15. Nairobi to Ethiopia. - Routes and Roots.

OK so we set off north on Sunday 10 July with Graham and Marie-Claire, back along the road towards Uganda, then, at Gilgil, turned north towards Lake Turkana. We stayed the next couple of nights at a clean, spacious and, compared with Nairobi, peaceful Thompson Falls camp site at Nyahururu. Here we saw Kikuyu people, in full regalia, who charged us 200Ksh (£1) to take their photos and then a further 200Ksh to look at the Falls. The 2 bikers, Dave and Vince joined us after replacing Dave’s shock absorber and we had our first proper camp fire for ages, sitting well into the dusk putting the world to rights

The first stretch to Maralal was holed tar for half of the distance then reasonable gravel for the rest. This was our last opportunity to tank up for the 830km stretch of rough and remote tracks to Jinka in Ethiopia and the next available diesel. We had understood that there was a Nakomat (Kenyan supermarket chain) there but could tell as we drove into town on the dusty water cut streets that this was unlikely. Sure enough we caused a bit of a stir trying to find the things we needed in the low tin shacks that serve as shops and quickly collected a large entourage of children, beggars and the just curious that tried to push in to each shop we visited. Here we also bought small bags of rough chewing tobacco to swop for photographs (instead of money) further north, the first time we realised that photography could be bad for your health. What a surprise when a Kenyan business woman passing by told us that she, like Terry, is a Rotarian, so they had a quick chat and she was delighted to receive a Howden Rotary banner for the Rotary Club of Machakos complete with photo shoot alongside theLR.

We had been told that the usual camp site was closed so we had to talk Maralal Lodge into letting us camp on the lawn. They soon agreed and we had another quiet night there although later we discovered that Camel Camp had re-opened. Had we known we would have camped there in order to meet and swap info with other overlanders travelling north or south in this remote region. Planning the next section had brought back many memories and we were minded of Pete and Jakki (‘75) and Mick Rust (’72) as we discussed Baraloi, Baragoi, South and North Horr and Loyangalani.

The next morning we set off with two very overloaded vehicles carrying all our fuel, food and water as well as supplies, spares, excess clothes and water for the two bikers who can’t carry big loads on such rough roads. There are two roads north to Baragoi and we had been warned that the western route was all broken rock so opted for the eastern one. We weren’t disappointed  - rough, narrow tracks wound their way high into the mountains, all the stuff 4x4s were built for. It was good fun but we both took it easy trying to preserve the suspension. The bikes need to travel much faster to keep momentum, we had agreed to travel in convoy due to a risk of bandits, so they kept having to wait for us, in the searing heat this was not very pleasant for them, though I suppose it gave them time to catch their breath after battling with the heavy bikes over rocks and through dry, often sandy river beds.

There was a long valley stretch of riverine forest with smooth sandy tracks – just what we picture Africa to be. We started to see Samburu people, beautifully adorned with ochre coloured cloth wrapped around them. Women with layers and layers of neck beads, bangles and head beads, the men, tall and slim with a wraps around their wastes and over their shoulder. Male headdress varied from village to village but always highly ornate using feathers and or shells with beaded strings around forehead, ears and chin. The men carry long slender spears and headrests for sleeping. No Western cast offs here. There were herds of domesticated camels grazing at the side of the road.

We caught up with the bikers in Baragoi and they had already found the local eating house. The four of us shared goat stew, spinach and chapattis for lunch – delicious and all for £4 with no shortage of locals to translate and advise about the road ahead.

That night we camped at a community camp site just north of South Horr. Again the site was great, the welcome genuine and the basic facilities more than adequate. There was another group at the camp staying in the simple bandas. They were zoologists from Nairobi carrying out a bird count around the southern shores. Apparently this is an important migratory route for European Raptors and they had been commissioned by Scott Wilson, a British Company, who are carrying out a feasibility study here for guess what………..a 6,600 hectare wind farm! Both they and the locals have very mixed feelings about the impact it will have on this unique and fragile part of the world when the heavy machinery moves in and the necessary roads are completed giving access to civilisation.

