Day 64 (29/07/08) Yabello (Ethiopia) to Moyale (Kenya)
Kenya Wildlife Service (camping) N5 20.486 E37 26.359
Bank (Moyale) N3 31 16.6 E39 03 16.7
Travelled: 210km
Debbie: Crossing into Kenya today was quick and simple. We also managed to avoid paying the US$40 tax we had been told was the latest Kenyan border scam. We decided to not start the dreaded bandit road until tomorrow as we know it’s going to be slow going to Marsabit so want to ensure we have a full day to complete the first 249km to Marsabit at a snails pace. We set up camp in Moyale at the KWS campsite which was very simple but clean and had no “observers” so we could read our books in peace! A couple from RSA arrived in the afternoon who are on their way up to Cairo so we spent the afternoon swapping tips.
Andrew: After speaking to Kevin and Rachel in the campsite they said that the police check there $40 permit at most road blocks coming through Kenya. So I decided to head back down to customs and asked if I could get the permit. But the head of customs man insisted that I didn’t need the the permit and said that it wasn’t the policeman’s job to check it. He then gave me his name and number on a headed paper and told me to get the police to phone him if they have a problem. Hopefully we don’t need to phone as I can see a time wasting situation coming up.
Day 65 (30/07/08) and Day 66 (31/07/08)
Moyale – Marsabit – Arches Post
Henry’s Swiss Rest Camp N2 20.735 E37 57.941
Sumburu Womens Lodge Camp N0 37.872 E37 39.618
Travelled: 251km and 226km
Andrew: The immigration officer told us that it would be fine to do the Moyale - Isiolo stretch alone as there hasn’t been any bandits for some time, but he did warn us that we may become a “case”. We left at sunrise this morning to give us a full day at it, we had done about 100km in about 2.5hrs, I got a bit cocky and was announcing how over rated this bad stretch of road is. Then we hit some rocky road on a flat molten lava rock dessert plain which slowed us down to about 15km/h for the next 8.5hrs without relenting. By the time we reached Marsabit I had enough of bumping and dodging rocks, but the good news is that after the first stretch no breakages. The rocks seem to have chewed at the tyres a bit but nothing significant, hardly noticeable in fact.Day 2Again we were up sunrise, we were planning a nice breakfast before we left using eggs from the bakery and some toast from the fresh bread, but the wind was blowing a gale and the gas cooker doesn’t work so well in the wind so we decided to have peanut butter sandwiches and hit the bumpy road. Today’s stretch to Archers Post (+/-30km before Isiolo) was not as rocky but more corrugations which kept the speed down. It took 9hrs to do the 226km and still no breakages which is a bonus, except for the eggs we didn’t eat for breakfast, so it was scrambled eggs for dinner. We saw lots of the local Samburu people they dress very colourfully. There was also a fair amount of game on the road, a giraffe, gerenuk (looks like an Impala with a long neck) and the ubiquitous dik dik.
When we arrived at the campsite the Samburu lady was very excited explaining that the river which is normally a little stream had come down in flood a few hours earlier. I wish we could have seen it, it must be quite a site to see a wall of water rushing down the sand. She said people were having to run out of the riverbed with haste, it also brought a crocodile down with it which parked up on the opposite bank.
Day 67 (01/008/08) Arches Post to Nairobi
Jungle Junction S01 17.325 E036 45.635
Travelled: 321km
Debbie: The campsite at Archers Post was a stunning setting on the River banks looking onto Buffalo Springs National Park. The only problem was when we came to settling the bill Mohammed, the rather cocky camp manager, conveniently didn’t have change and then tried to guilt us into giving the 3 night guards a tip! Andrew wouldn’t budge (tips are earned not given) and 40 min later Mohammed had found change and we were on our last 30km of the bad Moyale Road. It was so so so good to finally reach the tar at Isiolo. The drive down to Nairobi was pretty average – as good as it gets tar and lots of things being sold on the side of the road and every second person wanting a lift from us. Needles to say our back seat now has all our food on it so we can say to people that we have no space for them otherwise they get a bit mad when you say no and they can see an empty seat. Our eyes lit up at what was being sold in the markets as from Syria down all we have seen is potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and tomatoes whereas in Kenya we say huge pineapples, huge mango’s, huge avo’s, huge banana’s and even huge tomatoes. We stopped off when we crossed the Equator to take cheesy photos and buy some curios. We got to the famous Jungle Junction in the afernoon where we met Heidi (from Durbs) and Ross (from PMB) who have spent 9 months coming down the West coast so we had lots to chat about.
