Climbing Mt Kenya, the Fun Way

Climbing Mt Kenya, the Fun Way

In your final year of prep school in Kenya, many schools offer their children the incredible opportunity to climb Mt Kenya with all their friends (and one parent per child) before graduating to senior school. To my horror, some of the Mummy’s I’m close to thought it would be a wonderful idea if it were us this time!

As our Christmas cheer and New Year’s Eve clinking drew to a close in early 2026, it dawned on us that we had six weeks until we were to climb Mt Kenya. PANIC!!!!!!

6 weeks later….

Every hill and mountain in the Rift Valley was climbed (Katie, you’re the BEST panic-training, fanny-pack wearing partner a gal could have!). The monthly salary was spent on Merino socks, thermals, ponchos, handwarmers and 4-season sleeping bags! And I’ve got to be honest, I was terrified! Terrified about what to pack, terrified about what was in store for us.

Please see my What to Pack blog here: My Mt Kenya Packing List

Getting ready to go

We all decided to drive the 3-4 hour drive to Nanyuki a day early so we could start mentally and physically preparing together as a gaggle. After a comfortable night in Soames Hotel, a charming little boutique hotel facing Mt Kenya, with super comfy beds and delicious food, we had a good night sleep, overdosed on food, managed to keep off the wine and starting nervous giggling our way to Chogoria gate, where we had planned to start our climb.

The Chogoria route is on the eastern side of the mountain. This is the most scenic route. There are generally fewer people on this route; it’s a more gradual ascent, so better for acclimatisation… and at the top, I believe it’s the warmest side in the mornings because of the sun’s angle. Perfect.

Our route consisted of:

• Night 1 – A beautiful campsite under huge trees near Chogoria Gate
• Night 2 – Lake Ellis
• Night 3 – Lake Michaelson
• Night 4 – Mintos
• Night 5 – Chogoria Gate

Day 1 – Acclimatising

The 20+/- kids arrived in fine fettle after an 8-hour school bus journey. Savage Wilderness, who were looking after us for the entire climb, provided a delicious picnic lunch, and then the heavens opened; a wonderful way to just get on with it.

We started our short walk with the charming Lance, a guide and medic (my panic started dissipating) in full mountain-rain gear, ponchos, brolly’s, fanny packs, waterproof trousers etc. in the bucketing rain, through beautiful large trees to our first camp. Roomies chosen… Thank you, Lippa for being the very BEST roomie a gal could ask for! Did we ever stop chuckling, chortling & uncontrollably giggling? I don’t think so 😄

Bedroll out, top-bunk in, night-clothes on under outer layers and the next day clothes unpacked… big warm supper absorbed. We were then given the next-day guidelines from the wonderful Savage team. This was given to an excited gaggle of parents (6 Mums & 8 Dads) and 12-13yr old kids that were having too much fun to speak to us 😅. Our first night of pre-8pm bedtime begins. Sleep? No, apparently that’s not something that happens at altitude with an orchestra of chuckling, chatting, whispering, farting, elephants trumpeting, zipping and unzipping of sleeping tents, zipping & unzipping of loo tents!

Day 2 – The Catch Up

We awoke early to gentle wake-up calls, got changed, cleaned our teeth, packed up our beds (easier than it sounds, I may have brought a princess bed 😄), packed our bags, got allocated a porter (saviour) for our luggage, and giggled over a hearty breakfast before setting off on our first day’s walk to Lake Ellis.

The kids always walked ½ an hour or so before us so they could keep together, and then the parents took off with our wonderfully reliable man-of-the-mountain, ‘Holy Moses’. As we wound our way, chattering about everyone’s lives, achievements, worries & concerns, memories and plans up the road to the Nithi waterfall, where much of our group had a little dip and where, much to our delight, we spotted our first African brown bush snake🤪.

Feeling refreshed, we walked & chatted up through moorland and tussock grass, heather and beautiful blooming proteas, spotting two beautiful chameleons and a ladybird. We stopped occasionally for a sliver of biltong, a quick drink of water, some mixed nuts, and gently walked up, up, up to Lake Ellis, at an altitude of 3,200m.

We spent the afternoon unpacking, fishing (not so successful), having a refreshing dip in the lake, maybe a tiny tipple of sloe gin to warm the cockles (recommended 😄), squeezing into the great little social teepees, guidelines from the Savage heroes, eating more delicious warm food and more sweet tea… yum.. and bed.

Day 3 – Off The Beaten Track

Another fresh start (well, unfresh bodies but fresh air 😂), we popped out of our teeny tents, ate more, drank more, packed up and set off on another day. We walked around the lake, crossed over the valley, and followed a grassy ridge up the mountain, up the mountain, up, up the mountain ass..cent, ass…cent, a bit more biltong, a sip of water, ass..cent we went. With breathtaking views, moorlands, stormy skies and finally we reached the highest point, for a hearty hotdog lunch-with-a-view (well, there wasn’t a view at all as we were clouded in and it was raining, but I understand there usually is an amazing view 🙃)

We then went down, down, down, slushing and squelching through the handsome & hardy Giant Groundsel to Lake Michaelson at 3,961m, one of the most spectacular campsites on the whole mountain. Pheow, we were flabbergasted. Here we settled into our new campsite, put on our jarmies (thermals), added a few new outer-layers, sauntered around, got all cosy in the teepees with more giggles, more chat, more hearty meals, sweet tea and absorbed the surroundings with the rock hyrax bouncing around us and the red-winged starlings chit chattering… and off to bed!

