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Travel Blog #35 - Nairobi

Submitted by Peter on Wed, 2010-06-02 14:29.

Location

South Africa
In Africa one has to keep on moving and adapt. They can stick Ethiopia up their arse and fortunately Africa has 39 countries. We picked up the pieces and mapped out a route back to South Africa, passing through some of the countries we did not get to see on the way up.
They also saved me $4,000 shipping costs for the Prado and 2 return air fares from Egypt.
 
 
 

One of the roads in the centre of Nairobi.
 
 
 

Nairobi city centre in the distance. We got into Nairobi and 7 o’clock in the morning to be at the Embassy at 9:00 and so doing hit the morning traffic.
 
 
 
Wooden scaffolding.

 

 

 

 

Absolute traffic madness. No rules. First come first serve.
 
 
 

City centre after a downpour. We will never ever complain about the Johannesburg roads. 

Travel Blog #34- Isiolo to Moyale

Submitted by Peter on Wed, 2010-06-02 12:45.

Location

South Africa
3° 28' 10.4052" N, 39° 3' 23.0256" E
We left Isiolo to tackle the notorious northern Kenya road to Moyale. We were ready for the worst roads in Kenya.
 
 
The Chinese are busy tarring the road to Moyale and we had nice tar road for about 80kms north of Isiolo.
 
 
 
Looking north from Isiolo towards Marsabit. The corrugation is definitely the worst we have experienced and 25kms per hour is all that we could manage. It took us 10 hours to do the 250kms.
 
 
 
Miles and miles of nothing.
 
 
 
The landscape started to change to more desert type and we saw our first camels.
 
 
 
 

Camels on their way to the watering hole.
 
 
 
Rocks and dust.
 
 
 

The Samburu tribe en route to Marsabit. They are very shy and don’t like you to photograph them.
 
 
 

Typical Samburu settlement.
 
 
 

"Henry the Swiss" camp site in Marsabit.
 
 
 
"Henry the Swiss's" campsite in Marsabit.
 
 
 

From Marsabit to Moyale, another 250kms or so of very bad roads. Ethiopian mountains in the distance.
 
 
 

The roads started to get very bad and muddy. Lots of rain filled all the little dams.
 
 
 
They said you don’t want to be on this road when it is wet so needless to say we were in the thick of it after a heavy down pour.
 
 
 
Another 10 hours to do the Marsabit to Moyale stretch.
 
 
 
Fully loaded trucks are up and down all the time.
 
 
 

And then the bad news. We couldn’t get a visa at the Moyale border post, that is after double checking that we could at the Ethiopian Consulate in Kampala.
 
I could not put my Prado through that road again so the only option was a $900 Land Cruiser taxi back to Nairobi to get the visas there and then back to Moyale. Another 2 day round trip.
When things go wrong in Africa they go wrong in a big way. The Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi threw our passports back at us with only 3 words. ‘No Tourist Visas’ No explanation, nothing.
Well, that was the end of the road for us and our vehicle was still in Moyale. There is just no way we were going to get through Sudan to Egypt. Two round trips on the worst roads any other person will only do once in a lifetime.
 
 

Puncture on the way back to Nairobi.
 
 
 
Pit stop for us and fellow passengers. John our driver on the right. He does 100kms per hour on that bad road. It was a trip from hell.
 
 
Having some lunch in Marsabit with fellow passengers. Njera, a local dish of meat wrapped in a rice pancake.
 
 
 
Michel, a German, en route to South Africa. The northern Kenya road snapped his vehicle in 2 pieces. He was such a wonderfull guy and we got on very well with him. With typical German precision welding he fixed the chassis and assured us he will make Cape Town.
All I can remember him saying, around the campfire and after the 6th beer, is 'Peter...this vehicle is going to Cape Town'
 
 
 
We camped in Moyale at the local police station.The local police station commander assured us we will be safe and should we have any problems, we must just call him.