Day 68 (02/008/08) Nairobi
Jungle Junction
Travelled: 67km
Debbie: Today was all about food. We had to turn our fridge off in Egypt when we crossed on the ferry to Sudan and had to throw out things like butter and tomato sauce. Since Sudan we have not managed to find great (or exciting) food in the markets or shops and have eaten a hell of a lot of pasta and tuna, pasta and tomatoes, pasta and something in a tin. So when we heard about The Junction shopping centre we dashed off there as fast as we could. Seeing things like yoghurt and cheese and boerewors was awesome and we stocked up big time! The afternoon was spent trying to get dust out of the vehicle – Bwana loves to suck in fine dust and everything is covered in a thick layer of it – and making some curtains. Ross and Heidi gave us the idea as they had some in their windows and they said not only did they do it for a security reason but it also helps to keep the car cool in the sun. So now we look very posh with bright green curtains!
Day 69(03/08/08) Nairobi to Masai Mara
Sunset Camp / Chronicle camp (it has 2 names) S1 31 50.4 E35 21 09.3
Travelled: 231km
Debbie: Heidi and Ross were in the Masai Mara 5 days ago and told us that the migration had hit that area so we belted up to the park today on bad Kenyan roads (bad corrugated road, out of know where wonderful tar for a couple of clicks and then back to bad corrugated road). It costs US$40 per person per day, US$10 each to camp and KS300 per day for our car to enter the park so we found a campsite just outside the park gates for tonight and we will enter the park tomorrow and spend 2 nights there. We are hoping that we will see a crossing. The camp manager tells us that there are plenty of zebra around and that the wildebeests are beginning to cross.
Day 70 (04/08/08) to Day 72 (06/08/08) Masai Mara
Camp – S1 32 44.1 E35 01 06.3
Lunch spot - S1 25 31.3 E3506 13.8
Travelled: 110km
Travelled: 114km
Travelled: 104km
Day 1
Debbie: We entered the park early on day one determined to get our full US$40 worth of game for the day. Within 10min of entering the park we saw a huge lioness followed by an even bigger male lion. Then we spotted the endless herds of wildebeest. I have never seen anything like it! For miles and miles you can see them. Just after lunch we were lucky enough to see a crossing which again was something well worth seeing and a bit of an adrenalin rush as you are willing the poor wildebeest on so that they are not munched by one of the HUGE crocodiles or drowned in the frenzy. The wildebeest mass and then suddenly without any huge warning they will cross. We stuck around what they call the Mara triangle as this was where all the crossings were happening (on the Mara river) so we didn’t see many birds as this area is predominately grasslands. There were however tons of vultures. We camped for the night at the South Mara bridge gate as it was right on the Mara River. A ranger, David, was sent to stay with us and he was a very pleasant educated man and we sat round a camp fire chatting to him for ages.
Day 2
Debbie: Today was disappointing. We saw wildebeest start to mass along the Mara River so waited in excitement for a crossing. 4 Hours later and still no crossing so we decided to go up to the Talek Gate so that we would see a bit more of the park than just the Mara Triangle. Up in the Talek area there was very little game so we got back to camp feeling a bit down in the dumps about spending our last day seeing nothing. Arriving back to South bridge we soon had smiles on our dials as we had been offered an extra day in the park at a discounted rate!
Day 3
Debbie: What a result of a day! 3 crossings, Cheetah and Lion!
