Scaling the Mount Elgon heights

The trail we opted for is a five-day trail, but we thought we could do it in four days. Andrew only advised us that in order to enjoy the mountain experience, we had to do it slowly. We then paid the park fees (Shs15,000 per person) and paid for the support team (Shs60,000) that we needed on the climb, which included two ranger guides, one cook and five porters to carry our luggage, including our food. We also agreed on and paid for tents, cooking utensils and binoculars. We then drove 5.5 kilometers to Bumasola Village, which is 1,790 feet above sea level, and the point at which our climb was to start. We off loaded the car, got our rucksacks and we each got some snacks to pack for the day – a small bag of raisins, two packets of gonja (plantain) crisps, one packet of salty crackers, one packet of sneakers (minis) and two bottles of water each.

Francis, our main guide, told us the section of the mountain that we were about to climb would be one of the toughest during the whole climb, and on that note, we set off on our journey. Time check was 10.05 am. We took a path behind one of the shops at Bumasola, which immediately led us to the trail we were going to use. And it was instantly steep!

Sasa River Camp
After the rest at the cliff, we made our way through a forested section of the mountain, all the way to our first camp – Sasa River Camp. Sasa Camp is 2,900 feet above sea level. All the camps on the mountain are rudimentary in nature. Most of them consist of a kitchen, several bathrooms and also a big hut/dormitory type structure, made of wood and covered with iron sheets. Most of these structures are still incomplete. They have bunk beds made of just bare wood, but no mattresses. We arrived at the camp at 2.05 pm, totally exhausted! While at the base, we had assumed we would walk all the way to the second camp –called Mude Cave Camp, but we failed to make it there. After a much needed cup of tea, we rested a while and then asked our lead guide about the possibility of taking a bath.

He laughed at us so hard and told us that on the mountain, people do not bathe because the water is ice cold. But we desperately needed to bathe, so he pointed us to towards Sasa River. With no basin or bucket to use, we literally had to step into the river to take a bath. That water was the iciest water I have ever encountered! We managed to wash the essential body parts before quickly jumping out.
We went to bed quite early (8.30 pm) that first night. Michelle and I shared a tent, Bernard had a tent and my brother sleept in the dormitory, having forgotten to come with the right number of pegs for his tent. During the night, it rained and Bernard’s tent got wet. He had to move to the dormitory.
The night was a long one partly because we went to bed quite early, and also because we kept waking up through the night due to the cold and discomfort of sleeping on the ground in a tent in body-hugging sleeping bags.

The Climb Begins

We started off with a lot of vigor and before we were five minutes into the climb, we were panting heavily and sweating profusely, and we saw our path winding all the way up and disappearing somewhere way above us. This was going to be a long day! The climb itself was a shock to the system. The mountain immediately humbled us and we now knew why Andrew had advised that we couldn’t climb as quickly as we thought we could. We were quiet for most of that time because we needed all the energy we could muster, just to keep on climbing.
We had our first major break 10 minutes into the climb. The first half of the climb took us through the community zone. Part of the lower ranges of the Elgon Mountain is inhabited by people, before the part that is gazetted as Mount Elgon National Park. Our second stop, another 10 minutes later, was at a home where the inhabitants had left for the day.

We rested at a stone in the compound. We continued the climb up to the Elgon Park entrance, which separates the community settlement from the park, and that is where we encountered the Wall of Death. Previously, people would die trying to cross that section of the mountain, because it is mostly made up of rocks, on a steep part of the mountain and with no support whatsoever. Now, the climb is made less perilous because there are steep metal steps. Walking on those steps was scary, and because we were so high up, I was too scared to look down. We made it over the flight of steps –at least three in all, and took a rest at Mudange cliff. This was about two hours into our climb – and while we were resting, the cook and porters, whom we had left at Bumasola, still packing up our stuff, caught up with us at the cliff. Those people are truly experienced climbers. We watched in shock and awe as they carried our luggage and seemed to walk with ease.

