Thursday 20 March 2008 (day 20)

The alarm went off at 5:30 and as the sun was still working its way up from below the horizon, we stayed in bed a few more minutes. With the first rays we got up and quickly packed the car. The hotel was mostly asleep as we drove out of the gate. The 40 km to the border on dirt road was a wonderful drive with the grass huts lit by the morning sun. Incredible to think that people can live under these circumstances.

Ogf ggbsfokoef dgese5rtwc455gpikt..,76nut,tu (Eowyn took over the computer and wanted to say a few words as well).

Arriving at the border we found the immigration office pretty easily and with some charming looks from Eowyn, we were out again. Ethiopia done. We drove around the town to finish the last Ethiopian Birr and spent it on a tea and dry bread breakfast.
Across the bridge and we were in Sudan. Exciting. We started in the immigration office. Presented the passports, answered some questions and we were handed some forms to fill in. We filled in and returned to the officer. He then had to transcribe this info into another form which took so long that it ran into the tea break and he stopped the transcription to take tea with his colleagues. We wait… Then someone came up to say that we needed to pay 130 Sudan Pounds per passport (approximately 70 USD pp) for the ‘central registration’. Julia new that this procedure was best done at the border as this could take us days in Khartoum. We therefore eagerly agreed to pay the registration fees in USD.... Not possible. A bank maybe? Yes, but 150 kilometers away in the next town!
After some negotiations, Stanley agreed to go with a local guy to a shop to exchange some money. However, at both the first and the second shop the shop owner refused to change saying: ”not here”. Stanley returned to the immigration office without success. Some officials said we could change at the black market on the other side of the border (Ethiopia) while some other uniformed officers basically said all this was not allowed. A strange situation occurred in Arabic between the officials resulting in the uniforms walking off. We guessed that the black market deal was on. Meanwhile Julia started with the customs papers. She walked into the customs house and was greeted in unison by 10 men “good morning!” all smiling. “We’re having breakfast! You’ll have to wait!” the chorus sang out. They were divided 5 and 5 each group eating with their hands off a huge metal plate filled with bread and 3-4 bowls of stews. More men came in to join them before all the bowls were empty. Everyone washed up and business resumed. Customs was straightforward and only delayed because they needed to see the passports which were with Stanley back at immigration. Forty-five minutes went by, with the uniformed officials refusing to sit next to or talk to Stanley. Finally, the middleman came back with the cash. The exchange was done out of sight and the money immediately hidden in the cuff of his pants. Great, now we only needed to give the money to the uniformed officers for the official registration papers: 20 minutes, but no problems. We all left the immigration office smiling and greeting each other. Finalization of the customs was easy from here on and soon we were back on the road to Gedaref. Remarkably, the Sudanese kept their part of the agreement to build a tarmac road from Port Sudan to Addis Ababa and we were cruising to Gederef in 2 hours.
In Gederef we saw a new Africa with lively suqs and street life. Julia’s Indian outfit with all but the head covered (Thank you Mrs Mandaliya) was a useful attribute. Because it is so hot, hot, hot things are pretty quiet in Gederef until 4-5pm. We found a hotel with big spacious rooms opening onto a central terrace complete with fans (although no water – you can’t have it all…). After unloading we went around the corner to get some food. This luncheon place had HUGE pots of mystery food and Niels and Julia pointed at some things and were just given others in small bowls all loaded onto a big metal tray and served with fresh rounds of bread. We finished at 4 and it was still too hot to be wandering around. We took a siesta until around 6pm when town seemed to be waking up again. Just behind the hotel we stumbled on the milk market. There were men sitting in plastic chairs in the square with their stashes of milk. Milk was being decanted from big metal jugs into just about anything (plastic buckets, empty water and soda bottles, tin cups) with funnels and sieves. Moving on from there we passed small coffee shops, clothing sellers, butchers, nuts, candy, and beautiful fruit and vegetables. The drive from the border was so hot and dry it was surprising to arrive here and see stacks of watermelons, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, greens, egg plants, etc being sold in the street stalls but maybe that is what that beautiful tarmac road is bringing them.

