did rain but I stayed quite dry.
The next day was the easy day. All we would do that day is move from the 1st camp to the 2nd camp which only had a change in altitude from 2900 meters to 3400 meters or around 9000 ft to 11000 ft or so. This day is meant to let you adjust to the altitude and to prepare you for the ascent to the peak the next day. So even though it would be short we still left early in the morning, around 6:30, so that we could drop our stuff at the camp then make a short side trip to this waterfall nearby. We left after a short breakfast and headed up. For about the 1st hour of hiking the rain forest continued but once we got above 3100 meters or so the large trees can't get enough water anymore and they disappear leaving more bamboo forest. But the bamboo forest eventually disappears too and just simple greasses and these strange trees that look like Dr. Seuss items are the only stuff left. Plus it gets much rockier. This is good because now you can see for miles and really take in the scenary. Upon reaching the 2nd camp we just dropped our stuff and grabbed some food and headed out for the waterfall. Rain was on the horizon so we were in a rush to get there and back dry. It was a short walk but it was downhill towards the waterfall but that would be the opposite coming back. I have a photo up of the waterfall and I will post more but it was beautiful, probably around 10 meters tall. But we did not stay long, just stayed for a few pictures, and then raced back to beat the rain. We actually arrived just before the rain and I have to thank Moses for rushing me because the Canadian couple waited to long and were leaving just when we arrived and had to walk a bit through the rain. As the night before we setup camp, relaxed, and had some dinner.
On monday July 30th we were planning on reaching the peak. The trek is very long and another large elevation gain, from 3400 meters to 4331 meters. We were going to leave again early in the morning so hopefully we will get to the peak when it is clear from clouds. The trek is expected to take 4 hours but right after we started I had a feeling we would get there a lot earlier. We were moving very fast but I enjoyed that it was getting me back into shape so I did not complain. The trek is very beautiful because you hike up most of the altitude to the crator rim and then walk along the rim to the peak. Hiking up the air was fairly clear so that you could see more miles. Once upon the crator rim you can look out to the otherside, which is Kenya, and over the entire Mt. The caldera is actually the largest in the world reaching over 40 square miles. Since we had been moving so quickly that when we reached the crator rim I felt lightheaded again and very tired but I knew the peak was only a bit farther so once again I pushed on. The last bit to the peak is extremely rocky and is more like a climb. Once at the peak it really was not that impressive because clouds rolled in and you could not see much more than about 50 yards. In addition it was below freezing and with winds of around 15 mph. So we only stayed for pictures and then descended again. At this point really the trek was pretty much over. Everything else would be downhill though it still was not going to be that easy because there was about another 40-50 kilometers to walk back through to get to the starting place, Budadiri. We started going back down and ran by Chris and Zoe. They had taken a much longer time to reach the peak--we did it in a blazing 2 hours instead of usual 4 hours. Which this actually hurt us because they luckily had the clouds part for just a few minutes giving Chris and Zoe and great view....oh well.
We headed back down the mt. now even faster because it was downhill and got to the 2nd camp around noon. We grabbed some food and packed up to head to the 1st camp. We were going to spend the night there so there would be less to travel on Tuesday morning so I could get back to the hospital at a decent hour. Once we got back into the rain forest I realized it was not actually easy descending. It had been raining in the morning in the forest and it was terribly muddy. So I had to have the porter make me a bamboo walking stick so that I could stabilize myself. But eventually we reached the first camp racking up around 30 km or around 18 miles of walking in the day. There was another group there, a young boy Luke and his father Nick who have been living with there family in Uganda for 10 years as missionaries. It was great to talk to them and I made good friends with Luke--he wanted me to climb again with them. We talked until late in the night and then went to bed.
The next morning we got another early start to head back to Budadiri so I could get a cab to Mbale to meet my driver. Then I would go back to Mukono and take a taxi to the hospital....it was going to be a long day. We started around 7 and made great time until reaching dead man's wall again. This had to be done just as slow as going up because it was very wet still and muddy. Though this time I seem to have more skill and I had a walking stick so I got through it without even one fall into the mud. We left the park and got to the final village and then had to walk on the dirt road back to the ranger station. The hike was tough and I was relieved to finally get on a taxi. But this was once again just the beginning as I had another 4-5 hours of being couped up in a car or even worse a taxi. But by 6:00pm I had reunited with Dr. Kabuye again and was relieved to be back at "home" again.
But this was only short lived, I had to say goodbye to the hospital staff and pack everything back up again because we needed to leave by 9 a.m. to get to Entebbe for my flight at 3:00 p.m. on August 1st. I was sad to say goodbye to my friends but I really hope to go back. I told them though I was going to learn better Luganda before coming back. So now I have tons more to tell but I can't take writing anymore so I will update tomorrow. We are going to Macau to check it out and I have setup the internet on my phone so I can update at any point. Having a blast in Hong Kong and Taylor and Trout are having a great time too. It has been really funny to see Lee be back at his home and to see how exact he is compared to his sister....haha. So will put more pics up tomorrow and more articles.