Another 80kms and about 5 hours took us to our first view of Lake Turkana otherwise known as the Jade Sea. Unbelievably beautiful and yet the lava boulder strewn terrain felt inhospitable as the surrounding desert is as desolate as any we have seen. There were a few Turkana bomas  tucked along the lakeside, in valleys presumably to escape the strong winds that blew from late afternoon and throughout the night. The hot blast was much like facing a hair dryer. We proudly bought fish for supper from Turkana fishermen for £1 each, but when we tried to prepare them later we discovered that they were inedible for us. The oasis of Loyangalani was much more populated than in the 70s with a large village of Turkana, El Molo and Rendille people living alongside. Oasis lodge where we camped in 75 was ridiculously expensive (750 Ksh just for a dip in the pool) and very run down and not available to campers.  We told the manager that we had floated about in the very same pool 36 years ago and that we had the photos on our lap top. He said he said that he would like to see them when we came for a swim, Jean said that it would cost him 750Ksh.so we stayed at Palm Shade camp for 2 nights. This was lovely and fascinating too, owned by a Rendille man, who has engaged locals to build traditional style huts (bandas). The men throw the earth with gypsum floor and build the hand made brick half walls, then the women take over, complete with beaded necklaces and brightly coloured sarongs, build the roof structure, clad it with hessian then waterproof sheeting and finally combed palm leaves for the top so it looks a bit like thin thatch. Graham is a great fisherman, so to celebrate his birthday the men went fishing in the hope of catching the huge and delicious Nile Perch.  Some years ago the world record Nile perch was caught in these waters and our boat captain told us that he had landed fish in excess of 200lbs. We motored out to one of the islands and trawled lures for over an hour, David got a bite, but Graham hooked something that the captain said was a really big fish. Sadly, the catch was nil and the new world record lives to bite another day.

Our gruelling yet amazing journey continued in temperatures of more than 34degC mostly along the lake shore. The bikers struggled on for another day but after a couple of falls and punctures they decided not to come all the way to Ethiopia and opted to charter a boat from the opposite side of the lake to take them over there to head back south in the hope of easier riding. We later got a text to say that they were safe but had ridden 280kms of the worst roads they had seen in Africa. We spent the last night with them in a self catering guest house (for 6 people it was cheaper than camping) in Sibiloi game reserve , watched topi, and zebra grazing in the sunset over the lake. The 2 remaining cars drove on, visited a petrified forest, and Koobi Fora, the site which Richard Leakey and his team used in the 70s as they searched for early hominids. This is where the 1.8 million year old skull of ‘Turkana boy’ was discovered. Now this area is known as the cradle of mankind along with equally important sites in Tanzania and Ethiopia. It was really quite moving to walk the same ground and to see replicas of skulls showing our development to Homo Sapiens in this hot dusty desert miles from anywhere, even the staff are only posted here for a month at a time. We had to have our passport numbers recorded at Illiret police station where they told us that there are bandits,(mostly cattle rustlers), and that the only tourist related incident was recorded 7 years ago . Then we struck out, following T4A (on the sat nav), but no clear tracks through a few villages towards Ethiopia. There is no border town as such and we were well into Ethiopia before we realised that we were in fact there. We bush camped that night just short of Omorate town where we got our passports stamped into Ethiopia but there is no customs to stamp the carnet de passage. The Bailey style bridge which crosses the Omo river here (if you want to travel west) had its stanchions washed away four months ago at both ends so it now stands with one end in the river and the other 15 meters above the bank as it pivots on the centre stanchions like a giant see saw.

Following this route will take us into the South Omo valley in the remote south western corner of Ethiopia famed for its unsophisticated indigenous people.