Andrew: Magnificent Mara: We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Masai Mara, the staff were very friendly and the game viewing was like we had never seen before. I think it is a park that needs to be visited when the herds of wildebeest are about because when they moved down to the Serengeti I imagine those endless empty grass plains could become a bit tiresome. The wildebeest crossings are quite a sight, we witnessed them crossing, then for some unknown reason gathering again and then re-crossing. We saw them being munched by crocs and even angry hippos. The one evening there seemed to be more dead wildebeest in the river than the other days and the stench drifted into camp for a while in the evening. With all the dead wildebeest all the predators seemed very lazy and were very fat.The staff asked us to stay another day by offering us a discount which we accepted without a second thought. They obviously enjoyed having us around camp even though South Mara Bridge is not an official campsite and they provided a ranger for the evenings. The evenings were very enjoyable, the ranger made us a fire which we sat around keeping a torch on the hippos grazing nearby.On our final day we decided that we should have a look at the plains to the west of the Mara River where all the wildebeest were coming from, as we had heard of a few cheetah sightings. We were lucky enough to find 2 lazing about, they looked pretty thin, and so we hung about for a while to see if they might hunt. After a while there were about five cars so we decided to move on. For being such a prestigious park and at the height of peak season I was quite amazed to see how few visitors there were in the park, I was expecting it to be like London rush hour. At the main crossing point there would always be about 15 cars but we watched some slightly further south and were sometimes alone and never more than 6 cars watching at a time. The other cars also seemed very polite, when the wildebeest started massing then all cars wait back about 200m from the river then when they start every moves forward and we always seemed to get a position to view.
Animals spotted:
Lion (1 sighting of 3 lioness at S1 31 24.4 E34 59 07.6)
Zebra
Hyena
Wildebeest
Impala
Giraffe
Thomson Gazelle
Elephant
Buffalo
Eland
Bushbuck
Defassa Waterbuck
Hippo
Grants Gazelle
Kongoni
Warthog
Dik Dik
Jackal
Cheetah (S1 26 13.2 E34 58 37.2)
Day 73 (07/08/08) Masai Mara to Nairobi (Jungle Junction)
Travelled: 285km
Andrew: Feeling a bit sad to leave we packed up camp this morning and hit the road back to Nairobi. It took about 5 hours from the Sekenani Gate. We were in time to make it to Impala Auto Spares were we stocked up on some new shocks. The front right has gone so will have to be replaced tomorrow. I also took a couple spare ones as they were well priced. I also bought new half shafts for the rear axle because ours are starting to wear. When the gear is changed a bit roughly you get a clonking sound. They are quite easy to change so we will take them with us and when the clonking gets a bit worse we’ll change them over.
Day 74 (08/08/08) Nairobi (Jungle Junction)
Andrew: Today Debbie emptied Bwana and cleaned everything whilst I fitted the new shock, (the most finicky one because it’s directly below the coolant reservoir). It took most of the day to clean and fix other bits and bobs. On the road to and from the Masai Mara the dust is so bad that you have to turn your headlights on. At one stage when we passed a bus I was struggling to see my bulbar. So you can imagine how it has got everywhere, just for example there was a film of dust in the concentrate orange juice. The liquid doesn’t even spill out so how the dust gets in I don’t know!It’s been a long day of hard work, so tomorrow a bit a shopping and relaxing.
Kenya Wildlife Service (camping) N5 20.486 E37 26.359
Bank (Moyale) N3 31 16.6 E39 03 16.7
Travelled: 210km
Debbie: Crossing into Kenya today was quick and simple. We also managed to avoid paying the US$40 tax we had been told was the latest Kenyan border scam. We decided to not start the dreaded bandit road until tomorrow as we know it’s going to be slow going to Marsabit so want to ensure we have a full day to complete the first 249km to Marsabit at a snails pace. We set up camp in Moyale at the KWS campsite which was very simple but clean and had no “observers” so we could read our books in peace! A couple from RSA arrived in the afternoon who are on their way up to Cairo so we spent the afternoon swapping tips.
Andrew: After speaking to Kevin and Rachel in the campsite they said that the police check there $40 permit at most road blocks coming through Kenya. So I decided to head back down to customs and asked if I could get the permit. But the head of customs man insisted that I didn’t need the the permit and said that it wasn’t the policeman’s job to check it. He then gave me his name and number on a headed paper and told me to get the police to phone him if they have a problem. Hopefully we don’t need to phone as I can see a time wasting situation coming up.
