Friends! Let me start by stating this – if you are into nature hikes – Rwenzori trek is a must do before you die.
Which operator – RMS or RTS? – was a hard call to make, in the end we decided to go with a company that has better service record RTS – and we didn’t regret it a second. The trek is very tough, so the very attentive, experienced and service-driven team makes all the difference.
The trek can be done with different duration and level of difficulty. We chose 5 days to Weismann’s Peak (4620 meters) – and it was a perfect choice for us in terms of richness, toughness and mountaineering experience required (zero). If you are choosing shorter treks, please try to get the one that will take you to the Heather zone, otherwise you will not see the real heart of Rwenzori.
Will I be able to make it? Am i fit enough?– the questions that haunted me for months before the trek and on the first 2 days i was still very nervous. I thought – what’s the worse that can happen? – and the answers were one scarier than the other: I will not be able to move in pain, will sit and cry and the fellow trekkers will hate me as we will have to turn back. Or they will have to call helicopter for me and i will sell my kidneys to pay for it. All these scary visions haunted me until day 2 on the mountain.
So reality is – I made it and I am proud of my performance and HOW I made it.
So here is the resume: I’m 34, my general fitness was kept by 1 yoga class and 1-2 40 min long jogging sessions per week – so really nothing that can be called “hard core training for Rwenzori”. My strong side is persistance – if i can keep my own pace i can go for a long time and i will not give up until i’ve done what i set myself to do. I think this quality was what took me through these 5 days – and not the actual strength.
Also I think the altitude sickness was light on me, i had a minor headache when we reached the highest camp (4100 meters), really nothing unmanageable. Also because of lack of oxygen you get tired quicker, but the guides will allow you to stop and catch your breath as much as you need (though if you abuse it you might be caught by darkness, and it’s not what you want).
Here is how it was for us.
We arrived at Kilembe town day before the trek and stayed at the RTS guest house.
RTS manager asked us if we were OK with one other person joining us – and of course we were happy with that: appart from making some savings, our companion Tim appeared to be a great company with plenty of stories and a real hiker enthusiasm.
Day 1 – 30 August (1000 meters elevation) – Rain forest zone.
Rain levels – tremendous luck – dry and sunny day during the rain season.
So 8:30am the three of us set off with RTS team of 10 people: 2 guides, 2 porters for our stuff and another 6 porters to carry food for 5 days for all the 13 of us.
From the RTS camp you walk through the picturesque village of Kilembe situated on the slopes of great mountains. I never seen gardens on such steep slopes – you can literally plant your cassava while standing straight.
Shortly after the park gates where you pay the entrance fee (35$ per day) the rain forest starts. Mysterious and fragrant the forest takes you up and you don’t realise that you already done the “steep part” of the climb, and from now on the way is in “ups and downs” – so the going is relatively easy. Guides are real googles of local flora and fauna, they point out rare birds and plants and we were lucky to see families of Rwenzori’s blue monkeys.
We arrived at our first camp “Sine” at about 15:30, the guides complimented our pace and said that a lot of groups arrive here after 7pm because of a lot of rest stops. The camp is a cozy wooden hut and staff cabins/tents sheltered by tall trees close to a pretty waterfall.
This is were we got the first amazement of the RTS service.
On arrival the porters (that arrived way before us) served us delicious pineapple (!), teas/coffees with cookies (!!), and this is when we found out that the water in the hand washing device is WARMED UP for us (!!!). We spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying the view, sharing stories while sipping on our hot drinks. Then around 7pm the dinner was served – and OMG – it was amazing. Mushroom soup for starter, then the main meal: pumpkin, potatoes, cauliflowers and carrots with meat stew – when you think that someone brought it for you all the way up – it tastes especially prescious.
RTS takes food seriously. Every morning we were served full breakfast, that I couldn’t finish, then you get a packed lunch to take with you and a 3 course dinner (if you count the tea and cookies as dessert) in the evening.
Later in the evening, when we were warm and cozy in our sleeping bags, a torrential rain started and was going all night.
Day 2 – Our favourite day! Bamboo zone and Heather zone.
Rain levels – Extremely lucky again to have a sunny and dry day 🙂
For those doing shorter treks – make sure it includes Heather zone – as this is a real face of Rwenzori.
The climb was longer than the first day, but the amount of beauty you see makes you forget about it.
The bamboo zone is lovely, but when you enter the Heather zone, you understand that this is what you came for. The vegetation is like you never seen, heather trees are covered in hundreds of types of lychens, there are lobelias and everlasting flowers that look like pearls and so many other plants that create these unique landscapes. This is where the area becomes very boggy. You are starting the day in your rubber boots (provided) and do not leave them until the end of day 5.
We stopped for lunch at the heart of Heather zone by a waterfall, and this was the most fantastically bizarre place i’ve ever seen.
