Mount Elgon Practicalities

Getting there: Mount Elgon is on the Kenyan-Ugandan border, and can be reached in varying degrees of comfort via public transportation from either Kampala or Nairobi. The closest town is Mbale (Uganda), a reasonably well-supplied town with foreign exchange and several hotels. The park office and bigger hotels are located about a mile from the bus station. Staff at the park office will call ahead to Budadiri (the trailhead) to arrange guides and porters. It's a good idea to hire a guide, as the trails are poorly mapped and can be difficult to follow. Also, guides are knowledgeable about local flora and fauna; with them you'll see animals (especially monkeys) you might never notice on your own. Hiring porters helps support the project to protect the mountain. It is not necessary to make arrangements in advance.

Gear: Normal three-season hiking gear, including rain gear, is adequate. You have to bring your own gear and food. Boots are recommended.

Routes: You can either go straight up and down the mountain on the Sasa River Trail, or you can do a sort of traverse, with a detour to the hot springs. The straight climb typically takes four days. The traverse takes six days. With extra time, hikers can explore the caldera, climb some of the smaller summits on the crater's ridge, and visit the hot springs.

Guidebooks: Trekking in East Africa (Lonely Planet) is the best source of information.

Mountains of the World Photo Gallery

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Having climbed more mountains than I could possibly count, or even remember, I know that the environment changes as you go uphill. But in Africa, it changes from something different to something even more different, from tropical plantations to rain forest to bamboo forest, then to the realm of the giant groundsel and giant lobelias of the Afro-alpine moorland. The Dr. Seusslike plants make me feel like I am walking in a wonderland.

On the third day, we climb to the caldera rim and then trek across to Wagagi summit, one of several peaks that jut from the rim, each the result of a volcanic eruption. At the summit, altitude sickness strikes each of us, me with a slight headache, Dan with a headache and nausea, and Roxanne full-force, head-on. We beat a hasty retreat back to our campsite, where Milton announces that he has killed and cooked the chicken; would we like some? We spend most of the day resting, each of us wondering, if we feel like this at 14,000 feet, what is going to happen when we climb Kilimanjaro?

The next day, the headaches are gone, and our group splits up. Dan and I want to detour across the caldera to the hot springs. Roxanne is still feeling a little wobbly, and chooses to take the direct route with the porters. But there is a problem. We can hear Milton and Joseph arguing quietly, in English (because they are from two tribes and speak different native languages). Milton thinks Joseph and his gun should go with us, since we are going to cross the known poachers' route. But Joseph is in charge, and he thinks the poachers would be more interested in our gear than in our person. So Milton goes with us, and Joseph stays with Roxanne and the gear. When we reunite, we notice the porters are no longer laughing and joking as they were before. There are indeed poachers about, and although they stick to their ridge and we stick to ours, our mood is somber.

Camp that night is near a rock overhang—you can't really call it a cave—where the guides and porters huddle. At previous campsites, they slept in little huts built by the Porters and Guides Association, but here there is no hut, and they have no tents. Since the weather thus far has been what the English call "unsettled," I ask Milton what they will do if it rains. "We just endure," he says.

All the way down the mountain, I thought of that. I thought of Milton offering us the chicken, and also ugali (the local staple, a maize-meal porridge), and how he suggested that we pool our resources: our peanut butter to make a sauce to pour over his wild greens (delicious). "On the mountain, we are a team," he said, offering his plate to us, and I wished I could reciprocate with more than freeze-dried beef stew and ramen noodles. A rain jacket. A warm sweater. A pair of shoes for Francis, although he probably wouldn't wear them. But we needed our gear for the other mountains, so instead, we gave good tips, although I knew they would use the money to buy food for their families, not gear (even if it was available, which it is not). The next time I go, I will arrive with a heavy pack and leave with a light one.