Day 65 (30/07/08) and Day 66 (31/07/08)
Moyale – Marsabit – Arches Post
Henry’s Swiss Rest Camp N2 20.735 E37 57.941
Sumburu Womens Lodge Camp N0 37.872 E37 39.618
Travelled: 251km and 226km
Andrew: The immigration officer told us that it would be fine to do the Moyale - Isiolo stretch alone as there hasn’t been any bandits for some time, but he did warn us that we may become a “case”. We left at sunrise this morning to give us a full day at it, we had done about 100km in about 2.5hrs, I got a bit cocky and was announcing how over rated this bad stretch of road is. Then we hit some rocky road on a flat molten lava rock dessert plain which slowed us down to about 15km/h for the next 8.5hrs without relenting. By the time we reached Marsabit I had enough of bumping and dodging rocks, but the good news is that after the first stretch no breakages. The rocks seem to have chewed at the tyres a bit but nothing significant, hardly noticeable in fact.Day 2Again we were up sunrise, we were planning a nice breakfast before we left using eggs from the bakery and some toast from the fresh bread, but the wind was blowing a gale and the gas cooker doesn’t work so well in the wind so we decided to have peanut butter sandwiches and hit the bumpy road. Today’s stretch to Archers Post (+/-30km before Isiolo) was not as rocky but more corrugations which kept the speed down. It took 9hrs to do the 226km and still no breakages which is a bonus, except for the eggs we didn’t eat for breakfast, so it was scrambled eggs for dinner. We saw lots of the local Samburu people they dress very colourfully. There was also a fair amount of game on the road, a giraffe, gerenuk (looks like an Impala with a long neck) and the ubiquitous dik dik.
When we arrived at the campsite the Samburu lady was very excited explaining that the river which is normally a little stream had come down in flood a few hours earlier. I wish we could have seen it, it must be quite a site to see a wall of water rushing down the sand. She said people were having to run out of the riverbed with haste, it also brought a crocodile down with it which parked up on the opposite bank.
Day 67 (01/008/08) Arches Post to Nairobi
Jungle Junction S01 17.325 E036 45.635
Travelled: 321km
Debbie: The campsite at Archers Post was a stunning setting on the River banks looking onto Buffalo Springs National Park. The only problem was when we came to settling the bill Mohammed, the rather cocky camp manager, conveniently didn’t have change and then tried to guilt us into giving the 3 night guards a tip! Andrew wouldn’t budge (tips are earned not given) and 40 min later Mohammed had found change and we were on our last 30km of the bad Moyale Road. It was so so so good to finally reach the tar at Isiolo. The drive down to Nairobi was pretty average – as good as it gets tar and lots of things being sold on the side of the road and every second person wanting a lift from us. Needles to say our back seat now has all our food on it so we can say to people that we have no space for them otherwise they get a bit mad when you say no and they can see an empty seat. Our eyes lit up at what was being sold in the markets as from Syria down all we have seen is potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and tomatoes whereas in Kenya we say huge pineapples, huge mango’s, huge avo’s, huge banana’s and even huge tomatoes. We stopped off when we crossed the Equator to take cheesy photos and buy some curios. We got to the famous Jungle Junction in the afernoon where we met Heidi (from Durbs) and Ross (from PMB) who have spent 9 months coming down the West coast so we had lots to chat about.
Day 68 (02/008/08) Nairobi
Jungle Junction
Travelled: 67km
Debbie: Today was all about food. We had to turn our fridge off in Egypt when we crossed on the ferry to Sudan and had to throw out things like butter and tomato sauce. Since Sudan we have not managed to find great (or exciting) food in the markets or shops and have eaten a hell of a lot of pasta and tuna, pasta and tomatoes, pasta and something in a tin. So when we heard about The Junction shopping centre we dashed off there as fast as we could. Seeing things like yoghurt and cheese and boerewors was awesome and we stocked up big time! The afternoon was spent trying to get dust out of the vehicle – Bwana loves to suck in fine dust and everything is covered in a thick layer of it – and making some curtains. Ross and Heidi gave us the idea as they had some in their windows and they said not only did they do it for a security reason but it also helps to keep the car cool in the sun. So now we look very posh with bright green curtains!
