Goodbye Kenya

Kampala to Kenya

We finally dragged ourselves from Red Chilli Hideaway and plotted a course to Kenya. This after a bit of a saga getting our Cadac gas bottle filled. This was done after much wailing and gnashing of teeth caused by some idiot who had collected the bottle unnecessarily and then deciding to pay himself an undisclosed R50 handling fee. Not a lot of money, but the principle!!

 The drive from Kampala led us back onto the diabolical Jinja road which we did in the pouring rain and amidst road works. Unfortunately the guys who manage the traffic flow generally wave both the red and green flags at you so you are none the wiser. They also directed us onto a road with newly laid tar but more of that later. The border crossing was uneventful both sides and even the self-appointed helpers took one look at us and stayed away. We were both pretty grumpy. We got back to the car only to find that an entrepreneurial car washer had had a go at the car wiping off the mud but leaving a tar bespattered car. I explained to him that we did not have a contract, verbal or otherwise, and left him penniless. Madam was driving and he got short thrift there too!

 We were heading for Naiberi River camp near Eldoret and eventually arrived there at 9pm: for the third time on this trip breaking our "no driving after dark" rule. Luckily the road condition on the Kenyan side wasn't too bad and the going relatively painless. Hooted at the camp to get in and were glad to get our tent up and crash.

 With the help of Raj, the campsite owner, we got hold of Winam body shop and I spent the next day in Eldoret watching the car being de-tarred and polished. It was a real mess and took 3 guys most of the day to clean it. Very annoying as it had only been cleaned 2 days previously after its service. Of course the gleaming Tom Cruiser and I went through a monster storm on the way back to the campsite! Aaaargh!!

 Eldoret was quite chilly so we dug out the star-shaped hot water bottle Jodie had given us and popped it under the duvet. What bliss!

 Tooth Fairy visits

On 22 August, Rebecca lost her first tooth without even knowing it. We think she lost it biting into a doughnut at our side of the road coffee stop. Of course not having proof for the tooth fairy is fairly serious and calls for some rather drastic action. At the Kembu Campsite outside Nakuru, we quickly penned a quick note of explanation for the tooth fairy which she then had to hold up high and circle the car 5 times. We then popped the letter under her pillow and hoped for the best.
Luckily tooth fairies are pretty sharp and the next morning the note was gone and in its place was a shiny KSh 10 coin. Fantastic!

 We caught up with Glen, Thandi and family at Kembu! It was great to see them all. They are heading home after 6 weeks in Ethiopia and we have still that to look forward to. The kids were in their element. They played and played until 9pm both nights we were together. It is amazing how Rebecca and Galen just clicked from the first time they met at Peponi. Can you believe that Kembu is back in the Southern Hemisphere? I think this must be the fourth time we've crossed the Equator, pretty sure that this will be the last time for a while.

 Eldoret to Nakuru and beyond

The road from Eldoret southwards was horrendous, made worse by the fact that this was the main Kampala-Nairobi road. The Kembu campsite is on a working dairy and thoroughbred horse stud farm. We went on a tour of the farm and while watching the cows being milked our little princess was holding her nose, so I think that probably puts paid to her career as a farmer!

After a leisurely breakfast with Glen and family, we set off for Lake Bogoria, hoping to also meet up with Matt and Sue who, like Glen, were making their way southward albeit at a more relaxed pace.
We took a short cut to the lake, coming into a little used south gate. We then handed over all our shillings for entrance fee, vehicle entrance fee, camping fee, being alive fee, mzungu from a foreign country fee etc..
We checked out Fig Tree campsite where we lit a quick fire and had mince jaffles. As we were leaving to check out the other camping options, who should we drive into? Yep, Matt & Sue!
It was great to catch up with them at Acacia campsite which was in a great location and the banks of the lake were full of lesser flamingos. They looked like a packet of marshmallows, all pink and white.

The next morning we visited the hot springs, not as impressive as Rotorua but then not as smelly either. We then went our separate ways, Matt and Sue to Uganda and us moving ever more northwards.

We were about to set off along what will probably be the worst roads we'll face on our trip, bar none. It looks like: good roads to Maralal, poor roads to Loiyangalani on Lake Turkana, bad road to Marsabit and shocker to Moyale. The good thing is that we only have to do them once unlike those who loop into Ethiopia and down again.
Just north of Lake Bogoria, we stopped for morning coffee overlooking Lake Baringo, also with hot springs but without the flamingos.  

 Camel country

Our next stop was Maralal where they hold an annual camel derby. What a pity, we missed it by about 3 weeks, it was held early August. Nice campsite, but shocking loos. The road out of Maralal towards Loiyangalani was quite a challenge, really rocky in places, a bit like van Zyl's pass in places but on a smaller scale. We climbed rapidly up to over 2500m and then down again through the Samburu Hills. The landscape is amazing and what better way of chewing up the kilometres than to put the Lion King soundtrack on full belt as we sped (well; crawled, rattled and shook) through real Lion King country.  

