Birds fly overhead with Fischer Tower (left) and the main wall in the background:
Tourists take photos of zebras walking along the base of crag:
Mt. Longonot in the background:
In fact, the entire time we were there was highly amusing. Here are my top five favorite events:
5. The Brotherhood of the Badger shaved their beards and Mike cut his dreads off (!).
The Brotherhood of the Badger was composed of a bunch of guys that grew their beards out -- in some cases over the course of several months.
L to R: Adam, Jase, Matt B., Drew, David:
It was an emotional time when George created some fantastic facial fashion statements (although usually more emotional for the guys' girlfriends).
Drew goes under the razor:
George well pleased with his creation on Adam:
David needed someone to hold his hand when it was his turn:
Matt and Drew try to look tough:
Showing off the chops:
George's handiwork:
Mike had the most drastic transformation.
Mike with dreads:
After three years of dreads, he had George cut them off in anticipation of a job. It was sad, in a way, to watch what had been such a defining part of Mike fall beneath the ragged scissor cuts, but ultimately it was for the better.
Mike couldn't stop touching his head:
Finished product (note the fistful of dreads in Mike's hand):
It took a couple of days, however, for us to get used to seeing the new, improved Mike, and many times we didn't recognize him.
4. George dressed up as Santa.
Somewhere Henry purchased a set of red coveralls and George took to the part with gusto. None of us had any idea that "Santa" would be making an appearance, and we couldn't stop laughing when George popped out of BiRT with our Secret Santa gifts in a big bag. After the unavoidable come-sit-on-my-lap jokes, we got down to the serious part of distributing gifts.
Adam reverts back to being a five-year old:
No, Ian, you can't eat a loofah:
Later, George entertained us with some long, slightly bawdy holiday poems he had composed while cycling on his own from Dar to Arusha. It was really quite impressive to hear him recite the often hilarious stanzas that lasted for a good 15 minutes.
3. Drew, Jase and Mike performing an original song for the group.
Hot Rock has been fortunate to have several excellent musicians on board BiRT. Drew and Jase had been in a band together for years and wrote a song for everyone which they performed after Christmas dinner with Mike on drums. Because the mood got so sentimental, they were forced to launch into a rousing rendition of our theme song "Eye of the Tiger" and we sang/shouted ourselves hoarse.
2. A fabulous Christmas dinner featuring a steak for every person. Enough said.
1. Nearly getting kicked out of the campsite for setting off extremely loud fireworks.
A few of the more observant folks on the trip had found fireworks -- firecrackers, really -- at a town we had stopped in on our way to Hell's Gate. Some were Secret Santa gifts and other people kept a supply for themselves. David couldn't resist setting off the first couple in secret and they exploded with an unprecedented decibel level, practically sending out shockwaves. These were definitely Shock and Awe firecrackers. I've never heard firecrackers this loud, ever, and frankly I'm a little surprised that nobody's eardrums dissintegrated. After our initial shock, the follow up urge to set off more could not be supressed and we discovered that five lit together pretty much created a crater in the ground. And drew the attention of guys with guns. Mind you, Kenya was in a hard fought race for the presidency at the time with elections scheduled the 27th, so loud explosions were not taken lightly. Anyway, a phalanx of large men with machine guns suddenly appeared demanding to know what was going on and threatening to throw people in jail. Apparently the blast was so loud that people had fled the bar and restaurant area thinking someone was shooting. Although potentially serious, it was still hilarious to see Emma, all of 5'3", surrounded by these huge guys with guns. Talk about David and Goliath. Thinking quickly, however, Emma explained that it was our custom to set off fireworks at Christmas. If anyone other than innocent looking Emma had tried to pull that explanation off, we likely would have celebrated the rest of Christmas behind bars in a Kenyan jail.
Climbing was mixed at Hell's Gate.
I'm concentrating way too hard:
The massive, main wall looked like it would be really good,
Drew heading toward Fischer Tower and the main wall:
but turned out to have chossy bands that caused some scary moments for people. George, in particular, had a bad fall after some rock gave way, ripping several pieces of gear out of the wall, tearing a sling, and narrowly missing serious injury. That guy has more lives than anyone else I know. I led a bunch of single pitch trad on solid rock. There was one really great area composed of a line of individual cracks of varying difficulty where I worked a bit on crack climbing.
Everyone played around on the cracks one day:
Matt B. works a route at the crack crag:
I wouldn't say I've found a new love in rock climbing, but I was feeling slightly more comfortable with some crack techniques by the time we left.
Adrian and me on top of Fischer Tower:
David satisfied with a day's effort:
Despite the mixed climbing, everyone was pretty much unanimous that it would have been spectacular to camp in the park instead of our campsite, Crayfish Camp.
Although this hyrax (aka rock dassie) doesn't look like he cares for our kind...:
Not only was Hell's Gate gorgeous, there was no club 400 meters away operating until 6 a.m. with thumping base so loud a person could feel it in their bones.
