The Rwenzoris expedition

Ever since I knew I was going to Uganda it had been my dream to hike at the Rwenzori mountains and summit Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley, which is Africa's third highest mountain after Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya. I was fortunate to join forces with my friend Silke for an 8-day-long expedition run by Rwenzori Trekking Services (RTS).

Day 0
I took a bus from Kampala to Kasese. First the bus stayed in the taxi park for two hours, waiting to get filled with passengers, and then headed towards west, dropping off and picking up people randomly. I stared out the window with growing excitement as the full bus kept approaching green hills with thick vegetation and small crop fields. It was raining and I imagined how it would be like to hike for days in wet, cold and slippery conditions.

After finally arriving in Kasese I continued on to Kilembe, where RTS guesthouse and offices are located. Before going to bed I met our guides, Richard and William, over a filling dinner. They answered my most urgent questions about the hike and needed equipment.

RTS offices

Day 1
8,4km ; 1450m -> 2596m ; 4hrs - tropical forest zone

Due to Silke's plane being a bit delayed we did not start our hike until midday. It was no problem, though, as we made good progress trekking along a river on easy, well maintained paths. Carrying only a small daypack made moving light and agile. Our first break was already after half an hour, when we entered the Rwenzori Mountains National Park and payed park fees of $35/day to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).

Entering Rwenzori Mountains National Park

After eating lunch sandwiches under a rock boulder we had just an hour's hike of steep, steady rise until reaching our first camp, which was located between two waterfalls. Since the sun was still shining we decided to have a refreshing swim in a cold natural pool. In the meanwhile our porters had prepared us a three course meal, which they served on the terrace of our wooden cabin. That day it still felt a bit weird not doing anything by ourselves but being fully taken care of by as many as ten porters!

Porter with his head carrying system

In the evening we sat by a campfire telling stories about funny Ugandan incidents with three Dutchmen, who ended up being the only people we shared camps with during the whole hike. I felt happy being out in the nature, whose quietness was in huge contrast to my normal busy city life. Quite early I crawled into my triple warming bed: first a silk liner, then a high notch three-season sleeping bag and finally an old, big RTS winter sleeping bag. That combination guaranteed that I never felt any coldness at night time!

Day 2
5,4km ; 2596m -> 3688m ; 5,5hrs - tropical forest zone, bamboo zone & heather zone

When we woke up our camel bags were waiting for us on the dining table, readily filled with boiled and cooled water. We were given a hearty breakfast of porridge, bananas, omelettes, sausages, tomatoes and potatoes. That day it was still way too much food, but later on I got closer and closer to finishing my meals.

We began walking at 8:30, which became our standard starting time, and hiked for an hour and half to a campsite, which had previously been first day's camp. Around there we left tropical forest zone behind and entered bamboo zone. It was time to switch shoes. Being highly skeptical towards rubber boots - they would surely provide no ankle support and no grimp on demanding surfaces, plus create blisters - I stuck to my hiking boots and gaiters. At the end of the day my boots were dry inside and easily cleanable outside, so I was satisfied with my shoe selection.

Let's go!

Later we entered yet another zone; mysterious heather zone with dense nourishing vegetation, imaginary looking tall plants, colorful flowers and butterflies. It felt like being in a secret garden as we walked on wooden boardwalks, and climbed on big tree roots, large rocks and vertical ladders. As we gained elevation it got increasingly muddy, forcing us to balance on top of roots and rocks to avoid sinking into mud. It was fun to walk on terrace requiring constant use of concentration in order to find suitable footholds!

Our camp was located under a big rock boulder. It was the only campsite where we slept in a permanent big tent - all other camps had buildings. The porters provided us with a basin of hot water for bathing, which turned into a daily commodity. It was indeed luxurious arriving at a camp to immediately get washed and changed into clean clothes, and be served with hot tea!

