Hiking up the solitary mountain of buffalos

By Ferdinand Mwongela

When an idea for a camping trip in Ol Donyo Sabuk — this is where we have Kilimambogo Mountain — came up two weeks ago, I was not exactly thrilled.

First it was the rainy season and images of sleeping in a tent with rain pounding the tarpaulin were not very pleasing. But thanks to my adventurous side I found myself teaming up with some of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) staff for the trip.

We set off from Nairobi in the late afternoon, hoping to get to Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park in the outskirts of Thika and set up camp before dusk. We arrived just before the blanket of dusk covered the land. The race to pitch tents began in earnest. This is when I realised you have no idea how dark it can be until you are out in the countryside where the nearest streetlights are miles away.

The campsite in the morning.

At 1985 metres above sea level mark, some had already given up and gone back to base while the rest trundled on, determined to get to the top. As the group grew sluggish, a few of us had already broken off and went ahead. I was eager to see how much my body could take after months of riding a chair.

A while ago, I hiked up Mt Longonot in slightly under an hour and gauging its steepness, I took the slow winding road up Kilimambogo to be a walk in the park. I was wrong.

The higher we went, the longer the distance grew. After walking for what seemed like an eternity and thought the end was near another road opened up. Just when I was sure we were almost there, we came across a signage saying the summit was 3.6km ahead and I felt my energy drop. However, after the 6km hike from the base, I was not about to go back. After a short rest, we trudged on. We were now only three people, with the rest dragging several metres behind.

We took time to stop at Sir William Macmillan’s grave high on the mountain where he and his faithful servant Louise Decker were buried side by side. Macmillan was the owner of all this land, including what is now Ol Donyo Sabuk National Park and adjoining lands, 33,000 acres in total. On this land, he built several houses, the Ol Donyo Sabuk Guesthouse is one and not very far from the park is the great Macmillan House. A huge, 32-room fortress built in 1918. Story has it Sir McMillan and his wife lived in one wing for the first half of the year and the other for the second half.

The summit

After the short stop, we took the rest of the hike easy and we were soon at the summit crowded by a sea of communication masts. From here you can see the Athi River, the pineapple fields of Thika and the snow-capped peaks of both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya.

After a short rest, we headed back, only to meet the rest of the team about 2km from the top soldiering on. We also met another group on their way up — evidently hiking here is quite popular.

We never got to meet any buffalo but knew they were around from the dung everywhere. Back to the camp, we whiled away the rest of the day talking and soon another day was gone.

As we packed up our gear the next day, I could not believe I had nearly missed this wonderful opportunity but thank God for the aches they were enough reminders.