When I left Canada I had only a very basic idea of places I would
try to visit while riding in Africa. I was always going to add more detail as I
got more information along my way. And for this section of the ride, the plan
actually took shape way back when I was setting up the motorbike in Cape Town
South Africa… I met a very helpful guy called Simon who had traveled all over
the southern/Eastern parts of the continent for many years and he recommended
the basics of the route I took. So, from early on I knew this little crossing
was going to be both a significant challenge and reward of the trip... I more
or less expected it to be the biggest “adventure” or “off-road” portion of the
whole trip… And boy! Was I right! J
Right, so down to the story…
The basics of the route are to head NW from Nairobi to a town
called Maralal and then straight North through the desert and along the East
side of Lake Turkana which is located in one of the harshest and remotest, but
also apparently most beautiful, bits of Kenyan desert that there is. And then
crossing a very remote point of the border and into Ethiopia. As I said, the
total route is about 1200 Km, but the trick is that about 650Km is completely
without fuel and there is some very rugged terrain in between.
Now, of course, I didn’t just head off into the desert without
looking into the details of what to expect a bit more, and while I was waiting
for visas in Nairobi, I got as much information about what to expect as I
could… But the problem there is that very few overlanders take the road that I
took, and almost all of them do it in 4x4s rather than motorbikes… and I pretty
much guarantee that anyone who has done it on a BIG heavy bike like mine has
done it in a group of 2 or more… but Ill get to those details in due course…
The bike loaded up and ready to go in front of all the other bikes waiting that live at "Jungle Junction" where I was staying in Nairobi.
Suffice it to say at this point that I knew that I had to carry my
own food for 2-3 days, water for at least a day and preferably two in desert
conditions, and Id also have to carry more fuel than the bikes tank could hold
(I get about 450Km on a full tank if I go slow, so that theoretically meant I
needed about 10 litres more fuel in external containers). All that was not too
difficult to put together, and with the best “intelligence” I could gather, I
set off from Nairobi on day one… Its hectic traffic but good paved highway for
the first 230Km or so and then I started in on the dirt roads. And that was
also fine for the next 100Km or so, but the road definitely deteriorated after
that and By the time I got to Maralal I was traveling at probably only
50-60Kmh.
At that point, I filled the bike tank up with fuel and external
fuel of 10 litres, water (4 litres) and some biscuits and nuts and other dried
edibles for the trip. Then I road on for another 75Km to the last probable fuel
at Baragoi… Again I topped off the fuel tank and since it was early (3pm), I pressed
on North along what was now definitely a 4WD or truck road. Its mostly a firm
dirt road with two wide and pretty clear tire lanes. But the dirt quickly gave
way to what I would call rubble (a very coarse gravel), sections of sheet rock,
and just to add some flavour, every few hundred metres there would be a dry creek
crossing with loose sand.
Camels on the road north of Maralal... heading into real desert here.
Last fuel stop... ready for the long solo run.
That all made for pretty slow progress, and I made it into South
Hor at just after dark, with the last 50Km having taken me about 3 hours. And
it was hardly what you would call a “town” but clearly a settlement of mostly
local people living in traditional dome shaped huts. Its very arid here and
people are mostly raising a few cattle or goats or sheep. for their living… Its
too dry to grow any crops at all. I had been directed to a place where I could
camp that was cheap enough and Id been told it was really not wise to “camp
wild”… I had already seen a couple of good suggestions as to why that might
well be true in the form of fifteen year old boys wandering around in the bush
on the side of the road looking after their little herds of gouts… But they had
AK47 machine guns slung across their backs! so I was happy enough to camp where
I was told ! J You know its tough country when stealing a
goat is an immediate capital offence!
Out in the desert late in the day.
Yep, No water out there... or anything else for that matter!
So, that was day one. Not too technical as far as biking goes but
definitely a long and tiring ride and at the end of it I was definitely far
from civilization, and on very bad roads in very arid country.