Silke, the culinarist, had brought soft and hard cheeses, as well as prosciutto ham and crackers, to be enjoyed at our afternoon tea moments. As we were sitting around an outdoor table, the weather changed from clear to rain and distant thundering. We were satisfied we had decided to skip the day's complimentary walk up to a nearby peak, but instead sat comfortably around a campfire getting to know our guides and porters until it was bed time.

Day 3
4,6km ; 3688m -> 4062m ; 4hrs - heather zone & moorland zone

When we woke up to yet another beautiful morning I could not believe our good luck with the weather so far! Since it was rain season I had been expecting non-stop rain and thus more miserable hiking conditions. But it stayed clear when we were walking and only rained after we had reached the shelter of campsites.

I could no longer avoid rubber boots so I put on my neoprene socks (which I strongly recommend!) and black Bata gum boots provided by RTS. I began hiking with doubts but soon had to take back my bad words; rubber boots indeed work on mud! The previous day's mud had been just practice for the larger and deeper bog areas we crossed that day. We also hopped from one bouncing little plant island to another, which Silke referred to as being inside a video game. With binoculars we spotted two small and fluffy antelopes.

Mud escort

At around half way, when we were moving up to moorland zone, I began to notice some signs of the rising altitude; dizziness and disorientation, which felt kind of like being drunk. It might have been just compassion to the headache Silke had had since waking up, though. Anyways Richard gave us both some anti-altitude medicine that we kept taking until the summit day.

After climbing up a short but deep path of big rocks we reached our camp. It was a resort type of campsite with separate kitchen, dining, sleeping and bathing buildings. There was even a sun deck - a flat white rock overlooking mountains with tempting looking rock climbing options - where we relaxed by chatting, stretching, reading and writing. It rained during the evening but the night sky was clear with amazingly bright stars and glowing big moon, which made headlamps unnecessary during nightly toilet trips.

Camp kitchen

View from sun deck

Day 4
7,4km ; 4062m -> 4450m -> 4027m ; 5,5hrs - moorland zone

Our day began sweetly by eating pancakes with Nutella and syrup for breakfast. Luckily we both had got rid of our altitude sickness symptoms during the night, so we were ready to keep on going. We began the day's hike, which was supposed to be our hardest one so far, by a steep climb up to Bamwamjara Pass. At 4450m I was already heaps higher than ever before, and the peak revealed us our first glimpses of snow topped mountains! Despite the inspiring scenery we decided to head back down soon to escape strong, cold winds.

Bamwanjara Pass (4450m)

Snow topped mountains

We walked down to a flat valley, where we spotted some leopard's poop. Unfortunately leopards themselves are very rarely seen because they prefer to move at nighttime. Along the path we got to enjoy beautiful views over glacier lakes, accompanied with tasty blackberries. After resting our legs and lungs on the flat part, we hiked up and down on the side of a mountain on paths that at times were even muddier than the previous day's ones.

Glacier lakes

Yummy!

An abandoned campsite acted as our lunch spot. Instead of usual sandwiches and apples we were given a dish of boiled potatoes, onions and sweet corns in mayonnaise. Richard surprised us positively by telling that our camp was just an hour's walk away. We quickly hiked through another flat valley and up a steep path to our camp, declaring that the day had been easier than expected.

I named the campsite as "wind camp", because strong winds made it cold down to the bones. The winding only paused for a few hours, when it was raining heavily, and picked up again during the night, banging our door annoyingly. I was happy to dig out the fatty, warm down jacket that my friend was generously loning me, to be worn before crawling into my sleeping bags.

Day 5
4,7km ; 4027m -> 4485m ; 3hrs - moorland zone & rock zone

Because the weather was good when we woke up, we decided to start hiking earlier than planned to beat possible afternoon rains. I had been able to feel my tired leg muscles already the day before, and I certainly felt them that day! I thanked myself for stretching during evenings, as I believe it helped me to get through all the multi-day uphill hiking.

After some more bog we entered rock zone. It looked like a rock sea, and we used our concentration to balance on top of big rocks. The path was relatively easy to walk on and contained only a few short steep rises.

