info@discoeverywhere.com

Kenya Kenya Part 1 Heading from Tanzania we crossed into Kenya and made our way to Nairobi through the worst peak hour traffic we have seen (it was further compounded by road works near the airport). We stayed at Upper Hill Campsite, which is not bad although it only has a patch of mud for overlanders, has no workshop (as is stated in LP) and is right next door to the loudest music we have yet heard in Africa. Needless to say we did not need much incentive to move somewhere else. As luck would have it we ran into Robbo, an Aussie who is riding his bike the hard way home from London, via West Africa, up the east coast, through The Middle East, across Russia, Mongolia and China and then island hopping across S.E. Asia to Australia. He was staying at Jungle Junction, it was quieter, had grass and a great workshop. We made the move and were not disappointed. This place is a little gem and the owner Chris is a wealth of knowledge. Chris put us onto Schuhmachers, a guy who specialises in Land Rovers and fixed our leak between the transmission and transfer case. His workshop would have to be the best in Africa and would put a lot of workshops in Australia to shame. Truckasaurus got a full check over, his incontinence problem fixed and a set of coil spacers in the back to reset the height to where it should have been and in the process taking some more strain off the shocks. We found out that Bobby Tours in Arusha had only applied a liberal amount of gasket sealant around the outside of the transfer case and yet charged us for new seals, oils and a lot of labour. I would rather have to bribe a police officer again rather than have to set eyes on that thief again. Schuhmachers is incredible. He rebuild Land Rovers from the ground up, has his own paint and upholstery shop and manufactures his own bar work and does stretches, engine transplants and upgrades. Wandering around I was like a kid in a candy shop. If you are coming this way, it is a perfect place to get any work done before you head further north or south as there will be no better place in Africa. With Truckasaurus back to full strength, we made the decision to head north to the bottom of Lake Turkana with Robbo and Ana and Antonio. They were all heading north to Ethiopia, while we had to return to Nairobi by Xmas time to avoid elections and pick up my sister before heading to Uganda. We made it to Maralal on the first night and stayed at Camel Camp. We negotiated a free beer for everyone as part of the price and settled in for the night before heading off early the next morning. Maralal is the last ‘official’ place to get fuel for around 1000km so all tanks and cans were filled. Lake Turkana is wild country with washed out roads, lots of rocks and enough dust to seize up any unprotected mechanical parts. The roads are slow but the scenery some of the best in East Africa, rivalling Namibia in our opinion. It is also host to wild tribes that have been known to be a tad aggressive at times, not necessarily towards tourists, but mainly amongst themselves. We past cattle herders with AK-47s, M16s and WWII single shot 303s who needed the guns to protect their cattle from raiders from other tribal groups who regularly made plundering raids. Of course those plundered would then head off to seek revenge and the whole thing would escalate to the point where no one would ever know who stole the first cattle to trigger the whole thing off in the first place. We picked up a local guy who needed a lift in exchange for photo opportunities. Not speaking a work of English or even any Swahili, it was a quiet trip for him except for waving out the window at his friends along the way and saying what we figured was “look at me, this is pretty flash; beats walking”. In hindsight it probably wasn’t that smart to give him a lift as we didn’t know if we would come across another tribe who didn’t get along with his tribe and so cause some form of conflict. New rule – no hitchhikers unless they have a backpack. We dropped him off in South Horr and eventually camped a short distance further up the road at a community campsite. These while being cheaper are usually not well run, and require more negotiation on price to get what is a proper market rate. The next day was a ‘short’ drive to Loyangalani on the lake. The road is ok (by Turkana standards) until you decent the plateau whereby it begins to turn to rocks. Nothing else but car-shaking rocks. There is nothing here but rocks. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. Low range and careful choice of line and its not too bad if you enjoy averaging 20km/h. We stayed at the Catholic mission for the night and unfortunately the next morning had to say goodbye to Robbo, Ana and Antonio and the Dutch couple Ilvy and Ilja whom we had met a week earlier. Saying Goodbye to Ana and Antonio was very hard. We had been travelling with them since Malawi and they had become like family to us. We had shared so many good times, a lot of adventures, many bad roads and it felt empty for a few days not travelling with them. We hope they felt the same as well. We will call in and stay with them when we get to Spain. Robbo is a great guy with many stories and the Dutch are easy to warm to as well. Tyres. So far we have only had one small stake