25 – 28 May 2017
We left Awash National Park with a little bit of a sour taste, after having asked how much everything would be we were suddenly told that we have to pay $40 for the transfer from the gate to the camp and back, a total of 22km. We had met with the manager at the gate when they were collecting water. The car that they were going to transfer us back to the gate was really a sight, no back seat, cushions were placed in the back for me to sit on, four bald tyres and bellowing clouds of black smoke and disgustingly dirty, we don't mind paying for a service but really hate to be ripped off to that degree. Eventually Mohammed the manager agreed that they had not made a special trip to the gate to fetch us so would charge $20 for the transport back in the worst rattle trap that we have ever seen.
We had some great birding, walks, and some game viewing. Great to see some wild lesser kudu!!
Once we reached the main gate suddenly we were told that we had to pay Br200 for someone to guard the bikes!! White mans tax in Africa (a phrase learnt from Reynard and Katrina, German travelers that we meet in 2011).
My bike has been getting hot whenever we slow down to go through a town or village, so Larry spent some time removing the radiator protective cover. It was hot and getting hotter each minute. Our cooling vests were in a plastic bag soaking and we eventually put them on and headed for the main road. The road runs straight through the middle of the National Park and has lots of slow moving heavy trucks on it from both directions and a horrible speed hump every 500m. These eventually did get less and we were able to pick up the pace behind the big trucks.
After about an hour of slow moving traffic we came to a scene of an accident where a large truck had gone off the road and there was a crane busy removing its load, the crane was across the road and so the traffic had backed up for a fair distance. We managed to get past all the cars and get back onto the road ahead of the accident which made for much more pleasant riding as all the trucks going south were now behind us. So for the next 50km we had a good run before we got to the next town which was lined with more trucks. The road was tar all the way to Hawassa, just made unpleasant by the very heavy traffic.
We arrived in Hawassa at about 17.00 and went back to the Oasis International Hotel near the lake, we had stayed there in 2011 when they were busy building it and it has had 6 years of hard use since then, the shower was just a trickle and walls were in dire need of a coat of paint, typical of Africa where no maintenance gets done. We walked to town to try and draw some money and eventually the 4th ATM was working. Walking back to the hotel down one of the side streets we meet a local man who started to chatting to us and once he heard we are South African he asked us if he looked like Nelson Mandela and he really did! We continued to the lake were someone has spent lots of money setting up a really nice cobbled walk way the only problem is that there are taverns and pubs with loud music thumping along the length of the path.
26 May 2017
The next morning we were packed and ready to go fair early on our way out of Hawassa we decided to re-fuel. There are plenty of filling stations but not all of them have fuel and eventually we managed to find one that did. The cost of fuel in a land locked country is a lot less that in South Africa!! About R10,90 a liter. As we were leaving Hawassa the roads started deteriorating with long patches of really badly potholed gravel with little sections of tar. We hoped that this would be for a very short section just going out of town but it got worse the further we went, the road just about disappeared at some stages with small single lane tracks. There clearly had been rain in sections as the road was wet and muddy at times which made for interesting riding. The dust at other times made visibility very bad. Riding through the Ethiopian villages is crazy, cattle, goats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, camels and people throng the main road, none of them looking for traffic. People herd their stock down the main road and the traffic just winds its way around everything. The villages can be seen ahead by the vultures that circle them waiting for something to be hit by a truck. The going was really slow, it took us just over 4 hours to cover 160km. I needed a spot to stop for a call of nature and there was no-where that we could do this without a crowd gathering around the bikes.
Suddenly we got to a new section of road, Larry said that he thought we were out of the dis-integrating road and just before each village we would go back to the dusty muddy tracks. Eventually we got to the real new Chinese built road and we picked up the pace. We were heading to Yabelo National Park, where we had thought of staying. I had a tumble off my bike when trying to overtake a truck that was loaded with poles, with one particularly long pole sticking out the back, as I came to overtake him he swerved for something ahead and the long pole hit my right pannier. The bike must have just about come to a stand still and I was knocked off to the left. Larry was about 500m ahead and heard me give a little scream. The piki piki drivers helped pick me and the bike up and started getting very aggressive with the truck driver and his very illegal load of poles. One bruised elbow and sore left side but all fine.