Day 4 – It Snowed!!!

As we unzipped our tents, the frost snapped off the nylon, and we peeked out to the most beautiful morning we’d seen so far! A beautiful, clear, sun-infused Lake Michealson! Hmmm, this is why people do this, I thought!!!

After another hearty breakfast, we didn’t hesitate to go on a little extra walk around it, or fish in it (very successful!) before we started our uphill climb out of the colosseum to Mintos camp at 4,200m. Up, up, up we walked through the thinning air, lots of supportive comments from the kids and adults. Kids-Yo! Yeah bruv! You got this! Adults-You can do it! you OK? How you feeling? Biltong? ….. and what a climb it was too, but just so beautiful, and dry.

The heavens were kind to us until we arrived at Mintos camp, then the heavens opened and the hail began… the kids were delighted, they thought it was snow and of course all rushed out to enjoy it … a snowball fight began, a teeny tiny snowman and competitive snow-cricket, with an umbrella as the bat and three walking poles as the stump … fun times! Once that idea became tired, we went for another little extra 20-minute walk to see the ‘temple’, a 500ft vertical cliff that gets its name from the position visitors often adopt when peering over the edge, they look as if they are praying! Terrifying but incredible. Back to camp for more of the same, and we may not have even made 8pm today! Another night of resting the weary bones with not much memory of sleep.

Day 5 – Summit Day!!! 🏔️

More gentle wake-up calls from Glen and exciting calls from King Julian, and we popped up in layers & layers in the crispy dark morning, overflowing with excitement, overcoming fear and after a bowl of sweet porridge & sweet tea at 4am, we were as ready as we’d ever be…

We begin our prison march, plod, plod, plod, plod …. in the dark … lots of layers, head torches, lots of water (though my pipe to my water bladder had frozen .. worry set in), lots of puffing, panting, trying to catch a breath, giggling, checking on each other, are you OK? How are you feeling? All good? … and on we went!!!

The best advice I was given today is, ‘today isn’t about the body, it’s about the head’. This made me happy, my body and my lungs were shattered, but I know I have a hard head 😄. I plodded and plodded, shuffled and puffed, and in no time, the most beautiful orange sunrise popped up behind us which helped to push us along some more. The team of parents were so incredibly helpful, as soon as I fought my way out of my jacket, a Dad whisked it off me and carried it (forever grateful); I shuffled, climbed, puffed and panted some more, we giggled, talked about previous mountain climbs, public farting, sniggered, puffed some more, rested, plodded, rested, clambered and climbed…

By 9am, I could hear encouraging words from the kids on top of the mountain (you can do it Chans, yeah Chans, Yo bruv 😀, nearly there!!) and 5 minutes later, I was on top of the world. I did it!!! I did it! I never expected to do this. The tears started, oh dear! They then stopped, and the photos started… poor Billy, not cool 😋 What a feeling though!

After the elation died down, it dawned on us that the clouds were rolling in and we had another 35km to walk today… down, down, down, pack up, have breaky, descent, descent, descent, have lunch, down, down, down and back to Chogoria camp. After the scree (a new word for me, annoying stuff for people my age 😌), the walk was utterly beautiful, not hard, magical and long… what a beautiful and exhausting walk, we’d done it!

Back in familiar territory, we all relaxed, a wee tipple of whiskey, a tiny bit of port, some more whisky, a different whiskey and a little bit different whisky again… and the giggles began, uncontrollable, wheezie giggles, nicknames, chair-braking laughter… before we wound our way to bed for our final smelly night, no showers, no washing hair… the thought of a bath had become real!

Day 6 – Parting Company

Were we ready to part company? What a week we’d all had. What a wonderful time we’d all had. I’d just loved getting to know Billy’s friends more, what a cracking bunch of encouraging mischief they are! I’d loved getting to know the adults more, I’m so proud to have climbed Mt Kenya with such a positive, hilarious, brave, supportive group of kind (also encouraging & mischievous) adults. I could have stayed longer with this hearty bunch, but a bath was truly calling. Cheers to us, we did it and had fun in the meantime!

The main thing I learnt from this trip was it’s not what you do, but who you do it with. You’ve got to dig deep to climb a mountain such as Mt Kenya. When your key life skills usually revolve around knowing every luxury lodge in East Africa, their best cocktails, you can down a pint incredibly fast and most importantly, knowing how to have a jolly good time. None of these align perfectly with climbing a mountain, but they do help.

May I also note, don’t climb Mt Kenya with Savage Wilderness if you’re looking to lose weight 🤣 (we ate soooooo much and so well). Instead, climb with them if you want to reach the top of the mountain and have a lot of fun whilst doing it!! Of course, we’d love for you to book your entire Kenyan adventure through us at The SAFARI Company so we can organise all transport, accommodations and the climb itself. We guarantee you won’t pay more if you book through us.