Wednesday 19 March 2008 (day 19)

Before leaving Gondar there was the obligatory mystery car problem to address. Stanley and Niels changed the back tire and tube in the hopes this would address the problem. It didn’t, but we moved on any way. We are making our way to the border with Sudan. Our route is prescribed as we can’t make it from Gondar in a day and apparently the border town itself (Metema) doesn’t have accommodation so we are driving today to Shihedi, where the Ethiopian Customs office is, and about 40km shy of the border. The drive from Gondar takes about 6 hours. They are working away on the road but there is still no tarmac and the unfinished road winds past small villages and through the hills. We are descending and it gets hotter and hotter as the day wears on. Mid-afternoon we arrive in Shehedi. We will just refer to it as ‘Shady” from here on out. The town has a dusty road, the customs office, lots of bars, lots of truckers a few restaurants. We find one ‘hotel’ which consists of a strip of dirty windowless rooms possibly under renovation (everything was heaped in the courtyard) but the guy insisted they were open for business. We decided to look a little further and found a place with fresh paint and a swept out courtyard just across from the customs office. We are shown two small rooms and we decide to stay. A guy staggers out of one of the rooms as we are unpacking the car and says he works for the customs office. He instructs us to meet him over there. We go across the road to customs and it turns out he didn’t mean immediately as there is still another hour until they open up from lunch (at 3pm). We continue to unpack and then go back over. He takes the Carnet, stamps it, gives it back and that is custom done. Shockingly easy. We are passing the hot afternoon playing cards in the courtyard of our little hotel. There were two places to sit, either in the smell of the pit latrines (right in front of the rooms) or in a fresher dust-and-diesel wind from the road. As we shift around the courtyard trying to get the optimal spot and the afternoon wears on it is becoming clear that this is a brothel. Not a hotel with brothel tendencies but a full on, nothing but, brothel. But still, it is clean and we seemed to have seen the only other place in town so we decide to stay on. Stanley and Niels had investigated the eating options in town for lunch and decided we were better off cooking ourselves for dinner. We fired up the bbq in the courtyard and made some spaghetti, chicken and pesto while the ladies prepared for the evening and the clientele started to come around. It wasn’t the most peaceful of sleeps with the Ethiopian mood music thumping through the mud walls but we managed to get some rest in the end.

Tuesday 18 March 2009 (day 18)

We took a day of sight seeing in Gondar. This city was once the second largest city in Africa and has a wealth of culture and history. In the morning, after a club sandwich and mango juice (or “Cappuju-ies “ as it is also referred to), we visited the Royal Enclosures in the city center. In the time that Gondar was the capital of Ethiopia, every king built his own new castle within the enclosure as a legacy and thus the 7000 m2 houses impressive buildings.
Just before lunch it was time for some uploading to the weblog with one of the slowest connections you can find (but hopefully it all came out as we planned it)… In the afternoon we visited Debre Berham Selassi Church near our hotel. The church hold an impressive ceiling with 104 smiling faces of angles and has one of the best preserved wall paintings, definitely worth the visit (if only to see Saint George again).
After the cultural events the stomachs begin to ask to be satisfied. Our diner was in the cosy restaurant Habesha Kitfo. We ended up eating 5 dishes (including the shiro, tips and “just rice”) and had (one of) the best Ethiopian cuisine so far (let’s see what Shihedi will bring us)!

Monday 17 March 2009 (day 17)

At first light, we packed the tents and drank a nice cup of Ethiopian coffee and fresh mango juice. Eowyn calls it:"Cappuju-ies". We are still debating whether it comes from a cup of juice or from apple juice. At around nine we checked out and hit the road. Today, was the day for short and easy driving. Indeed, no car problems (at least no major ones) and no trucks in first gear. We arrived in Gondar at noon. Gondar was once the second largest city of Africa and houses many monasteries and castles: some call it the Camelot of Africa. With both "Gondar" and "Eowyn" from Lord of the Rings, we can hardly wait the adventure that will unfold. While I am typing at 3 pm, everyone is asleep so I think we have to wait a little longer…

Up from our (lazy!) naps at 4:30 we head to town. Our only objective is to get Stanley a haircut.  We find a place "Modern Barber".  It looks like a place out of the 1930s except for the poster of haircuts offered pasted to the door.  We sit down and wait and as the Maestro is finishing up a buzz on someone.  Then Stanley is invited to the chair and adorned in pink plastic sheets and asked "which number?" referring to the poster on the door.  Julia goes to have a look… hmmmm..  Number 8 could be interesting with the total shave except the silhouette of Michael Jordan (can this guy really pull that off?).  There is also number 11 which looks like some sort of cone-style but I don't think that would work on Stanley and would be difficult to keep up on the road.  Julia selects "number 1" with some of "number 3".  The shaving begins (there are no scissors involved).  An amazing amount of hair is being shorn away considering Stanley had pretty short hair to begin with.  We wait in anticipation…..  After all the buzzing a contraption attached to a bucket and part of a garden hose are brought out from behind a curtain.  It turns out to be the 'sink' for a little shampoo and rinse.  The end result is a good looking Stanley with very, very short hair all at a total cost of 10 Birr ($1.10).

