10,000 Miles down

10,000 miles down.

As I write this entry we have just passed the 10,000 miles from home mark.

We stayed on in Nanyuki for a couple more days and got to see some Rhinos close up a real treat. We were then faced with a bit of a choice.

As we had entered via the remote area next to Lake Turkana there is no official border point there or any other form of building and certainly no way to get your passport/visa/carnet stamped in to the country. So already we were technically unregistered in Kenya after 6 days and had one policeman question us as to where our foreign vehicle permit was. After saying we would have to go to the traffic court which was unfortunately closed already and so we would have to stay the night till it opened, we said that was fine as we were stopping here anyway. He lost interest and sent us on our way, I suspect he was actually after a bribe. 

I had read you are supposed to go to Nairobi and do it there however we had no particular desire to go there and there had actually been no information even from the policeman as to what we should have done. So we decided to proceed on a northerly route across Kenya to Uganda and hope that we didn’t run into anymore inquisitive policemen and that they would be understanding at the border exit.  We thought at worst we would be sent back to Nairobi or have to pay some “fine” or possibly prison but hopefully not the last.

The road across was recommended by our host and proved to be another good choice for spotting wildlife with more Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras etc..

It was pretty much all unsealed apart from the last 20kms down Lake Baringo. A few places were pretty wet and gave us an idea of what it must be like to cross in the rainy season. The road also shook lose our first serious breakage. The weld on the front mount for the additional fuel tank under the drivers seat parted company with chassis leaving the tank hanging down at the front. Luckily it can have happened only a few mins before we decided to stop for lunch and it didn’t get ripped off completely.

A temporary ratchet strap kept it up till a welder could be found. 

We camped up at Roberts Camp on Lake Baringo, a nice spot that according to the bar man used to be the biggest camp in East Africa back in its heyday. Now rising water levels in the lake have claimed most of the campsite and the rooms. What’s left is nice but its shrinking fast. As such we camped 5 ft from the waters edge and saw lurking in amongst the vegetation our first crocodile.

So tempted to touch it

The following day the welding was done in a small town for about £2 by an man with no eye shield dressed quite smartly in suit trousers and a shirt. Its fair to say it wasn’t the best but at £2 you cant complain I guess.

 We carried on along some better and worse roads, on a more remote stretch passing through a Fluorspar mine (whatever that is) where we had to sign in an out. They didn’t seem bothered otherwise that we were driving through. Eventually rising 3,000 odd feet up a slippery mud and rock road into the rain and mist to a campsite just east of Eldoret.

This was our first taste of the overland tourist trucks we had heard about. We hid from the rain in the nicely done out “cave bar” by a log fire. And then promptly got drunk. Many beers and a bottle of rum later, dinner plans were abandoned in favour of a good session. We did get chatting to a few of the bus group but they didn’t live up to their party reputation and retired early, to be fair the did have to get up unsociably early at 6:30, I think I heard them packing up.

Local Car Wash

On to Uganda and the boarder turned out well, no bribes, fines or trips to Nairobi were needed. Immigration initially handed back our passports saying we weren’t stamped in but after some explaining how we had tried but weren’t sure what to do speech he stamped us in and out. A nice guy in customs followed suit.

I then promptly drove out of Kenya without stopping at the exit with the soldiers. I didn’t realise they were the “exit” soldiers, thought they were just general sit about at the border area soldiers. I did wave as I passed though.

They didn’t shoot/shout/follow but were a bit more proactive at pulling in the Irish boys following behind us. Turns out I could have skipped doing the paperwork entirely!

