Day 10 – The Long and The short Walk – Will and Lucy
After a decent night’s sleep in Geech, the group awoke to the sound of the Griffilo singing ‘In The Jungle’ at quarter to six in the morning. Whilst having our porridge breakfast, everyone agreed that the crew should split into two large groups for the day; one group did a ‘short’ walk straight back to the camp in Sankobar (where we’d stayed the previous night, while the others went on a longer walk up to Imet Gogo for the incredbile views.
The group that went on the shorter walk went a slightly different way than which we’d came the previous day, in order to hopefully see some baboons on the way. Although we only saw a small group of bachelors up close, they were still amazing to watch in their natural habitat, with the backdrop of the mountains being truly breathtaking. The short walk group had no issue crossing the river, as the rain had not yet hit and the guides were as excellent as always. Once back to camp, the group decided to all begin cooking dinner in order for it to be ready for those who did the long walk who were arriving later on. We all sat in the tuckle around the fire with chopping boards and knives, peeling and slicing as many veg as possible to use up all of the ingredients we had left. It was a beautiful bonding experience, especially when we decied to make eggy bread (a particular highlight).
The group that dared to adventre on the longer walk set out heading away from where the where camping tonight. The walk began with a slow and steady incline which contined for much of the walk. After setting off almost straight away we where treated to two jackals running out in front of us and across the feild, Frank managed to snap an action shot of one of the jackals. After our exciting meeting with the jackalks we continued the climb up to imetgogo, with the alltidue incrasing every step made it harder and harder to breath. Finally when imetgogo was in sight we where already greeted with some amazing views. After walking out to the very top of imetgogo, which was a massive 4000M above sea level, we where greeted with some one the most breathtaking sights in the world. From all angles you could see for miles and every view was breathtaking. The group sat there for a while and just soaked it all in, we had never seen anything like it.
After the unreal views that Imet Gogo provided we started heading back down on our way to the camp tonight. We got a decent speed going as we where trying to beat the rain. When we got back to Geech the rain finally came starting with hail and then soaking rain. Now it was time to try and get down the hill we came up the other day which had now turned into a mud slide. everyone followed the scouts down as we slid, slipped and slided our way to the bottom until we reach the river crossing which was needed as everyone was covered in mud off the hill. This time the river was a little higher and had turned brown from the mud running down the valley into the river. While crossing the river we got our legs and feet nice and clean and got the mud off. Now we needed to get up the hill the other slide wich had turned into mud river and all the mud that had come off had all been replaced by the time we where at the top off the hill.
Once we reached the top the rain stopped and now it was just a long 2 hour slog along the road back to the camp wich felt like forever as we where all cold and wet and tried. after the road we finally arrived at camp greeted with our tents already up and the short walk group had prepareded oranges and eggy bread for us to eat and after a long day we where finally there and could now relax.