penetrate the Cooper STT’s, which is quite remarkable. Antonio has another brand of tyre (which cost him around the same as a cooper) on his car and in the last two weeks got two nails and had a rock slice through the sidewall on another tyre. Heading back south on our own we made good time and got to Camel Camp in one day, although I was stuffed at the end (235km in over 9 hours gives you some idea of the terrain). The next day we made it back to the tarmac and headed for Lake Elementeita and Flamingo Camp. What can we say about Flamingo Camp – well it is run down, over priced and you have to get your own hot water going. We were also jaded as we had just come via a back road that was covered in bull dust, in places almost bonnet deep sending waves of dust over the car. Imagine a deep water crossing and replace the water with fine soft bull dust and you get the idea. Had to wash the car down before we could open the rear door, the dust had seized it closed. The next day we headed for Lake Naivasha and stayed at Camp Carnelleys, the best campsite on the lake and one of the best we have stayed in for a long time. We got good use out of our “Birds Of East Africa” book and generally relaxed for a few days. We headed back to Nairobi and stayed at Jungle Junction and waited until my sister arrived Just After Xmas. With Kenyan election scheduled for the 27th and the possibility of violence we decided to wait out the next few days at Jungle Junction. For Xmas eve we had a BBQ with a group of German guys driving an old fire truck from Germany to Cape Town and a few Swiss who were also at the campsite. We next head for Uganda, returning to Nairobi before heading north to Ethiopia. Useful GPS Points Camp Carnelleys    Naivasha    00 49.721S    036 20.257E Jungle Junction    Nairobi    01 17.337S    036 45.629E Camel Camp        Maralal    01 03.555N    036 42.614E Distance Travelled To Date: 15,865km Total Fuel Used: 2,313L Total Fuel Cost: $3,132 AUD Kenya Part 2 Kenya was having election on December 27th, and we had been advised not to wander around on that day. Counting day was on the 28th, the day my sister arrived for Australia. We were advised not to drive our car that day but rather take a taxi to the airport. All our advice had led us to understand that the day after counting day would be the best day to travel in Kenya as election tensions would have eased and the country would be back to normal. We headed off towards Eldoret in Western Kenya and spent the night at Naiberi River Camp, probably one of the best campsites we have stayed at in Africa and arguably wins the ‘best bathroom and showers in Africa’ award in our book. We were told that there had been considerable violence in Eldoret that day and to check the situation in the morning before we left for Uganda. We spent the afternoon with a cold beer watching the political parties in Kenya stall and argue on television all the while people on the street were getting increasingly restless. The next morning we were told that Eldoret was peaceful and quiet. Not wanting to get stuck in Kenya should the election result be announced that day we headed for Uganda. There was talk of vote rigging and as the election was split on tribal grounds, violence been the tribes was probable if not inevitable. The sooner we got out the better. Passing through Eldoret all was quiet and peaceful. Most people were waiting for the announcement of the winner. However out of town on the road to Uganda, things took a massive turn for the worst. We were suddenly confronted by a makeshift road block on the highway, made from large rocks and guarded by large rock/iron bar/machete wielding locals. We had no option but to stop and see if we could get through. We tried to explain that we were Australians and not involved in the election at all. The leader of the group stated that we hand over all our money. We tried telling him that we didn’t have much to give. Unsatisfied he said “well I will have to kill you then” and began to swing his iron bar at my head. In a split second our decision was made. With going back not an option because of the large crowd behind the car by now, I gunned the engine and ran around the roadblock as full speed. I had made the decision that if anyone got in the way of the bulbar that I would run them down. Their life was not worth as much as Jacinda or Min’s in my view. That is a tough call to make, deciding to run someone down is not an easy thing to live with. However the situation was that violent and we all feared that if the car stopped we would probably be in serious trouble. We had to run another ten or so similar roadblocks. We did not stop and only reduced speed enough to clear the obstacles or to retain control as we ran off the road through ditches and washouts at speed to get through. All the while we had violent, crazed locals throwing rocks at us, wielding iron bars and trying to grab hold of the vehicle. The damage toll to Truckasaurus while extensive was surprisingly little comparing to what we encountered during our ordeal. We had a badly cracked windscreen; a destroyed passenger side mirror a shattered rear side window, several large dents and minor cosmetic damage to the side awning and roof rack. I cannot tell you how long we had to drive for, how far we drove or