Trekking the Rwenzoris

TL;DR: amazing trek up the Rwenzori mountains!


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Kris and me went on another hike today, this time straight into the Rwenzoris National Park. Today's hike was much more arduous, to put it bluntly, we climbed 1200m (from 1450m in Kilembe to 2650m where the bamboo ecosystem began) in 4 hours and a half, with a lunch break by the river we were following.
The hike is part of the 8-10 day trek up Mount Stanley, the third highest mountain in Africa. Given that we only had one day to spend there, we told our guide Joshua that we were willing to beast as much distance as possible. Therefore, we ended up doing more than double the distance Day 1 of the Mount Stanley hike is supposed to be. It was awesome fun, but we were sweating like potatoes the whole time! Luckily the weather was on our side and it barely rained, even though the clouds above us were incredibly menacing.

We didn't see much in terms of wildlife, but the landscapes were incredibly beautiful. Most of the time we were following a large river which had recently flooded. This had caused the riverbed to be covered in huge white rocks and the earth to the sides to slip. The flora varied as we went along as well. All in all, it made for one of the best days of the whole trip!


We made it back to the hostel to chill out in the evening. Gotta say, the staff at this hostel were particularly pleasant and genuine. There were also a couple other guests, Belgians Frouke and Ben, who gave us a whole bunch of tips for the rest of our trip! It was a cool night, sipping beers under the porch as lightning and torrential rain raged across the skies. A whole storm was engulfed in our valley, it was pretty trippy!

peace