We eventually arrived at our marked position on the GPS but found nothing that looked like a camping site so continued to the town of Yebella. We rode through the town, but found no accommodation establishment that looked like we would be able to stay in, eventually at the filling station we found the Yebella Motel which I went in to find out a price. The woman at reception was decidedly unfriendly and said for foreigners it would be $75 per night. The place looked really suspect so we decided to continue a further 200km to Moyale. While I was trying to find accommodation Larry was trying to get the bikes re-fueled but there was none in town, one local told us that there would be fuel 70km down the road so we decided to take the chance. We have been getting about 25km/l on the bikes, at the slow speeds we have been forced to ride.
We arrived in Moyale at about 18.00 and decided to look for a hotel, after we rode the length of the town we decided to try to the same hotel that we stayed in during our 2011 trip, The Koket Hotel, the same has taken place as the previous hotel, 6 years later not much cleaning and we were shown a similar “beehive” type room that had a terrible stink and then a huge room with a double bed and the sales pitch for this room was it doesn't stink! Being late and no other hotels in sight we decided to spend the night, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt a shower!
We had supper at the hotel which was a hamburger sandwich which consisted of a huge roll with a kofta on the roll covered with an omelette which was covered with spaghetti and then lots of tomato slices served on a bed of spicy rice and French fries, enough to feed a small army. I battle with the local food so a colony of cats got a lot of mine!
The next morning, after having slept in the mosquito infested room, we were up nice and early to get through the border posts nice and quickly. Larry did a bit of remodeling of my right pannier and we packed and headed to the filling station, petrol now for us is Br25 a liter! But apparently the piki-piki’s also pay this.
No where is the customs and immigration buildings marked, so we arrived basically at the Kenya side before turning back and eventually found the immigration building off the main road behind a pile of rubble, we were quickly through immigration and then went looking for the customs which we eventually found down a small little alley way. I handed in the Carnet de Passages and was asked for the permit, I told them I didn't have a permit. Problem, he called his boss who was out and about and we waited, I went back to tell Larry that there was a problem and by this stage he had been invited to have coffee at one of the local stalls. To cut a long story short the customs official eventually went and fetched his boss, who arrived extremely aggressive but we landed up having a friendly chat about African politics. He admitted that it was not my fault and phoned the border post at Wajale to find out if they had the first portion of the Carnet then he phoned his boss in Addis, who never phoned back and just as before suddenly decided that he would make a note of all out details and stamped the Carnet and came and checked the VIN number on the bikes and our electronic equipment and we could go, about 2,5 hours later.
We arrived at the Kenya side for all the officials to tell me how poorly equipped and slow their Ethiopian counterparts are flew through immigrations and then to customs. Their system was down so after three attempts they told me to go with this piece of paper to the bank but I must be very quick as the bank closes in 5 minutes, I rushed outside and gave the paper to Larry and he managed to get a lift to the bank, 5 minutes later the doors closed and he was 27th in the queue! Nearly two hours later I managed to find a young guy on a pikkie-pikkie and asked him to find Larry (one of us always stays with the bikes). Larry was just coming out of the bank when the young guy called him and Larry handed him some money and asked him to buy some bread a two Cokes for us, he came back with these few items and the change and Larry packed these into the cool box on the bike while I went into the customs office to collect our Carnets. Over 5 hours hours at the border post, I think a record for us.
We headed off on the beautiful tar road, when we rode this section of road in 2011 it was the toughest section of road for us, approximately 360km and it took us three days. We rode along side the old gravel road and we were pleased that the road was tarred. We arrived in the small town of Marsabit after 3 hours with a lunch stop using the bread bought at the border post and the salami that was bought in Dubai.
We decided that we wanted to try and stay in National Parks and so headed to the Abdul Gate for the Marsabit Park. We spoke to the guard at the gate and he showed us the camping sites, these looked ok but there were no facilities and a huge troop of baboons were all over the camp site. We decided to have a look at Marsabit Lodge. We had to leave out bikes at the top gate and a local taxi came to fetch us. We drove through the most amazing lush forest into the crater where the lodge was situated. The lodge was built in 1974 and unfortunately nothing has been modernized or even maintained, having said that it is one of the most beautiful places that we have been to on our travels, the lake at the bottom of the crater is unbelievably tranquil and the surrounding forest teaming with bird life and as we arrived a huge herd of buffalo emerged from the forest. The bedrooms are clean and the linen sparkling white, a generator is run at times that are convenient to us. This runs the lights and two small power points for charging and a direct heater for showering. There is an armed guard at the lodge at all times. The staff is small but always friendly and helpful. The food is basic but plentiful, lots of starch and some very tough goat meat but ok.
