The Mountains

I did it! Finally, i did it!!

and quite unexpectedly i must say!

“Is there a nearby route to Satima?”

How far is Table Mountain summit from your place?”

“Do you have a hiking route to Rurumeria from Davida?”

These and many other related questions were asked. How was i to know, when i personally had shown little interest in the names they mentioned; let alone considered an attempt at hiking!?

But, eventually, it was these questions that became the fuel that drove me to it.

The most i had done was to task a certain “guide” to look into the matter. Whatever his reasons, he had so far made no attempts at it. Yet, occasionally he himself would bring certain high-profile hikers to spend the night at Davida, and take off early morning, to do the hikes.

He had promised to create routes with Davida Getaway as a base..

.. for the last number of years!

I had waited long enough. I felt it was time to take the initiative!

It is said that one’s network is their net worth! In this case, this turned out to be an apt adage.

A few phone calls to my circle of influence. .

and voile! i had a couple of local guides who were a little more enthusiastic!

I call up the first one, and we agree to meet up; to plot the routes. My presumption was that this was to be on paper, to begin with! I promise to give him a call once i had planned for the trip.

The second one sounded even more enthusiastic. We agree to meet at his “base”

His “base” was a small cluster of fabrications, small and dilapidated, that the locals refer to as a shopping center; The center lay at one of those sharp corners on a new tarmac road winding its way up the mountain to the highest inhabited business center known as Geta- Bushi. the tarmac however ends a few meters from our meeting point of Kwa Matu.

Kwa Matu turned out to be a 20- minute easy drive from Davida Getaway.

I was at Kwa Matu, at 9.00am on Thursday last week- 31st October 2024, as agreed with Mbugua, my guide.

My expectations were rather vague.

We had briefly talked about mapping out routes that Davida Getaway guests, who may be desirous of a hike, could take on without too much preparations; or being hikers per se’

I guess i was anticipating a sit-down over a cup of tea- with lots of milk as happens in the rural environment.

The last thing i had in mind was for him to suggest that it was best if we took the trail ourselves, albeit for “a short distance only”

Needless to say, i did a double take before it hit me that he wanted me to accompany him for the trek!

For many reasons:

“this is not the ideal day to undertake such an exacting activity” my mind told me as it whirled around. For one, I had had a drink the previous evening!.

‘Do i have the appropriate shoes?’

‘how about the dressing?’

‘i have a hat thank god!’

‘How about water?’

‘snacks?’

But it was as though the Universe knew exactly what i did not:

It happens that i always carry a one-liter bottle of water in the car, so it was a tick for water

The sports shoes i had on were appropriate, he said. “they have enough grip” he declared- and so, a tick for the shoes.

The trouser was of stretch material, and the hoodie would come in handy, should the weather turn out cold.

There happened to be a huge avocado that i had carried from my Nairobi home, Kitisuru, for my staff. The avocado season was coming to an end, and the few that remained on the ‘good’ avocado tree in the compound were growing to extremely large sizes!

By ‘a stroke of luck’ it had been forgotten in the car, when the rest of the items were unloaded. So, snack- tick

I love the outdoors; and i do like to keep in shape.

I am a sucker for a challenge, and it did not take much persuading to get me on-boarded.

“the starting point is further up the road” he stated.

Having established that i was game, from my body language no less, he quickly turned around, jumped over the roadside ditch, and with a wave to his buddies, reached for a small bag that had been hanging on a piece of timber protruding from the wall of one of the shacks, and headed back to the car.

My claim to fame admittedly is that i was in the National Kenya Ladies Golf team for 25 years. But i slowly brought that season of my life to an end when Nyandarua called; over 10 years ago!