Sunday 16 March 2009 (day 16)

After the long drive of yesterday we earned a rest-day. However, as usual, a rest-day means we get to lie under the car. After a good sleep in our tents next to the lake we decided to give the car a thorough clean: a sort of a spring cleaning. We unloaded all our belongings and started the useless job. Teamwork was the motto. Eowyn was the hardest worker although we were not sure what the end result would be, both for the mats she was working on as well as herself. Water for the cleaning was delivered by the naked young men who were watching and washing themselves in Lake Tana. Niels and Stanley continued to work on the car by refilling all the fluids in the gearbox, transfer box and diffs. After a good five hours of "rest", we were ready for a cultural event. We drove 30 kilometers to a monastery which was first built in the 14^th century and was visited by the son of Vasco di Gamma in the 16^th century. Unfortunately, he walked into a Muslim leader and was beheaded. Today, still many children are named after di Gamma. The monastery was an impressive site with all the colorful paintings of the orthodox Ethiopian Christianity. It became a bit difficult when Eowyn kept pointing at a painting of a boy drinking from the breast of a deer. There was not much we could say and tried to distract her with the Lion: also interesting. Inside the monastery was one round room which had five doors on the different sides (although there are no sides in a round room). We asked the guide if we could enter the room, but he said that only the Monastery leader has the key at any given time. Even the local population has never seen the inside, and it is thought that the holy ghost is inside. Maybe better if we leave the doors closed. In low second gear and diff lock engaged, we rolled back over the rocks to town. You can already guess the rest of the evening which consisted indeed of a fantastic portion of shiro at the Bahir Dar Hotel.

Saturday 15 March 2009 (day 15)

What was supposed to be an easy day today, as we planned to go only to Bahir Dar, became one breaking records. The main road went around Mount Choke (4154m). We took off from the Hotel thinking there is only one road out of town and ended soon on a dirt road passing many small towns and locals looking amazed at us. It was Saturday and everybody was moving towards the closest markets to sell or buy, some miles away. There seemed to be an amazing amount of trade in wood.  Donkeys strapped with loads of firewood.  Women and girls bent over with impossible loads of wood on their backs and men with meters long poles slung over their shoulders.  The women had tattoos on their chins and neck in some sort of decorative beard.  The men were wrapped in turbans and blankets but with shorts on (bare legs), almost all were barefoot.  The local elite was riding on highly decorated horses, like knights in the middle ages. The road was climbing towards 3500m when we realized we started off in Debre Markos on the wrong road going over the top of Mt Choke! We followed the road going up to 3,925m and then down again to a village about 80km in the mountains. If we weren't the first foreigners in this village ever we were certainly the first foreigners in the last 3 generations to set foot here.  We stopped the car and were immediately surrounded by 100 people of all ages with mouths open staring.  We alighted from our car/spaceship and extracted the Creature of Wonder (i.e. Eowyn) which drew 100 more people – those in the back of the crowd pointing and passing on the word for even more to come see.  It was a friendly enough crowd and we needed some information so decided to have a walk around.  The 4 of us started to move towards the market with our pod of 200 people moving with us. If we stopped, they stopped, if we moved, they moved.  We managed to find one local (he found us, rather) that spoke English.  He informed us that there was a road but that the bridge had been washed out some time ago and there was no way to continue by car.  We quadrupal checked this info since it had taken us 2.5 hours to get where we were and in the end turned back to Debre Markos.  Eventually this was one of the longest driving days yet, pulling into Bahir Dar at 630pm without stops.  This was exactly which we had said we wouldn't do to spare Eowyn (and ourselves). We passed 3,000km of driving today. We found a place to camp on the grounds of a government hotel on the shore of Lake Tana.

Note: Helluh, your generous offer of supporting the Gender Based Violence and Recovery Clinic in Mombasa for 1 Euro per 100 kilometer is greatly appreciated. We hope that others will follow your example. We expect that you know the trip is not really only 9,000 Km? Of course, you will be exempted from paying today's 160 kilometer detour. THANKS!