27 May 2017
We have had a wonderful rest and enjoyed the beauty of this place. Larry did lots of birding and we went for a walk around the lake and met a friendly buffalo bull, he was very gracious and moved back into the forest. Tomorrow we will pack up here and head towards Nairobi, we would like to have our bikes serviced and generally catch up.
29 May 2017
We left Marsabit National Park in very wet and misty conditions. We were told that the mist would clear up with 50km of Marsabit. As we arrived in town to fill the bikes up it started raining, we decided not to worry with rain gear as we could see the sky's clearing in the direction we were heading. This was the right decision as the rain gear makes riding very uncomfortable and we managed to skirt most of the showers of rain.
We had a very pleasant ride, seeing a number of different animals alongside the road, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, grants gazelle and one lone ellie. Nice to see some game. The road is new and a pleasure to ride on with very little traffic either way.
We were heading to Nanyuki and with about 30km to still go we could see that we were not going to be so lucky with the rain and we were heading into a big storm, we stopped and put on our rain gear and headed into the storm. It was really bucketting down and got really cold, 11 degrees was the coldest I saw on my bike, the traffic moves slowly but with no lights on in very bad visibility. We slowed down and rode like drowned rats, crossing some strong flowing water which was washing across the road.
We arrived at a large set of gates just before town, Kongoni Lodge. We were immediately made to feel very welcome and although a bit out or our budget we decided to spend the night. A nice hot shower and a clean change of clothes made us look almost respectable.
Now to try to catch up on the blog, pics, friends and family etc. its hard work, this traveling!!!!!
Tomorrow we'll head for Nairoberry.
Once we reach Nairobi we will have travelled 1200km by dhow over fives and 3700km by bike.
S
We left Awash National Park with a little bit of a sour taste, after having asked how much everything would be we were suddenly told that we have to pay $40 for the transfer from the gate to the camp and back, a total of 22km. We had met with the manager at the gate when they were collecting water. The car that they were going to transfer us back to the gate was really a sight, no back seat, cushions were placed in the back for me to sit on, four bald tyres and bellowing clouds of black smoke and disgustingly dirty, we don't mind paying for a service but really hate to be ripped off to that degree. Eventually Mohammed the manager agreed that they had not made a special trip to the gate to fetch us so would charge $20 for the transport back in the worst rattle trap that we have ever seen.
We had some great birding, walks, and some game viewing. Great to see some wild lesser kudu!!
Once we reached the main gate suddenly we were told that we had to pay Br200 for someone to guard the bikes!! White mans tax in Africa (a phrase learnt from Reynard and Katrina, German travelers that we meet in 2011).
My bike has been getting hot whenever we slow down to go through a town or village, so Larry spent some time removing the radiator protective cover. It was hot and getting hotter each minute. Our cooling vests were in a plastic bag soaking and we eventually put them on and headed for the main road. The road runs straight through the middle of the National Park and has lots of slow moving heavy trucks on it from both directions and a horrible speed hump every 500m. These eventually did get less and we were able to pick up the pace behind the big trucks.
After about an hour of slow moving traffic we came to a scene of an accident where a large truck had gone off the road and there was a crane busy removing its load, the crane was across the road and so the traffic had backed up for a fair distance. We managed to get past all the cars and get back onto the road ahead of the accident which made for much more pleasant riding as all the trucks going south were now behind us. So for the next 50km we had a good run before we got to the next town which was lined with more trucks. The road was tar all the way to Hawassa, just made unpleasant by the very heavy traffic.
We arrived in Hawassa at about 17.00 and went back to the Oasis International Hotel near the lake, we had stayed there in 2011 when they were busy building it and it has had 6 years of hard use since then, the shower was just a trickle and walls were in dire need of a coat of paint, typical of Africa where no maintenance gets done. We walked to town to try and draw some money and eventually the 4th ATM was working. Walking back to the hotel down one of the side streets we meet a local man who started to chatting to us and once he heard we are South African he asked us if he looked like Nelson Mandela and he really did! We continued to the lake were someone has spent lots of money setting up a really nice cobbled walk way the only problem is that there are taverns and pubs with loud music thumping along the length of the path.