Travel Blog #33 - Great Rift Valley

Submitted by Peter on Fri, 2010-05-14 12:35.

Location

South Africa
0° 0' 59.3244" N, 37° 4' 4.3356" E
After a lovely breakfast at Nakuru Tented Camp we left for Isiolo. En route we crossed the equator a few times again. We are pretty tired of the regular thunderstorms in the morning and afternoon just to make sure nothing dries out.
 
We travelled via Nyahururu, Nyeri and Nanyuki. Beautiful scenery all the way.
 
 
 

At the Subukia view site one can get a perfect idea of the Great Rift Valley.
 
 
 
Great Rift Valley to the North.

 

 

Subukia view point between Nakuru and Nyeri.
 
 
 
 
 
Moving northwards to Nanyuki Mount Kenya is starting to get into view.
 
 
 
 

Mount Kenya on the right.
 
 
 
 

First real taste of the Muslim cultures starting appear.
 
 
 

We setup camp at Samburu Woman’s Camp in Archers’ Post just north of Isololo. Nice and secluded, cold showers and a Muslim type toilet.
 
 
 
The Ewaso Ngiro river flowing quite strong.

 

 

Travel Blog #32- Jinja to Nakuru (Kenya)

Submitted by Peter on Fri, 2010-05-14 10:58.

Location

South Africa
0° 21' 5.616" S, 36° 4' 44.7672" E
We left Jinja early as the pull to Nakuru in Kenya was a hefty 400kms with a border crossing.
 
 
It looks like MTN has taken over the whole of Uganda. One way of getting your shop painted is to sign up as a distributer with one of the cell phone companies.
 
 
 
 
We had an easy border crossing at Tororo from Uganda into Kenya but a problem on the Ugandan side left trucks piled up for about 5kms on the Kenyan side. The drivers just have to sweat it out on the side of the road for days.
 
 
 
Hundreds of trucks waiting to clear customs.
 
 
 
The road to Nakuru via Eldoret was just madness with trucks. The road has been completely wrecked by the trucks.
 
 
 
We saw trucks overturned, jack knifed and a head-on. I think they drive nonstop from Mombasa to Kenya and Uganda.
 
 
 

Finally, Nakuru with the famous Lake Nakuru with all the flamingoes in the distance. We headed for Lake Nakuru Camp just outside the National Park but when we got there they did not allow camping. So we just booked in and had our first bit of 5 star after 5 weeks. It wasn’t too bad either, $120 per person with dinner & breakfast.
 
We gave the flamingoes a miss as it was going to cost another couple of hundred dollars. They are crazy with their park fees.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Travel Blog #31- Jinja

Submitted by Peter on Fri, 2010-05-14 10:38.

Location

South Africa
0° 26' 56.6232" N, 33° 10' 53.2488" E
We headed back towards Kampala as we were advised it is the best route to go to Keny. We didn’t want to get stuck in Kampala again so we headed straignt for Jinja, the source of the Nile.
 
 

 

We found this camp site, Eden Rock Resort just above the Bujagali Falls.
 
 
 
View towards the Owen Falls dam wall. From the dam wall the water flows into the Victoria Nile river and then onto Murchison Falls, into Lake Albert and then it becomes the Albert Nile which eventually becomes the White Nile which eventually joins the Blue Nile at Khartoum, Sudan. From then onwards it is the Nile River to Egypt.
 
 
 
Bujagali Falls in Jinja. There seems to be a few claims to the ‘Source of the Nile’ but for my money it is our dear old lady friend, Lake Victoria.
 
 
 
Not really a water fall, more like rapids.
 
 
 
Bujagali Falls.
 
 
 
It is now known as the Victoria Nile as it flows towards Murchison Falls. An impromptu tour guide said that in 4 years time this place will be under water as they are busy building a new dam with a hydro electric power station further downstream. We did not get a chance to verify this as it was Sunday afternoon and everyone was very jolly. We did see cranes in the distance though.

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