Root climbing

Rock sea

We were surrounded by several impressive mountains, but Richard asked us not to come up with questions about them. According to his tribe's beliefs it brings bad luck to talk about certain mountains before the summit day. Julius, my personal porter, brought his tribe's beliefs to the discussion. They are not supposed to point at any mountains with a straight finger, because their king might see it and get angry. Instead they use a bent finger for proper mountain pointing. In general, throughout the whole hike our guides and porters informed us on local traditions and beliefs, especially on the usage of different plants for medication and luckiness.

We reached our camp by midday, thus getting plenty of pre-summit rest. Because the camp missed a dining building, we named an empty sleeping building as our living room and used it to play card games, read, stretch and drink tea. Even though I am not normally a big tea drinker, it became my favorite hike drink due to its warming effect. During meals we drank mostly hot water.

Stretching exercises 

So chill!

Our summit day excitement grew even more when Richard and William came over to check on our equipment, such as crampons, ice axes and harnesses. They gave us a good briefing on the summit day's program, and anticipating the early wake-up we soon went to bed.

Views for summit excitement

Day 6 - Summit Day
Peak round trip 9km & hike to camp 4,7km ; 4485m -> 5109m -> 4072m ; summit 6hrs & ascent 4hrs & camp hike 2,5hrs - rock zone & glacier zone & moorland zone

I woke up at 3:25, wondering whether we had missed our supposed wake-up call at 3:00. When no breakfast appeared at its designed time, Silke walked down to the porters' tent to find out what was happening. No panic, in Ugandan style Richard's watch was just running 20minutes behind. Despite waking up in the middle of the night I felt no tiredness - just huge excitement about the long-awaited summit day!

After putting on our harnesses we were ready to start hiking at 4:30. It was still pitch dark and snowing when we climbed a rocky path up to Elena Hut, which belongs to another trekking company, Rwenzori Mountain Services (RMS). From there on we got attached to a fixed rope with simple self-locking belay devices to climb up a short wall, still seeing nothing but our headlamps' light coverage.

Early rays of daylight revealed the first glacier. Richard and William fitted us onto our crampons, showed us basic ice axe usage and tied us to a rope. I was psyched to walk on glacier ice - my first real mountain climbing experience! It took us half an hour to cross the fairly flat glacier, and at that time stamping on white packed snow felt just nice. Then we took off our crampons to abseil down a rock wall. I used just a simple pruxic for security. It was actually quite hard to slide it down around a frozen rope.

Putting on crampons

After walking up quite a steep rocky path, and taking a moment for breath stabilization, we faced our main obstacle: super long uphill glacier! When being tied to a rope, one cannot take breaks but must go on at common speed. In the beginning we got natural short breaks when William, who was in lead, spotted narrow crevasses, which we were able to cross with long steps. Then it got toucher; I took one step, breathed for more air, took another step, felt like not getting enough air... My main focus was on hoping that someone would request a break. However, Silke was having the exact same thoughts, and more often it was me giving in for a break call.

When we stopped to look around we enjoyed amazing views! Being surrounded by snow-topped mountains and high ice sculptures, and seeing our tiny footsteps across the glacier was breathtaking. Half way up I realized that Margherita Peak was already visible on our right hand side, and got an extra push to keep on going. My cheerful comment "It does not look like so far away" made our guides laugh.

After an hour and half we finished with the glacier and started the final part - a short rocky climb up to the peak top. Breathing at such a high altitude was hard but I no longer cared about it, as I was so close that I already began to feel the joy of summiting! Silke and me reached the peak together. To our disappointment it was all foggy at the top and we could see nothing but white around us. We ate chocolate bars and took photos with the sign, behind which we were already in Kongo. Quite soon I began thinking about decending.

Margherita Peak (5109m)!!

Chocolate

During the first rocky path down I started to feel increasing headache; altitude sickness had got hold of me, but luckily this time I felt no dizziness so I was able to operate normally. Going down the big glacier was easy, apart from walking sideways and trying not to slide at the end of it. Reversing the rest of the route was quite fine. I kept on memorizing the different parts of walking, climbing and abseiling, which divided the decent nicely into smaller sections.