26 May 2017
The next morning we were packed and ready to go fair early on our way out of Hawassa we decided to re-fuel. There are plenty of filling stations but not all of them have fuel and eventually we managed to find one that did. The cost of fuel in a land locked country is a lot less that in South Africa!! About R10,90 a liter. As we were leaving Hawassa the roads started deteriorating with long patches of really badly potholed gravel with little sections of tar. We hoped that this would be for a very short section just going out of town but it got worse the further we went, the road just about disappeared at some stages with small single lane tracks. There clearly had been rain in sections as the road was wet and muddy at times which made for interesting riding. The dust at other times made visibility very bad. Riding through the Ethiopian villages is crazy, cattle, goats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, camels and people throng the main road, none of them looking for traffic. People herd their stock down the main road and the traffic just winds its way around everything. The villages can be seen ahead by the vultures that circle them waiting for something to be hit by a truck. The going was really slow, it took us just over 4 hours to cover 160km. I needed a spot to stop for a call of nature and there was no-where that we could do this without a crowd gathering around the bikes.
Suddenly we got to a new section of road, Larry said that he thought we were out of the dis-integrating road and just before each village we would go back to the dusty muddy tracks. Eventually we got to the real new Chinese built road and we picked up the pace. We were heading to Yabelo National Park, where we had thought of staying. I had a tumble off my bike when trying to overtake a truck that was loaded with poles, with one particularly long pole sticking out the back, as I came to overtake him he swerved for something ahead and the long pole hit my right pannier. The bike must have just about come to a stand still and I was knocked off to the left. Larry was about 500m ahead and heard me give a little scream. The piki piki drivers helped pick me and the bike up and started getting very aggressive with the truck driver and his very illegal load of poles. One bruised elbow and sore left side but all fine.
We eventually arrived at our marked position on the GPS but found nothing that looked like a camping site so continued to the town of Yebella. We rode through the town, but found no accommodation establishment that looked like we would be able to stay in, eventually at the filling station we found the Yebella Motel which I went in to find out a price. The woman at reception was decidedly unfriendly and said for foreigners it would be $75 per night. The place looked really suspect so we decided to continue a further 200km to Moyale. While I was trying to find accommodation Larry was trying to get the bikes re-fueled but there was none in town, one local told us that there would be fuel 70km down the road so we decided to take the chance. We have been getting about 25km/l on the bikes, at the slow speeds we have been forced to ride.
We arrived in Moyale at about 18.00 and decided to look for a hotel, after we rode the length of the town we decided to try to the same hotel that we stayed in during our 2011 trip, The Koket Hotel, the same has taken place as the previous hotel, 6 years later not much cleaning and we were shown a similar “beehive” type room that had a terrible stink and then a huge room with a double bed and the sales pitch for this room was it doesn't stink! Being late and no other hotels in sight we decided to spend the night, but neither of us were brave enough to attempt a shower!
We had supper at the hotel which was a hamburger sandwich which consisted of a huge roll with a kofta on the roll covered with an omelette which was covered with spaghetti and then lots of tomato slices served on a bed of spicy rice and French fries, enough to feed a small army. I battle with the local food so a colony of cats got a lot of mine!
The next morning, after having slept in the mosquito infested room, we were up nice and early to get through the border posts nice and quickly. Larry did a bit of remodeling of my right pannier and we packed and headed to the filling station, petrol now for us is Br25 a liter! But apparently the piki-piki’s also pay this.
No where is the customs and immigration buildings marked, so we arrived basically at the Kenya side before turning back and eventually found the immigration building off the main road behind a pile of rubble, we were quickly through immigration and then went looking for the customs which we eventually found down a small little alley way. I handed in the Carnet de Passages and was asked for the permit, I told them I didn't have a permit. Problem, he called his boss who was out and about and we waited, I went back to tell Larry that there was a problem and by this stage he had been invited to have coffee at one of the local stalls. To cut a long story short the customs official eventually went and fetched his boss, who arrived extremely aggressive but we landed up having a friendly chat about African politics. He admitted that it was not my fault and phoned the border post at Wajale to find out if they had the first portion of the Carnet then he phoned his boss in Addis, who never phoned back and just as before suddenly decided that he would make a note of all out details and stamped the Carnet and came and checked the VIN number on the bikes and our electronic equipment and we could go, about 2,5 hours later.
