Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Today we are continuing our 7-day circumambulation of Mt. Kenya . The other posts from my Africa trip: Arusha , Tarangire National Park , South Serengeti Part 1 , South Serengeti Part 2 ,  the rest of the Serengeti tour ,  Ngorogoro Crater ,  Mt. Meru , and Mt. Kenya, Part 1 The fourth day of our round-the-mountain hike we woke to find that the winds that had plagued us the previous day hadn't died in the night. That wasn't really news: I'd had to get up at 2 a.m. to re-secure tent lines which had pulled out in the fierce gusts. Our dining tent had been dismantled the night before. But the cook tent, dismayingly, was a mess of broken poles and ripped nylon. And none of the staff--ours or those of the other party camped next to us--was to be found. Despite the wind, it was a beautiful morning. I had a pretty good hunch we'd find our crew up at the hut--after all, that heap of collapsed tentage was their "bunkhouse." And eventually our guide, Nicholas, crawled ...

Continuing with our Africa saga, today we are heading for Mt. Kenya, for a 7-day circumambulation of the peaks. The other posts from this trip: Arusha , Tarangire National Park , South Serengeti Part 1 , South Serengeti Part 2 ,  the rest of the Serengeti tour ,  Ngorogoro Crater , and Mt. Meru . Another ancient and extinct stratovolcano , Mt. Kenya (second highest mountain in Africa at 17,057') has a summit made up of a number of volcanic "necks," with the mountain eroded out from around them. These peaks, with the exception of the 3rd highest (Lanana, 16,355') are technical rock climbs and far out of our bailiwick. Our mission was to hike most of the way around the mountain (actually a giant "U" that almost, but not quite, connects the loop) and to summit the "trekker's peak--Point Lanana.  This view from Shipton hut on the NNE side of the mountain shows the main summits (I can't distinguish Batian and Nelion; they may both be in that separ...