Terry has just said that the driving was the best 4x4 driving that he can remember, and we both feel that this section has been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

We have just added more pictures to the blog.

14. (We are not suspicious, but just in case) Nairobi

We actually ended up staying here for over a week, lots of things to find out, decide and then do. First things first; decision made—we will travel on into Ethiopia then on north through Sudan and Egypt. It looks like we have found a shipping company that will ship at least the car out of Egypt. and we have spoken to lots of people who have recently travelled this route.

One of our fact finding missions was to the Kenyan “Tourist Police”. head office. Sammy is the commanding officer and we couldn’t decide if he got the job as a favour or as a punishment. He looked as if he had been pumped into his uniform and his desk sported all the daily newspapers. The water cooler was in his office whilst his staff drank from the tap outside and the TV played continuously in the corner. He even had grease on his chin. He talked authoritatively about our route but the advice boiled down to ‘go and see the police further north’. We met a South African couple, Graham and Marie Claire, and a pair of bikers, Vincent and David, who suggested that we travel together through Northern Kenya up to Lake Turkana (was Lake Rudolf – place where some of the oldest human fossils were discovered by Richard Leakey), following a more remote, but better roads route to the Ethiopian border. This will take us through a beautiful part of the world that we visited with Pete and Jakki in ’75, and then into the South Omo valley in Ethiopia. This route is so remote that there are no border facilities so we have already had passports and carnet stamped out of Kenya here in Nairobi. Getting this done was fairly easy in the middle of town but we managed to get the L/R clamped. Fortunately the clampers were still around and had not written the ticket. A short conversation and 1000 shillings (£6) sorted the problem but it was interesting to note the slogan on the back of their yellow jackets as they walked away -“bribery is evil”

 We have met lots of interesting, mostly young people, a Swiss chap working for PWC doing a feasibility study on the introduction of Digital TV to Kenya and Ghana, an Englishman introducing locally manufactured wind power to schools, clinics and small settlements in Masai land, plus numerous medics, teachers and social workers volunteering in the slums around Nairobi. One of the Danish medics was treating the Masai for disease caused by their customary meat only diet. They believe that “vegetables are only for animals”. One night there were 2 groups of UK students who had completed sponsored climbs of both Kilimanjaro and Kenya for local charities, we forgave them their drinking game antics till the early hours of the morning, as they had raised £25,000!

Upper Hill ‘lodge’ (rooms and camping) is owned by an English chap and his partner, a Zimbabwean (white) American who is a paediatric trauma nurse who runs a project where she has legal guardianship of over 100 orphaned or abused and abandoned children, the project pays for their education and the children live within their community, cared for by relatives or neighbours.

We drove into the centre of Nairobi a couple of times through very busy traffic, but Terry soon got used to the ‘system’ of  pushing in rather than politely giving way. It was quite fun in rush hour traffic coming out one day as we had lovely conversations with other drivers in the stop-start traffic about where and what we were doing, what dementia means (from the logo on the door) etc. The Sudanese visa was a breeze, cost 5000 Ksh (£35) but we needed a letter from the British High Commission stating that we were bona fide Brits, this cost 6500Ksh! Egypt has stopped issuing visas to non Kenyan residents but we are advised that we will be able to get one at the border with Sudan. Fortunately we already have our Ethiopian visas as they too are no longer issued here and they are not available at the border. Lots of people travelling north have been stranded here whilst they send passports to London for visas. To add insult to injury customs hold up passports that are being sent back whilst they write to your home address telling you that someone is trying to send your passport abroad!

We spent the last two nights at Jungle Junction camp site, the hub of most overland travellers amongst every description of 4x4 and dozens of bikes heading in each and every direction. The German owner also supplies a well equipped workshop and much expertise.

