Place: Nanyuki.
Tunes: The cement mixer that is the 800cc Rotax engine and the constant “ping” sound of rocks hitting the bash plate.
I am bursting with enthusiasm to get on this dream road again.
The road in the morning after the fog clears out.
The only way is forwards.
A quick tube change in the front. No idea what went wrong with the old tube. Possibly the valve.
The road on the afternoon. More sand - my favourite!
It is over. There was much happiness!
Even professional adventure motorcyclists sometimes celebrate.
Woke up in this shithole in Marsabit (the best place in town).
Of course we had to get the first water from the sky since Sweden today. And very heavy mist. It would have been more cheerful to ride on a graveyard than on this road today.
The disabled group (Pekka, Pasi and me) was supposed to get a ride arranged by this local businessman at 06:00. He could not put it together, so no transportation to Nairobi – we ride the 110km of shit road at 30 kph. The road was marginally better today – at least in the beginning, but it did not disappoint.
The road racers left after some hours after us gettign more sleep. Ari had his adventures with the lorries to Nairobi also.
Going slow is torture as you feel every bump, corrugation and stone you ride over. I had a chance to speed up a bit in a couple of places as my shocks are still working and the going was much smoother in higher speeds (50-60 kph). This is however a bit lame as you want to enjoy this unique road for as long as possible.
The road racers pass us twice without stopping, but somehow we all manage to arrive to the point where the tarmac starts at the same time. This is an indication of our precise planning and seamless teamwork.
When we reached this point, it was a good time for some celebration. We have just finished about 360km of the worst road in Africa without any injuries and without any show-stopping damage to the bikes. And so far we are in schedule.
This is something to keep with you as this nightmare of a road will soon be gone. The Chinese are busy coating it and in a couple of years, you can ride tarmac all the way through from Nordkapp to Cape Town. One could see this road as a dinosaur that is being put down. One of the last “wild things” in Africa that you go there for. The Nubian Desert crossing was the first to go (which used to be a very difficult sand road in 40 degrees heat) and now this one will be gone soon also. There are some other bits left on the shortest route to Cape town in Tanzania and of course on the "West Africa route" through the continent, but they will go soon no doubt. I love riding offroad so much that I will cry myself to sleep tonight reflecting this matter.
Shortly after we got on the tarmac, we also saw an ostrich. Things are looking better already.
Ari had a slightly different adventure today. He broke his Wilburs fancy pants rear shock earlier and got some interesting experiences in a land rover and a lorry when his bike was being carried around by mad pick-up drivers on piss-poor cars that have never been maintained. And of course they drove in the dark.
The lorry/van drivers know how vulnerable we are on the bikes and they will charge you as much as they can. Carrying a bike for a couple of hours is worth a week’s pay or more for them. Still some of them push for more and more and the price can go up any time during the transport. And you have to pay for strapping the bike, for loading it and for unloading it, for a handyman and a helper boy etc... And if a fixer gets involved, the price will double. It is a bit poo and there is nothing you can do about it.
The total damage went as follows:
About Kenya. The places we have seen so far are just as poor as the villages in Ethiopia, but the places are tidy and there is no construction waste all over the place. You get a feeling of being in a village, not in a junkyard. This is good, as it seems the people here have some self respect. But this can also manifest itself in the wrong way. I never felt threatened in Ethiopia, especially if there is a mass of people around you.
But this has been a slightly different here in crowds and some things have been stolen already. Also, there are a lot of Masai around wearing all sorts of colorful things. They seem to be very reserved so far and if you even try to take a picture with them anywhere near, they will object very strongly.
In Nanyuki we got a really nice hotel next to a military garrison with a lot of British flags flying around. The days of colonialism are apparently not completely over. Some of the squaddies from the garrison appeared to live in this hotel, so it's not a bad life in the British Army it seems.
The hotel had also another interesting feature. They had a proper sauna! The Mayor of the town was there and some local businessmen. Many interesting discussions were had. And this businessman guy was doing exercise in the Sauna. Manly things. And they thought that drinking beer in a sauna was dangerous (?!), not getting your heart-rate to 180. In any case, they had some interesting stories to tell and made us feel very welcome into Kenya. After the tarmac started it was all good.
Tomorrow limping on to Nairobi and vehicle maintenance at last.
Tunes: The cement mixer that is the 800cc Rotax engine and the constant “ping” sound of rocks hitting the bash plate.
