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.