Day 69(03/08/08) Nairobi to Masai Mara
Sunset Camp / Chronicle camp (it has 2 names) S1 31 50.4 E35 21 09.3
Travelled: 231km
Debbie: Heidi and Ross were in the Masai Mara 5 days ago and told us that the migration had hit that area so we belted up to the park today on bad Kenyan roads (bad corrugated road, out of know where wonderful tar for a couple of clicks and then back to bad corrugated road). It costs US$40 per person per day, US$10 each to camp and KS300 per day for our car to enter the park so we found a campsite just outside the park gates for tonight and we will enter the park tomorrow and spend 2 nights there. We are hoping that we will see a crossing. The camp manager tells us that there are plenty of zebra around and that the wildebeests are beginning to cross.
Day 70 (04/08/08) to Day 72 (06/08/08) Masai Mara
Camp – S1 32 44.1 E35 01 06.3
Lunch spot - S1 25 31.3 E3506 13.8
Travelled: 110km
Travelled: 114km
Travelled: 104km
Day 1
Debbie: We entered the park early on day one determined to get our full US$40 worth of game for the day. Within 10min of entering the park we saw a huge lioness followed by an even bigger male lion. Then we spotted the endless herds of wildebeest. I have never seen anything like it! For miles and miles you can see them. Just after lunch we were lucky enough to see a crossing which again was something well worth seeing and a bit of an adrenalin rush as you are willing the poor wildebeest on so that they are not munched by one of the HUGE crocodiles or drowned in the frenzy. The wildebeest mass and then suddenly without any huge warning they will cross. We stuck around what they call the Mara triangle as this was where all the crossings were happening (on the Mara river) so we didn’t see many birds as this area is predominately grasslands. There were however tons of vultures. We camped for the night at the South Mara bridge gate as it was right on the Mara River. A ranger, David, was sent to stay with us and he was a very pleasant educated man and we sat round a camp fire chatting to him for ages.
Day 2
Debbie: Today was disappointing. We saw wildebeest start to mass along the Mara River so waited in excitement for a crossing. 4 Hours later and still no crossing so we decided to go up to the Talek Gate so that we would see a bit more of the park than just the Mara Triangle. Up in the Talek area there was very little game so we got back to camp feeling a bit down in the dumps about spending our last day seeing nothing. Arriving back to South bridge we soon had smiles on our dials as we had been offered an extra day in the park at a discounted rate!
Day 3
Debbie: What a result of a day! 3 crossings, Cheetah and Lion!
Andrew: Magnificent Mara: We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Masai Mara, the staff were very friendly and the game viewing was like we had never seen before. I think it is a park that needs to be visited when the herds of wildebeest are about because when they moved down to the Serengeti I imagine those endless empty grass plains could become a bit tiresome. The wildebeest crossings are quite a sight, we witnessed them crossing, then for some unknown reason gathering again and then re-crossing. We saw them being munched by crocs and even angry hippos. The one evening there seemed to be more dead wildebeest in the river than the other days and the stench drifted into camp for a while in the evening. With all the dead wildebeest all the predators seemed very lazy and were very fat.The staff asked us to stay another day by offering us a discount which we accepted without a second thought. They obviously enjoyed having us around camp even though South Mara Bridge is not an official campsite and they provided a ranger for the evenings. The evenings were very enjoyable, the ranger made us a fire which we sat around keeping a torch on the hippos grazing nearby.On our final day we decided that we should have a look at the plains to the west of the Mara River where all the wildebeest were coming from, as we had heard of a few cheetah sightings. We were lucky enough to find 2 lazing about, they looked pretty thin, and so we hung about for a while to see if they might hunt. After a while there were about five cars so we decided to move on. For being such a prestigious park and at the height of peak season I was quite amazed to see how few visitors there were in the park, I was expecting it to be like London rush hour. At the main crossing point there would always be about 15 cars but we watched some slightly further south and were sometimes alone and never more than 6 cars watching at a time. The other cars also seemed very polite, when the wildebeest started massing then all cars wait back about 200m from the river then when they start every moves forward and we always seemed to get a position to view.
