Kenyan dreamin' - Stage 2: Walking into the clouds

EVERYBODY HAS A GOAL

Our original plan was to attack Mt.Kenya from the west from Naro Moru village, but because Jasser by chance lived there and he knew the area, he recommended us to take Eastern route from Chogoria village instead, because it supposed to be more scenic and also a bit longer to achieve better acclimatization. We said “ Why not” and the plan was changed. That’s the beauty of travelling independently. If you discover something you haven’t thought about or you are in the mood of doing something else than planned, you just change your planJ

So on Monday we woke up into beautiful sunny morning in a green garden campsite in Chogoria. We were at 1500m above sea level and had 53 kilometers and 3300 elevation meters to clear to the top Austrian hut, from where we were going to climb to the top of Nelion, the second highest peak of Mt. Kenya.

We had nice breakfast, packed everything and then…we put our backpacks on the back. Uffff…they were so heavy. I had around 26 kilos, but Marcin for example had over 30!! One of the downside of Chogoria route was the hike to the park gate. 29 km to 3000m. Obviously all the other tourists pay a 4x4 and drive there, but we no…we were tough. At least we thought we were J

Problem was that none of us has ever hiked with such load, so we were very surprised how quickly our strength was vanishing. I was basically fine. It was tough, tiring and looooong, but at the end of the day I was always ahead. It was also maybe because I bought some weed in the village and was smoking all the way long J

Funny story…”Ehm.. you know…would you be able to get me something to smoke..you know..” I asked the campsite owner the evening we arrived to the village. “Ehm…yeeeaahh…I can…for how much” he asked. I quickly calculated for how much we were buying in Costa Rica and said “Let’s say for 1000 shillings”, “OK sir…it would be around 50 sticks”. I was expecting loose stuff so I didn’t listen to him much and gave him money. What was my surprise when he really brought 50 already rolled joints!!

So in very good and easy mood I was monotonously walking up, getting lost in thoughts, forgetting pain and tiredness and enjoying with my sharpened senses all those completely new things around my floating existence J

It was getting dark when I stopped again to wait for the others. After half an hour came Jaro. After another 20 minutes Marcin and Jana emerged from the dusk. Strange was that they were walking weirdly fast. When they overtook us, we saw why. Marcin was carrying Jana’s backpack, lighter of all attached climbing things, because he left his behind. Jana was carrying nothing. With Jaro we kept walking slowly up using my only head lamp, because Jaro lost his somewhere.

It took us another hour to see light ahead. “It has to be the camp” I said and it really was. After 13 hours of walking we reached. We just saw Marcin going to retrieve his backpack in hired 4x4, Jana was lying already in the sleeping bag, so we build the tent, warmed up my Czech can goulash, which I unwisely took with and went to sleep. It wasn’t a good night. Because of exhaustion I had fever, but I felt good inside. It was a real expedition, we were going for the goal from the very beginning and it was not for free…I liked thatJ

The next day we woke up the same amazing fresh morning with a smell of the mountain towering above us. We took a picture at the National park gate and headed in. After yesterday suffering, Jana and Marcin refused to try to get to Mintos hut at 4300m, so we had only a short 8 kilometer hike to Chogoria road head campsite at 3300m.

And the story continued. Powered up by the green dope I enjoyed hiking under the sun between bushes which replaced trees, listening to the wind and sound of my steps on the soft soil and curiously peeking up at our goal in the clouds. Paradise J

After 3 hours of walking we took a rest of the day at the camp, which took another day from our spare week. Only the night was a horror because I don’t know why I had a fever again and was more shivering than sleeping. This was unfortunately following me up to the top hut!! No pills helped.

But during the day when was quite warm it was good and could enjoy another 8 kilometer hike to the next camp at Mintos hut at 4300m. This time it was not a wide road anymore, it was quite steep and we were slowly getting to high altitude, so I didn’t want to risk the green boost getting me altitude sickness, but it didn’t change anything on the Sherpa-like feeling I had. One heavy slow step after another, carrying your burden up with determination enhanced by closing Nelion, which was growing bigger and higher every minute.

Almost from the beginning we saw the end the trek behind a sharp cliff sticking out into the valley like the rock in Minas Tirith and it looked from the beginning quite close. But the opposite was the truth J We were hiking towards it almost the whole day. “Where the hell is it!!!” swore Jaro after we passed another “last” horizon. With all the tiredness at the end of the days it seemed neverending.