Not a man eater apparently so we were safe

Roberts Camp

Checking out his reflection

The range of birds here is beautiful

Uganda was straight forward enough once the customs lady got back from lunch. We went straight on to Jinja Uganda’s rafting/kayaking mecca. The Irish guys knew a friend there. We camped up at Nile River Explorers and promptly repeated the previous evenings activities. A few days later and many shillings shorter we managed some rafting and I opted to have a shot in a double Kayak down the rapids after a few of the instructors had recommended it. Obviously you wouldn’t normally attempt some grade 5 rapids on your first go down white water but the guide in the back does a sterling job of getting you back up right after you have inevitably flipped over in the white water. I only once felt I was running out of air as we were upside down and tired of waiting for him to right it again, not sure if he was even still there I bailed out for a quick breath before promptly being pushed under again. Great fun though and as much free beer as you can drink on the bus ride back again!

From Jinja we followed a loop around northern Uganda through Sipi falls where we saw the falls and went on a Coffee tour with one of the locals. It all had a feel good factor as apparently the guide fee was partly ploughed back into the local community. The guides had organised themselves into a group with fixed prices and logo's on their T-Shirts. Also an interesting code of conduct / set of rules up on the wall. Including such rules as no drinking, gambling or smoking opium in the office. Sounds like they have toned it down a bit recently.

Tour was good though and although the part on the growing harvesting of coffee seemed to drag on a touch it soon was worth it as we got to bash, roast and drink the fruits of our labour. 

 

We then looped north past the Iorn Age Nyero rock paintings and on to Murchison Falls. Here we stopped in the very good womens camp just south of the park entrance. A beautifull well kept spot with good food, all for less than $10 to sleep and eat.

A few days later as we headed south towards Fort Portal our second serious landy problem emerged as an unusual clunking (there are many to pick from on a landy) turned out to be the front suspension mounts ripping themselves free from the chassis. Break out the ratchet strap again.

This is entirely my fault, I broke away from the “stick with standard gear” rule on your overland vehicle. The double shock absorber set up I have front and rear was to cope with the extra weight and as redundancy. However the front design brought as a proper setup of a Landy online parts place is actually a crap Idea. Its causing uneven loading in the front of the shock/spring chassis mount. And has hence caused the metal to crack and tear, and broken the shock turret. Extra front shocks removed we proceeded gingerly to Fort Portal.

Cue more welding. This time I sought a slightly better welder, this guy had his own sunglasses. 3 hours later and we had disassembled welded and reassembled the front suspension, re-welded the shoddy weld on the fuel tank mount and done two spots on the jerry can holder on the roof which was starting to make its bid for freedom as well. All told it was £37, I think I got a Muzungu price as it probably should have been nearer the £20 local I reckon, but hey he seems to have done a good job. And its still cheap by UK standards.  I did offer Rick the welder my rigger gloves to wear and the use of a welding glass I had brought  with me just in case. He refused both, happy in his sunnys and no glove approach. To be fair he did give the welding glass a go but declared it to dark to see properly. I surprised he can see at all.

That afternoon we headed on down to Queen Elizabeth park, shocked at the $150 to take a foreign registered car in (its only $20 for a Ugandan plate) we opted  to just take the public access roads that still carve through the middle of the park for free. And it was a worthwhile experience there was lots to be seen from the road. But the best was having to wait 20 mins for a big elephant to move out of the road so we could pass. The closest we have got yet.

A guy then plied us with free beer to stay in his slightly expensive $20 a night campsite complete with voyeur showers. Still it was a lovely spot by the river although he really needs to get the access road sorted, you want mud tyres and difflock to get in and out!

Our final stop in Uganda was on the shores of Lake Bunyoni at another overlanders camp where we caught up with the Irish guys again (now permanently following any overland truck with girls in), they had taken another route from Fort Portal.

The mud and dirt roads had given way to nice fresh tarmac now and we wore out our arms on the millions of switch backs leading over the mountains out of Uganda into Rwanda, a country famed for even more hills/mountains. Not so much fun in a heavy wobbly landrover!

Near the border of Rwanda we came across the first of a few refugee camps we would see here and in Rwanda. Im not sure who is in them in this particular troubled corner of Africa, but they did seem to be populated. 