We arrived at the Kenya side for all the officials to tell me how poorly equipped and slow their Ethiopian counterparts are flew through immigrations and then to customs. Their system was down so after three attempts they told me to go with this piece of paper to the bank but I must be very quick as the bank closes in 5 minutes, I rushed outside and gave the paper to Larry and he managed to get a lift to the bank, 5 minutes later the doors closed and he was 27th in the queue! Nearly two hours later I managed to find a young guy on a pikkie-pikkie and asked him to find Larry (one of us always stays with the bikes). Larry was just coming out of the bank when the young guy called him and Larry handed him some money and asked him to buy some bread a two Cokes for us, he came back with these few items and the change and Larry packed these into the cool box on the bike while I went into the customs office to collect our Carnets. Over 5 hours hours at the border post, I think a record for us.
We headed off on the beautiful tar road, when we rode this section of road in 2011 it was the toughest section of road for us, approximately 360km and it took us three days. We rode along side the old gravel road and we were pleased that the road was tarred. We arrived in the small town of Marsabit after 3 hours with a lunch stop using the bread bought at the border post and the salami that was bought in Dubai.
We decided that we wanted to try and stay in National Parks and so headed to the Abdul Gate for the Marsabit Park. We spoke to the guard at the gate and he showed us the camping sites, these looked ok but there were no facilities and a huge troop of baboons were all over the camp site. We decided to have a look at Marsabit Lodge. We had to leave out bikes at the top gate and a local taxi came to fetch us. We drove through the most amazing lush forest into the crater where the lodge was situated. The lodge was built in 1974 and unfortunately nothing has been modernized or even maintained, having said that it is one of the most beautiful places that we have been to on our travels, the lake at the bottom of the crater is unbelievably tranquil and the surrounding forest teaming with bird life and as we arrived a huge herd of buffalo emerged from the forest. The bedrooms are clean and the linen sparkling white, a generator is run at times that are convenient to us. This runs the lights and two small power points for charging and a direct heater for showering. There is an armed guard at the lodge at all times. The staff is small but always friendly and helpful. The food is basic but plentiful, lots of starch and some very tough goat meat but ok.
27 May 2017
We have had a wonderful rest and enjoyed the beauty of this place. Larry did lots of birding and we went for a walk around the lake and met a friendly buffalo bull, he was very gracious and moved back into the forest. Tomorrow we will pack up here and head towards Nairobi, we would like to have our bikes serviced and generally catch up.
29 May 2017
We left Marsabit National Park in very wet and misty conditions. We were told that the mist would clear up with 50km of Marsabit. As we arrived in town to fill the bikes up it started raining, we decided not to worry with rain gear as we could see the sky's clearing in the direction we were heading. This was the right decision as the rain gear makes riding very uncomfortable and we managed to skirt most of the showers of rain.
We had a very pleasant ride, seeing a number of different animals alongside the road, reticulated giraffe, beisa oryx, grants gazelle and one lone ellie. Nice to see some game. The road is new and a pleasure to ride on with very little traffic either way.
We were heading to Nanyuki and with about 30km to still go we could see that we were not going to be so lucky with the rain and we were heading into a big storm, we stopped and put on our rain gear and headed into the storm. It was really bucketting down and got really cold, 11 degrees was the coldest I saw on my bike, the traffic moves slowly but with no lights on in very bad visibility. We slowed down and rode like drowned rats, crossing some strong flowing water which was washing across the road.
We arrived at a large set of gates just before town, Kongoni Lodge. We were immediately made to feel very welcome and although a bit out or our budget we decided to spend the night. A nice hot shower and a clean change of clothes made us look almost respectable.
Now to try to catch up on the blog, pics, friends and family etc. its hard work, this traveling!!!!!
Tomorrow we'll head for Nairoberry.
Once we reach Nairobi we will have travelled 1200km by dhow over fives and 3700km by bike.
S
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