26th August 2013

Kenya

First off, we have had several people written to  us  by commenting on the blog.  The problem with this is we cannot reply  to these people. I feel that is a shame having taken the trouble to write  we are unable to reply.  So please do write but use one of the Email addresses

He was not the one fixing our car.

I sit here in the middle of a yard that is full of dismembered cars surrounded by a team of ‘Mechanics’. There are chickens running under the van. Next door is a shack serving something that I am assured is food. It is a long time since I have seen anything so unappetizing. At the back is a man who spends his day stripping all kinds of unorthodox bits of goats  It is not specially attractive to my softy European sensitivities. Anyway, we have developed a growing brake fault which is being fixed, I hope by the end of the day.

The kitchen of the restaurant

The Chef

This is a fairly busy road

We arrived in Kenya a few days ago.  Once over the border we spent the night in a particularly rural location.  We had set up to camp in the bush, when we were approached by a ranger who spoke no English but who clearly did not want to allow us  to camp out. It did seem that he was concerned for our safety as there are animals around, he did mention elephants and lions. Any how he was pretty insistent that we camp in the official camp nearby,  a bit of haggling went on and we paid up and went to the camp. 

Beautiful camp

It was a truly beautiful location. Lovely sunset, deer and giraffes wandering around; in the morning we had a brief but lovely view of Kilimanjaro just over the border.  Superb! The rangers, all Masai turned out to such a nice and caring bunch who were very interested in our travels. It was a brief interlude but so nice.

Our Masai Rangers

Masai at the helm

As we drove toward Nairobi it was a very long but pleasant journey. However, we were soon to discovered that Nairobi is a fairly modern sprawling urban mass with the densest traffic and the craziest drivers and unmarked speed humps that will shake you to the core They are hard to spot except the ones that are so high they have snow on the top. We did find that drivers in Zambia are aggressively incompetent. In Malawi even worse, but no trace of aggression. In Tanzania the story continues. Now we find that in Kenya,  especially in Nairobi, it is almost beyond comprehension.

Water tankers adding to traffic chaos

Imagine endless dense traffic with every driver seizing whatever opportunities arise will be driven through without a thought for anyone else. That is before you enter the legendary Mutata drivers into the equation. These guys are the backbone of the public transport system. They operate decrepit minibuses stuffed full of people, in and out of every gap that presents itself. If no gaps are apparent then they zip down the dirt track along the side of the road, at breathtaking speed. 

By the way you also have to watch out for motorcycle carrying large loads across the rear rack. The sort of examples we have seen were  a 175 cc bike with a coffin across the rack, I have no idea if it was occupied. On another occasion we were passed on the centre reservation, if you can call it that, by a 70cc bike with a large acetylene cylinder about 150m long on the back bumping along the mud path dodging in and out of trees, bushes and other motorcycles on similar missions.

Having spoken about the minibuses, we saw one that was being driven quite well, That is to say it was mostly going in a straight line. I was behind and noticed something quite starling it was full every seat occupied  all the passengers were blond haired girls. I commented to Ping on how unusual a sight it was and as I did so it turned a corner. Then I could see written down the side was ‘SWEDISH GIRLS SCHOOL’

Our main purpose in Nairobi is to sort out a bunch of matters like visas and also get advice from travellers coming toward us having been through Egypt.

A note from Ping:

We were warned that the woman who authorises visas in the Ethiopian Embassy dislikes men, so I was duly dispatched to apply for a visa for Noel. On arrival, I was given the 3^rd degree by a very tall woman. I knew she was tall because I had to look up to her, even though she was sitting down behind her desk. When she was duly satisfied that I had fulfilled the criteria she handed me the application forms. I had assumed that this was the woman in question, and thought it wasn’t so bad after all. However, I was then ushered into Rm 3 where I was given a further grilling by the tattooed lady (the head of the visa section, had a tattoo on her forehead, and lots more on her face and neck). She ordered me to sit down, and wait. Whilst waiting, there was a line of 6-7 men who came in to the office one by one, where they were each given some kind of ‘bollocking’, she was extremely fierce! When the last men left, she turned to me, smiled, and said that she would give me a 90 days visa, and would I like the same for my husband? I grovelling said, ‘yes please’.

I think I mentioned before that a camp called Jungle Junction has a reputation for being the meeting place for overlanders.

Jungle Junction is supposed to be a big camp with a bar, restaurant and most important a well equipped workshop with mechanics available. This place turned out to be nothing of the kind! 

I don’t know how they got the reputation but we were desperately disappointed. They had just moved to a new location. We were not surprised as we knew they would be moving. However we arrived at the old address to find they had actually moved. Some bloke rocked up and gave us a map to show us where the new location was.  The map was so small that it was unreadable. The GPS co-ordinates took us to the location but there was nothing, no sign, nothing to let us know where they were. We went round and round the block not finding the place, asking local people who knew nothing. We had no phone card so we had to ask a stranger to phone the owner, who then gave us directions and he told us that he had not put up a sign because he did not want the locals to know what he was doing. Bloody unbelievable!

Once at the camp we spent a night with no water, no electricity and no manager. The next day he appeared and said that they had only just moved and had not got any hot water, actually the shower heads were lying on the floor. They were not providing food as the staff were too busy doing other things.

The place was in real disarray and was simply not ready to be open for business. The owner usually turned up each day for a short while, but we found him unfriendly, unhelpful and I have to say unlikeable.  No apology for the difficulties and no hint that they would be charging anything other than full price. There were hardly any travellers there, which was an issue for us.