Mude Cave Camp

On the second day of the climb, Tuesday May 26, we woke up just after 6 am. We had breakfast before we started our walk at 8.15 am. Half of the walk that day was through the forest. Since my feet were so tired from the first day, I discarded my climbing boots, and instead opted to wear my trainers (canvass shoes). I figured that wearing much lighter shoes would enable me not get so tired. Boy did I make the wrong choice! Most of the forest ground we walked through was still quite wet from the previous night rainfall. By the time we stopped for our first rest, two hours into the hike, my shoes and socks were totally soaked with water! When we stopped to rest, I changed into my climbing boots once again. When hiking on a mountain, it is always best to wear water proof foot wear!

The hike that second day was the easiest and most pleasant of the five days. The weather was warm and sunny, and the vegetation changed from forest to heath. We made it to Mude Cave Camp at 11.45 am and decided to relax for the rest of the day. The camp is named after an infamous poacher called Mude, who, in his time, managed to elude the authorities. He finally died in a cave where the camp site is located.

Mude Camp was quite cold. It is 3,900 metres above sea level and is surrounded by about five hills. It was fascinating to watch the clouds completely envelop the valleys and hills almost every five minutes, and with the clouds came a sharp cold wind that chilled us to the bone. One of the things that most struck me about Mude Camp was the silence of the mountain. There is hardly any sound, except the occasional bird chirping. A few days before the climb, Michelle had shared a verse from the Bible with me, that says the mountains sing (Isaiah 55:12), and I was looking forward to hearing the music of the mountain. I tried to make out the music through the stillness, until it struck me that the stillness and silence is the music of the mountain.

At the peak
I believe it is every climber’s dream to get to the peak. Ever since we started the journey from Kampala to Mbale, we had been filled with anticipation of the day and the moment that we would reach the peak of Mount Elgon. Throughout those first three days, we kept chanting “Walai, we shall reach Wagagai – no lie! So it was with much excitement that we woke up on Wednesday May 27. Our dream was going to come true!

The climb to Wagagai from Mude Cave Camp is nine kilometers, and Wagagai is 4,321 metres above sea level. That day, I wore my T-shirt that bore the word “Uganda”. I wanted to take pictures at the top of the mountain, wearing that particular T-shirt, as a representation of my Ugandan-ness, but also in honour of the saying that Uganda is gifted by nature.
We started the hike to the peak at 6.50 am. Francis, our lead ranger-guide, warned us about altitude sickness, since we were going to climb quite high that day. Some of the signs of altitude sickness were a fast beating heart and a feeling of loss of breath. We were to stop and rest if we experienced any of the symptoms.

The hike that day was quite steep. It was only made pleasant by the sunny conditions and the beautiful vegetation. We stopped about three times, to rest and catch our breath. One of the stops was by Jackson’s pool, a small but very beautiful pool with clear clean water. Jackson’s pool is one of the Jackson three on the mountain – the other being Jackson Peak, the second highest peak of Mount Elgon, and Jackson table – a large, long, flat rock.
We walked over quite a number of steep rocks and at some point, we managed to access telephone network – well, one of us did, Michelle. You should have seen the spring in our step after we made calls to our families. I sensed some renewed energy and a briskness like I had not witnessed since the start of the hike that day.

As we made our way to the top, we passed by some crater lakes in a valley. We stopped at that point to rest, take pictures and admire the scenery. We then proceeded towards the level just below the peak. We were told that level, about 20 minutes before the peak, is called the “failures hill”. There are actually rocks piled there by people who fail to make it all the way to the peak. We asked the ranger why anyone would stop so close to the top and fail to make it. They told us that it is often attributable to altitude sickness. We thanked God that apart from dizziness, which most of us felt, none of us had had a bad experience of altitude sickness.

Reaching Wagagai peak was a feat in itself. I cannot quite fully explain the feeling of getting there. There is exhilaration, a feeling of accomplishment, a feeling of awe at being at the top of a mountain that is quite different from anything I have ever experienced. It is also a humbling feeling – to know that you are among a select few Ugandans that will ever experience getting to the top of any of the many mountains we have in our country.