You will remember the many times we have changed springs, well the current front ones are a bit weak for the weight we carry and there at the back of the garage were two springs that Christoff had bought to make an outdoor toy for his kids. I recognised the colour codes (Tim got the codes for us last year) and sure enough they were L/R 90 heavy duty fronts – a bit like hens teeth out here. They are now fitted and the old ones are bolted to the bull bar. Really the strength that we needed is somewhere between standard and heavy duty so the L/R now looks like a dragster that it is always going up hill.

We are now camped a days drive north of Nairobi, just north of the equator, waiting for “the boys” to catch us up as they were waiting for a motorbike shock absorber to arrive from South Africa. We will then set off into the wild. We are not expecting any phone or email contact for at least a week, maybe 10 days. We will keep in contact with the kids by sat phone.

12. Uganda into Kenya - Highs and Lows

As we left Lake Bunyonyi we noticed several small scale hand hewn quarries where a few people were working, initially they burn tyres against the rock to crack the surface then remove it with hammers and levers. They then manually reduce it to gravel sized pieces which they stack on the roadside for sale. We saw men, women and some children working here, a back-breaking way to earn a living.

We called in to a small town to get a bit more welding done on the rear wheel carrier, the mounting plate was now tearing off the tubular frame. This started by sending someone off to the market to buy a handful of Calcium Carbide, crushing it between two stones then pouring it into an old LPG bottle with a litre of water. An old brass tap was then forced into the bottle and tied down with a strap of inner tube (pressure relief valve?) and a pipe attached to that. It was quite a trick to regulate the flow using the water tap to match the oxygen flow. The resultant weld (done with galvanised fencing wire) looks surprisingly good. The Muzungu price of £2.50 is no doubt equivalent to a day’s wage.

We drove along an absolutely beautiful road with a mostly good gravel surface, thank goodness, because the route took us from 1100 metres to 2400 metres up and down again several times with views over the rain forest, tea plantations and intense terraced agriculture similar to over the border in Rwanda. Even on this remote road we noted (as elsewhere in East Africa) the incongruity of rows and rows of labourers digging narrow trenches with ancient traditional tools to lay fibre optic cables! We passed the Bwindi National Park, where Ugandan gorillas live, and drove on up to the little visited and more reasonably priced Ishasha Plains sector of the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Ishasha is famous for it’s tree climbing lions and we spent the rest of the afternoon searching for them, to no avail .We drove on to a basic but idyllic campsite on the banks of the Ishasha River (which forms the border with the Democratic Rebublic of the Congo) shared with a Drifters truck and 3 passengers, 2 armed soldiers and a troop of inquisitive baboons. We’ve experienced armed guards before, but the presence of soldiers and a tank parked at the reception a couple of kms away did make us wonder. The inky darkness was perforated by fireflies. During the night we heard the sounds of hippo splashing and chortling in and near the river, hyena calling to each other and lion grunting in the distance, punctuated by baboon and monkeys chattering in the huge riverine trees around us. Next day at dawn we were visited by a troop of red tailed monkeys, then the search continued, we saw spectacular herds of buffalo, topi and Ugandan kob which are very similar to puku. The bird life was prolific and we enjoyed identifying many beautiful, new to us, species. A group of colobus monkey provided an acrobatic spectacle on the other side of the river as we were cooking dinner. All together a great day.

At 3am the gunfire woke us, a lot of gunfire. It was difficult to tell how far into the DRC it was, but the heavy machine guns and the crackle of AK47s were clearly audible.  We weren’t sure what to do, to get dressed, pack up the tent (on the LR roof remember!) or drive away as fast as poss with the tent still up. We whispered urgently to each other and

could just hear the Drifters group muttering in their tents. We decided that it was safer not to draw attention to ourselves and to wait and see what would happen, our camping companions had obviously come to the same conclusion. The noise continued, now with the occasional thump of mortar fire, off and on until dawn when there was a short, intense burst of activity (presumably because they could now see each other) followed by silence. We packed up quickly, and over breakfast discussed what it may have been with the Drifters group, the soldiers and rangers. Later we surmised that it may have been DRC troops mounting an attack on anti government insurgent base near the border. We took a game drive out of the park----- we never did see the lions!!!

