Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (14)

Our departure from Guy Yeoman Hut for Nyabitaba Hut at 9:30am was with very mixed feelings. This was the second to last leg of the trek and we were already completely knackered. Dominic was in pain from his dislocated/broken finger and neither of us was keeping up enough food intake to cope with the daily stresses. Nevertheless, waking up in the mornings and looking out at the wondrous views was enough to invigorate us for another day’s effort.

Pretending to fly at the top of one
of the steep descents - Guy Yeoman Hut
to Nyabitaba Hut

This day’s route again went through many bogs and also down some very steep rock faces. We had many slips but only gathered a few scratches and minor cuts. My trekking pole saved me from a couple of potentially nasty falls and ended up with a permanent bow in the middle which it has to this day.

Denisi helping Dominic down one of the steeper
parts of the gorge - Guy Yeoman Hut to Nyabitaba Hut

After the steep descents it was again through more bog. Eventually we reached the Nyabitaba Ridge and then there was only 30 minutes of walking to reach the hut. Along part of the ridge section was a small stream and the stream bed provided the easiest walking. It certainly made no difference to our moisture quotient! The total stage time was around seven hours and we were very tired by now. Before we could rest however there was the now-daily ritual of washing boots, gaiters, and socks.

Till made some minestrone soup which was very good and most welcome. Afterwards I played a bit of harmonica which seemed to be appreciated by all, including the four Austrians – or perhaps they appreciated it more when I stopped? Whatever. But then early to bed again to get some rest for the final day of the trek.

Final Leg - Nyabitaba Hut to Nyakalengija

Till and Pierre had said the previous evening that they wanted to be up early on this final day. I nearly died laughing as they had not shown any inclination to get up early before this. The one exception was their ‘summit’ day at Elena Hut. In the event they showed no inclination to start moving when I announced 7am.

Dominic and I packed up quickly and then started down to Nyakalengija at around 8:20am. It was a warm and sunny morning to walk down and the steep descent was very hard on our thighs which we used to control our speed. But joy of joys - there were NO bogs. We were, of course, overtaken by the others and the porters but we didn’t care.

After the main descent even the few short uphill stretches caused us to tire out but we reached the Park Gate after two hours having seen many colourful butterflies on the way. It took us another hour from the Park Gate to Nyakalengija where we met up again with Pierre and Till. As we arrived another two parties of four were preparing to go up. I had a very welcome ‘Coke’ while the others signed out and then it was into the pick-up truck around 12noon to go back to Kasese.

Pierre and Till were heading straight back to Kampala so we saw them onto the bus and made arrangements to keep in touch. Dominic and I planned to head off to Kampala the following day so we checked into the SAAD Hotel again for the night. We headed straight into the dining room and downed a litre of fruit juice each and then some sweet tea. We arranged for our washing to be done for Us3000 each which was very good value as our clothes were in a revolting state.

We had a back room this time and it overlooked a sort of courtyard in the hotel. here was a huge over-lander tourist truck parked just below us and it looked in pretty knocked around condition. Talking to some of the people from the touring party we heard tails of horror roads through the Congo causing very slow travelling.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and it was good to be able to eat properly again. We had both lost quite a bit of weight over the week but that wasn't really a concern as we both had a bit to spare before that anyway!