British Nampula Towers - Mozambique 2001

No previous visits to Mozambique by British climbers are known. 300km east of the southern tip of Lake Malawi in the north of the country lies Nampula Province, which boasts a number of unclimbed granite towers up to 1,000 metres high. The area lies a long way from an international airport, so this team flew to Johannesburg where they were joined by the South African climbers for a 6000km round trip by 4WD vehicles. Having eventually obtained permission to climb, they were successful in making the first ascent of Merupi Tower, c.800m, by two (simultaneous) different routes at E4/5 6a. Surprisingly, an attempted repeat of the South African route on Mlema Tower was rained off.