Abseiling

Golden balls

When we reached our camp we were given much needed food and hot tea. We both felt exhausted after the ten hour round trip, and just wanted to crawl into our comfy sleeping bags. But instead we had to pack our stuff and walk further down to wind camp. Despite our tiredness we made good progress and reached the camp in a few hours. Never before had a bucket of hot water brought me so much joy! After bathing and putting on warm, clean clothes we enjoyed our dinner, and for the first time during the hike I was able to finish a whole meal. Then we went straight to bed, and my attempt at writing a summit report was disrupted by falling asleep.

Day 7
14,4km ; 4072m -> 3174m ; 11,5hrs - heather zone & bamboo zone

Even though I had had a good night's sleep, it was kind of hard for me to get motivated to keep on hiking another long day. Now that I had successfully summited, thus having fulfilled my main goal, I just wanted be done with the whole hike.

The weather was good when we reversed the paths of day four and day three. I still felt breathing difficulties when we hiked straight uphill for half a kilometer to reach a peak of 4450m, and I was happy to hear it was the hike's last long hill. Until we reached lower altitudes, even small uphills or otherwise hard parts made me breath fast. The lower we got the better I felt.

Since it had been raining earlier during the day, we faced much wetter and deeper mud than previously. It slowed us down quite a bit. Julius turned out to be a great mud rescuer; despite carrying my heavy backpack he found spots to stand on the mud and escort me by holding my hand and showing me good footsteps. I decided to tip him extra and write recommendations to speed up his aspirations on becoming a guide.

Some mud...

After hiking for over eight hours we had to make a choice; whether to stay in rock boulder camp or keep on going to reach another camp further down. Since Silke had a flight to catch the following day we decided to hike more. It started to rain - for the first time we were actually walking in rain! As we got wet and half covered in mud I learned to truly appreciate our hike being so far dry; otherwise it would have been much slower and less enjoyable.

We reached our camp just in time, when it was becoming completely dark. From that camp we had a beautiful view over the lights of Kasese town, perfected by bright full moon. And it was noticeably warmer than in the previous higher camps. We hung all our wet and dirty clothes around our sleeping building, and soon after dinner went to bed.

Day 8
11,4km ; 3171m -> 1450m ; 4hrs - bamboo zone & tropical forest zone

It was nice not feeling cold when leaving my sleeping bags in the morning. After being up in the mountains for a week I was happy to know that in just a few hours time I would return to civilization.

The first part of our last hike was easy but steep downhill until we crossed a river. I had began walking in my gum boots, but decided to switch to hiking boots for comfortability and confidence on slippery rocks and roots. William was keeping up good speed and I tried to stick to his footsteps, at times doing little sprints to not to loose him.

River crossing

From the river on it got really easy; the weather was sunny and we strolled along on a well maintained, slowly downwarding path. Unlike on challenging terrain, where one must concentrate on balancing and finding footsteps, this path allowed me to sink deep into my thoughts. The only disruption was Richard spotting blue monkeys. He was actually able to attract them to come closer to us with hand gestures and sounds.

Before I noticed we were at the UWA office signing out of the park. The last half an hour to the RTS offices felt simultaneously short and long - we were so close to the finish! There we took showers, ate lunch sandwiches, and said goodbye to our guides and porters. Since they are supposed to be tipped, we worked out small amounts of combinations of UGX and USD to be given to them along with our leftover snacks (and Silke's dirty socks, to replace one porter's old socks that were more hole than fabric).

Exiting the park

LOL

We took a special hire to Kasese airport, and on the way picked up well deserved cold beers and sodas. In Ugandan style, I made a few phone calls to the airline company and managed to negotiate myself a last minute flight ticket at more than 50% discount. Our flight to Kampala lasted just an hour and I enjoyed sitting in the small 11-passenger plane looking out the window.

Our expedition was over. I was tons happy I had taken up the challenge to do it - especially to summit Uganda's highest mountain!