Animals spotted:
Lion (1 sighting of 3 lioness at S1 31 24.4 E34 59 07.6)
Zebra
Hyena
Wildebeest
Impala
Giraffe
Thomson Gazelle
Elephant
Buffalo
Eland
Bushbuck
Defassa Waterbuck
Hippo
Grants Gazelle
Kongoni
Warthog
Dik Dik
Jackal
Cheetah (S1 26 13.2 E34 58 37.2)
Day 73 (07/08/08) Masai Mara to Nairobi (Jungle Junction)
Travelled: 285km
Andrew: Feeling a bit sad to leave we packed up camp this morning and hit the road back to Nairobi. It took about 5 hours from the Sekenani Gate. We were in time to make it to Impala Auto Spares were we stocked up on some new shocks. The front right has gone so will have to be replaced tomorrow. I also took a couple spare ones as they were well priced. I also bought new half shafts for the rear axle because ours are starting to wear. When the gear is changed a bit roughly you get a clonking sound. They are quite easy to change so we will take them with us and when the clonking gets a bit worse we’ll change them over.
Day 74 (08/08/08) Nairobi (Jungle Junction)
Andrew: Today Debbie emptied Bwana and cleaned everything whilst I fitted the new shock, (the most finicky one because it’s directly below the coolant reservoir). It took most of the day to clean and fix other bits and bobs. On the road to and from the Masai Mara the dust is so bad that you have to turn your headlights on. At one stage when we passed a bus I was struggling to see my bulbar. So you can imagine how it has got everywhere, just for example there was a film of dust in the concentrate orange juice. The liquid doesn’t even spill out so how the dust gets in I don’t know!It’s been a long day of hard work, so tomorrow a bit a shopping and relaxing.
Day 75 and Day 76 (09/08/08 – 10/08/08) Nairobi (Jungle Junction)
Debbie: Our days were spent running around filling up gas bottles, stocking up on food etc and finally getting to an internet cafe to upload some info onto our site before the internet stopped working. We also took a timeout to look at a map and plan our next movements and chat to people who were also camping at Jungle Junction.
Day 78 (11/08/08) Nairobi to Voi
Red Elephant Lodge (camping) S3 22 15.5 E38 35 37.8
Travelled: 419km
Debbie: Today we left Nairobi and headed down to Tsavo National Park (East). We had been told that the first 100km on the A109 road from Nairobi to Tsavo were horrendous due to road works so we were advised to go some back routes around the road works. The back route was a very dusty dirt road and took us 5 hours but at least we were the only car on it and we saw quite a bit of game along the way. We camped for the night in Voi at a lodge called Red Elephant Lodge.
Day 79 (12/08/08) Tsavo East National Park
Aruba Lodge
Lugards Falls S3 02 26.6 E38 41 46.9
Crocodile Point S3 02 16.1 E38 42 05.4
Sala Gate S3 04 32.4 E38 42 05.4
Voi Gate S3 21 47.2 E38 35 44.1
Travelled: 67km
Debbie: We didn’t get up at sparrow this morning to head into the park. Tsavo is on the Kenya Smartcard system which means that they are very strict on you only being in the park for 24 hours before they charge you again for another 24 hour slot. We have heard stories of people being a few minutes over their allotted 24 hours and they still get charged for another 24 hour slot. So we didn’t want to get to the park before 9am as we would need time to leave the park on the morning we head out. Fee’s were much the same as Masai Mara – US$40 ppp day, 10US$ ppp night to camp and KS300 for the car per day. If you are an elephant fan then Tsavo is the place to come – there are TONS of them! It’s a lot harder to spot game in Tsavo as the game is quite shy and there are not many tracks to go down. There is however good bird life and we managed to spot a few birds endemic to NE Africa.