Friday 14 March 2009 (day 14)

Info to date: Current elevation 2500 m. Trip distance: 2,387 km (Sorry Helluh). Moving time: 51hrs 45 minutes. Moving average 46.1km/h.  Max speed 101km/h. Current speed 10.1km/h.

We were up with the best intentions of leaving town early. We are heading North. We gave ourselves two scenarios depending on how the drive goes. It is supposed to be an easy drive from Addis to Bahir Dar with a possible stop in Debre Markos. If we make good time we may be able to head over to Lalibela and still make it to the border with Sudan on 21^st. The road all the way is paved and we have high expectations of an easy drive.  Well… The road is up through the mountains and there is no shortage of huge trucks winding their way in 1^st gear. It seems no matter what, we can't get away from our 50km/h average and we should just accept our fate on this trip. Maybe we'll make it to Holland by October? The scenery along the way consisted of endless glowing hills covered in yellow dried grass, all at altitudes above 3000 meters. With so much cattle on the way, it must be that the best tibbs comes from this region. Another novelty of this area is the donkey-cart. Mainly used by young boys who were standing on the front encouraging the ass to move (Another word that Eowyn picked up very quickly). We pulled into Debre Markos in the late afternoon and found a local hotel.  Amazingly, it has hot water and we shower up and after some shiro take an evening walk around town. Nothing spectacular and we make it an early night in preparation for our drive on Saturday.

Thursday 13 March 2009 (day 13)

We all got up early and Stanley and Niels changed the mounting of the gearbox (again), but this time we put in a "right-handed-car" part which fits perfectly. We also checked out the wheels and found out that one of the rear wheels had some free play. Not good… Over breakfast (eggs and porridge) we decided to have it fixed and thus stay in Addis another night.

Niels and Stanley went back to the old guys at the Michell Cott garage of yesterday. The free play was fixed in just a few minutes (tightening a bold) but… (always something else) the rear axle was worn at both sides and needed replacement. Another $200 later, at noon, the job was done only the woman with the receipt was out for lunch and we could not pay. Two of the BVSC mechanics took us out for lunch in a small "restaurant" with again wonderful shiro and strong Ethiopian coffee!

In the afternoon we visited the Ethnological (easier to type then to pronounce) museum near the US Embassy, hope not too close… This was actually an interesting museum located in the old palace of Haile Selassi (with his bedroom and bathroom displayed), now being the Hailla Selassi University.

For dinner we stopped (of course after some driving around the block) at the Kitfo Beat restaurant. We asked the waiter for the "mee-nóe" and his reply (as far as we could translate it) was they have only Kitfo (more or less raw meat). We asked for Shiro and he said: "No, Kitfo." We asked for Tibs and he said: "No, Kitfo." Three cooked kitfo then… until we saw fish and vegetarian dishes at the other tables… We changed the order into one of each!

Wednesday 12 March 2008 (day 12)

Rest day!  A day off from driving spent in Addis. In the morning we walked up to the National Museum for a bit of Ethiopian history and culture including the 'Lucy' exhibit. Eowyn particularly liked the animal paintings, screaming from enthusiasm: "LOOK AT THAT! Zebra! Hippo! Good Girl!!!" With the latter referring to herself.

Addis is a busy, dusty city but friendly – reminds us of a big Kigali. Easy to walk around and not much hassle.  Lots of people begging although not relentlessly and concentrations of beggers seem to increase in proximity to the church. Lots of people also give money we noticed. For lunch we ended up back at the Erkata hotel for more shiro and tibs where Eowyn had her first try at the injera and shiro!  She hadn't been to keen on the Ethiopian food so far and luckily we had been able to find spaghetti all along the way but today she rolled up her sleeves and went for it. Over lunchtime, Niels and Stanley went to the Michell Cott Landrover Garage for the correct gearbox mounting and a spare shock. On arrival we were heartedly welcomed and served by five old professionals. These guys reminded us of the Buena Vista Social Club: old but still with lots of spice. They wanted to give us directions to a spare parts shop, but the one guy couldn't write and delegated it to his colleague who couldn't see well. We all ended up standing outside in the sun discussing and laughing around the map in the lonely planet (in the local Amharic language). No need to say that we never managed to find the place. In the afternoon we went in search of a 'well known' Ethiopian contemporary art gallery. Once again – the map/street sign problem left us driving in circles. It left us driving in circles in proximity of the US Embassy which we noticed (by the 4^th pass) we had the guards on their feet. We aborted the search for the gallery to avoid drawing 'friendly fire' and ended up at the Entoto Market looking through the fabric stalls. A couple of scarves later we were set up for an early dinner and early to bed in anticipation of an early morning start on Thursday.