But we reached. We had just enough time to go get water from nearby lake, cook some instant pasta and die inside the sleeping bag. I was prepared for another fever night, but what I was afraid more this time was diarrhea. We had water treatment pills to be able to drink water from streams, but this time we took it from slack lake. We could see some crumbs or mosquito larvas swimming inside the bottle and floating dead when we sprayed them with treatment drops J Fortunately those were high efficiency drops and we didn’t have to spend any extra toilet paper!!

The fourth day on the mountains, after some heavy discussion, we did only an acclimatization hike to the top hut and back with only all climbing gear, which was actually around third of the weight we carried!! The walk was like flying. It was so strange to walk with only normal load. But we were getting higher and higher, so we couldn’t walk much faster anyway. Jana got a bit sick at the half way, so she returned, but we three we reached the Austrian hut at 4800m.

And then we saw it. Lewis glacier at the bottom and towering peak of Nelion rising above it and us. I saw this view many times on the internet, but standing personally so close to the mountain was breathtaking. I was staring a while at the summit and its smaller relatives around, like Point Lenana or Point John and then immediately found our climbing route in the topo and started to locate it on the rock. Looks pretty easy and obvious J

With the help of one local guide we locked the gear in one of the rooms and went back to Mintos. Rather easy hike today, but we were same tired as the last day, so evening routine was exactly the same.

It looked that we are more like two pairs than a group of four. Me and Jaro walking together, cooking together, sharing the tent and the same for Marcin and Jana. We didn’t even talked to each other much because we were walking separately due to speed and we were usually walking the whole day.

After another day from the spare week we packed up the camp and hiked up to the hut again. This time we all reached and in very good time, so after occupying one bedroom in the hut for and extra fee, we hiked across the glacier to the climb base. We wanted to see how difficult is to walk on ice without crampons, how long time we need to scramble up to the base and how is the rock. Everything looked positive and possible, except clouds which came at the afternoon and covered Nelion for couple of hours. Unexpected weather change after a week under the blue sky!

When we got back after another complete day of walking, we quickly cooked some instant pasta dinner and started packing for the climb. Somehow, probably because high altitude, lack of good sleep or exhaustion, I was losing my focus, was not able to concentrate and was just sitting there, not listening to Jaro’s rising voice and basically being useless. I knew that it was happening, but I couldn’t do anything about that!! “Jiri, put all your stuff here that we can see if we need one backpack or two” ordered Jaro. After five minutes I was still sitting on the bed holding the rope and staring into nothingness!

You can imagine how good it felt when I slipped into the sleeping bag, after I mindlessly packed and prepared my things, and could for that short time before I lost consciousness think about, that the day which we were dreaming about was finally here J

Kenyan dreamin' - Stage 1: Getting even there

EVERYBODY HAS A DREAM

After endless months of preparations and planning, the Day D was here. And as I wrote before, we knew that not everything would go according to the plan. But we were not expecting problems coming that soon, means even before we boarded the plane.

I was the best example J Despite countless discussions about vaccinations, three days before the flight I checked my vaccination clinic in Czech, if they could send me the list of vaccinations I took in the past, because I lost it! I was pretty sure I had everything necessary from my visit to Costa Rica in 2007. “Hepatitis A+B you have, Typhus expired now and Yellow fever, which is required to that area and you need a certificate to cross border between Tanzania and Kenya, you didn’t take” was the clear answer I received Thursday morning, 21 hours before our flight.

After some swearing how stupid I am, I took action and went after office to Abu Dhabi and fortunately it was not a problem to get it on spot there. I took also new Typhus when I was already in the hospitalJ Problem was that full protection would come after 7 days!! “Better now than never” calmed me down doctor’s voice. I also had to arrange with my colleague Hugo that he would pick up the Yellow fever certificate in three days and send it by email to me, that I could have it before we go to Tanzania.

After that I rushed back to Dubai, gave keys to Rune to water the flowers, went to several stores to buy food and last small things and at 11pm I was finally back and could start packing!!