As we'd left Maralal later than expected after shopping, drawing money and filling up with diesel, we didn't want to arrive too late at Lake Turkana so, at about 4pm, with about 90 kms to go, we stopped at the Teiyo River community campsite in Kurungu, just outside South Horr for the night. Once we got the campsite cleared of all undesirables and got the tariff sorted, we cooked and had an early night. Rebecca watched her Alice in Wonderland DVD.     

 Lake Turkana

With only 90 kms to go we took a leisurely drive to the lake. The road was rocky and the last 25kms especially so, with layers of sharp lava rock being called a road. Our coffee stop was in a dry river bed and gone is the cold weather of Kampala and Eldoret, this has been replaced by heat and wind, lots of it!

It is no surprise that they call Lake Turkana, the Jade Sea. Its colour gives it away. The shore of the lake is made up of volcanic rock and while it looks the most hostile of environments, it is home to about 6 different tribal groups and their donkeys, camels and goats. We came across many settlements made up of tiny beehive huts covered in all sorts of material, from grass to old material to plastic bags.

Boy, does the wind blow here! We are camped at the Shady Palms campsite which is fine except no view of the lake at all. It's a good job the road hugs the shoreline for 20 or so kilometres otherwise you may not get to see it. After reading the Lonely Planet who raved about the meal but thought the accommodation expensive, we decided that a drink and lunch at Oasis Lodge would be in order. Well, this place seems to be run by a descendant of some Nazi wanted for war crimes that has being lying low out here in the sticks. It was only 12:46 but we were too late for lunch! Lunch takes 2 hours, he says. OK, we say, how about a drink then? Well, this is a private club, he says. Get knotted, we think and off we go to our campsite for our own drinks and lunch. It is amazing how wrong Lonely Planet is about most things. Half the time they should be called "some other planet".

Shady palms, my eye. More like "windy palms". We hardly slept as we were convinced that the tent was going to be torn from the roof rack. The poles holding the fly sheet were bent double and we were both up in the night to secure the roof. Not sorry when morning came and we had a quick breakfast and got on the road. Another 230km or so day.

We are now busy with our big "push" northwards. Some heavy driving lies ahead. From Loiyangalani to Marsabit and then the supposed "worst road in Africa" from Marsabit to the border town of Moyale and then Ethiopia here we come.

 Turkana to Marsabit

We took a "short cut" from the lake which cuts out some of the southern road to the junction with the Marsabit road. While it was probably shorter distance wise, it certainly wasn't time wise. It was a challenging road but good fun. We shook, rattled and rolled along the road which ranged from sharp volcanic rock to corrugations to large boulders.

 We were all really tired when we got to Henry's Camp in Marsabit. There we met the Yorkshire couple of Andy and Edie whom we'd heard about from the Italians at Lake Nkuruba. They were easy to spot as their green Defender has a white front door. We were hoping for a good nights sleep but Andy told us that Marsabit is also a very windy spot. They had the same tent as us and they'd removed the entire top cover. The Marsabit environment is a pretty hostile one: Thorn trees, yellow grass and loads of wind. Why Henry, a Swiss guy, has lived here for 30 years I don't know. Not sorry he does as Mrs Henry runs a bakery and we stocked up on delicious rolls and loaves of bread. Knackered from lack of sleep at the lake, we did sleep marginally better. Kaz did some washing and boy is this good drying weather.

 Marsabit to Moyale

Andy and Edie set off at first light and we had a quick breakfast and followed them around 8:30 once we'd drawn money from the brand-new KCB ATM and filled up with diesel and air. Stanbic has not been so great for us in Kenya. Its branches are few and far between. We were expecting a long day's drive to Moyale and were actually really pleased with the road and our progress. We had a great coffee stop in the middle of nowhere watching herds of camels on the plains. No bandits and no really bad stretches of road. It was bone-shaking in parts but at least we could rattle along at around 55kms/hr. Far better than our average speed on the main Kampala-Nakuru road in Kenya where we were lucky to go over 20kms/hr and that's supposed to be a main road. We had planned to overnight at the Kenyan Wildlife Society campsite on the Kenyan side of the border but when we trundled in at 2:30 we thought it too early to set up camp so we decided to push on. Bought some fruit and cold drinks with our last Kenyan shillings and headed for the border. We cleared immigration and customs relatively quickly on the Kenyan side once the man with the stamp had been tracked down anyway. In no-mans land we were "found" by Birruk, the Ethiopian guide whom Glen and family had used in the Omo valley.

Goodbye Kenya…hello Ethiopia!!