We called into Jacana Lodge for lunch, hoping to find internet access, instead we chatted to 2 American specialists in tropical medicine who are researching Ebola here. They have found a colony of fruit bats, some of whom carry the virus and some who are resistant. They are taking the virus free bats to the US for further investigations into the cause and hopefully cure for this insidious disease.

The northern part of QENP was much quieter for us, thank goodness. We crossed the equator for the first time and took basically the same photo that we had taken in 1975 in Kenya. 

The whole place smacked of colonial times, mostly because it was named after the Queen Mother in the 1950s, so many of the drives in the park have royal connotations, plus there is a new Queens Pavilion, complete with wifi (slow) that was hastily built so that Prince Phillip had something to open at the Heads of Commonwealth Government Conference in 2007!

We drove from the pavilion into the park on a road constructed along the crater rims of numerous extinct volcanoes, some with lakes in the bottom and surrounded by huge herds of buffalo. The game and birdlife was as prolific as in the south and eventually we managed to see lions, twice, at last!!!.

Now heading east across Uganda, the route taking us across the equator several times  and dropping down to the lakes in the bottom of the Great Rift Valley before climbing up the other side towards Nairobi, the highest point on the road was almost 2800 metres. We had planned a relatively easy day and arrived at the Bradt guide recommended campsite at about 2 pm, hoping to relax a bit. The facilities were grim and so we pressed on another 80 kms, this one turned out to be an outdoor bar – they were happy for us to camp among the tables, but we politely declined. We pushed on to our final option before Kampala (where we were pretty sure that we didn’t want to stay). It was dusk when we arrived at Mpango Ecotourism Centre on the edge of a lovely mid altitude forest. We shared a beer with  the 2 students who work there, termites had eaten their way through the supports for the dining area and the floor had a series of 18inch high ‘waves’ in it. It was an interesting discussion as we all sat at different levels within the room. We camped in a lovely grassy glade with our own thatched shelter, when darkness fell they even brought us a gas lamp on a long pole. As usual we were up at dawn, and remarked that the loos were the longest and cleanest long drops we have ever seen. We were rewarded by a troop of red tailed monkeys feeding in the trees right behind and high above the LR.

We decided to drive through the middle of the sprawling capital, Kampala. This was a surprisingly clean city, even the market areas were swept clean, but it is still overcrowded with the hawkers and their produce spilling out onto the road. Driving is chaotic and absolutely lawless caused mainly by literally thousands of overly aggressive Matatu (minibus) drivers, who force their planished Toyotas through the traffic. We were shocked to see a few under 3 year old children sitting apparently alone and motionless with cupped hands on the pavement, begging. It was a pathetic sight, and there was nothing that we could do to help there and then. We vowed to write to the Ugandan government when we get home about this blatant child abuse.

We don’t drive quickly at all, in fact we can’t and we always slow down to 50kms in the “informal trading areas” even though the taxis, lorries and busses don’t seem to bother. So it’s a bit of a surprise that we have been stopped for speeding five times now. We have to ask if it could be the white skin and obvious over-landing vehicle that makes us a target? Certainly this last one was an attempt to exhort a bribe. The over friendly police man chatted for a while, calling us Dada and Mother ( this bristles a bit but is a term of respect in Swahili) before telling us that we were speeding and the standard fine was 200,000 shillings (£50) but that he could, if he wished, reduce it. He then produced his ticket book and showed us the back of the sheet which said 100,000Ksch for speeding. He promised that this could be reduced further to an undisclosed figure and that he would keep our record clean by putting the fine into someone else’s name. The ratty smell got stronger! I smiled and said that I was an honest man and it was a fair cop and that I would rather pay the fine and have all the documents in my name so that I couldn’t be accused of cheating the system. He forced a smile back and told us that he also had the powers to let us off and that we could go. We never did get to see the reading on the speed gun. At other times we have argued that their equipment and our speedo could not be accurate enough to agree to a fine for 63km/h in a 60 limit (the police lady thanked us for the information). In Zimbabwe they had seen the $20 note and wanted it all not just the supposed $10 fine. They said they had no change so we suggested that we wait at the side of the road for the next $10 fine so they could give us the change. They too let us go. As did the one where I agreed to pay but wanted a full receipt. We did pay one fine (refusing to pay the lower bribe) as it was a fair cop but we are fairly sure the sign was missing. Certainly for others travelling the lesson is to be pleasant, but question everything and compare it with what is acceptable in the UK. Explain that you are a tourist wanting to help their beautiful country and tell others to visit. (Never mention the ratty smell.) Always insist on paying the full amount and getting a full receipt even if it means going to the local police station to do it. Don’t say but let them see you looking at their number (if they are wearing it). Most times they will let you off.

