Kenya

The last 250km in Ethiopia was bad. It felt like one of those old computer games where you have to drive through the obstacles without touching one. Here we dodged potholes, but could not help hitting every third one because of its size.

What a shock to return to the "right side" of the road again! Its also in Kenya that you cross the equator. We have to return to the right lane and this means no more help needed from passenger side to pass a truck! The first 500km in Northern Kenya was the worst road we have traveled on the whole trip. Those corrugated roads vibrated our car apart. We were shaking a 7 on the Richter Scale!  Our gas-bottle broke off the back, we had a flat tire, our roof rack shifted forward, our speakers tore out of the roof, our diesel tank tore out of the bolts, we went through a pair of shocks and I think our intestines were in a knot. They call it a rocky desert, felt more like a shaky desert to me. We stopped after driving 14 hours on 250km. We could take it no more and poor Landy could not either. We found a place to camp in a small town and then pitched the tent and prepared some food. We were still shaking. The next morning we assessed the damage and found the diesel tank would need to be welded. We will need to go find someone with the right tools. We had to drain all the diesel and take the tank off the car. We took 3 days to repair the car, and we got a chance to rest from the driving.

Once in a while an overloaded vehicle would come shaking and rattling past. At some places the island between the wheels of our car would scrape the bottom for miles. All you can do is to sit through it. We were thrown with rocks by nomads. For some reason they did not like the thought of us being there..
We did not even stop for lunch. We would drive and eat out of tins. At one stage my dad said shaking: "..IIII aaamm sssooo ggglllaaad yyoou gaveee meee a a a a sppoon. If thiss waasss aaa forrk, my face woullldd bbee full ooff hhhholes..!!"

If you look at the tarred roads on major Kenya city maps it looks like a big hand. They tar the roads in the city and then build all the roads leaving the city at once. They keep going until the money dries up, leaving these fingers that just suddenly turn into a dirt road. We were so thankful for a tar road when we reached Nairobi. We found the Kenyans the most friendly and professional people on our trip.

Unfortunately we entered Kenya at the height of the election killings, when the rebels burnt down 14Ha of houses, super markets, churches and other buildings. The military hid us behind big steel gates with a couple of other foreigners. We had to wait until they told us its safe to leave. The next day we were forced to obtain another third party insurance from Kenya, in addition to the Carnet de passage that we paid a hefty price for.
When the military came to fetch us they said that the fight is not over and we must leave Nairobi today. We packed and did not need to be asked twice.. I realized that some parts of adventure is like bungee jumping. At first you cant wait to do it. Then, as you approach the edge, you wonder what the hell you were thinking, as you fall you don't think at all and afterwards you realize the worth and what a rush it was. This leads to you getting onto the edge for the next jump.

"People that say it cant be done should stop interrupting those that are doing it" George Bernard Shaw