We didn’t spend long in Rwanda only 3 days stopping at Gisenyi next to Goma on the DRC border and Kigali the capital. We did follow the lake shore road south from Gisenyi which was very beautiful although the road is unsealed and very broken in places and I think responsible for my first puncture. I didn’t notice it until Kigali though.

The guide book had warned one of the bridges was deemed unsafe for the local buses, so they stop there and walk across to another bus. Im not sure if its still the case as we didn’t see them stopped but a few of the wooden bridges did look a bit ropey and I crossed my fingers as we went across some of them just in case.

We would have liked to spend longer in Rwanda it certainly seemed a nice place and if I had $500 I would have loved to go Gorillia trekking. But of course we have only so much time and money and still a fair way to go.

A trip to the Genocide museum in Kigali reminds you what happened back in 94 and its nice to see that the country seems to have recovered well. No visa fee for Brits either :)

As I finish up this we are heading south on some very good Tanzanian roads, the sun is out and savannah stretches into the horizon in every direction. Oh and we are past 11,000 miles now. Ill have to try and make my updates more frequent.

Down Lake Turkana and into Kenya

Heading south the weather quickly warms as the altitude drops and by the afternoon we are basking in sunshine. Approaching Lake Chamo we come across our first baboons by the road. The plan is to camp by the lake for

the eve so we stop in Arba Minch the town for supplies and beers, due to a lack of bottles the wont sell the beer +

bottle only the beer so an old water bottle is produced and filled for us as a take out. 

Heading out to our first official safari type park, its after 5 and there is no one ate the entry gate and its open and unmanned so we get a free entry, bonus!  We follow the track through the thick bush for 7 or 8 miles down to the lakeside.Its starting to feel like the Africa I think of from books with thick bushes of 4 inch thorns and trees with strange nests hanging from them. We pass plenty more baboons crossing the track and in the bushes. The birds are

increasing all the time with some spectacular shapes and colours.

Setting up camp on the lake shore a large Eagle sits in a tree hunting and eventually getting his dinner.

We were hoping to se hippos and  at a safe distance crocs. As the light goes though we see neither but many large splashes during the night means something is out there.

The following day we head down to Omorate the final town on our route through Ethiopia. It an out of the way place with over 200 km's of gravel road to get to it once the tarmac runs out.

The landscape becomes drier with a mix of lower scrub and trees covering the sand. Looming up out of the bush are many huge termite/ant mounds.They say this is one of the more remote and untouched areas of Africa where people still live in very traditional ways. Certainly the locals are dressed in some pretty bright and authentic looking outfits. Clothing has become a lot more optional for some as well! Although hardly any of the men is to be seen out and about without his trusty AK-47.

 The only other cars we see on the road are almost certainly tourists on escorted drives or aid agency vehicles. Its not quite that untouched.

By mid afternoon we reach Omorate and easily locating the Immigration compound we do the formalities to get stamped out. Its not a busy place the officials have to come across the road from chatting in the shade and unlock their respective rooms. The immigration man is a lovely old boy with huge glasses and a very shaky hand. We keep our entries short for him, neither of us has the exact date on us but we agree the 25th sounds like a good day to put down.

This far out their are no banks or even a rash black market money changers so we drive about town and find a likely looking local. We kick about for half an hour while he visits various places to round up enough Kenyan shillings to complete our exchange.

I pass the time checking out an old series land rover from Kenya that is up getting supplies. Its closer for them than heading the long drive down Turkana for a similar sized town. I get info on roughly where the turn off is for Kenya, its not marked as such just a track into the bush.

Heading off down this track its a series of sandy tracks through light bush and trees crossing numerous dried up riverbeds. Population is light but there are small villages of little domed huts ringed by walls of thorns. Groups of now naked children run out to meet you and the adults are either in full local dress with ornate hair do and headdress or have on a football shirt.

