Mountain Misery

24mm, f/5, 1/200s, ISO500

We’re used to seeing happy travel shots, but sometimes honesty can be refreshing. This image is from a Gorilla Highlands media trip in late 2015, from the third and highest peak of Mt Sabyinyo. We’d gotten the Uganda Wildlife Authority to agree to a special boon: camping on the volcano! That turned out to be easier said than done, however. The space on the first peak was only enough for two of the four tents, so we were a little cramped, to say the least. It was raining, and the rangers and porters had forgotten to bring food for themselves, so we ended up sharing our own — there were five of us — with another eleven people.

The reason we were doing this, unsurprisingly, was because I wanted a chance to photograph the sunrise from the third peak, impossible with a normal, late-morning start. We set off from our make-shift campsite long before dawn, making it to the third peak in good time, but were thwarted by the weather. We endured for several hours, hoping that the clouds would lift, but no such luck. Cold, wet and fairly miserable — yet trying to keep the mood up — this image pretty much sums up that morning before the 4-hour trek down. A memorable experience? You bet.

🖋️📸 written & photographed by: