Page 89 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 11

ROAD TRIP AFRIKA

Our camping tents
Photo: Samuel Phillips My husband was helping me find
a suitable spot to sort out some
administrative matters and so we
walked up the muddy incline, which
every vehicle had driven down the
day before, scouting for a location.
We had just found a potential posi-
tion when I looked up and suddenly
saw this striped mountain staring
right back
at me! Just
beyond the
hills to the
south of
our camp,

have forgotten the power in stillness. to there it
deal was, Point
Lake Ellis with Lenana,
Lake Ellis is beautiful. It’s not a the boldly on
large lake but it is said to be good envi- display for a
for trout fishing. Stop and think ron- few min-
about that for a moment – fish in a ment utes, before
lake on the mountains. The area is that you encountered. But that too ducking behind the clouds once
mostly still and calm and surround- had its benefits for my husband and again. My husband dashed down
ed almost all the way around by I, as the early morning found us to grab our equipment so that we
hills. There are no trees in sight as still shivering with muscles stronger could do what we could to capture
the area is mostly moorland. It’s too then than when we first went to bed. that moment in time.
high for the elephants that frequent Our discomfort drove us out of
the forests below us but enjoys our tents before most people were That mountain, forged eons ago by
some bird life. awake and led us to one of the most fire, made up of cooled molten rock
precious of discoveries. which had been pushed outward
As is typical of mountains, the and upward by the powerful con-
weather at Lake Ellis is very un- The evening before was so overcast tractions of the womb of the earth,
predictable, one doesn’t know that every attempt that we made to that mountain, which was connected
moment to moment what will visit find the promised Point Lenana that to the ancient peoples of Afrika,
them from above and we found out we had been told was visible from that mountain which we knew was
firsthand just how much the clouds the campsite yielded nothing more still kilometers away and thousands
love to share their moisture with the than a gray tinted thick blanket of of feet higher than us stared down
mountains. That night was spent cloud. It was as if this mountain at us from its third highest point in
partly searching for our tents and was shyly hiding her face behind a the sky. In that still, quiet moment,
sleeping bags, partly seeking shelter cloudy veil. So we abandoned the as the camp still slept, I felt what
from the rain and for the most part, quest and went on with our activ- the ancients must have felt, a type
shivering in discomfort as we learnt ities, eventually going to bed after of awe and wonder and a sense of
that our tents and sleeping bags gazing delightedly at the portion worship and reverence – not for the
were actually designed for sum- of the starry night skies that was mountain – for she and I poured
mer and dry weather, rather than visible against the bright lights of forth from the same Source and
mountains, cold and rain. It was a the camp. Even with the lights, we Power. My reverence went up to the
cold, wet night. The kind where you were able to see so many more stars King of kings, the Lord, the Creator
don’t know whether you’re asleep or than one can in an urban area. Then of all in wonder at His awesome,
awake but you are fully aware that came the dawn and what was easily majestic power... and I wonder, even
you did not carry enough provisions the highlight of the journey for me. as I write this, could this be what
they knew all those ages ago? The

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