Archer's Post, 3 Feb 07...BiRT, the off road rallyer
by Lianna
Anyone for a little off-road rallying in 22-tonne truck?
After our no picnic on Mt Kenya, is was time to go and find some rock to climb.
Up in Samburu lands of Northern Kenya lies the Ol Lolokwe Tribal Conservancy,
and in this conservancy lies a lot of rock. Big ones, small ones, ones with
routes on them and ones with none. There lies Ol Lolokwe Main Crag, a Cat
(big big rock) and a Mouse (smaller rock), a Tom (big boulder) and a Jerry
(smaller boulder). There lies Bastard Bush Buttress and Animal Farm, so called
because of the spiked and barbed trees that guard the approach to one and
the baboons and bees that guard the approach to the other. Hot Rock has been
to Ol Lolokwe before, and is responsible for naming the crags and putting
up the few routes that already exist there. 
This, we thought, would be a great place to go. And we were right. But first
we had to get there...
Driving North from Mt Kenya, the road starts off being quite good, but soon
deteriorates into a potholed mess of ex-road, the tarmac trashed by too many
heavy trucks driving on it for too long. It has buckled and bent, collected
up into large strange patches. There are mounds of road where there shouldn't
be any, and rather less road where there should. This rollercoaster took us
to Isiolo, a small dusty town with a beautiful mosque, an ornate Catholic
church, and more touts hassling passing tourists than anywhere I've been before.
Kids that constantly have their hands in your pockets searching for anything
they can help themselves to, people following you for an hour or more trying
to sell you a bead for 20 dollars, people demanding money and business and
really not taking no for an answer. For all the hassling, we flatly refused
to buy or give a thing, which just made people even keener.
But
we managed to leave before a riot erupted, and headed along the road, now
nothing but a dirt track, to Archers Post, a small peaceful town that restored
our faith. Camels and goats wandered all over the place, the landscape had
turned from the lush green palms of Mt Kenya to dry, dusty and barren scrub
land covered in trees and shrubs with spikes barbs and more spikes. 
Ol Lolokwe Main Crag was clearly visible, with a road leading straight towards
it. But we were aiming for Cat and Mouse, two pinnacles of granite that rise
from the otherwise totally flat bush. Cat and Mouse were really obvious from
miles away but, sadly, the track towards them was less so. We drove up several
wrong tracks, each of them very narrow, very rough and certainly not on any
map we had, before we decided that it would probably be best to simply create
our own track through the bush heading straight towards the rock.
Anyone for a little offroad rallying in 22-tonne truck? It'll be alright
through - we have really big bull bars...
And
so that's what we did. Left the dirt road on what was once a 4x4 track, and
“renovated” it for the next few miles. All we had to do was be
really careful that we didn't drive over a termite nest and end up with our
axles on the ground. There would be no JCB to come and pull us out if we got
stuck here! But create a route through the bush we did, and we continued to
we could drive no further and pitched camp. 
A lovely spot, quiet, miles from anywhere or anything. Happy days.
Then we noticed the broken branches hanging off all the trees, then the enormous
piles of dung everywhere. hmm. Reckon an elephant would recognise tents and
avoid rampaging straight through them as we're sleeping happily through the
night?
No. Me neither.
Ah well. Too late, we were there already, dinner was on the fire, and there
was rock everywhere. So a nights sleep (no elephants) brought the dawn and
the new routing ventures.
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, nd 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. There was loose rock to contend with, hornets nests,
and some bloody hard climbing too... But as always, the adventure buzz made
it all worth it, as did the views from the top of Cat. After all the effort
involved in getting there, sitting on the top of Cat, the summit some 300m
above the scrub, looking out for as far as you can see in every direction
and seeing scrub. Flat, green, scrub and nothing else. Stunning.