Tuesday 11 March 2008 (day 11)

An early start in the morning to head for the capital of Ethiopia, on what would be a short (max 3 hour) ride. A 265 km on good tarmac road should take no more. First thing against us was that we needed to stop in the first town to change the bearing of the serpentine belt which was making a squeaking noise (the one that stopped the car in December and could cause considerable unrepairable trouble). It was good to know that we didn't buy our spares for nothing, but the bad thing was that it was also one of the last spare part we have. After a small hour we were on our way again. The next 180 km to Mojo were on schedule with an average speed of 66 km/h. The last 85 km on the other hand took almost three hours due to all the trucks that drive less then 30 km/h! The last delay we had (this day) was to find the place to stay in Addis: street names (if they exist at all) are known to be changed on a regular basis…

Finally at 16.40h we arrived at a really nice hotel with marble stairways and a hot shower, the latter was a heaven after all the dust and smog. Around the corner of the hotel is the Erkata with the best Shiro in Ethiopia (so far)!!!

Monday 10 March 2008 (day 10)

"Potholes" is the word that expresses the most part of the road that goes North from Arba Minch along Lake Abaya and not just a few… Six-and-a-half hours of shaking and bouncing. The good thing was that we were gong to what the LP describes as "potentially the nicest campsite and budget accommodation in all of Ethiopia"! It is in Awasa, south of Addis Ababa at a Rift Valley Lake, the Authors choice and marked with GPS coordinates. Sounds promising one would think. Not knowing that the GPS coordinates were leading you directly INTO the lake! After some more searching and asking around we found a small garden (10 by 10 meters) in the middle of the town. It was a nice campsite, but hopefully would not go for the nicest in all of Ethiopia…We cooked ourselves some delicious pasta consisting of spaghetti, tomatoes and tuna (your name has to be Stanley to recognize the tuna).

Arba Minch (Ethiopia)

Julia doing the nightly check.

Eowyn in Konso (Ethiopia) with glasses

Sun 9 March 2008 (day 9)

The motor biking Germans turned out to be a mixed bunch visiting from Germany and living in Addis and passed on some advice about where to go and how to get there so we changed our course from Bale Mountains to Arba Minch. Before we left Yabello we needed to get diesel.  We pulled into the first petrol station and waited while a lot of people stared at us.  After a couple of minutes it became clear there was no fuel and we went across the road to the Gasoil station.  A few more minutes of pointing and confused exchanges and we determined that Gasoil is diesel and added to our stash.  The tank topped up we headed out of town on a dusty road heading west.  The landscape was beautiful.  Lots of hills and very, very, very dry.  In between villages we saw a leopard on the road!  The local people in this area walking from and to nowhere with their goats and camels looked like gypsies to us.  Many of them wearing AK47s over their shoulder.  We stopped in one small and dusty town on the way and were able to get a perfect cup of coffee.  We haven't found a hot shower yet but we can always get a great cup of coffee…  As we came closer to Arba Minch there were children everywhere by the side of the road and as we would approach they would start dancing.  Not together but each one doing their own sort of break dancing – some were very impressing with handstands and all.  If we had to slow down they would mob the car screaming "You! You! You! YOU! Gimmie your wallet!"   We arrived in Arba Minch for lunch at the Lemlem Hotel (the "Best place for local food in town"), not exactly but it did the job.  We spent a relaxing night at Swayne's overlooking the lakes from a cliff high above.

Sat 8 March 2008 (day 8)

The mystery clanking noise that we have had in the car for the last several days has been solved.  The mounting for the gearbox is broken. We looked around Moyale for the needed parts to no avail.  Then a local contact, Brooke, went back over the border to Kenya to see if he can purchase the part…..  After three hours Brooke came back with the local expert: The best mechanic of Moyale. He said he could fix it and give us 12 months guarantee! I, Stanley, asked him how he planned to fix it and the reply was:" If you go to the doctor, do you ask him how he will perform the operation?" No need to say more. I send him away and luckily we received a call from the shop across the border who managed to find the part. Brooke went back over the border and came back with which looked like the part. We paid him gold and told him we could take care of it from now. However, it looked the same, but wasn't. We decided to install it anyway. The difference with before was that now we actually knew where the clanking noise was coming from……

