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Hot
Rock Trip Reports
St.
Katherines itself is overrun by tourists of all descriptions, it being
the site of the famous Greek orthodox monastery, and where Moses chatted
to God through the burning bush, and of Jebel Moussa (aka Mount Sinai
or Mount Moses), on the summit of which Moses supposedly received the
ten commandments. We ran away from the crowds and headed into the desert
with a local Bedouin guide and a camel.
Less
than a day’s walk from the road, the trail – a traditional
Bedouin nomadic route - to Jebel Banat initially passes tiny olive gardens
high in the desert, followed by carefully irrigated and (we suspect)
somewhat less legal agriculture. The AKs gave it away somewhat. And
come to think of it, maybe the plants go some way to explaining those
biblical stories of burning bushes and stone tablets from heaven…
Despite the guns, everyone seemed quite happy for us to pass through,
and indeed that night some of the guards came to join us that evening
for Bedouin tea and a fireside chat.
The
Sinai is populated almost entirely by the Bedouin, a nomadic race whose
ancient homelands have been occupied / governed by the Brits, French,
Israelis and now Egyptians in the last 100 years. All of these, but
especially the Egyptians, have severely curtailed their ability to move
around and follow their traditional lifestyles – lines on modern
maps mean that moving nomadically from water source to water source
through the year is no longer possible. And the Egyptians have enforced
military service on the Bedouin. So - why not send some poppies to Cairo?
The
Bedouin are an exceptionally hospitable, open and friendly people. We
spent lots of time talking to them about their lives, cultures and traditions.
For example, it is normal practice to not only leave ones house unlocked
when going out, but also to keep wood, tea, sugar and food by the fireplace
so that any stranger who enters one’s home when one is away will
be neither hungry, thirsty nor cold! There are many of these ancient
oral laws regarding hospitality, still rigidly adhered to. | 15 Apr | Wadi Rum, Jordan | "...vertiginous finger cracks splitting dramatic walls which rear overhead, covered in paper-thin jugs and chickenheads. Perfect laybacking, or jamming, or face climbing, pitch after pitch after pitch, all set against the infinite desert..." Read the full trip report here |
| 20 Mar | Sinai, Egypt | See above |
| 31 Jan | Tigray, Ethiopia | Three dusty drive days on partly built roads took us to this beautiful region in the north-east of Ethiopia, famous for its ancient Orthodox churches hand-carved into rocky crags high up in the mountains. A handful of climbers have visited the area before and we thought we’d go and see what we could find… Read the full trip report here |
| 20 Jan | Other blogs | You can find other Hot Rockers' blogs here: |
| 19 Jan | Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya | "...the climbing had been amazing, we were lucky enough to live in close contact with some lovely people and we had found that despite having nothing by our standards many people would show us amazing hospitality without expecting anything in return. Anyway we were down to our last pilchard..." read the full trip report here |
| Nov | Zimbabwe | "...this was our first new routing opportunity in Africa. Everyone seized the chance and 3 new crags were discovered and a variety of routes were climbed, some sport, some trad and one mixed..." Read the full trip report here |
| Oct | Namibia | "...While at Spitzkoppe there were several ascents of Spitzkoppe via the normal route and some ascents of the Pontok Spitze via To Bolt or Not to Bolt and Abrasion. Encounters with these and other routes in the area led us to revise the following terms in the Spitzkoppe guidebook, read carefully to enjoy your visit..." Read the full trip report here |
| Sept | Botswana | "...the Botswanian baboon population wished the local crags to remain undefiled by outsiders..." read the rull trip report here |
| 29 Sept | South Africa | The 2007-8 Hot Rock trip is well underway and the first photos are back. To see all the action click here |
| 26 Sept | South Africa | "Well, it had to happen. After nearly nine months of sweat, blood, tears, sadness, and joy, I’m finally going back home" Find out how Pete will remember his expedition here |
| 26 Sept | Mozambique (belated blog) |
"...Riah and I then climbed up simultaneously, Brent bringing us up over the delicate slabs on 4c moves, a pleasure to 2nd but requiring nerve on lead due to the lengths run out..." Read the full new route report here |
| End of Africa 07 / Start of TransAfrica 07-08 expeditions | ||
| 15 Aug | South Africa | For a fantastic selection of the best pictures from our last 2 months in South Africa, click here |
| 29 May | Hot Rock has a facebook! If you're an ex hot rocker, join the group here For good measure, here's a link to a Hot Rock flickr site, from the 2001-4 world dommy |
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| May | Namibia | Still awaiting trip reports from our hugely successful time in Namibia. In the interim, you can see piles of cracking photos here. |
