Fundraising status: 3909,23€ or 34% reached, a massive thank for the one contributing ! Unfortunately the pace is slowing done over the last weeks but the need for education is not, therefore please support lessons for life, any amount is welcome! For all my Cologne friends, now that you don`t have to spend money on drinks, don`t hesitate to do a donation ;-). Thanks a lot and If needed, the link is still here
Stage 42: Nairobi to Namanga
KM: 157.79 km
HM: 1035 m
Time: 5h42 minutes
Flat tires: 3 ;-(
Liter of water: 6.5 + a brown beverage named coffee, 1 sprite and a mango juice
Strava link
Stage 43: Namanga to Arusha
KM: 117.44 km
HM: 972 m
Time: 4h20 minutes
Flat tires: 0
Liter of water: 4
Strava link
After a fantastic time in Nairobi where I had the chance to see again some old and new colleagues (a BIG thanks to Alnashir Kassam for the great dinner at his place) and finally bought a new cellphone… It was time to dive again in the Kenyan road jungle to enjoy our last day in this country.
As expected, getting out of Nairobi by bike was not an easy task at all. The traffic was crazy, the drivers as mad as usual and our level of anxiety on a very high level. And unfortunately after a few km as I was following Nick, he had to do an emergency stop and as I did not reacted fast enough my tyre hit his back disc brake. Hopefully no one felt down and with the help of one of the Kenyan rider we could quickly fix Nick disc as well as my tyre (even if in that regard I`m getting quite good with my huge amount of punctures.). What I was not aware off at that time is that this first puncture was just a beginning but let`s not go too fast… As we finally reached the outskirt of Nairobi, the traffic decreased but the road conditions did the same as we had to drive for kilometres and kilometres through some roads in construction, a nice challenge for the arms legs and..tyres (yes I know Ì`m a bit obsessed by my tyres). Right after the end of the construction works I got a second flat and by chance the TDA truck was passing by and could help us with a decent pump. As we inflated the new inner tube and as the truck was almost leaving, the new inner tube gave up as well and we could by chance stop the truck on time as I was getting out of inner tube… The second new inner tube installed, we (Mike the local rider/bike mechanic and I) could finally reach the lunch stop. The second part of the day went without any troubles and we could simply enjoy some beautiful rolling hills and our entry into the Massai territory. This day was quite a tough one as we faced two accidents (nothing critical but one rider will have to leave for a few weeks) and plenty of punctures. Seems that I even get a challenger for my tittle of Master of puncture as a new Dutch sectional rider got 3 during his first riding day, well done Dann ;-).
The second and last day of this very short section started by a new border crossing and to be honest, passing from Kenya to Tanzania was way easier than what we would have expected. An here we are, I’m back in Tanzania, my favourite African country! I was here for the last time in 2014 to climb the Kilimanjaro with my parents and I was more than happy to be back.
And Tanzania did not disappointed me, we started with 60 km of beautiful rolling hills in the middle of the Savanna, having the Mt Meru in front of us and the Kili on our left. Some lucky ones could even spot a few giraffes, zebras and tortoise on their way to lunch. After lunch we had a beautiful 20 km climb on the side of Mt Meru before enjoying a nice downhill to reach our camp in Arusha. This day went absolutely smoothly and we could therefore focus on preparing ourselves for the next 3 rest days.
Climbing a volcano
TDA decided to grant us 3 rest days in Arusha and as I already had the chance to do all the safaris available in the area in 2014 I was weighting my options when Ashley came with the idea of climbing the Ol Doinyo Lengai. Ashley was interested in this climb as this volcano is a very special kind of volcano and have some super special lava and so on… (well Ashley is a passionate geologist and I don`t always understand all the stuff he is explaining but it is for sure fascinating ;-)). On my side, already in 2014 I was willing to climb this volcano but as I was the only motivated this project was cancelled it was therefore a perfect opportunity to finally climb an active Volcano and moreover the Volcano I`m using as main picture of my website (what for a coincidence..).
And here we are, on the first rest day, we got picked up at 8:30 am and jump in our jeep direction the Lake Natron. After a few hours of drive and a nice lunch close to some old volcano we finally reached our camp at around 15:00.
As the climb will take place during the night, we try to get a few minutes of sleep but due to the local temperature, our success was let us say highly limited. After this little nap we went with our Massai guide for a short walk towards the Lake Natron where we enjoyed seeing many giraffes, zebras and wildebeest as well as a zillion of flamingos. Well I`m not sure about the zillions but the Lake Natron can have up to 3,5 millions of flamingos on the highest season.
After this short walk, we went back to the camp, enjoyed our dinner and tried again to sleep for 2 hours as we had to be ready at 22:30 for a cup of coffee and to leave the camp at 23:00. And after 45 minutes of off road, we are finally ready to start the climb. Our backpack are filled with water, the headlamps are on, let`s go !
As the climb has been done in the night, there is not much to say about it, it was just a very very steep climb on a quite unstable ground (I used my hands a lot)
And after around 4 hours of hiking, we reached the top of the Volcano and went to watch the Magma, an impressive red spot in the darkness of the night.
And it is now that the challenges started, the problem was that we had been way to fast for this climb. The guides are usually planning with 5-6 hours to reach the top and this timing brings the climbers almost on time for the sunrise. On our side, we still had at least 2 hours to wait until the sunrise and the facts are quite basics, there is nothing on top of this Volcano…
The guide therefore suggested that we would stay on the slope of the Volcano, trying to stay protected from the wind for the next 2 hours. The situation was therefore the following: we were lying or sitting on the steep slope of the volcano @2900 m with a potential free-fall of 1600 m under us. We therefore did everything we could to not fell asleep as we were scared that falling asleep could be dangerous. And after 2 hours spent shivering and looking at the stars to stay awake, we climbed again the few meters to the rim of the volcano and could finally enjoy an amazing sunrise!
And after spending quite some time doing pictures on top of the Volcano, we started the descent and could finally realize how steep the climb was (maybe doing it by night is quite a good idea as one does not realize how steep it is). And after 4 hours, we finally reached our jeep again, tired as ever but extremely happy!
And after a well deserved lunch, we drove back (well Ashley and I slept to be honest) to Arushaand went back to our camp/hotel to enjoy a restful night of sleep.
And that was it, 5 years after my first meeting with the Massai holly mountain, I finally climbed it ! This was really cool !
And here we are, after 4535.12 km, 20975 hm and 175 hours and 14 minutes on the bike, the tenth section is over..and I climbed a volcano! And for once there is something to mention, my legs are hurting like hell. As we do start the next section tomorrow, and as this section will be one of the toughest one, let us see how it will works! wish me luck.
Mapa
18 Mar 2019Eh bien, nous qui pensions que c’était toi qui avait dérouté Ashley! Dis donc, c’était craignos au bord du volcan, la photo est impressionnante! Quelle belle expérience, Et tes photos nous rappellent de magnifiques souvenirs 🤗
Fred
19 Mar 2019Eh ben non c’est Ashley le coupable 😂😂