Rock Report

 Finally had the chance to do some climbing for longer than a day.  When Nathan came to visit, we set aside a week just for bouldering.  It was fantastic.  I took him to a place known by locals as Mwamringa.  It’s just outside my friend Jayce’s village here in the Singida region.

      Beforehand though, we had to put the finishing touches on our homemade crash pad.  We took the foam mattress I had purchased to the local fundi or tailor in Ihanja.  We brought along copies of Urban Climber and Rock & Ice to help illustrate.  It was so priceless seeing this Tanzanian mama studying advertisements for Organic, Revolution and Black Diamond.  She did a great job and our crash pad ended up functional and uniquely covered in a kitenge (Tanzanian printed fabric).

      Then we had to go about our next task of satisfying Beatrice who was not ok with us climbing.  She swore up and down that there were spirits in the boulders that would take us.  She claimed they had already kidnapped two other wazungu from Sweden six years ago.  She was stubborn but finally relented when we promised to go with a local, stay together and bring some holy water.

      And then there were boulders.

      Now y’all know, I’ve been saying for a long time that Singida is full of rock.  I’m just glad that Nathan saw them firsthand and can now vouch for me.  Seriously, don’t believe me?  Ask him.

      It’s about a 30-45 minute approach from Jayce’s front door, with little to no incline.  You pass the village center along the way so each morning we’d stop for chai and buy a couple of waters.  Then, you wind through all these little shambas (small farm plots), past a couple meandering herds of goats and around a mud hut or two. 

      You know when you’ve reached Mwamringa because the only things that reach your eyes are boulders.  Miles and miles of granite dinosaur eggs.  Some small, some enormous, some clustered, some stand-alone.  They’re just everywhere. 

      Now to be honest, the rock quality leaves something to be desired.  A lot of the rock is rather flaky and we quickly habituated to tapping on all the holds to make sure they wouldn’t pop off when we pulled on them.  But even with skipping every shady problem, we never encountered a shortage of great lines.  The amount of rock is just that vast.

      Climbing was great.  I started out a bit worried about how I’d perform.  After all, it had been months and months of not climbing.  But it didn’t take long for Nathan and I to throw grades out the window and just have a good time.  It was challenging for both of us.  Me, because well, over the course of the recent hiatus. I had in fact backslid more than a little.  Muscles I forgot I had were throbbing after the first hour and my poor softened fingertips were pink after day one.  The trust was shaky, too- in myself, my shoe edges, our crash pad.  And Nathan was just forced to climb problems completely different than the style he’s used to.  He’s always excelled at beefy, overhung problems -big, powerful moves to big holds.  Unfortunately, there are absolutely no jugs in Mwamringa.  Everything is super crimpy and balancey.  There are no overhangs but lots of slabs and smearing problems. 

      The challenges were good for us and all in all we had a very memorable experience.  We worked hard but had fun.  There were a few moments when we got completely absorbed in testing out beta.  In those moments, it was just like it used to be back home and Mwamringa may as well have been HP40.

      The last day we took Jayce with us.  He did excellent for having never climbed and my shredded fingers are crossed that he got “bit by the bug” and I’ll have a climbing partner here.  Just in case, Nathan left him a pair of shoes and some chalk. 

      Also on the last day we went to the very top of Mwamringa, a plateau with this amazing 360 degree unobstructed view. You can see the village of Ilongero on one side and Lake Singindani on another. You can see Singida town in the distance and on a clear day, you can even see the outline of Mt. Hanang, TZ’s fourth highest mountain located in Katesh, one region over.  On the plateau are about a dozen or so medium size boulders each with a handful of problems and good landings.

      The last boulder we climbed was this squatty, little thing that had a few easy problems on it, one of which was a completely contrived, but fun, heel-hooking problem and another with a very Horse Pens-esque slap up to a sloper.  We were exhausted.  It was the very last day and the sun had begun to lower in the sky, but we were still going on the adrenaline that always seems to kick in on the last problem of a trip when you’re unsure of when you’ll be able to return.

      Tired but happy, we christened the rock the Vista boulder, set the camera on a timer, and snapped a photo of the three of us with the incredible view in the background. 

      To Mwamringa:  Thanks for the fun.  It’s goodbye for now but may we see one another again many, many times.   

If anyone is interested in coming to TZ to climb, just let me know.  I would be more than happy to arrange everything and could do it on a budget.  As we say in Swahili, “Karibu sana!”- You are most welcome!