The hike started with a nice trip through a tunnel.
You can't quite stand up straight, and you can't see your face in front of your hand without some sort of light. Luckily Kenya equips its cell phones with flashlights, so we had a wee bit of light to guide us. We slowly but surely made our way through the tunnel, breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the light at the end, and then groaned a nice groan when we saw the next stage: climbing straight up the side of a hill.
After pulling ourselves up by plant roots and being careful not to fall off the side, we made it up to the top - to the train tracks. Now the train tracks were probably the easiest part of the whole hike - no steep inclines (other than the sides of the track), no sliding dirt, etc. However, somehow this is where I managed to take a nice fall. 15 minutes into the hike and I pretty much kill my leg, allowing the pain to stay with me for the next 7.5 hrs of hiking. Nice Amanda, real nice.
Right after I fell... it knocked the wind out of me so I needed a little resty...We followed the tracks for a little over a mile before turning off onto another steep path that would take us into some of the most beautiful, movie-like scenery I've ever seen. Sarah (our fearless leader) pointed out the path miles ahead - you could see it on the side of the hills. We realized we were in for a LONG hike, but we didn't realize how hard it would be...
If you look closely you can see our trail - right through the middle of the picture.
We made our way through all sorts of pokey bushes, past slippery slopes, up Wrench Hill (you had to have been there...), around dangerous bee nests (or so we thought...), and killed about every muscle in our bodies to finally reach our destination: the waterfalls. There are apparently a string of waterfalls in these hills, and we reached the top of one of them where we decided to rest. 
Actually a different waterfall, but that's okay...
The group at the waterfalls. They were obviously dried up a little bit, unfortunately...
We took some pictures, watched some monkeys, gazed up at human-looking trees, and ate our snacks before half of the group decided to go see another one higher up.
If you look closely you can see our trail - right through the middle of the picture.
We made our way through all sorts of pokey bushes, past slippery slopes, up Wrench Hill (you had to have been there...), around dangerous bee nests (or so we thought...), and killed about every muscle in our bodies to finally reach our destination: the waterfalls. There are apparently a string of waterfalls in these hills, and we reached the top of one of them where we decided to rest. 
Actually a different waterfall, but that's okay...
The group at the waterfalls. They were obviously dried up a little bit, unfortunately...
We took some pictures, watched some monkeys, gazed up at human-looking trees, and ate our snacks before half of the group decided to go see another one higher up.They never came back.
They climbed up a steep cliff and realized they couldn't get down, so they had to make their way around the rim of the hills and forge their own path. All the while, we that stayed behind had to find our way back on our own. We had a few adventures of our own, including some stinging nettle and different liquids... :) Both groups ended up making it back to the train tracks at about the same time and we hiked the last leg of our adventure - back on the train tracks - together. 7.5 hours after leaving my front yard, we returned, a lot dirtier, most a bit bloodier, and everyone much more tired than we began. We spent the rest of the night doctoring our wounds and laying around, moving as little as possible. We were a pitiful sight, but everyone was more than pumped that we did it.
My bruise colored quite nicely... 
My bruise colored quite nicely... 
Yay hiking :)
No comments:
Post a Comment