Jaro and Marcin said that they would arrive around 10pm and we would pack together in my place. They came at midnightJ Jaro with two bags with random stuff in one hand and our carefully composed equipment list in the other and Marcin with one packed, but insanely heavy backpack which needed a radical intervention and me with a packed backpack but small things like repairing punctures on my mattress still to do. Our flight was at 6am, we agreed to meet Jana at 3:30am so had to get goingJ

I don’t know why, but before all my last holidays, I never slept and went directly to the airport. This one was no exceptionJ But we made it more or less and at 4am we were sitting in a minivan taxi direction Terminal 1.

And of course I forgot something in the rush. The mattress I repaired and put to dry on the loft bedJ But what was much worse was that Jana forgot (or better didn’t take) the credit card used to pay the ticket. It was for the first time when at check-in they asked for that credit card number. Jaro and me we checked in our overweight with no problems, but Jana with Marcin started running around, calling and trying whatever to get the number. And the clock was ticking!! At the end they opted for buying a new ticket for our flight, instead of going back home to take the card and fly one hour later, which would still be enough to catch the connection in Qatar.

So far so good and we all could have a drink on the plane to Doha and also on the plane to Nairobi. We arrived on schedule at 1pm local time. The same we couldn’t say about Jana’s backpack, because when she was checking-in on the last call they didn’t have time to put her luggage to our plane, so they sent it with the other and one hour for transfer was probably too little for lazy airport workers.

So our spare week was immediately one day shorter. Our hired driver Joseph aka Jasser offered that for some extra money he takes us to some Nairobi hotel and tomorrow he drives us to pick up the back and to Mt. Kenya National park afterwards, how it was planned.

We wanted to stay out of Nairobi, because of crime, warnings and that there is basically nothing to see. “One day is OK. At least we see the capital and if all that is true” we said and hopped into Jasser’s minivan direction city center.

So instead of going north to the lonely mountain we were going south to the busy city. And it was visible from the first moment. Overcrowded, dusty and permanently jammed roads, with sellers of everything from fruit and sunglasses to maps and phone chargers, walking between cars. Crowds of people waiting next to the road for matatu minivans, the only public transport. Crazy markets where everything is lying on the muddy ground. Groups of guys just sitting in front of half broken wooden stores and doing nothing. And what was the stangest...crowds of people always walking around at all directions!!! I don’t know how I would feel outside the car!!

In the city center I is much better than at outskirts. Quite clean, repaired, modern and looking safe J Jasser dropped us to a rather cheap hotel in the center and we went for a dinner. After some tough steaks “Buy 1, get 1 free” and “Buy 2 beers, get 1 free” we decided to experience some local culture and opened Lonely Planet. As per their “Have to see” list we went then to Simmer’s, an open air pub directly in the center between high rise buildings, with local band playing and us being only white guys. I would probably feel uneasy, but with already some percentage we ended up even dancing J

After that, me and Jaro, we opened our travel bible again. “Let’s got to some club” and we continued to one just next street. Nice place, with smooth African style music and dance floor in the middle. Except that we were immediately swarmed by local prostitutes, which were continuously trying to be our company for that short time we stayed J So we had a couple of beers, listened to music standing aside and watching another white, much older, guys being swarmed on the dance floor and then we left. Not our styleJ

Next morning we checked out, Jasser picked us up and we drove to the airport just to discover that Jana’s bag is still in Doha!!! One in Nairobi is fine, but two is just pure waste of time. But what to do L We drove back to the hotel, had dinner and couple of beers and went to bed. Our holiday had not even started and the spare week was already two days shorter!!

On Sunday we got up at 8am and Jasser, who chose to stay one day more, took us to the Giraffe breeding center, one of the few places where you can go around Nairobi. Main attraction was feeding the giraffe from an elevated terrace. Was fun, but those guys are really ungrateful. If you have food in your hand, you can touch them, otherwise they bite youJ After that we went to Elephat orphanarium and watched the feeding of 15, 150 kilos heavy baby elephants.

When we exhausted all Nairobi attractions, we went back to the airport. This time we were lucky and could change direction to Chogoria. Finally J

Kenyan dreamin' - Prologue

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She was ambitious, sporty, with adventurous soul, but…how it often used to be…in a “wrong” place. Her name was Jana, she lived in UAE and she had a dream…dream to conquer Kilimanjaro.

She was asking all her friends she and people she knew, but in Dubai people tend to have different priorities and because what looks great through a glass of beer doesn’t look that amazing the next morning and even less when you should buy a ticket, so she was not able for more than a year to find anybody to accompany her.

