Saturday, September 21st Started the day in the skies above Africa. A long 8.5h flight to Nairobi from London. Not a wink of sleep. Clearing immigration was actually a breeze with the E-Visa which is basically a visa you get online before you travel. However it’s still quite weird they take your photo and fingerprints from BOTH hands. I had a private transfer from the airport to the hotel courtesy of the company that is organising the trip - Intrepid.

So the plan is to go by car to Heathrow T4, catch a light to Nairobi, Kenya. I am supposed to get a shuttle from the airport from the airport to a hotel in downtown Nairobi. The group I am travelling with have a meeting the following day in the same hotel. The day after we get on a private bus aka “safari truck” and go towards Kisii . We are supposed to arrive there about 9h later!

Not often would I brag about spending almost the entire day in the company of the police. Lets face it, you usually have to deal with them if you have done something wrong or something wrong has been done to you and nobody I know really wants that. But I think it was all for a common good today. A large group of mostly police volunteers organise workshops and observed ride-outs under the scheme called Bike Safe .

Modified the usual hike that goes straight up from the Cwm Gwdi carpark. Elevation gain 914 m.

One of the matters you need to address when traveling to many countries in Africa are health orientated. The company Intrepid who I am using for the trip does mention this n their travel advice and probably the best place to go for more advice is your GP or a travel vaccination centre. There are a couple of very good websites that will help with that. https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/ and https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/ There are quite a few diseases that are mentioned for my trip that includes two countries: Kenya and Tanzania so I need to be covered for both.

An old favourite. Have been up it only twice before as far as I can remember. The last time it was a scorching hot summers day and this is also when I learned about dogs and how peculiar they can be be. I took our family dog with me and to make sure we were both hydrated I took a bottle of water for her and a bottle of flavoured water for me.

Perhaps not as prominent of a mountain as the other ones you could climb in the alps but a good training ground. Funny enough quite comparable to the Snowdon hike. Krim is 1,107 metres tall and you start the hike from Iški Vintgar at 420m so a height climb of about 750m. The climb from Pen-y-pass (559 m) to Snowdon (1,085 m) is about 526 metres or 817 metres if you start from Llyn Gwynant.

A great hike up a stunning mountain. The drive to the small carpark in the middle of nowhere is an experience in itself. Then you set off up a disused track and end up in a large open area called Klek plateau. This is where the tricky part comes in, the most difficult part of the trip is the navigation. Trying to find the exit point to the path continuing towards the peaks of Debela Pec and Lipanca.

I had a bit of an eventful day today. Set of to hike up Pen y fan , had to find a way out of town as there were was a road closure and ended up going a way I don’t usually use. Somewhere on that trip I must have ridden over something sharp. By the time I got to Leominster about 20 minutes away I felt the bike being unstable.

I had to bite the bullet and try finding some good boots that will last me for the training I have to do plus be suitable for the Kilimanjaro trip, so hot savannah and ice cold Uhuru peak. I knew I was going to need some help and I was dreading having to go to one of the big corps and one of their outlets. I needed some proper help. I found a little store in Hereford called Trekitt .