Mohamed and the mountain

So I came down the mountain, right? Dirty and with blisters and all that jazz. But that means that I first went up the mountain! I yet have to understand why... probably to find out whether I am a closet mountain person. Well, I am certainly not. Even though I love watching them (mountains, in general. Occasionally mountain people too.), there is admiration and some weird longing in there, wanting to be there, but then when I'm there, I constantly expect the Spirit of the Mountain to come tell me that they know I don't belong there, and I can try this hiking routine as much as I please, but let's set the record straight, I will always be an outsider.

Nevertheless, this is my first time over 4000 meters, so this is where you say yay! I didn't throw up, I wasn't too dizzy, and I only wanted to cry once, out of sheer frustration.

The Mountain is by the way called Karisimbi, which in the local language (kinyarwanda) means little white shell, apparently because it often has a white cap. The internet tells me the cap isn't necessarily of snow, but often hail or other frozen things. I had the honour of encountering those, and I was not particularly thrilled.

Those of you who have already noticed that I have been linking half of Wikipedia here probably ave already read up on climate, flora and fauna. For the others I can tell that I had not seen a proper jungle before. But now. Picture will follow to show that it is indeed thick and green and lush with a whole bunch of plants or trees or, well, vegetation that is entirely unknown to me. Any time I stopped to catch my breath or to have a slice of cold pizza, I was looking around in awe, thinking wow. The first day of the hike is rather friendly, there are not too many very steep parts so there is time and space for looking around. The famous mountain gorillas also live in the neighbourhood but they didn't come around when we were on the path. I think they usually do though, we have experienced some gorilla poo (some visually, some in a more tactile way).

The second day on the other hand (overnight camp is at 3600) is a lot less user-friendly in the difficulty department. But the forest goes completely wild and my idea of a jungle is now forever changed. I had to stop a lot more to breath, and I spent most of those breaks staring at my surroundings.

Unfortunately we had a lovely and loyal cloud following us all the way. First it just added to the mystical feeling of it all, but at some point it started bothering me that here I am up at 4000 and can't see the neighbouring mountains or anything in general, while everybody was telling me how gorgeous the view is. Oh, and it gets quite humide inside a cloud.

The higher you go the less vegetation you see, but the wind gets stronger, and that, together with the humide cloud quickly decreases the comfort level of the naiv hiker. Me. And they also increase their disappointment level – there came a point when even I had to accept that this cloud is not going anywhere and the most I'm going to see is the volcanic ash/dust under my feet. That made me a tad bit cranky, my face was freezing, 4500 was approaching, meaning the air was getting thinner but tthe cloud was getting thicker. I think I mentioned a few times that I really don't give a damn about what's up there, I'm sure it's not any different from what I already can't see where I am, but the evil wind is certainly stronger, I've had it. By then I'd been through all kinds of plants and mud up to my ankles at times; I was neither particularly patient nor ver nice.

At the end of course I kicked myself up there, the last push was when those coming down told me there is a hut where I can warm up for a few minutes. And to take pictures like the below, for documentation purposes.

(I also have a summit-selfie taken in the hut, but I keep it for the moments of doubt when I need to remind myself just how I felt there. It's not a recommended sight for the weak at heart anyway.)

Then at the border I met half the town and got dragged back to daily life and my flatmate ony called my Robocop for two days.