5 Days Mt Kenya Climbing: Chogoria Route

Leave early from Nairobi as early as 0630am (1,750m) the region of Chogoria town (3-4 hrs on the eastern side of Mt Kenya arriving in the late the afternoon for lunch. Then connect your 4×4 and drive through the equatorial rain forest, this forest is the home of elephants, Cape buffalo, and leopards. You may also be fortunate to see Columbus monkey on the way. You will start walking before 10 km in order to acclimatize. Afternoon hike up to the secluded campsite on the shores of Lake Ellis at an altitude of 3400m (3hrs walk). Dinner and overnight in the Camp

After breakfast, you will follow the trail as it leads up through glades of montane forest climbing away from Lake Ellis on its west side, across moorland to a ridge that eventually joins the main Chogoria trail. On this day depending on the pace and group spirit we can either have hot lunch on the way or our crews will be ahead of us and upon arriving in the camp they will have prepared our lunch and hot drinks. This is subject to how the trekkers will advise but basically since it’s a 5-6 walk hot lunch is normally ready in the camp as our crews always walk ahead of guests to make sure the tents and the Lunch are on time just before we get into the camp. Beautiful views of Vivienne Falls and the Gorges Valley on the descent to the picturesque campsite next to Lake Michaelson. Dinner and overnight in the same Camp

Breakfast will be served around 0730am since today’s hike is rather short. Climbing away from the beautiful Lake Michaelson ascends into the alpine zone, a world of rock and ice as we go up towards the main peaks, leaving behind the giant lobelias and groundsels and onto glacial moraine. A last short, flat-screen takes us to Australian Hut (4700m), where we overnight. This will be a cold night depending on the weather on that day, good and warm clothes are worthwhile, warm sleeping bags counts for this night as you are just a few meters to the peak. Dinner and overnight in the Camp.

Wake up call at 04:30 am, have a cup of Coffee or tea biscuits will also be served but keep it right to avoid constipation due to slow digestion, then we start the Alpine ascent to the highest peak Pt. Lenana {4985m} m (17,058ft) starts at 05:00hrs, taking 1 hr to reach Pt. Lenana 4985m (the hikers’ summit) in time to watch the sunrise. This is the most challenging bit of the Mount Kenya Trekking and will require a strong mind and the will as well as the spirit of Adventure to reach the summit but it is not challenging like Hiking Kili at Stella Point. On a clear day you can see the snow-capped summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in the South. We normally get to the summit around 0600.0630hrs before sunrise, take photos as many as we can. After your photography and viewing opportunity, surrounded by glaciers and ice rock caves, descend leisurely to Mintos hut, 2hrs, for hot breakfast. Thereafter descend further down for about 2-3 hours to Road head for picnic lunch. At this point, your body will be gaining strength as you are now going down from high altitude to normal and your mind will be calm though might be tired from the long day walk. In the next 2 hours you arrive at Chogoria Park gate where the memories of Mt. Kenya becomes real, you will be received by our crews who always walks ahead and you will have hot African Tea or Coffee while dinner and overnight will be served as early as 1900hrs

The day will be calm and the breakfast will be served at around 0700am, after a leisurely breakfast, you walk about 10 km down through the forest to meet our driver who will drive you down the rest of the track and onto Chogoria town where we normally part ways with the other crews and we head back to Nairobi and have hot lunch on the way back to Nairobi arriving late afternoon with a drop off to your respective residential places