Southern Ethiopia and across the Equator

13 March 2007 (part two)

Well it would appear that the reason why all the hotels in Arba Minch are occupied is that there is a tourism conference in town. The knock on effect of this is that we have no chance of going to see the Mursi tribe unless we can get south to Konso. Only 100km so it should not cause too much of a problem but the road is being rebuilt so we follow a dirt track most of the way with the main entertainment being from locals chasing the truck and shouting Faranji (foreigner), you you give me money or more pleasingly just smiling and waving. At one point a group of teenage boys stop bathing in the local stream and start running naked after the truck rolling deliberately in the dirt, we eventually manage to prise Fran away from the windows and cover the rest of the distance but it is nearly 2 o’clock when we arrive at what is little more that a dustbowl of a town with a couple of hotels and some bars selling warm beer and even warmer Tej – more importantly no fresh veg or food options so we eat out in the hotel. After thinking we may be able to get to see the Mursi it turns out to be the same story from Konso and no one can take is the 200km into the Mursi region. Things are becoming a little fraught with frustrations bubbling a tad. Suspect new blood on arrival in Nairobi will give the whole group a lift, one or two certainly seem to need it more that others.

14 March 2007

With a plan formulated we head south towards the Kenyan border. Covering good ground we clear the dodgy part of the road to Yabelo which seems almost like an oasis ….. pepper steak on the menu. Having made such good progress we can have a leisurely lunch before heading south on a tarred (huzzah!) stretch of road to Moyale some 220km away. Just when we think we will reach Kenya for tea and crumpets disaster strikes and we break down 65km from our destination and in the middle of absolutely nowhere. In the next 2-3 hours we see about 5 vehicles none of which are willing or able to help or equally importantly – going in the right direction. It would appear that the fuel injection system is completely shot and so we eventually flag down a bus and pay 10 birr a piece to go to Moyale. An entertaining journey which stops at all the tiny hamlets en route – either to drop people off or pick up drinks, firewood etc. Not your standard bus journey. The vast majority of the passengers are chewing chat leaves - a mild narcotic that tastes much like privet (I only tried one leaf Mum!) and the bus is stacked with bags of the stuff.

Booking into a hotel still on the Ethiopian side of the border Stu goes in search of a truck to tow the green machine down to Moyale the following morning; once this is arranged we all head off for some delicious (??) fasting food which actually turns out to be very tasty although Dave is more than a little disheartened by the lack of fresh chillies.

I have the short straw of sharing with young Tom again but suspect he has similar feelings about the arrangement as my feet have taken on a strange vinegar smell. Not sure if it is my feet or my sandals that are rotten but suspect it may well be both.

15 March 2007

A bad night’s sleep as we have dropped down out of the hills and it’s a lot warmer. The added bonus to this is that we get to take on the dreaded mosquito again and our room seems to have Ethiopia’s full quota in it. With a mosquito net full of holes any connection with sleep is fleeting with the gnawing of flesh or the buzz of a mozzie little more than seconds away. By the time I wake up I have collected over 100 bites mostly on my elbows and back. Lets hope the doxycycline does its job – apologies for the next bit but blame Tom who suggests that my elbow with so many bites and lumps ‘looks like a fat bird’s arse’ – you can take the boy out of Newark but not Newark out of the boy. Still a 2 omelette breakfast cheers me up no end. Whoever would have thought that we would all put weight on in Ethiopia? Slightly odd though as the orange juice is served hot with loads of added sugar? Moyale is exactly as described in the Lonely Planet guide – a ‘Wild West frontier town’ split in two by the border. Herds of goats wander the streets all looking rather relaxed but then this is Lent and the season of fasting means they are safe for a while longer. Some are even chewing on chat leaves which I suspect just adds to what is already goat Nirvana! At 11 o’clock our truck passes, towed somehow by one of the locals. I say somehow as this truck looks like it would not make it 20 yards let alone go and tow another vehicle across the southern plains of Ethiopia. No progress as yet with repairs. We suspect that a new fuel injection system will have to come from Addis or Nairobi….then we just have to find someone to fit it. I think we might be here for a while! Still we can see Kenya from here and the promise of a diet of meat meat and more meat is tantalizingly close.

