Of Thorns and Heat Exploring Samburu
- Dan Goodwin
- Aug 25
- 5 min read
A tough and hard place to live and even just be in, Northern Kenya beyond the lush and temperate Highlands around Timau (2100mts) on the fringes of Mount Kenya then plunges into the hot and semi arid climate nearly 1100 metres below. As tough and difficult as it is to live and operate is turbulent and difficult history of the region. The Northern Frontier District (NFD) as it was once known was sparsely populated with various pastoralist nomadic tribes which are still very much in play today. Post independence the region was allotted to Kenya and was soon followed by the Shifta wars were nearly 80% of the region wanted to be a part of Somalia. Perhaps another case of peoples land being divided up without the consent of the people who actually live in it. Since then it's been a hard area to manage and often has tribal conflict, cattle rustling and with its porous border with Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan Kenyan has had a constant security headache. This is highlighted when leaving Archers Post on the long empty road North there’s a special forces checkpoint where smart and professional soldiers if a little intimidating are checking what and who is coming in and out of the North. A concerning moment as the panga was found and was checked over (a large sword like blade) but its practical applications in the bush outweighed its security concerns and it was put back in the car.
It's been over a decade that I have been coming and going from this area and although its tough and fairly edgy area I love coming into it as it feels untouched and wild. Jo and I had a couple of spare days between courses and so made the trip for a quick weekends exploratory climbing around the Cat and Mouse towers near Olokwe. We also headed up with John who grew up in the area and has secured some rights with the conservancy to create a camp in the area so we went to have a look and perhaps give some advice and thoughts on how this could be done. Leaving the road near Lerata we dived into the bush heading up towards the towers. Almost immediately there was wet elephant dung and broken trees to highlight wwerere heading into the bush proper. John had cleared some areas in the bush close to a col dividing the two towers of the Cat and Mouse where we put up camp before waiting for things to cool a bit to head off for a climb and explore. One of the hardest things beyond the heat is the bushes, thick dense bush surrounds you at every turn and almost all have some kind of barb, spike, prickle or hook. Just traveling a few metres usually results in scratches. We had a good look around the Mouse area the smaller of the two towers but even the Mouse is huge. We found some good crags dotted around the hillside above the crag but our main aim to see if we could find an adventurous route on the Cat opposite that might work on future courses. This was best left until the early cooler hours of the following morning.
Spag bowl in the bush was created and an early nights sleep. The sounds of the bush are all there is there, I didn’t hear to much that night but I did hear Hyena fairly frequently. Ive heard Elephant trumpeting and also Lions roaring after they have made a kill here before. The area has everything roaming around it but I have never had an issue with things coming into camp aside from Baboon although they have come close at times. This just adds to the wild feel and another major selling point for Johns camp. Although a tough area and seemingly wild it is fragile and needs protecting in many ways in order to keep that wildlife safe, a constant fight between preserving the wildlife keeping people happy and making sure everything has the space it needs to live and do well is a very hard balance to try and keep.
We rose early in the morning to make coffee as the sky started to light up and got ready for an early start. By midday the heat is a bit much so early starts are essential. Gearing up we headed for the Cat taking a winding line around the tower. The initial entry pitch of about VS 4b led us onto a stunning vantage ledge with sweeping views across the Mathews Range. We carried on via some good scrambling and climbing through dead ends and blank walls. The rock is a curious style of rock which can often be super compact and blank giving no gear and quite fragile edges. It peels off in layers like an onion in places which makes it easy to clean but unnerving when you think you have a great flake but actually it's only just hanging on. The Cat has some big and hard routes on the main face which has featured in a good video with Alex Hannold climbing. Of Choss and Lions is well worth a watch. The imagery alone gives a sense of just how much adventure there is to be had in the region.
Eventually we came up on top and some pretty strong winds. Vast views in all directions from the top akin to looking out of a plane window. There is endless possibilities for those looking for wild and remote new routing but you need to come with a resilience for operating in a tough environment. Making our way down I rigged an abseil from a strong looking fig tree which had a shedded snake skin, perhaps a Cobra which highlights some of the hazards you want to be aware of. Climbing and exploring in remote areas such as this also often means less people and more likely that wildlife will be there as a result. Certainly reaching into dark shady recess’s and cracks makes you wonder if this is a home for something. We walked down steadily making our way through the prickles back to camp in time for the midday sun to be in full flow. It was time to make the long drive back to higher ground and cooler temperatures.
Certainly great to be back in the area and I am sure we shall return again at some point. Hopefully Johns camp will be a successful one as he has an area with the wow factor and a good position for adventure and activities. Being on the doorstep of good trekking on the nearby Olokwe, endless climbing possibilities and on the overland route from Cairo to Cape Town will hopefully bring people by along with the adventurous campers in the capital Nairobi. One thing I noted on the return journey was that normally the road is empty with only a few Masai wandering through the heat. This time though the big sweeping bend under the huge walls of Olokwe had numerous Matatu’s (buses) that had come from Nairobi with local tourists out taking pictures. A good sign that people are traveling to see whats in the country and the diverse natural sights within Kenya and that domestic tourism to the natural sights is starting to grow. It's a natural thing for humans to be curious about what lies beyond the horizon and usually that creates accessibility and more will follow. Soon there will be lots of people holidaying in the North spending their evenings picking thorns out of themselves.
