Kenya 

28-11-2006
So, as you can see, we're in Addis. I'll tell you all about the drive through Kenya here. The Ethiopian adventures are under 'Ethiopia'.

After a very relaxing week with Marije and Rene in Nairobi, wel left packed with food, clean clothes, a serviced car etc. The toughest part was next to come... The first part to Isiolo was no problem at all, good tar all the way (we crossed the equator for the third time). We stayed at Bomen Hotel, which was fine. We asked around about any convoys leaving for Marsabit. But the hotel manager said the route was safe at the moment and an escort would not be neccesary. But later on a Swiss guy in a Land Rover checked in, who would go to Marsabit the next day. We decided to team up for the drive. We left at 6:30 the next morning. The road was tough indeed, but we had seen worse. The only difference was that this was the longest stretch of bad road ever. We drove for about 9 hours, with a 30 km/h average! We drive carefully to spare the car, but the Swiss guy did not, so we lost him after 10 minutes or so... When we arrived in Marsabit, we decided to camp in Marsabit National Park, at the Lake Paradise Campsite. BUT, this was extremely expensive --> almost 200 USDollar for one night camping! Our other option was to enter the park and arrange a room in the Marsabit Lodge. So we did. And we're glad we did! Marsabit NP is absolutely a beautiful park, with loads and loads of real rain forest. We were the only ones in the park, so we could get a room in the lodge, including dinner, for a nice price... We dumped our bags and drove on to check out lake Paradise. The road was real fun, because it was very slippery and steep in some sections. We needed all the low-gear and diff-locks etc to get trough. But there it was, o my god, Lake Paradise truly deserves its name! We stayed there for an hour and drank a beer on the roof of our car, enjoying the lake. Afterwards we drove back to the lodge for more beer, good food, and a fantastic nights sleep. We are definetely coming back here!

The next day was going to be another back breaking drive, so we startd at 7am. Just out of Marsabit we were stopped by a police officer. He strongly advised us take an escort with us (which we had to pay for), because the Shifta's had robbed a truck a few dayes before. We were expecting this kind of talk, so we gave him an FHM magazine and left. Boy was it tough! The road got worse and worse, with huge mud-sections which were a challenge for the car, but no problem. One time we almost got stuck, but backed up and drove around the bad part. After about 7 hours of driving, not spoken to each other for an hour, we were suddenly surprised by a Cheetah crossing the road! The only animal we still wanted to see... At about 5 o'clock we arrived at the border, and saw that the oil pressure light on the car lighted up again... We crossed the border easily, we're in Ethiopia!!

22-11-2006
When entering Kenya the road became very bad. It was a combination of corrugation, bumps, bad tar and potholes. There was a lot of (heavy) traffic and it was getting late. Unfortunately we had to drive at dark for a while, not so nice. Before we arrived at our destination (near Nakuru) we have seen 3 trucks on their sides. Simple dinner and soon we were asleep.

Next day it was not far to Nairobbery. We arrived around 10am and went directly to the embassy of Sudan. Again it could take up to a month! But when you are lucky it takes a day, nobody knows. Finally we could contact the embassy of Sudan in Ethiopia, they told us a visa application there takes 2 to 3 days. So all our hope now is on Ethiopia. We went to the embassy of Ethiopia and you can obtain your visa there the same day, great. For the Sudan visa we also need a letter of recommendation from the Dutch embassy, though they didn't know wat it was they created one within an hour. We contacted friends, Marije and Rene, where we can stay in Nairobi which is great. The house is big just like the garden. Also a hot shower is good once in a while. That Friday we didn't do much anymore; talking about our trip and Africa and supper and beers and some Dutch TV and sleep!

Rene had asked his local mechanic, Steven, if he could work on Saturday. Steven started around 10am and at 2pm the car was serviced! We delivered all the spare parts (filters + oils) and he did the job. It gives a very good feeling the car is in order again, even though nothing was wrong. After that we had lunch. We noticed Nairobi is actually like South-Africa with really a lot of white people and cinemas, shopping malls etc. At night we went to the Nairobi Orchestra. Though they are amateurs it was good. Too bad of all the car alarms coming through. Afterwards we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant: very good!

Sunday we went to shopping malls and hung around, watched 2 movies and at night had dinner at home. Monday again visa things and we have had to get some more money from Holland (thanx again!). We were invited for dinner with the neighbours which was very nice. Tuesday again money things etc.. hanging around, cinema... Wednesday we visited an elephant orphanage, though they do good work there were too many tourists to enjoy it at all.

Departure is set for Thursday morning. Bye !