A few phone calls to mechanics etc suggests that the problem with the truck relates to the fuel pump and not the fuel injection system. This is good news as the problem is easier to fix but we need to find the resident expert on fuel pumps and he has gone missing for the day, last seen on the Kenyan side of the border chewing chat. We give up for the day and head out for a meal – find meat! – and are joined by a rather worried looking bloke called Tom (does a lot of nice work for charity in London) who is travelling north from Nairobi. Unfortunately he had not realised that visas for Ethiopia must be obtained beforehand and, not wishing to do the 5 day Nairobi to Moyale journey twice over, had been smuggled across the border by locals. Needless to say he was extremely nervous, saying he had never been so scared in his life, and keen to meet up with the party of Americans he had hitched with. We send a very helpful young local lad (Dan but we seem to call him Stan) off in search for them and buy him a beer. We find out that there are flights from Moyale (Kenyan side) to Nairobi which sound very tempting. Unfortunately they are reserved for the WWF. Tom and I have a plan to get past this restriction….I am going as a Panda, he is going as Hulk Hogan! Highlight of the evening is that the local gin does not agree with our Tom. For some reason it turns his face and all his mozzie bites bright purple. The added bonus is that we get no hassle at all that night. Everyone stays well away!

16 March 2007

Our pump specialist finally shows at 9.30 in the morning and has the truck started inside of 10 minutes. It takes a while longer to check that all is safe for the dodgy road ahead. Peter has already told us stories of how the Moyale to Marsabit section is just rocks and has, on a previous journey north, seen every tyre including spares shredded! We leave for Kenya shortly after two. The crossing is very straightforward and made entertaining by the Kenyan official who just laughs a lot as he takes $50 off each of us for a visa and then tell us how great Nairobi is on a Friday night bemoaning the fact that he is stuck in Moyale which is dead.

Camp is pitched in the Police compound and we head for the Prison officers Bar and Canteen. It rains so we decide to stay put a lot longer that we might do normally and all of us are more than a little worse for wear before we finally make it to our tents in the early hours. Two highlights….Tom ploughing through a table full of bottles and the re runs of Deal or No Deal on Kenyan TV???

17 March 2007

This area is not the safest with bandit attacks against vehicles a problem for the Kenyan authorities and the tourist industry. Normally trucks leaving Moyale heading south go in a convoy with an armed escort but as we are on our own today we get two armed guards to ourselves….Jackson and Kennedy – somebodies Mum liked the names of American presidents (just glad it wasn’t Bush and Reagan). Kennedy sits up front while a smiling Jackson sits in the back with us. Unfortunately we don’t get to fire or even hold his gun or play with the grenades that are part of an impressive collection of armaments strapped to his belt. Most of the morning is spent catching up on sleep but we make reasonable progress covering 100 of the 250km by lunchtime. Lunch is the traditional Kenyan fare of goat stew with Chapattis at a small shack literally in the middle of nowhere (Sololo). It does have a few rooms which are little more that corrugated sheds with beds but have been brightened up with imaginative names…..Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Soweto and The Gaza Strip!

Back on the road for the afternoon but slowed by a shredded front tyre which takes a while to repair in the baking heat. It is easy to see why this area of Kenya has been described as ‘Hell on Earth’. There is nothing but rocks, sand and the odd Acacia tree. Whirlwinds send plumes of dust spiralling 100s of feet into the air and the sun beats down relentlessly. Rocky bumps and ridges in the road see us all (apart from Dave and Jackson) sat at the front of the truck as the alternative is to spend most of the journey airborne! We eventually make it to Marsabit at 6 saying goodbye and thank you to Jackson and Kennedy and an early night is had by all!

