Msafiri Kyrea - The Blog: The Rwenzori Journey

It is dawn. The big day had finally arrived. Margerita Peak or bust! All packed up, we tucked into a scrumptious Spanish omelette and filled a not so scrumptious ''legalese'' form waiving RTS (Rwenzori Trekking Services) from any responsibilities if shit happens. Meanwhile, our guide, Richard, was busy selecting porters and laying helmets, crampons and harnesses, that will assist our final ascent over glaciers to Margherita Peak, to prepare their packing. The porters carrying our rucksacks were to accompany us and the guide whilst the rest would go ahead of us. All bagged up we walked along the Kilembe main road towards the entrance to the Rwenzori Mountains National Park. We hit the first hill still within the Kilembe town limits. At the top we could briefly contemplate the humanity we were leaving behind. The open valley slowly went out of view as we followed a rumbling river from a hillside still passing through farms of coffee, potatoes and other crops. We observed the contrast of the boundary between private and public land. A neat row of trees split farmland from the sprawl of the majestic Rwenzori rainforest.

It all began on Kilembe Road (Photos courtesy of J. Chow).

We arrived earnest at the UWA gate to await our registration and briefing from the ranger, who also happened to be an accountant. As we waited our side entertainment was a chameleon that Richard found that was masquerading as a brown leaf. It was a young and relatively weak individual that moved slowly along the branch (slow for a chameleon, that is). I smugly paid my USh 70,000 ( about $27) for the 7 nights that we were to spend in the park whilst my British colleagues paid about $275 for 7 nights. East African solidarity at work! And then we were off into the full plunge of the paradise that awaits us. The human influence, aside from the network of trails and huts, did not end here. We came across a religious shrine of a local community that revere a particular bird species as a deity, and generally give food offerings, as a mark of appreciation of all the bounty that nature has provided them. As a mark of our respect of the local peoples, Jason nominated himself to represent us, our motley clan, to pay homage with Turkish Airlines crackers!

The horns are not fully developed, indicating that it is a juvenile (Photo courtesy of J. Chow).

This chameleon is in the middle of exfoliating (Photo courtesy of J. Chow).

Jason offers crackers to appease the Gods.

True to the form of a dense rainforest, vines crept intricately up tall trees, getting lost in the misty canopy. Wet shrubs and ferns dominated the lower foliage. The decay of dead trees created a habitat for mushrooms. Collapsed branches were soft and disintegrated under a footfall. The sound of fast, rough water got louder and louder as we descended to our first river crossing, viewing massive boulders carved out over the seasons of high and low waters. We witnessed the aftermath of a devastating landslide that consumed a whole hillside, destroying a whole tract of forest all the way down to the stream rapids. The Murenge Rock Shelter of 2,240 metres was our lunch stop. For a relatively affordable trek, we were getting quality food already: cheese and tomato plus chicken and onion sandwiches, a tub of cut pineapples (sweet and juicy)! We had only one and half hours until we could arrive at the final destination of the day, Sine Camp, at 2,596 metres. More stunning flora awaited us including what looked like a Scottish thistle, according to James. On hearing such a thing I imagined Idi Amin going on another self-obsessive rant that it is named after him, the Last King of Scotland ( apparently, he was fascinated by Scottish culture). This was one of the ways I was going make spotting bits of plants interesting.

James spots something at the top of the tree canopy.

The Lone Trekker (Photo courtesy of Jason Chow).

More biology classes, this time from Richard (Photo courtesy of J. Chow).

The surroundings get more moist the further up you go and moss starts dominating the track, even colonising the dead tree trunks and branches along the way. The trees seemed larger and bolder with their thick roots providing us steps up the steep inclines. The bare earth along the track was crusted with a drier, spongier type of moss of carpet-like texture. More interesting was a nondescript big leaf plant that is yet another a great remedy for snake bites by reducing its effect on the localised area of the wound. Just before Sine Camp we witnessed a water squirting insect, and as if that wasn't hallucinogenic enough, several mushrooms sprouting out of the trunk of a living tree. Richard demonstrated that they are hard to break off by hitting it with several hard thumps. It is also possible to step on it. I marvelled as to how it can be possible for a spongy fungus to anchor itself so firmly to a tree! We were very eager for a wash as we heard that the Enoch Falls were a couple of metres down into the river valley. If you forget about the water being at about 5 degrees Celsius, you get the freshest, glacial bath of your life!