We find a suitable quiet spot up a dried up riverbed for the eve, although in the quiet out here the local goat herders can still be heard clanking in the distance.

Thorn ringed villages

The following day is spent at a leisurely pace crossing the

variations between lovely sand tracks and horrid rock

fields. And of course hundreds more dried up river beds

with a liberal splattering of drops to catch you out on

any place you might actually get any speed up. Mainly a

day of 1st and 2nd gear. We get to add some more African

animals to our 'seen' list. A couple of kinds of antelope

some tiny deer like animals and more birds.

Not far from the shore we camped up near the edge of a sea

of grass, the kind I imagine a lion might be hiding in.

Just for good measure we have been making fire in the

evenings now. Apparently most animals fear fire and at the

least it keeps the flies away. Gives a little comfort when

you hear the hyenas howling in the dark!

A few days before somewhere a few hundred kms east of

Omorate just before we left the range of mobile phones we

had exchanged messages with Bod & Tadhg the Irish boys we had travelled with a before. Already in Kenya they planned to come up and meet us on the shores of lake Turkana. So a gps point was agreed upon and a day. 

Another remote campsite

We had camped only about 50 Km's north of the position so taking a very leisurely start we headed down the 2 hours it took to cover 50 Km's and by pure luck both cars arrived within 20 mins of each other.

After climbing a small outcrop a nice spot was found for the rest of the afternoon and night. Right on the sands of Lake Turkana’s beach. Untouched almost only a few foot prints of animals and not another tyre mark in sight. Lake Turkana is a big lake and produces reasonable waves, a afternoon swim washed away the last few days of dust and sweat. The water is warm enough and the only thing to not make our stay to long in it was the fact its full of crocodiles. None in sight but still best to be cautious, im no Steve Irwin.

The highlight of the day was the case of beer and fillet of beef they had brought up! A welcome sight indeed. A good fire was made and some of the tastiest tender beef melted into mouths. The price of beef in Kenya means a full fillet of beef costs only around £10, bargain.

Tadhg & Bob with steak & beers!

2 landrovers where they belong in the wild

The following day we wound down more tracks and the villages started to get bigger with proper buildings and even some boasting themselves as hotels. They still looked like 1 or 2 room tin roof buildings mind.

Parts of the area have suffered tribal conflict and bandits in the past and unsure exactly how safe we were we made good inroads into the dense bush between the hills of  Losai National reserve and found a good spot in a big rock bowl.

 

The following day we finally reached the last stretch of the Moyale road with its famous corrugations. The 15 odd miles were more than enough for us and shook a few more bits loose. One spotlight was left dangling and one of the suspension bolts that had been problematic came loose again creating an interesting/dangerous steering wobble. Went we finally reached the tarmac after some 500 miles off-road we quickly tightened up up the offending bits and were on our way. Apparently this road also has bandits and even the Army guys who had stopped to do collect something out of the roadside had lookouts posted with guns. I cant say it felt unsafe but you never know what lurking in the bushes I guess.

One thing that was there, were Ostriches another to tick of the list. We had planned to stop in at the Safari park at Archers Post the Samburu national reserve. Knowing they are expensive we were planning to only stop in a choice few however here they wouldn’t give us a full 24 hours if we lfet the park to camp outside in the cheaper campsite they initially want $80 just to camp inside plus the $140 entrance fee. If we went out we would have to pay another $140 to re-enter the following morning. A bit miffed we headed south a hour and a half to Nanyuki catching up with the Irish again and camping with a new friend of theirs with the intention of getting up early and doing the Samburu park in a day. However the guy who’s land we are camping on is a safari outfitter and his son has taken us on some local drives into the bush which are fantastic. For starters there are no other groups of vehicles about and you get to go to some much more wild feeling locations.

We have seen Elephants, Giraffes, Zebra, Boar, Gazelles, Antelope, Buffalo and a host of other animals including some fantastic birds.

We are also on the Equator now some 9250 miles since we left home