Days 96-98 – 9th-11th January 2010 (Omorate, Ethiopia - Lake Turkana- North Horr-Loiangalany, Kenya)
They don’t lie about the state of the roads if you take the Omo Valley route into Kenya … and the Kenyan side is even worse! Only passable in the dry season we were crossing dry river bed after dry river bed, deep sand followed by uphill roads made out of huge boulders ... but I am pleased to report that William took it all in his (low ratio) stride. More than can be said for The Surf … in one day he had three punctures – at one point, he had fixed one by the side of the road only to notice the tyre on the other side was deflating … it was a bad few days for The Surf (sorry Oli - see the pictures).
Three days later, the convoy made it in one piece (via a quick dip in
Lake Turkana – the locals promised us it was fine to swim, the crocs didn’t
come near the shore until 8pm…) to the relative civilisation of Loiangalany. I
use the term “civilisation” in the loosest sense of the word – they had diesel
(expensive and out of a barrel but still, much needed), a shop that sold tomato
paste, Omo washing powder and a similar array of useless items, a counter with
a long queue of locals waiting (which we found out later was because they had
slaughtered a camel that morning) and the Oasis Club … a paradise in the middle
of nowhere with a warm spring water pool, tusker beer and, after quite a bit of
negotiation, a three course cooked meal … paradise, errr, apart from the owner,
Wolfgang, a German who had been in the town for 30+ years and in his own words
“I don’t like people”… interesting trait
for a hotelier!
Miles travelled: 258 miles
(total 11,906 miles)
Highlights of the days: The best driving of the trip so far, conquering
the Omo Valley and the roads of Northern Kenya and being rewarded with Tusker
beer and swimming! Comments of the days: “eeeek” from Ness driving William through sand at almost
a 90° angle and from Wolgang in response to us
trying to engage in conversation and asking him how he got here “by aeroplane” … that was the end of that
conversation then.
Days 99-101 – 12-14th January 2010 (Loiangalany-Baragoi-Maralal-nr Rumuruti, Kenya)
The roads didn’t get any better, infact the uphill boulders got worse and we had the added mix of mud … yay! Only The Surf got stuck though … (sorry Oli!)
The Omo Valley/Northern Kenya convoy days culminated at a beautiful
campsite overlooking the valleys (according to the FCO in bandit country but we
think they were exaggerating!) owned by a fourth generation white Kenyan family
who farmed cattle and camel on their 30 acres (apparently the smallest farm in
the area) – they lived there together with their 7 dogs and a dwarf mongoose
aptly named “Goose” – they used to have a cheetah but he sadly passed away. We
would be breaking away from the convoy tomorrow so that called for a bit of a party!
Miles travelled: 224 miles (total 12,130 miles)
Highlight of the days: Equator Party at Bobong Camp – the BBQ prep
and beer started flowing at about 1pm! Comment of the day: Q: “How
did you get here?” A [from 4th generation
white Kenyan]: “by virgina”
Brett one of the local white Kenyan’s at Bobong Camp “do you know who you remind me of … Napoleon
Dynamite” Sightings of the days: Impala (the first of many me thinks), Eland,
Zebra, Waterbuck, Ostrich, Buffalo (yay – 1st of the Big five) and a
dwarf mongoose called “Goose”
Day 102 – 15th January
2010 (Bobong camp – Aberdare NP)
Wow, what a day – we said goodbye to our convoy friends and headed for Nunyuki. On the way we saw our first wild elephant, a huge heard just pottering around the valley … and then we hit tarmac, the team was so happy, and then we went to a (relatively) proper supermarket and brought bacon and ice cream (amongst other equally essential items) and then we crossed the equator into the Southern Hemisphere … awesome, we’ve made it half way there!
