Ethiopia and Kenya

We will probably never learn that everything we plan to do in Africa is not going to happen. The Kenyan visa was supposed to take only 1 day. The 72 hours they told us to wait were too long. The guesthouse opposite of the embassy was extremely expensive (ok for 1 night, but definitely not 3) and we didn’t want to be in Addis Abeba anyway. So after filling out the papers and paying the fee, we asked if it was possible to get a visa at the Moyale border crossing. Of course it was possible, everyday of the week except on Sundays. So we took back our passports, grabbed our stuff from the guesthouse and left the capital city of Ethiopia.

From there we headed south and within three days we arrived at the Moyale border crossing, spending in total only eight days in Ethiopia. Why rush through such a beautiful undisturbed country you think? There are plenty of reasons for that. Firstly because the Moyale crossing had been closed for 2 weeks due to tribal violence in northern Kenya, with the alternative route setting us back at least a week, secondly because we wanted to be in time to meet with our friend Ylona in Kenya, and thirdly, since Ethiopia (as mentioned in the previous post) is still incredibly busy. The further you move south along the ‘highway’, which is a Chinese tarmac-for-raw-minerals-road that has been degraded to a proper emmentaler cheese within a couple of years, gets busier with the mile. The villages encountered are filled with yellowed signs from Western projects that have been executed over the years. The projects themselves are nowhere to be found, and the only thing left are the memories of the people about the ‘whites’ that came along to ‘give them things’. So whenever you stop and wherever you drive, throughout the whole country, children yell ‘money money’ and ‘you you you’ at you. Even the beautiful scenery of the East African rift, the high plateaus and the hospitality of the people we met along the way couldn’t persuade us to hang around a little while longer, so down south to the border it was.

The Ethiopian-Kenyan border crossing went very smoothly, at least for us. The car had a little bit more trouble. After arriving at the border and parking it for customs, it refused to start again. Following a ten-men push-start and an inspection from the ‘wire man’ the problem was pinned down to a broken battery. Replacing it with the spare battery connected to the solar panel apparently did the trick and we could be on our way again.

The next day we got a police escort from Moyale, through the tribal conflict zone to some 25 km south. These guys were fond of a good pace so we drove at a steady speed of 70 km/h over the worst non-tarmac road we have ever driven. Richard showed a very capable driver and managed to get the car in one piece to the spot the escort left us. After that it was finished. One more bump did the trick and both rear shock-absorbers came off. We had a quick glance, cursed a bit and decided to take both shock-absorbers of (in the middle of nowhere (see pictures)) and had two options: drive 50 km back to Moyale through the tribal conflict zone without escort or drive 200 km south to Marsabit, where we had to go eventually anyway. We decided on the latter and with a steady pace of 17.5 km/h (average) we headed for Marsabit. It was a long drive. The worst thing about the whole situation was that the Chinese are building a new soon-to-be emmentaler-style tarmac road alongside the dirt track where we were not allowed to drive on. The pain! Eventually we arrived in Marsabit where, the next day, we bought a new shock-absorber and spent the rest of the day on fixing the car. A whole day seems a bit long, but as it already took two hours to find a set of matching bolts one can easily see why. In the mean time at the petrol station/work shop we were accompanied by several guys who were hanging around wondering why two white people (including a woman!) were fixing their car by themselves. Anouk even got the question (at least three times) if any of her Dutch, single girlfriends (+/- 30 years old) would be interested in a nice African man. If the above description fits you, Marsabit is the place to be (addresses and phonenumbers can be collected at Anouks).

The following day we headed for Samburu National Park, where we would meet Ylona and Bram for some beers. We arrived one day early so we spent the night in Buffalo Springs, camping in the wild, but close to the gate. The next day we were the only tourists in and even though the name of the park suggests Buffalos should be jumping around every corner, we saw none. On the way out we did manage to stumble over four lions at an arm lengths distance, though. In the evening we headed for Samburu and while the African rains were turning roads into rivers we bumped into the biggest herd of elephants we had ever seen in our lives. The biggest mammal on land completely stole our hearts resulting in us running late for our rendezvous. Finally we arrived at Ylona and Bram’s camping spot, but before we could actually get to our beers we had to break into the trunk of our own car because we could not unlock it anymore.

Since we had payed for a whole day in Samburu National Park, we decided to cease the opportunity and find some more elephants. During a sanitary break at lunch Richard quite literally ran into a crocodile and just when we decided to head for the gates we parked the car right into a puddle of mud, which we could not get out of… We tried the low-4-wheel gear, the shovel, the riders, pushing, but nothing would work. Eventually three ranges towed us out (which took them four times).

Up until now we hadn’t had any exercise for the past 6 weeks, apart from fixing the car, so we decided it was time for a proper hike. We chose Mount Kenya, which with an accessible altitude of 4980 m seemed like the ideal candidate. We were in for a tough one. After driving the car up until 3000 m, where it ran out of road, we parked it and got our gear. It is advised to get a guide and porters, but as that felt a bit like cheating we took our own equipment, including food and plenty of water up the mountain and camped at a bit over 3500 m in the middle of a foggy swamp. From there on we hiked up to a campsite in one of the U-shaped valleys at 4200 m for the second night. At 2 a.m. we got up, packed light while leaving the tent and all other non-vital stuff behind and attempted to reach point Lenana at dawn. The past weeks spend in the car had clearly taken their toll, and at 6 we found ourselves to be only at the rim of the crater at 4850 m. At that point altitude sickness, depletion of food, frozen water supply and worsening weather conditions made us decide it was time for some nice pictures and call it a day. On the way down we met an Austrian guy (the only tourist we saw in 3 days) who we offered a ride to the gate. The car didn’t like the cold and thin air, but with some clever applied physics from our companion we managed to get it going again. It took a crash course in 4x4-clay-driving from Anouk to get it down safe and sound again, though.

For now the ‘plan’ is to head south-east, spend Christmas in one of the nature reserves together with some monkeys (Christmas should be celebrated with relatives) and try to make it before New Year’s Eve to one of the dive centers along the coast. That said, we have no idea where our next update will be from. So for now, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!