My alarm went off at 3:10am and since I didn’t have the luxury of snoozing, I jumped out of bed to get the morning routine started. I had only three hours of sleep after the bad judgment of going for dinner at my friend’s place. This meant that I got home a few minutes to midnight. So I crafted a perfect plan. Up by 3:10am, be in the shower by 3:30am, dress and pack snacks by 4am, draft the tembo tale til 4:30 am then leave the house and head to the rendezvous point.
I vividly remember my first hike four years ago. I was at the home of champions then and my co-workers decided to go for a hike to torok falls. ‘How bad can it be?’ I asked myself and decided to jump into the hike bandwagon. I ain’t gonna lie but that walk to the falls was serene. We even saw a view that looked like the backdrop of a Game of thrones scene. And the falls? It was hectic getting to the foot of Torok falls but it was all worth it. The descent however….! The pick-up point wasn’t the starting point and let me tell you Maina, if I didn’t die that day then these Ngong Hills won’t kill me either.
By 4:30 am everything was done except drafting the tale. ‘We’ll do that on the ride’ I lied to myself. Fun fact, that article wasn’t written till after the hike and was posted during the ride back. Superwoman shit, innit? Now back to Ngong Hills.
The ascent wasn’t bad. First of all, I didn’t even notice where the first hill began but the second one, you couldn’t miss it. Torok falls might have been a ‘vibes and inshallah’ hike but this one was more mental for me. Yes I am fit, or rather working towards that everyday but this was about pushing my limits. An exam to put my fit life to the test.
‘Oh shit! I don’t think I can do this’ ‘Oh yes I can!’ These were the thought running through my mind at the base of the rocky second hill. I saw people at the top and my mind quickly convinced my body to start the climb. There are no shrubs to grab onto only rocks and I regretted having such beautiful long nails. I made a mental note to start wearing my nails short if I want to be doing this hiking thing often.
When I got to the top of that hill I looked down where I came from and it might have looked bad at the base but it wasn’t that bad. ‘If you got this done, you will finish this hike’. It’s not like I had an option of not finishing because the pickup point was at Kona Baridi. One thing I was sure of was the beginning is always the hardest. Like my trainer always says, the first set is always the hardest because the body it getting used to the workouts of that day. So once you complete the first set your mind knows what to expect next.
That analogy works because my pace picked-up after that and I was on a roll. The sun was out but the wind also came to play so the heat wasn’t felt. I was enjoying the nature sounds and was surprised there were no birds chirping. Or was the wind to much that it masked the birds songs?
“Always walk your own race.”
We got to the base of the 5th of is it 6th hill. Again, can these hills be labelled kindly? Just have a sign that says, ‘you are now entering the 5th hill. It might look bad but at least you have some shrubs to hold on to’. I looked to where we were going and for a second there I hoped I was Ruto’s child and would call and ask daddy to send a chopper to come pick me right there. But my mind convinced me it’s not as bad as it looked and furthermore there was no network at the base so I had to get to the highest point to make that call.
That hill was bad. It was a long ascent that my pace slowed down. My calved were on fire and my blood sugar was running low. I quickly regretted skipping the calves workouts and promised myself to always do them religiously. See, this is why this hike was mental for me. It showed me my weaknesses and what I needed to work on. It trained my mind to push my body no matter how much I wanted to give up. I was being trained to focus on the end but to enjoy the journey too.
My best part of the hike was after that hill when I broke off from the crew to just spend time with my thoughts. A lot has been going on in my life that I hadn’t processed yet so I needed that alone time. For me, getting to the finish line would have proved to myself that whatever I put my mind to,I will achieve. It wasn’t how fast I finished, but what I learn from the journey.
I walked by myself for about three kilometres and during this time I was in my own board meeting. Yaani nilijiita mkutano. I made a pact with myself and the passing wind was my witness. It was like a heavy load off my shoulders. The burden of living for others, second guessing oneself, grudge holding (I left a lil bit of this),and most of all, the unnecessary comparison. I left the person people want me to be on that hill and made a descent with who I am.
This was the perfect hike at this moment in my life. I came to learn that perspective matters. Looking back to those hills that almost made me give up and the feeling after getting to the top, I came to realize that the journey wasn’t that bad. I also came to learn that when we are in the great years of our lives we shouldn’t undervalue those who are struggling. At some point we were descending and some were ascending. I was looking at those struggling going up and wondered what the fuss was about only to get to the bottom and look back. That was one steep ascent from their side.
All in all, I highly recommend a hike to both torok falls and the ngong hills. I definitely want to hike torok falls now that I am in my third year of fitness. I’m sure it will be a breeze. And if you want to hike ngong hills, tag me along. Just make sure you leave your bluetooth speaker at home!