Peter and Jackson fixing the rather shredded front tyre...

18 March 2007

Up and off by 7 and across the Kaisut desert towards Archers post and the Samburu National Park. Peter reckons that this 260km stretch of road is better but none of us are too convinced and any improvement is marginal. We stop at a a Police Road block at Laisamis where we there are rumours that a truck ahead of us has been attacked by bandits. We are keen to play it safe so wait for another armed escort to join us. This time it’s a rather elderly looking pair and the man in the back of the truck could well be in his eighties and is armed with a very old Enfield rifle…. Had he held a pitchfork it would have been a Kenyan version of Dad’s Army. He sits down with the gun across his knees pointing straight at me. Having seen the age of the gun and its owner and knowing how bumpy the road is I politely ask him to move. He happily obliges pointing it at a nervous looking Tom instead.

The 260 km to Archer’s Post is pretty uneventful and the only people we see on the road are traditionally dressed Samburu tribesmen and women who, almost without fail, wave as we pass. Stopping in Archer’s post we leave our armed guards and head to our campsite on the banks of the River Ewaso Nyiro. A very pleasant spot looking across into the Samburu National Park. We are pleased to hear that we can swim in the river because it is shallow. Unfortunately when it is deeper you cannot swim as you can’t see the crocodiles coming for you.

Samburu women in Archers Post

We are only half a mile away from the Samburu women’s village which was set up a few years ago by many Samburu women who wanted to make a stand against the domestic violence which was common in Samburu familes. They moved out en masse and formed a village free from the abusive men folk and remain there today. Pretty impressive and groundbreaking given the male dominated society they lived in.

19 March 2007

Early morning......

It’s Su’s birthday today. The old girl is 27 and still has most of her faculties! As a special treat we get up at 5.30 with the plan to be in the Samburu National Park by 6.30. Unfortunately the driver we have hired for the day is on African time and arrives at 6.50 but the upside is that we have time to watch the sunrise and enjoy a leisurely cup of tea. The vehicle we have for the day is an open top land rover which allows great lines of sight for game viewing. In a busy morning we spot Gemsbok (aka Oryx), Gerenuk (Giraffe necked antelope only found in this area of Africa), the Gravy’s Zebra (not to be confused with the common Burchill’s Zebra or Mountain Zebra) some vicious looking Eagles, Dik Dik, Thompson’s Gazelle, Mongooses (yes that is the plural), Impala, some angry looking Buffalo and loads of Elephant (at very close quarters) as they bound past us on the way to the river. The sight of Elephants running is always entertaining and to see toddlers at play in a group eventually totalling over 30 is something no-one with a pulse should ever tire of. We did have doubts about our driver who does not seem to spot much and this is confirmed when he almost drives straight past a lioness sunning herself on the riverbank. Luckily the group behind him is eagle eyed although in trying to get too close too quickly he scares her off (the only down-side of the morning). With the sun getting very hot we head for the Samburu Game Lodge for a relaxing 4 hour lunch overlooking the river where a troop of baboons provide the majority of entertainment while we have a Sailfish or Spring roll starter followed by Burger and Chips. A bit pricey but all things are justified under the ‘but its Su’s birthday’ banner.

With rain looming we head back out onto the reserve at 3 and run straight into a herd of elephant…..think we annoyed the matriarch as we got a head shake which makes us hang back a little. We cross paths with a British camera crew the leader of which is wearing a green head band and an inane grin and gives me a slightly disturbing double thumbs up sign. They then tell us there a couple of lions mating by the river. The rain is falling heavily now but we eventually track both female and male lions although the male is looking fairly grumpy and hiding in the undergrowth. More great spots in the afternoon including the odd tortoise (Stu missed the photo as it was too quick for him), a jackal, plenty more ellies and probably the highlight of the day the rather rare Reticulated Giraffe (not Rothschild or Massai)….I nearly forgot….Dave as usual gave added value….not sure if its his colour blindness, senility or a combination of the two but the first animal he spotted was a large truck; after that he would be sat eagle eyed on the lookout for animals while we were already taking photos….the classic shouts of oooh look a buffalo and oh it’s a giraffe….half a minute after we had all been frantically taking photos had us in stitches. Dave as ever just shrugs and takes it in his stride.

