Hot rock intro courses with RVA, Kenya 26
- Dan Goodwin
- Aug 11
- 4 min read
Its always good to be back on familiar ground with familiar faces! Jo and I have been back in Kenya to deliver some rock foundation courses for Rift Valley Adventures. Its always great to be back and see whats been happening with the team and the camp tucked away on the edge of the Ngare Ndare Forest. The camp keeps expanding and is looking really good at the moment, one by one as people move on or pass on the adjacent plots get swept into a mix of new safari tents and decks. Kenya itself keeps growing in fact Nairobi being one of my favourite cities is rapidly expanding and now easily connected to Nanyuki with a much faster dual lane highway. Progress I suppose never stops! One thing that doesn't change though is the friendly feel, warmth and the big skies.
Jo and I managed a quick hit to the Nairobi local Lukenya crags and took a look at new sector to us Gumshoe. Lukenya is very similar to Glen Nevis in that its a broad hillside peppered with crags some long some short but probably overall drier and less midges than down the Glen. The unfortunate soul Peter who answered our Uber call enters a long list of Uber drivers in Nairobi who perhaps didn’t quite know where we wanted to go. But as ever a totally inappropriate car was taken bumping and grinding into the bush with a smile and no questions asked and also again demonstrating that Kenyan taxis can go a surprisingly long way with the fuel light on.
From the big city it was upcountry for the first of two rock courses. Camp was on fine form looking very smart with new developments and decks to see. The new decking outside one of the houses has a superb view one way right across the Ngare Ndare forest and then back the other way to the peaks of Mt Kenya. Sadly for the first time since I first came here in 07 there is not a drop of snow in sight on Mt Kenya. Once riddled with five significant glaciers, snowy tops and one of the most famed ice routes in the world the Diamond Couloir its all but dry of equatorial snow and ice.
Two great courses followed with plenty of climbing, also some ducking and diving with the heat as its pretty hot at the moment and things looking almost as dry as Hampshire. The excellent granite dome in the Ngare Ndare forest which is the main climbing site for RVA saw us top & bottom roping, abseils and looking at plenty of anchors and placing protection before on the final day taking those skills to the far side of the forest putting things into practice on a relatively new set of crags in wild setting. Its a great part of the course where we can make lots choices and decisions to keep things safe and the learning level high. Its also pretty good to look away from the crag and see Elephant and Rhino on the Lewa Plains below. That is something to bear in mind when operating here is that you are in a conservancy and that means big game but also small game. Snakes and other animals making you double check a hand jam or a cam placement.
Another element of the course is a trip to town and the Nanyuki climbing gym which is also home to the RVA office. A good wall which certainly feels high and steep perhaps giving some of the hardest climbing of the week. However there is a nice cafe and we can round things off in the bouldering area with Jo’s technique school. With peoples arms burnt its back to camp. Im not sure how many times having lived here and bounced back and forth for many years I’ve driven this route but I seem to notice every change in Duka and veg stall and see what developments there are in nearby Timau, which largely stays the same although there is something quite nice about that. The road however does appear to have been resurfaced with mud which may make for some interesting times when the rains come although for a few weeks it will be smoother than any road in the Highlands.
That brings us to the end of our shift with rock courses but we do have a bit of time to do our own thing before a very busy stretch of summer courses in the Highland before the snows come. I shall pop up another post when we are done and see what we have been up to. There is plenty to do to, Kenya is often thought of as just a venue for luxury safaris which of course it has and does better than anyone but there is also a host of other things particularly in the adventure area, Mt Kenya being the obvious one. A big and technical Alpinesque summit but also vast amounts of untapped rock climbing, canyoning and biking and you get to see the wildlife to. You just need a sense of adventure, suncream a degree of patience, plenty of chalk and some money on your Mpesa.
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