Day 80 (13/08/08) Tsavo East National Park
Travelled: 139km
Debbie: We were up early to try and spot the early morning game. We didn’t see much and ended up driving for hours only seeing elephants, elephants and more elephants. Just after lunch another vehicle stopped to tell us of 3 lion but we didn’t manage to spot them. We camped for the night at the Sala Gate.Andrew: For me Tsavo has great potential its but because of it size you need time to explore this park. The animals aren’t as abundant as the Mara but then nowhere else is. The staff were very friendly at the Sala gate I think this is because they don’t see that many visitors. The Kenyan staff, in general, seem very friendly and proud of their parks which is really nice to see. I just wish we had the budget to spend a bit longer exploring the parks. The only let down for the Park is that 90% of the road network is quite badly corrugated and you end up spending more time looking at where you driving than looking for game.
Animals spotted:
Elephants Lion and cub with kill (S3 22 03.0 E38 58 05.9)
Grants Gazelle
Impala
Dik Dik
Gerenuk
Zebra
Giraffe
Fringe-Eared Oryx (S3 26 22.3 E38 55 07.8)
Lesser Kudu
Cokes Hartebeest
Buffalo
Water Buck
Warthog
Day 81 (14/08/08) Tsavo to Malindi
KWS Campsite S3 15 16.7 E40 07 53.7
Travelled: 112km
Debbie: We got to Malindi by lunchtime and spent the rest of the day in camp. We attempted a walk on the beach but there were so many beach boys that pestered us we gave up and went to hide in camp which was behind bushes and away from the beach. Also, at this time of year, there is seaweed all over the beach so it stank. The only other issue was that there was some local Christian group camping there as well who sang at night with a guitar and they had the most horrendous voices that it kept us awake for a while! A nice NZ couple (Sam and Sarah – Sarah is actually Canadian but has lived in NZ for the last 5 years) pulled in so we were able to swap stories. A guy called Donny also appeared – he is travelling round Africa on local transport – and he said he knows Ian and Gavin as well as the Evans family from Maz so we had a long chat to him.
Day 82 (15/08/08) Malindi to Diani
Diani camping S4 18 12.3 E39 34 49.6
Travelled: 181km
Debbie: Today was a bit frustrating. We wanted to meander down the Kenyan coast and find a nice campsite to chill in – needless to say we soon discovered that the Kenyan coastline doesn’t have very many camping options at all. There are loads of resorts so we decided to try a few and try wangle a resident discount. The first one we pulled into we ended up bolting out of. Sun N Sand (S3 5354.4 E39 47 26.4) was HUGE and painted a sick orange. It was full of pasty white Europeans and everyone had hospital type wrist bands in all colours which is how the staff identify what package you are on (half board or full board). We tried a few more but none of them seemed to be worth the money. We saw a little track on Tracks4Africa which had a beach lodge marked at the end of it so we decided to check that out. The road to Mida Cove was quite bad and I think I said a few times that we should turn back but Andrew didn’t seem to hear me... Anyway we ended up at this place which was such a stunning setting right on the beach and we met the owners, Papn and Sonja. They were busy building 3 luxury cottages which when completed are going to be awesome. After talking to Sonja while she showed us round we found out that she grew up in Harding and her brother was still farming there – surname is Anderson. Small world! Sadly they were currently having a land dispute so we were not able to camp there and had to head back up the dodge road. We ended up in Diani (South of Mombassa) in a campsite called Diani camping and cottages. It was 17.00 and we were tired so we decided just to camp the night here. It’s not a bad spot but they are busy renovation their facilities which is a pity as it looks like it’s going to be a nice place once it’s all complete. We will stay the day around here before heading off again
Day 83 (16/08/08) Diani
Diani
Debbie: We spent today on the beach. This place is FULL of Italians and our eyes were on stalks as we watched all the Italian Sugar Daddy’s and their young local girlfriends strut up and down the beach. We were hassled by beach boys but it was more when you were walking on the beach rather than if you were sitting down. So far we have not found the Kenyan coast to be as amazing as we thought.