| Anytime | Namibia | Is it a bus? Is it a truck? A transcript of a young couple's conversation overheard in a popular overland stop... here |
| 10 May | Dema, Zimbabwe | How to negotiate in Zimbabwe... by clapping?! more |
| 7 May | Harare, Zimbabwe | Pictures and trip notes from our climbing fest in Zimbabwe here |
| 20 Apr | Ihla de Mozambique | Ouch! more |
| 16 Apr | Nampula, Mozambique | "...the locals were friendly, there was a stream nearby for water and washing, a village nearby to buy food in, and 700m of rocky spire right behind our camp. Bring on the climbing!..." more |
| 12 Apr | Mt Mulanje Malawi |
"...Which led to a toilet paper crisis that I feel wholly justified in calling an Epic..." more |
| 5 Apr | Cape MacLear Malawi |
"Deep-water bouldering! We travelled along about 20km of shore doing this, climbing then falling off, climbing then jumping off, traversing then swimming, just swimming, snorkelling, sitting in the sun. " more |
| 2 Apr | Malawi border | Border crossings, African style more |
| 31 Mar | Zanzibar | "...So back I went the following day, to find him in his office with a few of his employees, one of whom sported a couple of huge bandages, one around his head and one on his arm. The mafia had broken into his house in the night, robbed him and cut him up - turned out our Mr Bashir was a bit of a Don in the Dar mafia..." more |
| 19 Mar | Arusha, Tanzania | "...The men, tall, gracefully muscled, hardened by a physical life herding cattle under a harsh sun. Leathered faces with such elegant structure, the grace and nobility of their high cheekbones and strong jaws, the hardship of their lives communicated by the deep furrows in their brows. There could have been no purer depiction of the nature of this warrior tribe of East Africa..." more |
| 16 Mar | Arusha, Tanzania | "...it is no exaggeration to say that we drove for 100km throgh the biggest, most sensational boulder region I've ever witnessed. An area big enough for most of the world's more famous bouldering areas to disappear in without trace..." more |
| 6 Mar | Kigali, Rwanda | "...They are, with the momentum of hope, healing every scar, literal and figurative, that the genocide has left. Everybody works hard. Every available inch of land is cultivated. Every minute is productive. And people are happy. We decided that we liked it so much we would stay longer than we'd planned...." more |
| Sorry for the erratic reports of our climbing . It is very hard to find the time to write the stories up (and virtually impossible to get the photos up). So all the climbing and truck chat from Rwanda through Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique is currently missing. | ||
| 24 Feb | Nakasangalo, Uganda | "...the first ascents began and were achieved in quick order by both Riah, who seem to flow up the rock much like a gecko, and then Tommo with his usual silky smoothness. God how I hated and envied those bastards..." more |
| 24 Feb | Nakasangalo, Uganda | "he had a spear and I was wearing my pyjamas, so I felt I ought to go along with it... " more |
| 16 Feb | Kampala, Uganda | "...we all spent the night climbing the rafters
and traversing the tables in the bar. A conversation I overheard: person 1: Who are all these people? person 2: Well, the climbers are over there with the skirts on and their tops off, the paddlers are over there with their pants down, and everyone else is just normal.... " more |
| 10 Feb | Lake Baringo, Kenya | "Lake Baringo is surrounded, on its western shores, by a long rocky escarpment - the reason for our visit. About 8km long, about 80m high, and made of some kind of ironstone at a guess, the whole region has about 15 established routes most of which Hot Rock put up in 2005..." more |
| 4 Feb | Archer's Post, Kenya | "...Between us we put up about 15 new routes over 3 days, ranging from VD to E3. But again it was no picnic putting them up. Seeing as we've just come to the end of the rainy season, the bush is at it's thickest at the moment. Hacking your way through the spiky bush with machetes, with blood, sweat and very literal tears, then having a pack of baboons chase you off your route once you've finally made it there.... it's fair to say each route we managed to put up was well-earned. ..." more |
| 30 Jan | Mount Kenya | "A speedy ascent of the S ridge of Pt John by our trainer-clad swiss-aussie supermen combo. And, eventually, after all the planning, preparation, acclimisation and hoping, 6 people found themselves on the top of Nelion..." more |
| 20 Jan | Nanyuki, Kenya | "...it's tempting to wrap your sleeping bag a little tighter around yourself in some misguided belief that this will stop a rampaging hippo from trampling your tent. The climbing at Hells Gate ranged from Fishers Tower - a nice solid 25m high tower with 14 pleasant routes of all grades on it, to the Main Wall - a 150m high crag that rarely gets climbed but frequently gets shat on by vultures. Main Wall was adventurous and epic..." more |
| 2 Jan | Nairobi, Kenya | "...our first stop will be Lukenya, a big multi-pitch crag 30km outside of Nairobi. The excitement is building, peoples fingers are itching, we’re all poring over guidebooks, making plans and getting very psyched..." more |
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