Day 3 – Alpine zone. The highest camp of this hike Bugata – 4000 meters.
Rain levels – No rain but all day walking in a thick cloud. Mist creates this mysterious atmosphere, you feel like an astronaut exploring another planet.
There is no trees in Alpine zone, this is where the trees give way to all sorts of highland weeds, bushes and other Rwenzori style plants.
The higher you go, the muddier and the colder it becomes. Rwenzori mountains stop the clouds on their way and it rains heavily in the afternoon and at night, so the mountains are covered in streams of down-running water.
It is the easiest day in terms of walking – not much elevation and we arrived at the camp around 14:00. Difficulty is the altitude, as you are hitting the 4000 meters bar 🙂
At night our camp was at the epicentre of a thunderstorm, so immensely strong that I felt like a particle of dust in this world of giants, mountains and thunder.
Day 4 – The toughest day of the hike. Push for Weismann peak then 15 km plowing through bog.
We started around 8:30am under the rain and straight away faced an obstacle. On our way to the peak the lake came out of it’s bed and flooded the passage. It was inevitable to get water overflow into your boots. Tim removed his socks and just went for it wading in the bog up to his knees. Me and Seb were less brave and tried to keep as dry as possible and failed spectacularly. So to approach the peak took us half a day, instead of 30 min. This is where we started seeing first signs of snow, and the further we climbed the whiter was the scenery.
I am a chicken that is constantly worried about stuff – so when we started the ascent I had a big worry we won’t make it to the camp before dark, because after making the peak we had a very hard 15 km to do and it was already noon (we were about 3 hours behind the schedule). This is when one of the two guides announced that he didn’t feel 100% and would not go further and that we will go all the way up with the other guide while he would be waiting for us here. I knew that i would slow down the guys as i was the slowest walker of the group and i really wanted us to start the descent as soon as possible, so i decided to stay and wait together with the first guide “for about 2.5 hours”. If you think i chose an easy way – you are wrong – it meant i had to stay warm for 2.5 hours on a cold wet mountain with my feet wet and icy already.
Thank you Seb and Tim for making it to the peak and back in only 1.5 hours! first thing Seb told me was “i’m so happy you stayed – you would have freaked out as it was hardcore climbing on snowy, super slippery rocks”.
So we started our way back. At around 3pm we came back to the place where our last nights camp was. We were exhausted already and had all the very hard way ahead. Our guides modified the route to avoid the floodings, so instead of steadily going down all day, we had to climb up and up and up again to face a steep rocky descend in the end. At some point the guide told us that we have to speed up to hit the camp before darkness. This information opened the 2nd breath in me and I pushed hard and we made it just before the dark.
The walking stick
I cannot praise enough the usefulness of walking stick.
It saved me from butt-mud-splash or face-mud-splash at least 100 times on day 2, 1000 times on day 3, every 3rd step on day 4. When offered a walking stick – take it.
However Tim, being an experienced hiker and very comfortable and stable on rocks, refused it and was just fine.
Completing day 4 – this is when you declare – the hike is very tough. There are million of opportunities to bruise/break/twist your legs. It makes you to appeal to your primary survival instincts and be very very careful with each step you take. The guides are amazing though – at tricky places they literally tell you where to put your foot, support you and find the best passage.
Day 5 – descending all the way from 3000m to the RTS camp. Discovering Porters – the super people.
Again it was raining all night and morning.
The adventure of the day started 10 min away from the camp. We faced a raging river, that on a dryer day is just a stream that you can step over, that day it didn’t look crossable at all.
Our guide told us to wait here, as he came back to the camp for some ropes of other means of crossing. So we waited… the worrying chicken in me woke up again.. “i’m not crossing it if I do not trust the solution they are going to offer” … both guides came back with a machette and disappeared in the bushes, evidently looking for alternative places to cross. About half an hour later our crowd of porters arrived – and this is when we realised – these guys are owning this place. First of all – porters never stop – they just don’t. they keep moving. The very first porter (again without stopping for a think) just went a few meters downstream and CROSSED the raving stream by some magic, hopping from stone to stone where i could see no such opportunity. He then helped others. They laughed a bit and came to help one of our guides to cut a tree down to make an improvised bridge for us. The tree went down accross the river, I was still a bit apprehensive, but the porters created a “live bridge” standing along the tree branches, so at every step you make you are holding 2 steady hands. Tim went first, then me, then Seb.. porters were laughing and joking in their local language and clearly had a lot of fun. Later we faced a few more crossings like this, but knowing that the porters are with us made it really stress free.
We had a quick lunch and literally ran all the way down to the park gates. Back in the bamboo zone the mud disappeared and we changed back in our trainers/shoes. After 4 days of rubber boots it felt like learning how to walk again.
It was a pleasure to walk through the sunny and laid back Kilembe village, hardly believing you just made it, you just completed the most amazing hike of your life so far.
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