Another weekend, another life-threatening expedition. This morning we left early for Hell’s Gate and rented a couple of bicycles at the entrance. I’m glad I held out for a step-over as otherwise it was a fairly rattly bicycle and the brakes didn’t work. But because it was step-through I at least didn’t fall over every time I came to a stop.
The ride through the park was very pleasant, with lovely light, cliffs and rock formations with little puffs of steam over them, and of course animals wandering about. The road was unfinished but surprisingly easy to ride on, and the way was slightly downhill. The latter was made a little tricky by my broken brake so I went slower than I probably needed to, despite the grassy banks on either side which would have made for an adequate stop if needed. One of the cliffs was studded by eagle-like birds, dozens of them, catching the currents along its face.
When we arrived at the end, there were signs everywhere saying that the gorges were closed but clearly not as far as the guides were concerned. We paid for a three hour walk and left our bicycles behind for a pleasant stroll.
The gorges had recently seen some deaths as they are very narrow indeed, and for much of them we had to go one at a time, with the steep cliffs several metres high. A little nervewracking, as our guide told us blithly that the rain that causes the flash floods doesn’t fall anywhere close by but guides carry radios to warn them, except he clearly didn’t have a radio of any sort.
He clearly over-estimated my ability, for he took us to the end of the gorge where there was a flat sheer cliff face going up about 4 or 5 metres. No ropes of course, nor even footholds. Well I made it up, much to my astonishment, to be confronted by another. This was even trickier as it bulged out and at one point I lost hold and the guide held up his hand for my foot to find purchase. Again, though, I made it up, probably from adrenalin more than anything else. The GF later admitted that he too found it tricky in places, and I like to think it was much more challenging for me as I’m short and unfit.
The guide semeed to decide that this was enough climbing for a day, so didn’t take us down 10 metre rope hanging over a cliff, and instead we took the scrambling way down to the other wing of the y-shaped gorge. Here there was hot water bubbling from the emerald-green sides and a couple more shorter climbs, this time through very narrow bits where my hips got trapped one time and another time the gorge was so narrow that it would have been impossible to fall without clattering against the opposite wall. The final bit of scrambling was up a rope, not very long but awkwardly against crumbly soil, and I disgraced myself being quite tired at this point.
The bicycle ride back was hot and sunny and very dusty and I was quite exhausted, but because it was gently uphill I didn’t to worry about the brakes and in fact made far faster progress than on the way in. We stopped at one point to watch some rock climbers with ropes etc and a woman insisting very loudly that she was scared – I would certainly have been terrified and probably too stubborn to admit it till I’d fall off or, worse, onto someone else. There was also a rock hyrax there which we saw up close. It has a far more peevish face than I’d realised.
Unsurprisingly, I was quite stiff by the time we got back. Also, it’s Sunday and tomorrow is the working week. We must stop doing these adventurous trips on Sundays, I need a weekend to recover now.