Until one day when she met JIRI!!, one same ambitious, sporty guy with adventurous spirit, who was in the right time in the right place to hear ”I want to go to Kenya climb Kilimanjaro, but I just can’t find anybody who would come with me!!”. And that is how it started J

“That’s a great idea. I was also a bit thinking that it would be cool destination for a trip. Where else than here and now we can make such a trip. Definitely count me in!!” I replied passionately. And somehow the Czech people tend to do what they say, so over the next month our modest trip got extended for Jaro and Marcin, for another two weeks and another peak to conquer.

“Look at the map guys…there is another over 5000m high peak near Nairobi, but the problem is that you need to do technical climbing at the last 500 elevation meters” I pointed out when we were sitting in a bar after Wednesday climbing session at The Wall. “Big wall climbing is so much fun. We have to do this” said Marcin who just got back from climbing big walls in Yosemite National park. And our expedition could begin J

We bought tickets at the beginning of October for beginning of February Kenyan dry season and started to practice and train. Why? Mostly because those last 500 meters on Mt. Kenya is traditional climbing and except Marcin we had little experience with this type of climbing. We have in UAE plenty of places where to go, but for trad climbing you need to have a lot of special gear and tools, which are expensive and especially in UAE you cannot even buy them. So before Christmas we managed to borrow it a couple of times and try how it works in reality. To my surprise you when you touch a well placed cam is brings almost the same feeling of safety as a drilled bolt J

Everything important should have come during Christmas holidays, when we all went home and used the opportunity to get necessary equipment. I found out that I actually need everything. When I say everything I really mean everything. I have never been to any high mountain expedition so I didn’t have proper clothes, big backpack, warm sleeping bag, all the trad gear, etc…etc J

When we all gathered back in Dubai after Christmas, we realized that we have only four weekends to go and really try to simulate how it might look like on the 500 meter high wall! First weekend we went to Omani Wadi Dhaykah again, where we were before, but had no time to climb at all. Our objective was to climb 120m tall California Dreamin’ cliff. Trad climbing with bolted belay posts.

First day Marcin and Jana succeeded in around 4 hours, while me and Jaro were scratching my brand new cams on shorter routes below. Definitely necessary activity, because there wouldn’t be anything worse that showing our amateurism in Kenya with shiny cams directly from the store!!

The next day, after amazing camping party in the desert, where several legends like Teqtonic & Pichips were created under loud donkey “sounds”, we succeeded also to conquer Californian Dreamin’ more or less same time. Only difference was that we tried to rappel down despite the warning in the guide that ropes get often stuck while dragging them down, so our easy four rappels took us up the sunset, because the rope got stuck twice…obviouslyJ But overall good weekend where we learned a lot of technique and also that we need to speed up our ascents...a lot!!

Second weekend, thanks to the brand new release of UAE climbing guide which uncovered to us endless possibilities of big wall trad routes, we went to do some 100 meter routes on Sentinel rock in Ras al Khaimah. Two days of nice, completely traditional climbing on a bit less loose rock, on the everyday sun. Flawless!! We gained even more confidence in the gear and the technique, but our speed was still a problem. We managed to do two routes on Friday and one route on Saturday in three, because Jaro had to leave. We started to feel that a bivouac on the top of Mt. Kenya is inevitable.

Third weekend was the Dubai Marathon weekend. Jaro was participating so we lost him for another two days. I was also running, but only 10 kilometers run, so I had no problem to drive already at 8am again to Ras al Khaimah for another climbing weekend. We went to the same place, but were doing only single pitch routes on cliffs near Sentinel rock. All trad, short, but very cute routes. It a pleasure to see that there is slowly visible some experience and confidence with the gear which was accompanied by speed increase. We did around 8 routes that day and the next day just for fun some bolted stuff on one 90 meter cliff to try rappelling on two ropes. Very active weekend training.

The last weekend we went only for one day back to Sentinel rock with Jaro and Milan, because Jana was in the desert with her cousins and Marcin was sick ;( It was a lazy easy day. Jaro was still quite tired from the Marathon, so we climbed a couple of one pitch routes and practice some rescue theory.

And that was it…our training and preparation time was over. From a pub idea we realized the complete expedition. We got equipment, studied theory, practiced, trained, collected information…we made our dream came true!!

There was still a lot of unknown, but we were confident. Although luck favors the prepared, we knew that not everything would go according to our plans J