Mount Kenya Mountain Biking: Article Follow-up

Hey Everyone,

Here is a link to a German article in "Bike Sport" written by Guenter Kast:

http://www.aquabatics.com/_docs/small_BS_1112_2011_138-143_MountKenia.pdf

It is about his Mountain Biking Trip of Mount Kenya with Adventure Trippin. There is also an English translation (many thanks to Klaus Pohlen who translated!). The German article has all of the pictures.

Enjoy and happy adventuring!

Aquabatics Staff



English Translation:

Mount Kenya: Mountain tour with bikes

Hakuna Matata: no problem!
Mountain bikers sometimes have quite exotic visions. BIKESPORT author Guenter Kast realized with three adventurers his dream to traverse Mount Kenya, second highest massif in Africa. A trip, enthralling as the continent.
This wasn’t a good idea. Simon goes over his handlebars and lands exactly on his forearm. Something like this should be avoided – especially in Africa because the flying doctors, serving medical treatment in the bush, want to see cash before they start treating an injured person… given it is possible to get any help.

Simon is already slightly failing. He caught a tropical ulcer in Costa Rica and his cracked foot is due for a surgery since a long time. For any other person enough reasons to cancel the trip or to give up now. But Simon is a “crazy Canuck”, a crazy Canadian. Just “extra-tough”. He just dusts his clothes and mounts his bike again. He wanted to go back to Mount Kenya, the mountain he rode already a couple of times by bike. He loves this 5,000 meter high extinguished volcano. The breathtaking piece of scenery with all its huge exotic plants, the deep valleys and the glacier summits.

Ready for adventure:
The mixture of anticipation and queasy feeling spiced with a big shot of adrenalin is leading to a highly addictive cocktail. Same this time: While we were a little nervous during our ride to the park entrance now we can enjoy the feeling that we will bike at a place were usually nobody else bikes. The road is surprisingly dry and can be used. In the trees are screaming monkeys and on the red ground we see fresh and still steaming elephant dung. It smells like Africa and wild animals. It can’t be too long that the elephants passed this place. At the first camp close to the Old Moses cabin Simon tells us that lions, hyenas and leopards have been seen up to heights of 4,000 meter. The Judimer camp is on 3,300 meters.
But the major reason for our almost panic-stricken withdrawal in the tent and sleeping bag is not being afraid of animals it is because of the cold temperature. After sunset you forget very quickly that Mount Kenya is located in the tropical Africa close to the equator. Next morning the tents and bikes are covered with hoarfrost and the air is clear. What a privileged breakfast place in the morning sun. First time we see the snow covered summits of the massif Nelion and Batian. But they still seem infinitely far away. Enough reason to mount the bikes… and to dismount soon after. The way we used yesterday turned into a steep, muddy single trail, larded with moss covered huge rocks.

Pale faces on funny bikes:
Only three hours after we started, dense fog covers everything. The carriers hauling big baskets with camping equipment and food are hard to see in their unfit clothing. They just say “Hakuna Matata”- no problem. And they smile. Actually, they always laugh. Possibly because they found a well-paid job for seven days, compared to other jobs in Kenya, possibly because four palefaces on funny bikes without reasonable breaks are torturing themself up the hill. Mountain bikers seem a bit suspicious to them. They are not at all interested in a test ride with our bikes.

We get compensated for the more and more elongated push & carry passages by Scenecien and Lobelien, creating real forest in almost 4,000 meter. These primeval appearing plants, only found in the tropics at very high levels, flanking the way to the idyllic camp in the Liki North Valley where we can see the tents like dashes of color. Biking in this Jurassic-Park scenery is bike fun pure and even Simon can forget his injuries. He loughs and shouts “hey man, I think a dinosaur will show up here pretty soon”.

3,000 meters downhill:
It continues the next day. Steep push passages alternate with technical challenging trails in an exotic botanic. All of us now are used to the height and the extreme climate: Minus 10 degree when we get up and 30 degree plus as soon as the sun comes around the mountain summits. But the toughest part is still ahead: We have to push and carry our bikes another 450 meter from the Shipton’s camp (4,200 meter) to the Simba pass. Our plan: We will hide our bikes between rocks and walk down again to the Shipton’s camp. From there we will start the next morning at 3 AM, heading to the summit soon enough to see the sunrise, going down another route to the Simba pass to pick up the bikes and to start from there an extraordinaire downhill ride: 3,000 meters, 50 kilometers, almost no climbs and technical always at the limits.
Summit day: with lights on our foreheads we start with our guide Frederic from the Kikuyu tribe in a very dark and icy cold night heading to the Simba pass. As soon as we arrive there the sun is warming us and we see the infinite African savannah. We assemble the bikes and we are looking forward to the super downhill following the Chogoria route, the most scenery route at the Mount Kenya. The feeling that we ended up in the film shooting of “Lord of the rings” improves during a short trip to a rock nose named “Temple” close to idyllic lakes beside the Mintos cabin. From there we look down 300 meters to the Gorges canyon. Don’t slip off the pedals now!


A trail like a war declaration:
Not much time left to enjoy this place. 1,400 downhill meters are still waiting. The trail is like a war declaration against the human being and his bike. It flows again closer to the end and the vegetation is getting greener again. Despite the spectacular landscape we are already looking forward to a shower and an evening in front of the fireplace in the lodge at the park entry. Late afternoon, 13 hours after we started at the Shipton’s camp we have an improvised party on the green meadow in front of the wood cabins. Four dirty but happy guys are sharing a bottle whiskey. Soon the sign “Attention, dangerous animals during the night” becomes blurred.

The last days brings beside headache another 20 kilometer downhill. Passing wanton bamboo forests where Colobus monkeys with cotton-candy-like-shiny-white tails are climbing in the trees. The air is stuffy hot and the deep furrows in the road demand our whole concentration a last time. At the very end, shortly before the asphalt road starts, Simon is getting really sick. He is brought to the hospital in Nairobi by a Land Rover as fast as possible. He is texting next evening “We are heroes! Was a heavy blood poisoning. But I’m lucky. The doctor cut a big piece of rotten meat off of my arm”. But now he is already doing much better and he thinks about new adventures. Hakuna Matata – no problem!