After 5 days nothing much had improved. The showers were said to be fixed but one camper got an electric shock while showering, Chris the owner was nowhere to be seen. At this point we decided that we would be better off finding a place to camp in the bush and we bailed out. They expected to charge us full rate but Chris, (who by the way introduces himself as ‘King of the Jungle’) had obviously not reckoned to deal with my esteemed life partner who told him ‘we will pay half, alright!’  It was not a question. Then off we went.

Wildebeest Camp www.wildebeestecocamp.com 
Mokoyeti Road West, Langata, Nairobi. 
tel +254 (0)20 210 3505  mob (0)734 770 733.

We soon found there were several other camps to choose from and we found one that was superior among them. The Wilderbeest Eco Camp is a well run place catering for a number of levels of tourist including allowing overlanders to set up shop in the car park.  The place is run by  Alan, an Australian who has been here for several years and has developed his business to what it is now. He is the antithesis of Chris at Jungle Junction, as he is personable, friendly, knowledgeable and  very helpful. The place is guarded by security guards who are surprisingly professional. We have been here for a few days and have been joined by other escapees from Jungle Junction. The camp is orderly popular and genuinely beautiful. The food is very good indeed

The repairs on our truck have run into problems. We were charged quite a lot of money for repairs to the brake vacuum pump. However it has made no difference to the problem with the brakes, despite the pressure of time we are concerned about driving through the mountainous region in Ethiopia with dodgy brakes. I know is a bit whimpish but there you are.

Being frustrated as to what we can do about the problem I contacted my friend Rich Clafton who is a bit of a Iveco guru he has come up with a solution and we have to find the parts to resolve it. We can now sort this out but it does mean we will be held up here for a while.

The David Sheldrike Elephant Orphanage

If this doesnt make you go aaahh! then you have no soul

And this!

Honestly they use SMA Gold!

We went to what is described as an Elephant Orphanage and had a very pleasant morning watching baby elephant being fed. The elephants have all been rescued having been orphaned mostly by their mothers being killed by poachers. 

The place is very organised and they seem to be very successful in the difficult process of being raised in conditions that they may be released into the wild.  For us it was rather lovely to see these baby elephants enjoying a safe environment and being looked after appropriately.

While at the Wildebeest Camp we met up with an extraordinary group of scouts.  They had come from all over the South of England having spent more than two years to raise enough money to have a quite large school built in Uganda. They have come to live in the village and to carry out all the finishing work to make the school usable. I have spoken to the scouts and their leaders and they have brought about an interaction and experiences that all the villagers and the scouts will never forget, as well as providing an important tangible resource. All I can do is stand on the sidelines and offer heartfelt respect.

As I mentioned earlier we have met up with a very nice group of guys (please don’t tell them that I said that!) Lewis, Jason, Ed and Spence; they are travelling in the opposite direction, towards Capetown. So we are having a nice time enjoying their company for a few days. They are really a lot of fun to be with and we have also had a very musical evening spent singing and enjoying some real homegrown music, Lewis is a fine guitarist and also a prolific songwriter, having written numerous songs about their travels. It was very enjoyable, thanks guys!

Band of Bruvvers!
Spencer, Jason, Lewis and Ed

Such good companions

               Lewis meets his Nemesis!

Sadly Lewis may be a fine musician but I fear he is not the brightest. I feel his mother should be proud of him as he is doing all his own washing. However having done just that he had a brief conversation  with Ping about the camp fence.  I should explain that these camps tend to take security quite seriously and it not uncommon to find them equipped with an electric fence. This camp is no exception.  He said ’do you reckon the fence is live?’ Ping says ‘I would not be at all surprised if it is’  a few minutes later Lewis is found writhing on the floor  as he had ,it seems, decided that the best way to find the answer to his question was to hang his wet washing on the said electric fence. 9,000,000,000 volts straight through his wet Y fronts ouch!

Reconstruction

So now,  today we were both pretty stressed about getting the brakes fixed once and for all. I had become quite confused about all the information I was getting about having to find a suitable alternative to the de listed original brake servo. We went out determined to get it sorted with the minimum of delay. We had spoken to several people who had promised to ring us back, and didn’t. we called on a couple of garages who seemed to consider it beneath them to even have a look under the bonnet and give advice. 

Then we popped into a 4x4 specialist with no great expectations. The mechanics  were very young but the leader among them said that he knew exactly what the problem was He explained , without taking it apart that when they had been repairing it before they would have forgotten to replace a rubber seal. He opened it up with a rather smug expression on his face  confirmed his suspicions and spent a good five minutes applying some silicone  put it back together. When I said I'll take it for a test his response was, "you can if you want but it will work fine". It did. 

I feel rather sheepish for not knowing and angry for paying out lots of money to an idiot who saw me as some kind of money tree!  

So we are back on track.  Tonight as the sun goes down on the lovely Wildebeest camp and the chorus of hundreds of frogs start their incredible racket the moment the sun goes down we are much more settled. Tomorrow, we will drive to Mount Kenya, stay overnight. Then on to two more overnights until we cross into Ethiopia. This something I am looking forward to as it seems that it will be  a very different experience to the rest of Africa.

After that we hope to be back on track for Sudan.

We would love to hear from you so do write

Noelbow51@gmail.com

Pingbow54@gmail.com

Cheers everyone lots of love

Noel+Ping