I am bursting with enthusiasm to get on this dream road again.
The road in the morning after the fog clears out.
The only way is forwards.
A quick tube change in the front. No idea what went wrong with the old tube. Possibly the valve.
The road on the afternoon. More sand - my favourite!
It is over. There was much happiness!
Even professional adventure motorcyclists sometimes celebrate.Woke up in this shithole in Marsabit (the best place in town).
Of course we had to get the first water from the sky since Sweden today. And very heavy mist. It would have been more cheerful to ride on a graveyard than on this road today.
The disabled group (Pekka, Pasi and me) was supposed to get a ride arranged by this local businessman at 06:00. He could not put it together, so no transportation to Nairobi – we ride the 110km of shit road at 30 kph. The road was marginally better today – at least in the beginning, but it did not disappoint.
The road racers left after some hours after us gettign more sleep. Ari had his adventures with the lorries to Nairobi also.
Going slow is torture as you feel every bump, corrugation and stone you ride over. I had a chance to speed up a bit in a couple of places as my shocks are still working and the going was much smoother in higher speeds (50-60 kph). This is however a bit lame as you want to enjoy this unique road for as long as possible.
The road racers pass us twice without stopping, but somehow we all manage to arrive to the point where the tarmac starts at the same time. This is an indication of our precise planning and seamless teamwork.
When we reached this point, it was a good time for some celebration. We have just finished about 360km of the worst road in Africa without any injuries and without any show-stopping damage to the bikes. And so far we are in schedule.
This is something to keep with you as this nightmare of a road will soon be gone. The Chinese are busy coating it and in a couple of years, you can ride tarmac all the way through from Nordkapp to Cape Town. One could see this road as a dinosaur that is being put down. One of the last “wild things” in Africa that you go there for. The Nubian Desert crossing was the first to go (which used to be a very difficult sand road in 40 degrees heat) and now this one will be gone soon also. There are some other bits left on the shortest route to Cape town in Tanzania and of course on the "West Africa route" through the continent, but they will go soon no doubt. I love riding offroad so much that I will cry myself to sleep tonight reflecting this matter.
Shortly after we got on the tarmac, we also saw an ostrich. Things are looking better already.
Ari had a slightly different adventure today. He broke his Wilburs fancy pants rear shock earlier and got some interesting experiences in a land rover and a lorry when his bike was being carried around by mad pick-up drivers on piss-poor cars that have never been maintained. And of course they drove in the dark.
The lorry/van drivers know how vulnerable we are on the bikes and they will charge you as much as they can. Carrying a bike for a couple of hours is worth a week’s pay or more for them. Still some of them push for more and more and the price can go up any time during the transport. And you have to pay for strapping the bike, for loading it and for unloading it, for a handyman and a helper boy etc... And if a fixer gets involved, the price will double. It is a bit poo and there is nothing you can do about it.
The total damage went as follows:
- For me, a flat front tire and the little crash yesterday.
- Jukka had a flat front yesterday.
- Pasi, Pekka and Ari had broken rear shocks.
- Some minor damage all around.
About Kenya. The places we have seen so far are just as poor as the villages in Ethiopia, but the places are tidy and there is no construction waste all over the place. You get a feeling of being in a village, not in a junkyard. This is good, as it seems the people here have some self respect. But this can also manifest itself in the wrong way. I never felt threatened in Ethiopia, especially if there is a mass of people around you.
But this has been a slightly different here in crowds and some things have been stolen already. Also, there are a lot of Masai around wearing all sorts of colorful things. They seem to be very reserved so far and if you even try to take a picture with them anywhere near, they will object very strongly.
In Nanyuki we got a really nice hotel next to a military garrison with a lot of British flags flying around. The days of colonialism are apparently not completely over. Some of the squaddies from the garrison appeared to live in this hotel, so it's not a bad life in the British Army it seems.
The hotel had also another interesting feature. They had a proper sauna! The Mayor of the town was there and some local businessmen. Many interesting discussions were had. And this businessman guy was doing exercise in the Sauna. Manly things. And they thought that drinking beer in a sauna was dangerous (?!), not getting your heart-rate to 180. In any case, they had some interesting stories to tell and made us feel very welcome into Kenya. After the tarmac started it was all good.
Tomorrow limping on to Nairobi and vehicle maintenance at last.
No comments:
Post a Comment