Mt Elgon, Kenya

5 March 2011
We left backpackers, in Kampala, on Thursday morning, 3rd, to ride about 280 km to Sipi Falls, North of Mount Elgon. The initial riding through Kampala involved the usual bad traffic, with all forms of traffic pushing and shoving to get anywhere. The day before, while riding through the traffic, we almost got pushed into the street vendors stalls, by a bus, that deliberately didn’t want us to ease past him on the side. Ended up in a pile of shoes for sale, on the edge of the market, trying to hold the bike up, with him turning his wheel, and pushing us further into the shoes!!!
The ride was pleasant, once clear of the city, on good tarr roads, average speeds about 80 km/h. Then we climbed the escarpment, to Sipi Falls, with what should have been great views, of Mount Elgon on one side, and the valley bellow us. Unfortunately, the haze was once again so bad, that we didn’t get to fully appreciate it.
At Sipi fall, we looked around for somewhere to stay, and ended up at Crows Nest, with little huts built onto the side of the slope, looking across at the main Sipi Fall. Very attractive place, and will be a lot better once the rains start and everything turns green. Very dry in this area at the moment, with lots of dust. The wind howled all night, funneling up the side of the mountain, to where we tried to sleep, with a loose sheet of corrugated iron flapping and banging all the time. Eventually I got up, and packed some large rocks on the roof, to keep it quiet, and we managed to get a bit of rest.
Sharon was sore and tired by the time we arrived, mainly her chest, where we presume she might have a cracked rib, from the bicycle accident. But all ok, and she feels able to continue.
We left at about 8 the next morning, to ride about 90 km, to the farm of Bob and Bea Anderson. Bob is Morny Le Roux’s brother, and they have kindly offered for us to visit, when passing this area. Bob is unfortunately in Grahamstown, for kids half term, but Bea has been super kind and friendly.
The first 15 km riding was on good tar, as far as Kaporchwa, but then we went onto a small gravel road that got progressively worse, the further we went from civilization. There were two sections, that were very steep, with loose powdery red dust, and rockes, that was difficult to negotiate, so I helped Sharon get her bike through and up. I suppose the road was something similar to going through Baviaans Kloof, which we have done a number of times, but we couldn’t take the risk of Sharon falling and injuring her knee or chest further. Steep mountains, beautiful views, not much traffic – all thankfully moving slowly, small huts and villages all the way along the road. Should hopefully have some good video. After about 85 km, we crossed the border into Kenya, which turned out to be the easiest and smallest border post imaginable. Total time was about 30 min, both sides, total cost was zero. Small buildings, very friendly people, made this a breeze.
5 km, further, we arrived at the farm. Huge tunnels – 25 hectares of them, contain roses, which get picked and exported daily!!! Bob and Bea run a huge operation here, with primary and secondary schools, a hospital, where they are busy installing an X ray machine, an orphanage and many other projects that keep them extremely busy. They employ 850 people, but the nearest European neighbours live an hour away!
Today is Saturday 5 March, and we have been travelling for 8 weeks. Our main concern is to get an Ethiopian Visa, which has become a nightmare of backwards and forwards, with all sorts of ridiculous demands of bank letters, travel itineraries, letters to explain that my wife is travelling with me etc. It was rejected again on Thursday!!! They could certainly take a page from Sudan!! Hopefully it will be issued early this week, so that we can head for Northern Kenya, and then Ethiopia. We would like to be passed Egypt in about 4-6 weeks, before it starts getting really hot in Sudan.
In the meantime, were a little stuck, with time to kill. We might go to Mt Elgon National park for a day or two – Bea has very kindly offered us the use of a farm vehicle, as once again the bikes wont be allowed in.
All depending on news from the Visa!!

L

pics

Mt Elgon hillside slope

Another mud pack!!

Guest house at Mt Elgon and clean bikes!

One of the projects on Mt Elgon farm - new girls dormitory at the local school.

 

Some of the rose tunnels - Mt Elgon

pics

Our room at Sipi Falls - Crows Nest

What some of the roads look like

GPS showing contours and elevation

Sharon coming down a rough section of road

5 March pics

Some of the rough sections of road, red baby powder with rocks underneath

Sipi Falls

2 March

 Ringting has been repaired, and washed.  She is minus 1 side cover, but has a new headlight, although BMW might noit approve!!!  Fully serviced, oil changed, new filters etc.  The 1150 has been washed - check it out!!!! - and has had an oil change.  So, we are ready for the onward journey.
Tommorrow we leave for Mt Elgon, and will camp near Sipi Falls.
We are hoping that our Ethiopia Visa will be issued soon, and that we will be able to continue, but are stuck until we get the visa.

 Camping at backpackers, Kampala

Clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 March Pics

 View of the river, from one of the "beaches"  White Nile, lots of rafting and kayaking!!

 Two Kayakers, setting off under the bridge to our tent, for the rapids, called club Nile, and Nile Special, about 500 m away

 Beach Brolley, and volleyball net!

 Red Tailed monkeys, found on the island

 Main ferry point, in front of the bar / restuarant

 Bridge to our tent, and an ingenious water pump, supplying the islands water

Camping again!!!

1 March 2010

1 March 2011

Still in Kampala!!  We went to the Hairy Lemon for a couple of days to get out of this huge big smelly city, we travelled there on Larry's bike so had to leave alot of our luggage in Kampala.  It was a really great break and a fascinating place to go.  It is currently owned by Paul Ferguson, a South Africa and it is a group of 12 islands in the Nile River.  For us it was a great place to relax and to recover some more energy, but for most people going there it is a kayaking haven.  There are a number of really good rapids and Larry tried his hand at some kayaking and really enjoyed himself.  We met a good number of people travelling through Africa and got some good information on places to stay and visit further north.   

We have decided to have a temporary repair done to my bike as Outsurance just haven’t come back to us with answers.  The headlight and battery have been replaced and the bike is now 90% roadworthy again and we will get the repair done in Europe where we won’t have the freight and import charges.  We got it back today and looks good and I am sure that it will carry me all the way to Europe. 

We applied for our Sudannese visas on Friday last week and collected them this morning on the way into town.  Took us all of about 5 minutes for the whole process, this is definitely not the case with the Ethiopian visa, we are still battling with that one and as soon as we know anything positive we will be heading for Kenya, hopefully to spend a few days with Morny’s family near Mt Elgon.  From there it is onto Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and then Jordan.    Anyone know somebody living in Ethiopia who can invite us to visit, this will speed things up!!

We are now starting to apply for our Schengen visa and just hope that we don’t have the same hassles as with the Ethiopian visa.  We have a friend in Sweden who is going to help with this, a letter of invitation, etc  and we hope to be there by mid-May.  We are hoping to get a ferry from Hurhgada in Egypt to Aqaba in Jordan, but this may entail a stop on the Sinai Penninsula .