LAKE MICHAELSON

Everybody was visibly seen packing their belongings in a quest to hike a new trail for a fresh night of camping, Lake Ellis was terrific but our guide was adamantly suggesting we were yet to be stunned.

I had personality enjoyed the itsy-bitsy of Lake Ellis and wasn’t sure if anything else might puzzle me like Ellis did, but like they say, seeing is believing. The date read 21st December 2020.

The journey started after we had our bellies filled as we were told the next meal-point will be six hours away. It was exactly 9am in the morning when it commenced.

Thirty or so minutes into the hike I was enthralled as the mountain started showing off, there was this rising Mountain slope approaching as we stepped further, it came with a fair descent sloping to a stream of water before it took cause. There was something to it that was making me feel small and tiny as we kept marching towards it.

I had not understood how badly I needed the serenity of the wild but it was before me. How best to spend my best money, I thought. The wild was staggering and keeping me extremely impressed, it had my attention. For a man so hard to impress I was sold.

It was a journey of getting to grips with the long stretch of slopes and relief when we got to the plateus which categorised most of the hike to Lake Michaelson.

The plateaus were covered in clouds of fog which we simply kept cutting through as we negotiated the trails that comprised of rocks, stones and golden moorlands consistently. It one point we had a total cloud show-off.

It was quarter past 3pm by the time we graced our lunch point, I was busy filming the joy of hikers who were in total jubilation for a sniff of a worthy rest after the ground distance covered when a friend whispered that I had missed a clear view of the gorges downhill and a clear picture that would give a great perspective of how high up we were, the fog of cloud that kept striking me as incredibly beautiful was already blinding the view.

We grabbed our quick fix and we were off, Lake Michaelson bound yet again.

The Mountain was busy shinning its spotlight on me when we suddenly started making a descent to what felt like an entrance to a treasure. It was a slippery declining slope that required so much focus and hanging onto moorland to prevent dangerously tripping.

My adrenaline was kicking in from all angles as i kept gaping on the sight of Lake Michaelson, I had not seen anything this Gorgeous before, especially not for a Lake. That Lake was trying to kill me with its sublime view, the photos I had seen before didn’t do it any justice, I wondered if she was ever gonna ask me out as the answer was a straight no-brainer, a yes!

I was wetting my mouth with an appetite enough to dry that view with a single straw, but oooh boy! I was never gonna get enough, Lake Michaelson was an overdose of ecstasy that was driving me a little nuts.

The view was breathtaking, the air cool and sweet. My adventurous spirit had finally arrived, something that made the-before-me somewhat frivolous, how could he never have thought of visiting the Mountains that pack gems this beautiful, I was running out of superlatives to describe it.

I couldn’t allow myself to get too immersed in the past and feel pathetic from the negative energy so I indulged, I’ve always been so totally a beach person but the Mountains were giving me a liking and I was equally liking them. I was connected as it was harder finding fault with it, it was perfectly etched on my mind from that moment for a long time to come.

I didn’t want to be so quick on saying mountaineering was gonna be my forte but Lake Michaelson was giving me an excellent excuse to think so, and as always I’m a lousy negotiator, I was 99% in.

We scaled down it’s terrains got to our tents and later assembled for dinner before experiencing the longest night of my life, the cold stung as I trembled through it in realization that the night in Elllis was only a preparation for a major fight to come. The worst part about the Mountains is the nights, the cold is unmatched, for the first time I thought about my bed in Nairobi.

Luckily morning came with a freshly-sweet double-packaged feeling, the air smelling pleasantly as if making an apology for the rough night.

We had a free morning exploring Lake Michaelson in it’s divine glory.

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