Climbing Fischer's Tower - Hell's Gate
Published Sunday, September 25, 2005 by orange you glad | E-mail this post
First off I just have to say that this weekend completely proved my last post wrong - we had beautiful, warm - even hot at times - weather. So I was wrong.
It was another great weekend. I had an amazing time with some great people. On Saturday morning I met up with about a dozen people from the Mountain Club of Kenya (MCK) and we head out of town to Hell s Gate National Park for some climbing and camping. After a bumpy 2-hour drive we arrived, set up camp on a site overlooking the valley, and head out to do some climbing in the gorgeous weather. We were working on Fischer s Tower - a big piece of rock sticking out of the ground reaching up about 75 feet. And if you look at this photo thinking I look a lot like Angelina Jolie in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 2 - it is because it was filmed here and I personally believe that I m a dead ringer for Angelina - no?
The first climb was a bit difficult to get into it all again, but by the second and third climbs I was shooting up the rock like Spiderman. It was so hard but so fun. It is also interesting to see how much braver I can get when there are cute boys around!
Almost more difficult was belaying - being the person who prevents the climber from not falling by holding the rope - you have a belay device to assist you in holding them up and not letting the rope slip. But the actual watching out for the person and pulling and holding the ropes gives you major blisters and a crink in the neck. Luckily that night after a dinner around the campfire, Ritu - a fellow Canadian living here for the past 2 years (and an experienced masseuse) - got out the massage oil and gave people massages and gave us tutorials on the art of massage.
I like these people - they are all so nice and fun. They are people who like walking around with their little headlamps on and excitedly compare camping gear. I even got paid a compliment after someone was admiring my camping ability saying, “You re so Canadian. That s great!”
Today it was another hot day and did a little more climbing (noticing some improvements hopefully) and then head home - exhausted, happy, and a burnt on the nose. I am sore already. I have managed to wash off most of the dirt that has managed to cover my whole body and am tending to my wounds and my photos.
I am not sure what I liked more - the people or the climbing. I can t wait to go again.
cool! I didn't know you liked climbing. I was in communication with the mountain club before my posting got cancelled. I did however bring my shoes and chalk bag with me to Ugnada. I hope to get out a few times in my 6 months here. If you make it here Sipi Falls has climbing I'm told. We could check it out.