At 12:30 we ordered our third portion of Shiro (mushed brown beans with raw garlic) and loved it. Spoke with Some Cypriots this morning staying at the same hotel who are on their way from Cyprus to Mombasa.  It is Saturday morning now and they need to be in Mombasa by Monday!  Not sure how that will go but they are 4 guys and seem to be able to drive 24hours a day.  They gave us some useful tips about coming through Egypt and Sudan. At 13:30 we were ready to go and hit the road for Yabello.  Tarmacked without a pot hole in sight – the two hour drive was a pleasure. The wild evening at the "only tourist class hotel in Yabello" (without running water) was spent with a bunch of motorbiking Germans. Five beers later at 23:00 it was time to call it a night.

Friday 7 March 2008 (day 7)

NOTE:

• Ken: I guess you were right not to go with us to Tsavo – the risk of hyena encounter being so real!
• Gwynn: We managed to polish off all the South African wine you sent us by the time we reached the border.  We didn't want to risk customs taking it away (or something like that…).
• Thank you to everyone who is sending us messages in the guest book.  We are able to down load them and then read them later and really enjoy looking through them so please keep it up.

Friday 7 March 2008 (day 7)

"Happy Birthday to Eowyn"

 

We woke up still on the campsite next to Marsabit NP. I (Niels) got out of my tent and walked over to Stanley who was looking into the bushes and asked him: "Anything interesting?" Stanley replied: "There's a Hyena!" While banging two pots together he continued: "He just walked past your tent!" The Spotted Hyena was just 10 meters from us and not afraid…

After the suspense we packed the car and drove into Marsabit for some provisions.  At 8am the town is still asleep and filled with mist and cold.  A surreal landscape unfolded as we descended from Marsabit back into the desert.  A lunar landscape or something from a different planet.  We headed further up North over the bumpy road to Turbi where we had a birthday lunch for Eowyn of rice, chipati and donkey/goat/camel meat? And then on to Moyale where we had to cross the border into Ethiopia. It was a 6 hour dirt road drive to get there. In Moyale customs and immigration took a surprisingly 1 hour only! We are in country number 2: Ethiopia! And how else could we celebrate Eowyn's Birthday and border crossing better then some really good Ethiopian food and a cold beer.

Thursday 6 March 2008 (day 6)

Today, after the tough road to Marsabit, we took a day off to visit the National park with the craters. First in the morning Stanley and Niels went into town to get a new spare shock, the spare wheel mounting was broken and needed to be welded and we needed some food and water. After lunch it was time to change the right front shock for the new one we just bought. 3 hours later the job was done…

At 5pm Niels and Julia set off for the Paradise Crater in Marsabit NP being only 10.5 km from the gate and the park ranger would keep the gate open until seven. No signs of steep hills or bumpy road, it could not take more then 15 minutes… Around the first corner the smoothness of the road disappeared and steep rocky paths had to be conquered in low gear! 40 minutes later we were only 5.5 km into the park and we realized we were never going to make it to the crater and back before dark (6.30PM). I can still hear Julia saying: "There should be a sign '4 Wheel drive needed' at the gate" before we passed a taxi station wagon! Guess you don't need a 4x4…

Wednesday 5 March 2008 (day 5)

Driving out of Samburu towards Archer's Post early in the morning we stopped to watch a cheetah near the road.  The road to Marsabit is every bit as bad as people told us it was.  Somewhere along the way people told us the road would get better 'in about 50km' and the last bit to Marsibit we could drive '100-120kmh'.  We never did figure out where that last stretch of Kenyan Autobahn was and we pulled into Marsibit at around 1600 at our usually 50-60km/h.  We stopped twice along the way.  Once in a small dusty Samburu town where Eowyn shook hands with everyone as we rested and Stanley and Niels looked over the car.  The second time came about 30 minutes after the first when the front left shock blew out.  Stanley and Niels set up shop in the open road in the sun to change the shock.  Julia and Eowyn took refuge in the only bit of shade around which would have been idyllic except there was no shortage of biting flies.  In about an hour we were on the way again.

