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blind
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Day 5 dawned clear at Austrian Hut. Irungu and I were up at 4:30, had tea, started at 5, climbed easily on the hard snow, and at 5:45, just as it was light enough to turn off the torches, we reached Point Lenana. The air was perfectly calm. On one side the orange horizon, on the other the slightly higher summit of Nelion coming into the light, Austrian Hut (and my tent) visible just below us, and a broad valley stretching out into the distance, white and then green. We could see the lights of Nanyuki and well beyond.
We stayed up for 45 minutes (my camera batteries died because I had not accounted for the effect of the cold), then down for the usual huge breakfast.
At 9 we started walking down to the Chogoria route on the opposite side (the east side), having come up on the west side. It now became apparent that David, having walked without snowglasses the previous day, was snow-blind. Irungu was somewhat disgusted with David's lack of foresight ("He has sunglasses but he didn't bring them") but said that it was not unusual among porters, and indeed, even the caretaker at Austrian Hut admitted sheepishly that he didn't have any sunglasses.
I tried to fashion him a set of Inuit-style goggles (slits in a piece of cardboard), but it was still too painfully bright, he said; I suppose these goggles are good for preventing the condition, not for solving it. He put a piece of dark green (garbage-bag) plastic over his eyes to shield them, but he couldn't see anything at all. I gave him my walking stick and he walked blind, with Irungu instructing him from behind in Swahili (left or right) and me in front ("this way") to give him a bearing. Also I switched packs with him for a couple of hours (his pack was now not as heavy as on day 1, when I could hardly lift it), so at least that made it easier for him to stand up each time he fell, which was frequently.
Two things in David's favour as we proceeded: it clouded over, and we descended below the snow. After we passed Square Tarn, looking like an outdoor rink in late March, he wanted to switch the packs back, I think feeling that he wasn't doing his job, so I didn't insist, although it was no trouble for me going down. Still, his eyes were clearly hurting, and when we arrived in thick mist at the windowless Minto's hut (a real dump, by the way) he lay down in the dark until dusk.
I had a nap in my tent, and then at 4 pm the mist started to lift, and for the last two hours of the day I roamed near the four small nearby tarns and the gorge, with wonderful views as the drifting mist hid and revealed the high peaks ranging across half the horizon, and the giant lobelias in the foreground looked on.
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