The next stop was Jinja, where the White Nile pours out of Lake Victoria on its way to the Mediterranean at Alexandria. We wondered whether the water that we saw would arrive there before or after us if indeed we get there? We have some research to do in Nairobi as the usual routes north have been closed due to the unrest in the Middle East.

Jinja lies on the banks of Lake Victoria, most of the camps and lodges being situated on the edge of the ravine that is gouged by the mighty waters of the White Nile. We had a fabulous view from our pitch, looking down on the white water rafting, kayaking, and jet boating that attracts so many tourists (mostly half our age and younger) to this part of the world. Needless to say we didn’t partake. Interestingly Kingsley Holgate (the famous SA over-lander who aims to distribute mosquito nets throughout Africa, and is determined to be the first traveller to have visited 53 African countries when Juba splits from Northern Sudan on 9 July) and his entourage were staying at the same place but we didn’t see him only his heavily sponsored vehicles and his flunkeys. We had the most tremendous thunderstorm which started just after we climbed the stairs and continued all night. We were snug and dry in the tent, despite torrential rain, crashes of thunder and vivid lightening flashes disturbed our sleep. Slightly worrying was the mud track back to the main road, but after slipping and sliding, we managed to reach the road with a liberal coating of red mud.

The border between Uganda and Kenya took a while. Ugandan side was very efficient, the immigration officer taking electronic finger and thumbprints to record our identity on the computer system, and even the BM money changers had official numbers and distinctive yellow coats. Entering Kenya was more protracted, the immigration officer was busy reading the paper so we had to wait, then he would accept only US$ for the visa, then an insurance official insisted on assisting us, ostensibly for free, then as we left he pleaded poverty and hunger even though we had previously offered to share our samosas with him- he had refused saying he’d just had ugali.

The next stop was a great surprise, Naiberi camp just outside Eldoret was so well appointed for campers and big overland trucks with cottages and bandas to stay in too. There was a plaque on the wall saying that Bill Gates had stayed recently. The bar and restaurant were like an African fantasy world and the most comfortable we have seen. We were able to swap travelling info with the only Estonian on the road, travelling from north to south and back over 12 months in his Mazda van.  However this was just an overnight stop for us so we pushed on to Lake Naivasha where we spent a couple of days relaxing at Carnelleys camp, a very peasant campsite set among fever trees on the lakeshore with great birdlife. The driveway was made from jet black, shiny crushed Obsidian which proliferates here as the geology is mostly volcanic. Sadly the beautiful lake views are somewhat marred by the hundreds and hundreds of acres of tunnels in which flowers are grown for export all over the world. As we climbed back out of the Great Rift Valley there were fantastic views back down into this massive tear where the horn of Africa is separating from the rest of the continent on its slow inexorable way to Asia.

We are now in Nairobi, camping at Upperhill Camp, the best of the bunch of options for us. Tomorrow we will approach embassies etc in order to decide where to go next.