Gravy's Zebra

Giraffe Necked Antelope....Gerenuk

Baby Ellie runs to meet Mum....

Buffalo (male)

Dik Dik (bottom of the food chain and suitably nervous about it)

Lioness

A reticulated giraffe (male)

Male Impala

Back to camp to find that our tents have collapsed in the downpour and that they stand in 2 inches of water and are caked with mud. Never thought that my sleeping bag could smell worse than it did. Will not be using it again until it’s spent a good few hours in a washing machine….have ruled out as too expensive the option to get it sent by courier service to my Mum. Once the tents are dried, swept and re-erected we get on with the serious business of Su’s birthday. A few drinks, party hats and a cake somehow baked on charcoal and the evening is a success. Only downside for Su was the lack of Gin although the owner did tell us that vodka was exactly the same!!

Not nearly enough candles!!!

20 March 2007

Tents are packed (still slept covered in sand) and we head to Isiolo where we get lunch, tarmac roads and a new phone for yours truly. I have a theory that the last Pope had done an Overland trip of Africa….it would explain why he kissed the tarmac whenever he got off the plane….I feel pretty much the same at the moment…..just the sight of tarmac has me jumping with joy (not at the kissing the road stage yet but time will tell)! Anyway, enough of this nonsense, after lunch its off into the foothills of Mount Kenya where the landscape changes dramatically with open golden fields, lush green trees and cool mountain air it feels more like England in early May! We reach our destination the Timau river lodge nestled a few thousand feet up the 5199 metre slopes of Mount Kenya (Africa’s second highest, and snow capped, peak). I was up for climbing Mount Kenya but unfortunately the peak is only accessible to experienced mountaineers so I settle instead for a drink by the waterfall and a river which runs through a lush green oasis, sprinkled with log cabins, ponds, ducks, geese, chickens, peacocks and Labradors. Definitely more like England than Kenya. My own log cabin represents a luxury upgrade with a double bed and en suite with hot shower….not to be sniffed at when it costs 500 Kenyan shillings (just under £4). Early to bed….sleep like a log!

My lodge....

Mount Kenya from our lodges!

21 March 2007

Wake at 7.30 and go to the viewpoints to get a few photos of Mount Kenya in all it’s glory. The rest of the morning is spent blogging and tucking into steak and chips for lunch (yes chips again). An evening curry with popadoms followed by banana fritters and custard…..first custard for 4 months….so good! Not a lot to say about the day so will pass on a little tale regarding Kenya’s athletic prowess…..since the 1960s Kenya has produced more world class athletes, more world record holders and more Olympic medallists in long distance running than any other country. The majority of Kenyan runners come from one ethnic group, the Kalenjin. This athletic ability has attracted the attention of coaches, physiologists and even geneticists, none of whom have been able to agree on a reason for the Kenyan domination of running sports. In 1990 physiologist Bengt Saltin took some members of the Swedish national athletics team to a High School near Eldoret (North West of Nairobi). The local kids repeatedly trounced the national champions of Sweden, and Dr Saltin estimated that there were at least 500 schoolboys in the region who could beat Sweden’s best athlete in a 2000 metre race….

22 March 2007

Off south to Nairobi but not before stopping in Nanyuki which lies bang on the Equator.

Photo opportunities are limited due to the number of Americans stood posing in front of the sign and the number of locals trying to charge us to show how water goes down a plug hole differently depending upon which hemisphere you are in….will save that one for the grander sign (and when we have a lot more time) in Uganda. Reach our camp site on the south eastern side of Nairobi around 2. Internet not very good but at least the Satellite TV works.