Part 5 (Cairo to Mombasa)
First task in Cairo was to work out how we were going to progress in a southerly direction. Went into Tahrir Square to check out shipping options, Port Suez to Port Sudan, boat sails in 5 days’ time. We then hurry to Eritrean Embassy to find out if the border with Sudan at Kasala is open. The answer is it is closed but maybe open! Visa for Eritrea will take 10 days to process in Cairo. (we already had visas for Sudan). The next day after another visit to the Eritrean embassy we decide that it is too risky to chance that the land crossing between Sudan and Eritrea will be open and also entry to Eritrea via sea routes looks impossible also. We decide to cut our losses and fly the bikes directly to Nairobi and from there head north into Ethiopia. Well at least this was a sort of plan to keep us moving.
At this point in the journey Andreas made the startling announcement that he would be heading back to Europe for personal reasons. This was a huge shock to myself and Dave. Then there were two!
After a great deal of faffing about we managed to get some wooden crates made for our bikes and to reduce the charges we lowered the bike’s height by taking off the front wheel. The customs clearing process for the bikes at the airport was most unpleasant and expensive and horribly corrupt. The airfreighting of the bikes cost us around £400 each. Before leaving Cairo we did the touristy sites of Giza and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square where the exhibits of Tutankhamun are housed. In the end it was a great relief to leave the heat and chaos of Cairo and head to Nairobi.
The customs clearance of the bikes in Nairobi was relatively easy and we found some local fixers who helped us for a small fee, all done in a couple of hours. Nairobi was quite an experience and you always needed to be on your guard when the sun went down to avoid confidence tricksters.
We had a great evening at Carnivores which is a huge BBQ facility a bit out of town. We had Zebra(tough), impala (OK) and ostrich (very tasty). We checked with the British embassy for information about the road up to Ethiopia, border crossing point at Moyale. The information was that the Kenyan road 100km short of the border was impassable at the moment due to rains, but bikes might be able to make it! Good stuff, we dashed off to get an Ethiopian visa, all done in 24 hours. While in Nairobi visited the Kenyan National Museum, very well presented and excellent information about the development of man around lake Turkana.
On 20th April 1995 we left a damp Nairobi and headed north west to lake Navasha and found a wonderful campsite on the shore of the lake and spent a few days exploring and enjoying our first sights of African wildlife (Lake Navasha was where Joy Adamson had lived).
We then continued north to Nakuru and the soda lakes with numerous flamingos. In the area around Nakuru there were some excellent forest tracks we could drive on and rode up to Menangai crater and the views of the surrounding countryside were excellent.
Later that day we decided to try to ride to lake Elementeita to get a closer look at the thousands of flamingos. The track we took was very difficult and after 20 km we reached Elementeita and were directed to a farm from where we could access the lake. As it turned out the farm was owned by Lord Delamere and his son invited us to have tea with him and he was very interested in motorbikes and gave us directions on how to reach the lake. The ride to the lake was excellent and exciting riding over the dried-up part of the lake. Finally reaching the flamingos just as it started to rain very heavily, was getting dark and the track was turning to mud very rapidly, we needed to head back to Nakuru.
24th April 1995 we departed Nakuru and headed north on tarmac to lake Baringo and then at Loruk turned right on to a single track gravel road heading to the game sanctuary at Maral some 120km away.
The gravel road was difficult to ride on, very loose and mounds of gravel on the corners, had to keep the speed down to 40km/hr. There was no traffic on this stretch other than a large old Mercedes truck full of passengers standing up in the back. The truck was going very fast and when the driver saw Dave he swerved and nearly rolled the truck in the process. The result was that the truck passed us just but a passenger was thrown out over the side landing on the gravel right in front of Dave. The truck stopped and we went to see the passenger who had landed on his head and was dead at the scene. This was a very uncomfortable position for us to be in surrounded by a truck of drunken people and then two people from the Kenyan army were also onboard. After much discussion it was agreed that we could proceed towards Maral and they would report the incident at Loruk. We were shocked and scared by the whole event and limped the rest of the way to Maral just before dusk.
The next morning after a sleepless night both Dave and I came to the conclusion that heading on our “announced” route to Ethiopia would be unwise given the previous days happenings. It would be too easy for us to be framed and subsequently picked-up. This was a huge decision and probably very wise. So, we headed south to Archer’s post on a truly dreadful track. It is very remote, no villages/ homesteads however whenever you stop a local Samburu pops out the bushes since he is looking after the animals that are roaming in the scrubland.
Headed down to Isolo and then round the eastern side of Mount Kenya via Meru and back to Nairobi. We needed a few days R&R after this.
29th April we left Nairobi heading south east to Mombasa on a busy main road to Kenya’s main port city. The road passes through the Tsavo National park, difficult to see any wildlife except for baboons sitting on the road, arriving in Mombasa on 30th April.
This is a hot place; humidity is stifling and sweaty with all the bike gear on.
