Mt. Suswa Hike: "The Rim Challenge" - (10.01.2015)

I enjoy the outdoors a great deal and once in a while I will join a group of hikers and hike around.

 This past weekend I joined Xtrym Adventures & Safaris group to hike Mt. Suswa. It was not an easy task I must say, as I type this my body still aches in places unimaginable and my walking style is still wanting...he he

Approximately 90+ people participated in the first 2015 hiking adventure - the Mt. Suswa Rim Challenge.

 Mt. Suswa is in Narok County, managed by the local community under the umbrella Mt. Suswa Conservancy. The area is inhabited by a majority Maasai community who are pastoralists. The conservancy charges 500/- per head which goes to preservation and conservation of the conservancy.

Being the typical African timer, I boarded the last bus ( No 4.) that left Nairobi at around 6.45am arriving the start point at 8.30am. We had an Introduction to our guides of the day and some information about the conservancy was shared. A little warm up and off we set out for the summit at 9.15 am.
 The terrain is tough with enough rock outcrops and it being super hot made it a tad more difficult for the trek. Maintaining a pace that was convenient for me, I stopped several times and napped for close to 11 minutes at some point... but "I" finally did get to the summit at 4.32 pm. Getting to the summit depended entirely on one's individual pace.  A myriad of feeling coursed through my body but the best was one achievement. Like here was 2015, I could take anything...bring it on!

Once at the top, twas' a quick lunch and little rest affair before the trek down began. Well, it always been easy going downhill. By 6.30pm most of us were at the foot of Mt. Suswa with about 10 plus kilometers left to get to the buses. 
Darkness was checking in, and with no mobile reception, there was no way to communicate with the bus pilots to come pick us, the walk continued. And we walked, and walked, and walked some more... with no hope of network reception nor the buses in sight. It was super dark!

Remember the hyena and leopard stories your 'nana' shared to warn you against mischief after dark...well,  story time was up. Fear and panic checked in with tales  of, you guessed it right, yes! hyenas and leopards having been spotted in the area. Thank God for mobile phones as a short trek later, we got network signal and it being safer walking at night in large groups, my group signaled those behind us to catch up.

At around 9.00 pm we caught up with another larger, tired and seemingly 'lost' group that had decided to stop as they had no idea where they were headed.

Luckily, we did manage to contact the pilots who had to get a guide to lead them to where we were. Indeed, there is a silver lining to every cloud as at 10.15 pm, the bus drivers arrived and we set out back to Nairobi. 

It is only later that we learnt that we had been in the wild for approximately more than 13 hours having walked for 40 plus kilometers.
Boy was I happy to finally get home. This was at 12.45 am.

I did not take as many pictures as I wanted. 
My camera can be quite heavy and a burden at times!
There are amazing sceneries all through the trail.

Enjoy the pics.

 

Over the years, a number of reliable groups have been actively organizing tours and treks around Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the greater Africa. 
The energy and high spirits within these groups, we may soon be trekking through Gobi desert in Mongolia and the Aboriginal land in Australia, having hiked the Everest.

For the adventurous souls, check these groups out. I know you will definitely enjoy at least two hikes organized by either Kenya Outdoors, Bush-Thorns Adventurea and Safaris, Adventure Three Sixty Kenya and Xtrym Adventures & Safaris to list but a few.

Thank you for passing by.