And then we almost collided into a buffalo whilst slightly lost driving
around a National Park at night looking for the campsite…. *
Miles travelled: 115 miles (total 12,245 miles)
Highlight of the day: Camping in the National Park in a clearing in
the bush, no fence surrounded by buffalo and elephant – luckily, the local rangers
built us a huge fire to keep them away (much to Ness’ disappointment). Comment of the day: “Egg
Banjo”
Sightings of the day: Elephant (that’s 2 out 5!) and lots and lots of warthogs
* note I suspect William might have lost the William v’s African Buffalo fight but luckily the Buffalo seemed as stunned to see us and we were to see it and ran away
Day 103 – 16th January 2010 (Aberdare NP-Lake Naivasha)
The day started with a game drive of elephants, warthogs and buffalo, followed by brunch cooked in the NP of bacon, sausages and egg and ended with steak and beers watching hippos in Lake Naivasha … what more can I say?
Miles travelled: 90 miles (total 12,335 miles) Highlight of the day: Waking up to the sounds of the bush and falling
asleep to the sounds of hippos
Comment of the day: “No problem” from the car wash man who then proceeded to wash half the Omo Valley off William by hand with one bucket and two rags – it took him an hour but he actually did a very good job!
Day 104 – 17th January 2010 (Lake Naivasha-Nairobi)
We made it to Nairobi and proper civilisation and celebrated by booking into the Holiday Inn, yay!
Miles travelled: 50 miles (12,385 miles)
Highlight of the day: Reaching Nairobi, caffe latte and banana
milkshakes!
Days 105-111 –18-24th January 2010 (Nairobi, Kenya)
Despite Nairobi’s reputation, we really like it here. Having visited Nairobi three or four times over the past few years and having friends here, makes it that much easier of course but the city does have pretty much everything you need, for example:
- Java/Dormann’s – Starbucks equivalents which sell caffe latte and banana milkshakes and actually have a much better selection of food than our coffee shops;
- great restaurants (two trips to the Rusty Nail in one week, their camembert starter should win some kind of prize) and of course Carnivores – any city with a restaurant that keeps serving you different kinds of BBQ meat until you have to admit defeat by dropping a little flag gets the thumbs up from me;
- proper supermarkets that sell marmite (much needed as Sudan and Ethiopia saw our stocks decimated and we were thinking of bribing someone to come join us just so we could restock – although the invitation is always open of course … there are plenty of other things we need J) and Jack Daniels horseradish mustard in a plastic squeezable bottle – James was particularly excited about this find;
- good bars that serve tusker beers;
- cinemas where you can watch Matt Damon playing Francois Piennar winning the 1995 Rugby World Cup (slightly odd but actually he did it very well I thought, rugby solves all the worlds problems obviously) whilst eating salt popcorn … small things; and
- for an hour at 11am every morning you can go and watch baby elephant orphans play football and get fed out of bottles, yay!
Oh and there are apparently very polite muggers that apologise after
they mug you – luckily we didn’t come across any of those though!
Miles travelled: 141 miles (total 12,526 miles) Highlight of the days: A trip to Nairobi would not be complete
without beers with Mr Paras Shah in Gypsies!
Comment of the days: Since there is no border post where we crossed into Kenya from Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, we were still technically illegal immigrants so we had to visit the Alien Registration Office to get our passports stamped and were kindly assisted by Moses, from Paras’ office. As we went into the Big Mans office, a bit nervous that we were about to be interrogated and possible deported, which would have been a bit of a bummer, Moses said “just smile and look fearful” …. Hmmm, two very different expressions rolled into one, try it at home …
Days 112-118 – 25-31st
January 2010 (Nairobi-Tiwi Beach-Nairobi)
The Team took a holiday to the beach (via a sneaky peak at a few
elephants on the edge of Tsavo NP) – literally we parked William on a beautiful
white sandy beach and for 5 nights the Team woke up to sunrise over the sea
every morning and spent most days trying to stop the vervet monkeys stealing
all our stuff!
Miles travelled: 806 miles (total 13,332 miles) Highlight of the days: Dinner in a cave at Ali Barbours and drinks at
the 40 thieves, winner of the ‘Trip Best Beach Bar’ to date … oh and surviving
the Mombassa-Nairobi road, only just mind you - at one point we had a massive
truck coming towards us on our side of the road which managed to stop inches
away from William – our closest
shave yet! Sightings of the days: A very large Monitor Lizard plus lots of cheeky monkeys!