Tuesday 4 March 2008 (day 4)

We woke up early with the best intentions of leaving town…  Helen tentatively said good-bye since it was possible that something would come up and we'd just be staying at her house another night.  But we managed.  Heading out of Nairobi, grateful to be going the opposite direction from the rush hour traffic, we joined the Thika road going towards Mt. Kenya.  An easy beautiful drive through Nyeri and Nanyuki we passed the equator and made a stop for lunch at the Kentrout Trout Farm.  After lunch on to Isiolo and the end of the paved road.  The 30km from Isiolo to Buffalo Springs/Samburu National Park gave us a taste of what the next 500km will be like… Slow going and dusty.  We were able to break out the duck tape today to secure the steering column casing. We spent our first night officially camping and it finally feels like we are on the road.

Monday 3 March 2008 (day 3, Nairobi)

We woke up early with the best intentions of leaving town.  Stanley had noticed two of the shocks leaking after the road from Tsavo. Monday morning Stanley took the car to the garage. Niels and Julia went to the IAVI office to finish some administrative tasks.  11:30 we were ready to go.  One last task of getting cash from the ATM.  Stanley got money from the Euro account and then Julia went for the US account.  Inserted the card and…  "Your card has been retained"….  Arghhh. The guys with the keys for the ATM weren't able to make it until 5pm.  We had no choice but to wait.  Turned out not to be so bad.  It gave us a chance to rearrange the car, rest up and raid Helen's fridge for one more day.

Tsavo Group Photo

Friday March 7th

Thanks for all the nice wishes and kisses for Eowyn’s second birthday, even Tarzan came by! We greet you from the Kenyan-Ethiopean border; hoping to get through, more soon. The car is great now, only a few repairs so far. Greetings and kisses for you all.

Thursday March 6th

As of now the Charity-page is on-line! Don't hesitate to visit this page by clicking the "Charity"-button. We hope you all will make a donation for the Gender Based Violence and Recovery Centre where we started our trip. With your support the clinic can help people in need. Thank you for supporting us!

Sunday March 2nd (Day 2)

This morning we woke up with an amazing view of Tsavo West. Three buffalo's were enjoying a nice cool drink at the pool and a large herd of impala's and a few zebra's joint them soon.

After our third farewell party we continued our journey to Nairobi. A big part of the road was in a very bad shape and it took us 5 hours to drive the 250 km. We started with just the noises from the boxes but a squeaking sound came up halve way the bumpy road (it appeared to be the hinges of the hood of the engine).

In Nairobi we stayed at Helen (Julia's colleague), were Stanley and Niels did the first nightly check of the car: one of the rear shock absorbers is leaking and needs to be replaced tomorrow.

Saturday March 1st (Day 1)

After the doors were closed of the house in Mombasa and the last photos were taken at the beach, we headed of to the Gender Based Violence and Recovery clinic (with a delay of half hour) were we started our journey to Ven-Zelderheide (Netherlands). At the clinic a large group of ICRH friends were waiting for us to flag us off. After a visit to the clinic we officially started the 9K Km trip. We drove off in a 5-car-ICRH-convoy to Mariakani for our second farewell! A 4.5 hour drive to Tsavo West for our first stop. We "mislead" Julia to go camping near the NP entrance gate. Suddenly Julia said:"STOP THE CAR! Sander is here!" Indeed, the trird farewell party was to start at the Kamboyo Guest House in Tsavo. Nine friends consisting of Elodie, Dipesh, Maya, Sarah, Sander, Helene (read "LN"), Davey, uncle Bob and Sarah were there for us.

Friday February 29th

An unforgettable farewell party was organized by the ICRH colleagues. It started with a visit to the Baobab boys orphanage which needed to be cleaned. All 85 ICRH employees (and Niels)  worked with great motivation to clean the compound, cook lunch, wash the walls and floors, clean the bedrooms, and scrub the toilets. What a difference!

After a few hours of work, a donation was given to the management of the orphanage consisting of beans, meal, cooking oil and other supplies.

From the orphanage, the busload moved on to the Bamburi butterfly farm for lunch and speeches. More compliments than earned where given to Stanley for his 3,5 years of work at ICRH by Dr Marcel (incoming Country Director ICRH), Mama Ruth (Family Health International), Dr Waudo (Provincial AIDS and STI Coordinator), Dr Othigo (Chief Administrator CPGH), and Dr Mandaliya (Secretary to the ICRH Board). As SUPER-SURPRISE Dr Joseph Vyankandondera came from Kigali, Rwanda just to celebrate the day. It was unforgettable and I (Stanley) would like to thank all my Friends at ICRH for organizing this incredible day. I will miss you all!

 

Stanley.