KENYA
(border crossing to Kenya)
The crossing into Kenya was hard work to find and it turned out to be a very sandy track with lots of dry river crossings giving the four wheel drive system a good work out. There is not even a proper border post, after a bit of confusion at a hut with some so called officials we made it into Kenya. Driving along lake turkana the jade sea we came across an old camp littered with old land rovers and animal bones, but we carried on and camped in the wild. As the light went down the ground became a carpet of insects and spiders, we watched one big spider eat a large bug in a couple of bites! The area had most of the big animals in it so I guess we should be grateful the lions didn't pay us a visit.
(Jim stuck in Crocodile Corner - Lake Turkana)
The next day we got ridiculously lost driving round using up precious fuel we drove right down to the lakes edge to look for crocs and hippos we saw a big croc dart into the water just as Jim got stuck in the mud metres from the lake. Managed to get it out without climbing in the water and on red alert croc watch. For dinner we had super noodles all round as we had just about run of real food and had to start rationing our water supplies. Two more relentless days of punishing roads pounding the cars, broken up with a quick swim in the lake, which has more crocodiles than the whole of the Nile but the locals said it was fine!
(Wheels nearly fell off due to bad road or driving?)
We came across a small village where we planned to stay but the hassle from the locals trying to sell us everything under the sun was unbearable so we got the essentials, some beers and some fresh fish, and left.
(Jim stuck again!!)
The fish and chips we planned for dinner turned out to be just chips as the fish was so pathetic we only had a tea spoon of it each. The next day we found a town eventually, Maralal to change money, fuel up and buy food. With another road side repair on Jims truck in the bank car park as the wheel was hanging on by a thread as the hub bolts had rattled loose. We camped in the bush and in the morning had an audience of curious goat hearders watching, wearing traditional robes untouched by modern civilisation until one of there mobiles started ringing, only in Africa.
(Equator in the pouring rain and cold!)
We stayed in a hotel as it was pouring with rain and had a good steak whilst waiting for the election results hoping Obama would win as I think there might have been riots otherwise, the Kenyans were a little bit excited by the whole thing to say the least. No riots in the morning which was nice, so we headed back to the equator to make bacon and eggs half in the north half in the south
Next was a few days break in the capital Nirobi, we got an amazing contact through some other travellers and managed to stay with a British diplomat from Petersfield in an amazing house for a few days. We had a well earned break from our travels and the cars got some much needed attention.
We didn't actually get all that much done except alot of relaxing so only ended up leaving in the middle of the afternoon. After spending a good couple of hours in major traffic jams leaving Nirobi we took some advice from a local and stayed at Acacia wildlife reserve where we could get a cold beer and also have the possibility of meeting some cheetas!
Unfortunatley the Cheetas were very shy but we still had fun tearing round the reserve for a couple of hours the next monring. From here on our way to the coast we decided to head for a campsite called Nutters! We wre given some very vague directions and actually spen the whole day getting amazingly lost! We ended up meeting the mayor of the local town at about sunset and he took it upon himself and a local MP form Nirobi to get the lost Muzungos to their destination. We finally arrived at Nutters at about 9pm to find that it was no longer a functioning camp, but Mr Nutter kindly let us spend the night and gave us very clear directions the following morning back to the Mombasa road.(We alson managed a quick detour into the Tsavo National park for a look at some wildlife- without paying)
After finally arriving at the coast we headed for Malindi and had an excellent and very cheap campsite just across the road from an amazing resort where we preteded to be guests and had a great couple of days relaxing by the pool and playing vollyball. We decided only to stock up in Mombasa and caught the ferry south to Tiwi Beach (probably the most tranqil and beautifull stop yet) where we lazed on the beach enjoying the unspoilt coast and made friends with a monkey named Zigy who stole a mango right out of Reg's hand.
