Kenya creaking 2014
I have always heard good things about Kayaking in Kenya. That there are countless rivers and that the area is almost completely unexplored. In late April 2014 I went over there to see it for myself and what I found was beyond my wildest expectation. Myself, Colin Wong, Timmy Flowers and Rachel Johnson set off on a creaking mission with the goal to run a series of first descents around Mt Kenya. We had timed it perfectly to arrive in the middle of the rainy season to have plenty of water running down the mountain. It was a great plan except for the first time since anyone can remember the rain never came. With very limited water flow we were struggling to find rivers that were big enough to run. But that was not going to stop us. In the end we still managed to tick off 4 first descents but having scouted out the area it’s just a matter of time before heavy rain will fall and we will be back. Having been kayaking in a lot of different places in the world what struck me most about the rivers around My Kenya is the style of the bed rock and the rapids. On every river we ran I found river features I have never seen before. With a mix between volcanic basalt and granite, two of the best bedrock types when it comes to kayaking the rivers we ran were a mix between pool drop style drops and slides to lava tube mini gorges with beautiful clean waterfalls splitting up in countless channels. Imagine running a first descent five times and not run the same channels or rapids twice. With enough rivers and first descents to last for a lifetime in an extremely cheap country I believe Kenya should be on every kayakers hit list.
