Shaken and not stirred…

The so-called Trans African Highway provides a route from the far north to the far south of Africa. Thanks to the Chinese who are busy sealing every main road in Africa the vast majority of this is no longer dirt roads, except for the first 400km through Northern Kenya.

We spent the night on the Kenyan side of Moyale which was a dusty town with hardly any water but very good BBQ chicken! Because the road is rough we had decided that I would catch the bus and Tille would ride with a Dutsch couple that we met in Addis Ababa who are also on motorbikes. We had heard rumours non-stop since the beginning of the trip about how rough this road really is, sand, corrugations, rocks, volcanic rocks and deep ruts from the trucks driving through after the rain.

Day one was yesterday and started at 6.30am as instructed at the ‘tree’ where the bus leaves for Marsabit – my first destination. The bus arrived at about 7.30am and we could not board until it had been cleaned, this consisted of a man with a big bucket and a small cup throwing water on the bus in attempt to get the red dirt off. Once this was complete they changed some tyres, filled it with fuel and at 9am when I thought we were finally off we boarded and moved 50m to the station where the tyres would be filled with air – this took another hour.

10am we were finally on our way, by this point Tille and the Dutch had been riding for 2 hours towards their destination of Torbi (half way to Marsabit). The bus was an experience I will never forget – catapulting along a corrugated road in a bus full of locals with a window that did not shut, literally fearing for my life and turning orange from the dust! We arrived in Torbi (having passed Tille and the others about 60km back) which marked time for lunch and the repair of the two tyres we had blown whilst driving over corrugations and rocks at break neck speed! Four hours later the tyres were repaired (if I tried to explain how this was done you would not believe me!) and I was pleased to see Tille and the others arrive, exhausted but with no bike or body injuries! As the sun set my bus set off to complete the last 120km to Marsabit where I would spend the night and wait for the others – the only highlight of this trip was watching the Muslim passengers pray outside at sunset with the desert stretched out behind them. The rest of the trip need not be described in detail – simply put it was hell and I shall forget the experience before!

On arriving in Marsabit I thankfully crawled into my hotel bed and am today having a rest, enjoying internet access that actually works and…. Cadbury whole nut chocolate (!!) and waiting for the others to battle the rocks and corrugations that they face for day two before we complete day three, which will take us back to that brilliant invention called bitumen and into Isiolo!

Just before I posted this Tille called to say that they are going to run out of petrol so I had to find where to buy the canister, get it filled with fuel and then flag down every truck and vehicle going north on the main road until one was going far enough to take the fuel –in the meantime I made a huge number of friends with the locals, all who were willing to help me ‘sister I look after you’ and then suddenly wanted cash, to hold my hand or for me to buy them lunch, playing the ‘but sister, are you not a good Christian?’ card! However, mission accomplished and now I go back to waiting!