even what I really did. Everything was a split second decision; there was no time for thought or alternative options. It was constant instant decision-making and split second reflex timing to avoid obstacles and maintain control of the car and avoid damage that would leave us stranded at the side of the road and at the mercy of the mad violent mob that were beyond reason. There was no time for panic, no time to consider the possibility that someone could be killed if they did not get out of my way, the only thought was to get out of there unharmed. We made it to a point where there was a police truck and in the distance one more roadblock to get through. After telling the Kenyan police of our ordeal we asked for their assistance of the police to get through the roadblock. They were not interested in helping us at all. They had machine guns but seemed intimidated by the state of the crowd. While we appealed to them to help, there was a riot squad vehicle moving towards the roadblock that we needed to get through. The officer in charged told us to “ask the police down there to help, they might help you through.” We drove down towards the roadblock and met the riot squad half way along and told them “The police said you would help us to get through”. Reluctantly they agreed to help. Unfortunately their help was only to slowly drive some distance behind us while we drove through on our own. Thankfully the site of the riot squad reversing back towards the crowd was enough to scatter them enough for us to get through without further incident. We then had another hundred kilometres or so to drive before we hit the boarder. While we were in a mess, emotionally, the road ahead was incident free. At the boarder we had one of the most stressful crossings that we have had in Africa. There where officials seeking overtime, trying to get bribes from us, lying to us saying that the Ugandan boarder would be closed any minute, all aimed to fuel our fear and extort money from us to process our paperwork quickly. I left the girls in the car so that they would not be further stressed and began working through the bullshit to get through the boarder. As we crossed no mans land to Uganda a Uganda police officer tried to get a bribe from us because a Kenyan who was trying to get money from us climbed on the side of our car instead of walking. He insisted that we would have to go to court and the lockup as a result. Giving the bribe we had to pay in Dar es Salaam, I was determined not to be hoodwinked again. “Well write me a ticket and I will pay it in Kampala” I told him. “No I cant do that, that’s not how it works, if you don’t pay the fine to me you will go to court right here” was his reply. “Fine I will go to court,” I said as I walked off. A Ugandan immigration official tried to ‘mediate’ and I said that I would get my paperwork sorted out and then I would ‘sort it out’ (the matter of the fine/bribe). I did the run-around and got our paperwork done. When I was asked how much I would pay to clear the fine. I told them that Jacinda had phoned our embassy and we were advised that it was a scam and not to pay. “But you said you would sort it out” the corrupt official said. “This is me sorting it out” was my reply as I got back in the car and drove off. We are now in Uganda where the situation is very calm and safe. The only issue is the increasing price of fuel as supplies start to dry up because supply routes in Kenya are cut for now. We will fuel up wherever we can and are have a 170L capacity so we should be ok. We are still scared over what happened to us (Land Rover in Kampala wanting to charge us US$1,600 for the front wind screen did not help). We were in genuine fear of our lives and found ourselves in a situation that we did everything that we could to avoid. We were always assessing the situation on the news, with locals, with the press to find out what was going on. You see this sort of thing on the news on TV, and you don’t appreciate how bad it is until you are in the middle of it, realising that one mistake could prove incredibly costly, not only financially, but more importantly to our physical well being. There were at least a few hundred angry people wielding bars and attempting to throw rocks at the car bigger than a football. There were burnt tyres and masses of broken glass where they had gone one the rampage the previous day. It was like a war zone and we all hope we never have to go through something like that again. We are now keeping a close eye on the situation and are formulating a few plans should the situation not improve in the coming weeks. These range from changing Min’s flight to leave from Kampala to waiting it out in Uganda to returning via Tanzania to parts of Kenya that are peaceful or in a worst case shipping or driving from Tanzania. Only time will tell. In the meantime we are slowly coming to terms with what has happened to us and hoping that in a few weeks we will be able to make it to Ethiopia and continue our journey north. It makes you appreciate Australia so much more when you see something like this. As I type this newspapers in Uganda report that some 300 people in Kenya have been killed so far. Kenya was the safest country in Africa until a few days ago. We hope it can return to something near that very soon.