Day 119-125 –1st-7th February 2010 (Nairobi)
Back in Nairobi and it was time to shop! The key following essential items were on our shopping list:
1. 2 x hammock - we succeeded in getting 1 (Ness is still happy as she has the worlds largest cushions)
2. 2 x wicker baskets (handmade to fit behind William’s front seats) – eventual success after we ordered and went back at the agreed time and they hadn’t even started making them!
3. Air compressor – OK, more essential and a success thanks to 4x4 High Ratio
4. 2 x haircuts – after James’ experience in Aswan where the hairdresser made him look like something from the Hitler Youth, he was a bit afraid but again, it was a success
After such a successful couple of days shopping, we decided to stay in Nairobi an extra few days for the rugby. We were a bit concerned as we settled down at the bar at the Rusty Nail when the power kept cutting out during the Ireland vs Italy game but needn’t have worried as all non essential items were switched off and 100% of power transferred to the TV and decoder for the England game, Harrah!
Miles travelled: 38 miles (total 13,370 miles)
Highlight of the day: Watching England beat Wales in the bar at the Rusty Nail, yay!
Comment of the day: Ness “some
people pay good money to get that smell …” [William currently smells like
freshly cut grass thanks to the, rather green, wicker baskets]
Day 126 – 8th February 2010 (Nairobi-Lake Nakuru NP, Kenya)
We finally managed to drag ourselves away from the delights (and shops) of Nairobi today and headed North to Lake Nakuru National Park – we thought our animal sighting luck was in when within the hour we ticked off 3 spotted hyena, a couple of rhinos, 200 buffalo and one very large baboon that took a bit of a shine to William – it took a man with a gun to get him off our bonnet … still no cats though.
Miles travelled: 120 miles (total 13,490 miles)
Highlight of the day: Our first Rhino sighting, that’s three of the Big Five down … just the cats to go
Comment of the day: Kenyan wildlife service employee No1 “yes, yes, you can leave the park and come
back in the morning”; Kenyan wildlife service employee No2 “yes, of course you can leave the park and
come back in the morning”; Kenyan wildlife service employee No3 (when we
actually attempted to leave to camp outside the park and return in the morning)
… “oh no, you can not return if you leave”
… hmmm, typical
Sightings the day: white rhino, flamingo (lots), spotted hyena
Day 127 & 128 –9/10th February 2010 (Lake Nakuru NP – Njero, Kenya)
Having woken up in the National Park $50 down for camping fees thanks to the cunning KWS employees, we started the day with a game drive but the cats still eluded us and plans for lunch were thwarted by another large baboon which sat menacingly on top of William and went for us every time we attempted to open the doors … we eventually won the battle with a well placed small rock. We cut our losses and headed for a campsite down the road, one of the nicest of the trip so far so we decided to stay a couple of nights and test out the new hammock…
Miles travelled: 75 miles (total 13,565 miles)
Observation of the days: Kenyan side-of-the-road fruit/vegetable sellers have OCD in the presentation of their wares, small pots are placed in immaculate rows piled high until they reach a perfect peak with a respective orange/onion/potato balancing precariously on top. They also have no sense of competition – one can only assume that one person set up shop on the side of the road and then the rest of the village decided he must be onto something and set up next door resulting in rows of 10-20 small stalls all selling exactly the same fruit/vegetables in exactly the same presentation fashion … unfortunately this has a negative effect on business because, fearing we might get mobbed by the competition if we picked one, we decided never to stop at all.
Sighting of the day: baby jackal
**Kenya – Top Tips **
1. The National Parks in Kenya are expensive for foreigners, if you haven’t been before (which we had), I’d suggest going to the Maasai Mara and, if you want to go for two, Amboselli - none of the other parks we visited quite hit the mark compared to these two.
2. Stay at Jungle Junction in Nairobi – it’s aimed at independent overlanders and has got everything you need plus you can pick up lots of info from other overlanders.
3. Fill up with fuel in Kenya if your heading for Uganda as it is cheaper in Kenya.
4. When we got our carnet stamped, the official recommended we go to the airport and get some kind of Kenyan driving permit which cost US$40 – we didn’t bother and never got asked for it.