The region of the central highlands is dominated by the snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya, the ‘abode of the gods’, which reach 5,199 metres on the Batian peak, the second highest on the entire African continent, after Kilimanjaro.

As you get closer to the slopes, the base of Mount Kenya is ringed and engulfed in a veritable jungle, criss-crossed by bamboo groves and an infinite number of streams flowing down the mountainside. On the intermediate heights, a riot of conifers and cedars introduce the first glaciers and the gradual thinning of the vegetation, which becomes increasingly shrubby and steppe-like, embellished by the alpine inflorescences of the beautiful lobelias, and the characteristic Dendrosenecio keniodendro, an endemic plant symbol of Mount Kenya.

The access routes that snake and climb to the summit of Lenana (4,985 metres) are many, and can be trekked over several days through ever-changing scenery, from the surrounding savannahs to dense forests and woodlands, from alpine heaths and highland steppes to small lakes embedded in rock, from streams and glaciers to snow-capped, desert-like, jagged peaks from which to gaze out across the clouds to Kenya.