So to the last entry..... We crossed the border at Moyale, a typical small border town of rural Northern Kenya. We camped in the backyard of the local police station and ate in the Moyale prison canteen!! On the road to Marsabit in the morning, having been warned that the road was terrible....... well, basically that is the understatement of the year!! Corrugated rock is how i'd describe it & littered with potholes - our average speed was 30kph & that was painful. The saving grace, was the amount of wildlife we saw - camels, dik-diks, bushbuck, baboons & vervet monkeys, loads of birds & a couple of ostrich. The dense bush gradually turned to savannah and then miles of desert & so the road worsened!! We picked up a policeman with his AK47.... as you do! & took him to the town of Turbi - which experienced the schoolyard massacre in 2004 after fighting between 2 local tribes - he is there as peacekeeper, as they still fight, but now it's over water. We covered the 250km to Marsabit in 9hrs!!!
Following an awful sleep - due to some Bollywood party all night, we hit the road at sunrise coz Karl promised me elephants...... & sure enough there they were, deep in the bush - perfect! except the road was even worse than yesterday, so we decided, for our sanity, to do an hour each! Again, a whole host of wildlife & also the craziest African drivers who hurtled past us & obviously took out a spotted hyena.
As the journey progressed... slowly.... we saw the beautifully dressed & very elegant Samburu people - they were walking their herds of cattle, but to who knows where, coz there was absolutely nothing around except odd groups of their manyatta huts dotting the landscape. We did come across the one and only 'wet' riverbed throughout the whole 500km but i couldn't say it was flowing - just wet! By the time we crossed the equator at Naro Moru, we were totally over driving anywhere - so we found the most idyllic campsite right at the foot of Mount Kenya- perfect!
& so to our final drive day into Nairobi - tarmac all the way! the car thinks it's been born again! we arrived at Karen camp & met up with some old friends & relaxed, with many well deserved cold beers!! Whilst in Nairobi for the week, we visited the giraffe centre & the elephant orphanage. we also spent a few days in the Ngong hills. house-sitting for a friend & also flew down to Mombasa for a night & drove back thru Tsavo Nat Pk the next day.
We then drove to Arusha, Tanzania, where we are at the moment.... preparing for the next adventure..... back on the truck next week, 7weeks Nairobi to Cape Town.....doesn't get much better ;-)
Hope you've enjoyed the blog, keep safe & smiling, take care & thanks for looking in.
Karl & Mandy