What struck me was that the peak was not necessarily pointy. Right from childhood, we are taught to draw a mountain as an inverted letter ‘V’, but a mountain is nothing like that. Mountains are a collection of many hills, they are also interspersed with a few planes, and that is what we saw when we got to the peak – not a sharp pointy tip, but a flat-ish, very rocky top. And standing at that point and looking around, we saw many of the hills and plains that are a part of Mountain Elgon.
We spent about 30 minutes at the top, taking pictures, resting and taking the scenery in. We could not stay too long because it was quite cold at the top. After that, we started the nine kilometre descent. We left the peak at noon and were back at Mude Camp at 3.57 pm.
That evening, we had a meal of matooke and beef stew for supper – our own small way of celebrating our achievement.

The journey back
The achievement of climbing to Wagagai Peak was slightly dampened for me because of the prospect of walking 37 kilometres on our fourth day of the climb.
We got up bright and early, packed up our bags and were ready to hit the trail by 6.15 am. For our descent, we did the Sipi Trail. We did the journey in two parts – the first was a 20 kilometre hike to Kajeri Camp, where we stopped for lunch, and then the remaining 17 kilometres took us all the way to Tutum Cave Camp where we spent our final night on the mountain.

The scenery along the trail is breathtaking! We walked by a big gorge called Simu Gorge. We also walked through part of the caldera. A caldera is a large volcanic crater, typically one formed by a major eruption leading to the collapse of the mouth of the volcano. Mount Elgon has one of the largest calderas in the world! We also walked by a big cave in Simu, and our rangers told us that particular cave is used by smugglers who deal in coffee between Uganda and Kenya.

What was most frustrating about the walk that day was not only its length, but the very many steep hills we had to climb. Our vision of descending a mountain was that we would be going downhill all the way. Indeed, I had visions from some movies I have watched where people run down a mountain. I expected to run down the mountain with a hop, skip and jump, but that was far from it! We ascended 18 very steep hills during the 37 kilometre walk!
At some point, as we walked through a forest, it began to rain. We walked through the rain for two and a half hours. Luckily, we had the appropriate rain gear, but it was still unpleasant. At some point, with legs tired, fingers frozen from the cold, gloves wet from the rain, I called out to the lead guide that I was tired of the journey. I wanted to sit down and give up on walking. I almost cried at that point.

The journey was not helped by the fact that the last descent to Tutum Cave Camp was perilous. We had to go down very slowly over moss-covered boulders. They were very slippery and wet and so slowed our journey considerably.
I was glad to finally reach Tutum – our resting place for the night. By the time we arrived, our tents were already pitched. I drank a cup of tea, ate a sandwich and promptly went to bed. I did not have strength to eat supper. As I drifted off to sleep, I marveled at how we had walked for 11 hours and 30 minutes that day and still managed to arrive alive.

Final descent
It rained that night, but at that point, I was too tired to care. Luckily for me, my tent did not leak. However, two of my colleagues were not so lucky. On Friday May 29, we woke up bright and early, packed our bags and had our last breakfast on the mountain-a sumptuous one. By 7 am, we were ready to leave not just the camp, but also the mountain. We still had another 11 kilometre walk to get through before getting to Kapkwai Gate, our final destination of the trail. We set off with the determination of a people on a mission, but our vigour was quickly snuffed by the fact that we had a few more hills to climb before our final descent. This time though, the hills were not as steep as the ones we had encountered on our 37 kilometre walk the previous day. Instead, what was hard was the descent. The place was very steep going down! It practically felt like we were going down into a deep and bottomless pit. At some point, in order to descend safely, we had to engage the ‘rear gear’ (or the bum gear to be more precise!). This would entail one literally going down part of the mountain using their behind!

When we got to a flatter ground, we increased our pace and we made it to Kapkwai Gate by 10am. Kapkwai is on the Kapchorwa side of Mount Elgon. We started the climb in one district – Budadiri, and ended it in another district – Kapchorwa! We were tired but at the same time exceedingly exhilarated at having conquered our first mountain. Prior to leaving Tutum Cave Camp, we had asked our chef to prepare some hot water for us for a bath at Kapkwai. Just before we bade our support team farewell, we shared some birthday cake with them. Bernard, one of the climbers, had his birthday a few days before we climbed Elgon. It was a bitter-sweet farewell. As we left Kapkwai, we toyed with the idea of maybe, just maybe, coming back to Mount Elgon after two years – to celebrate our second anniversary of the climb. Until that day, if it ever comes, we have many more mountains to climb…….