Back safely

Its been over a year since I got back and frankly, its taken me that long to feel ready to write about the rest of the trip.  After getting up to Addis we ended up returning south to the Omo valley which was both interesting and challenging but disappointing.

• Roadworks for miles putting in a highway for air conditioned tourist buses to visit the locals like a trip to the zoo - end of remoteness
• Extreme commercialism of the local tribes way of life
• Robbery - (ground tent was slit with a knife and stuff taken while someone was asleep inside)
• High hassle factor from everyone you met

It just left me feeling deflated and very disappointed.  I wish we could have gone ten years ago.  It was beautiful though.

Then we had a traffic adventure on the way to Lalibela where although we were going extremely slowly due to the high number of people and animals on the road and old man ran across the road right in front of us.

Addis Ababa

Stopping for the night was the right decision and it is a very pretty location but I think we both regretted it as crowds of drunken revellers enjoying loud music with thumping bass kept us awake most of the night.  I guess its a popular Saturday night spot although they charge a lot for camping and charge extra if you want to cook your own food!

On to Addis the following morning and we arrived at lunchtime.  The road in had one side completely dug out (for pipes by the look) so traffic in both directions were sharing the single lane.  We ended up driving through the roadworks lane and missing our turn completely.  We eventually made it down to Meksem Square and after a quick walk around the block and consultation with the Lonely Planet map on the computer drove up through and behind all the buses at the bus station, in front of Le Gare and found Wims Holland House and set up camp.

Duncan wandered off to see the remains of Lucy, the oldest human remains found to date, while I took a nap to catch up with my beauty sleep.  We sat up in the evening exchanging travel information with Erik from Germany who is on a two year trip with his family through Africa and South America after teaching for three years at a German school in Egypt.

Wim mentioned to us last night that we could be turned away at the Sudanese border, despite our shiny new Sudan visas if we didnt have Egyptian visas for our exit on the other side.

Lake Langano, Bekele Resort

I awoke to the sound of a herd of cows herded in to munch hay from a freight container in the childrens playground next door.  This hotel is quite the chaotic multi purpose building site!

Fields of teff

We set off with Abrahim, the customs agent who was off to Addis to attend five days of training.  The road was reasonably good tar, but we needed to keep our wits about us because of crossing livestock.  We encountered our first police roadblock not far out of Moyale and I was a bit nervous as the guys in the green Land Rover we'd met in Livingstone had been stopped and the contents of their vehicle examined at some length.

Well it turned out Abrahim was great friends with the staff at the roadblock and after some greetings and joking we were waved through.  The road was quite narrow and at one point a truck knocked the left wing mirror off.  It nosed out to see if it could pass the truck it was following, and nosed back quickly when it saw us, but unfortunately its trailer couldnt follow quick enough and thwack!

Moyale, Ethiopia

After driving through misty Marsabit town we descended to the lonely desert road between Marsabit and Moyale.  The volcanic black rock is barren but strangely beautiful.  About half way the surroundings change to scrubby bush, then green bush.

Along the way we saw more camels; half a dozen enormous eagles take flight after drinking from the puddle in a pothole in the road in front of us; many miniature antelopes which (after consultation with the wildlife guide) I think are Kirks Dik Dik and a dangerously fishtailing articulated truck barrelling towards us along the road in deep sand, for which we got off the road completely which is just as well because it was trailing scaffold two meters long into our side of the road.

The other sight which characterised the journey was the dozens of shredded tyres discarded on the side of the road.

Henry's Rest Camp, Marsabit

After the extreme cloud shrouding Mount Kenya last night we were surprised the day dawned clear and sunny.  We climbed up to a lookout at the campsite and enjoyed crystal clear views of the Mountain.  I was surprised how much it looked like the volcanos in the central plateau of New Zealand up to the rocky peak, which was covered in snow.

It took longer to get to Isiolo than we imagined, due mainly to enormous potholes and protracted roadworks.  Twice we saw an army tank in fashionable camouflage greens coming towards us with three soldiers perched aboard and a big red letter L on the learner driver plates attached.  The soldiers were holding sticks rather than guns which reminded me of a 100 strong platoon of soldiers we saw running in formation in Arusha, clutching gun shaped planks of wood.

The stretch of what passes for road between Isiolo and Marsabit is notorious for its banditry and armed holdups.

Timau River Lodge, near Isiolo

Argh.  Traffic and travellers cheques blurred from getting wet conspired to prevent us from picking up our passports from the Sudanese Embassy in the one hour collection window, so another night in Nairobi it was.  When the traffic gets heavy Nairobi relies on its traffic police rather than the systems already in place which as far as I could tell just made things worse.  On the major four way roundabouts they stopped traffic in all directions except one, like traffic lights, so you literally wait ten or more minutes before your go.   It created a gridlock.  I thought the whole point of a roundabout was to let traffic merge and flow.  Not in Nairobi.

We finally left at about lunchtime today (picked up the passports at the application, not collection time, dont tell the guard) passed the equator again (for the last time in a while hopefully) and stayed at a friendly wee campsite at the foot of Mount Kenya, about forty minutes before Isiolo.  Black clouds were covering the mountain top (like all the other mountains on this trip) and we were lucky to miss a deluge of rain - we just encountered the wet roads and remnants of traffic accidents...

Nairobi

We've spent the past week in Nairobi at Jungle Junction which is pretty comfortable and full of lots of info and people with info about overlanding.  Chris who runs it also has a workshop for you to carry out repairs on your vehicle.  We now have a newly serviced Landy complete with a dozen new bushes and shiney new drive shaft (which had to be sent up from Mombassa).  We also have an Ethiopian visa each and with any luck we can pick up our Sudanese visas this afternoon and finally head north again.

We've enjoyed some good restaurant food, Haandi Indian is famous and we tracked down some sushi to fulfil a craving.  We've also visited the Giraffe Centre where Duncan hand fed some giraffes, and Karen Blixens house where we enjoyed a satisfying lunch.  I also managed to pick up a cheap (but still expensive for what it is) camera so should be able to start taking photos again.  But mostly Nairobi is another big chaotic city.

Its still raining every day.