Greetings,
Let me say outright that we had no intention of spending much time in Kenya, the focus was always on moving through to get to Ethiopia. When last we spoke you will remember that I was en route to Kenya on my own trying to get some travel documentation for Karla to get out of Uganda. I made it as far as getting on my bike with all of the gear when the phone rang. I was going to let it ring out but for whatever reason I didn't. I answered and it was the courier company saying that our package had just landed in the country!! So we finally got them (our passports), but a month late! Let's go!!
We collected the passports the following morning and a couple of hours later we were both on Yele, Kenya bound. We were both pumped to be back on the road and spent a few hours getting back into the groove of the journey again. We crossed the border into Kenya and made our way towards the town of Kisumu. We arrived into this town in the pitch dark which was a massive problem as we had no lights! We had an electrical issue (wires had come loose due to corrugation) that we had decided we would get looked at in Nairobi, a day or two later. I think I miscalculated the distance and the border crossing and thus we had some creative riding to do. We tacked onto the back of this truck and just rode in his wake and the reflection of his lights. Thankfully he was putting along but we ate a whole lot of dust as when the road ended we were faced with a 10km stretch of dirt, potholes and congestion. As soon as we entered the outer suburbs of Kisumu, he indicated that he was going to turn left. We knew that we would effectively not be able to see anything from thereon but the GPS was indicating that we didn't have too far to go until we hit the centre of town. So we decided to let him make his turn and then we would go around him. He made a bit of a berth and started into the turn, then the trailer caught some overhead power lines, sparks started flying and the entire truck flipped over!! It was like all of this happened in slow motion right in front of us. We made sure that someone got him out of there and that he was all right and then we decided to head on into town. Welcome to Kenya...
We made it into Nairobi a day or two later and promptly popped Yele onto the mechanics stand as she was due for a major service. We considered new shoes for her but decided that due to our limited time remaining, the current ones would do especially as we were about to do the infamous Moyale road, twice!!! This road is the stuff of legends, not too many people try this with two on board, and noone does it twice. People on internet forums were betting that I wouldn't do it twice. We'll see about that...
We lightened the luggage by leaving the rear bag behind along with about 25 kgs of luggage. This meant that we would be going even more ferral for the next two weeks, we really needed to be as light as possible for this last leg of the trip and as we were coming back to Nairobi it worked out perfectly. Up to the Ethiopian border would probably take us about five days, three of them would be total bike and body destroying slogs through desert terrain that all too often sucked the ambition and drive out of mortals, chewed them up and spat them out, leaving them frazzled in the desert heat... This was what we signed up for, vamonos!!
You know, looking back, this was such a pivotal moment for us, even just being en route to this road. This symbolised the last ride, the end of the trip, a dream achieved, and a new dream needed to fill its place. Was the road all that? Sure it was, but in truth we smashed it up. Yeah we were knackered and at times were swearing like sailors at the state of the road. At times I couldn't feel my arms for the sheer arm pump that I was experiencing. But we had decided that instead of doing the tough parts over two days we would take an extra one. That way, each day would be 120kms, taking about nine hours each day, there were some tough sections. But more importantly, we stopped to take in the surroundings and to experience the desert cultures. We encountered some of the most incredible people that we had yet seen. The Samburu people of Northern Kenya herded their camel caravans across the desert plains, clothed in amazing coloured robes, wearing thousands of coloured necklaces and the most amazing tribal head dresses. Some young tribal girls came over to us for some water, we gave them some of our limited supply and asked if we could take a photo of them. They grabbed a few coins and did a runner on us. They were hilarious, we snapped away as they ran towards their camels.
Enough talking for now, here are some pics of our last adventure through the plains of Africa. This was all about the people that we encountered, truly incredible. They are not with us at all in the modern era, they do some amazingly bizarre things, some highlighted below.
There will be another couple of entries to this blog shortly as we wrap up Africa and the blur that was London, and look to India in a few days time. Until then... look after each other while the earth decides to test everyones mettle. Love and best wishes to all those affected in QLD and VIC.
P and K xxx
Ethiopian woman and her family
A big blooming snake on the side of the road, luckily dead though
This is a typical Ethiopian dish, by far the best food in Africa if you ask me
Some shots of an Ethiopian village that we stopped at in the lower Omo valley, spectacular people!
Now this probably deserves a bit of an explanation. The next few are of something that we were quite fortunate to have been able to attend. An Ethiopian bull jumping ceremony happens when a young man comes of age and must prove his manliness by jumping over a line up of bulls. The controversy however is all about the whipping of the women. Trust me, it is full on as in their culture they are out to become as scarred as possible. They beg the whipping boys to whip them and actually sometimes get quite aggressive if they won't comply. No sexist comments needed please, I was just the journalist attending the ceremony. I thought it was quite mad and I can see why there is so much pressure from others to get them to stop doing this. You will see one of the woman's backs, deeply slashed. You will also see one of them begging to be whipped by the dude who comes in from a neighboring village specifically for this purpose. This entire region of earth is so involved in age old traditions it really is quite astonishing.
The Mursi tribe, amazing to see but extremely aggressive
The Samburu tribe of Northern Kenya. fascinating, they emerge from nowhere with huge caravans of camels.
With Yele after finishing the bone jarring road - twice!!! Check out the distance to Moyale, where the blasted thing ends!!
And from here, just some shots of us in life on the road. The people, the landscape, the emotions... One day we will come back to Africa, can't wait...
