I have a relieved if not completely comfortable nights rest/sleep
(hard to get to sleep with the temperatures being so high for so much of the
night). Im up with the sun at about 6am and I drink some tepid warm water and
munch a few shortbread biscuits for breakfast (The nuts ran out the evening
before). In due course (about 7am) I see the LandCruiser pulling up at the gate
and out get four PS guys (all well-armed and wearing very new desert camo
uniforms etc). The guy in charge this time is a corporal and he asks me how
they might render me some assistance. I go through my story in a slightly less
detailed version and we pull out a detailed map and there is the usual pointing
and talking that goes on with maps for a few minutes. They seem happy enough to
take my heavy luggage and the plan is to go pretty much the route that I went
yesterday but that after half way (50Km) we will reach a point where a much
more well-used track joins and the rest of the road I am assured is of much
higher quality (the usual tourist crowd in 4WDs use this road). Well, Its
better than being here so I say Sure, Lets Go!
So off we go along the “road to hell” again. But this time without
all the weight (50Kg or more Id guess) and with a nights rest and an early
start in the cool of the morning, it does go a bit better. We easily get
through where Id got turned around yesterday. But the track keeps getting worse
from there. AND AT ABOUT THE 30Km point I get really stuck on a hill and need a
bit of a push to get up it, and Ive also fallen a couple of times on other hard
bits. At about 35Km, Im again in a long stretch of loose rubble with deep wheel
ruts and Im paddling along for hundreds of metres at a time. The ranger $WD is
moving ahead of me and they tend to wait at the tops of hills and assist me if
needed. Once Im up they tear off into the distance and I slowly catch up to
where they are stopped. But thes flat section of paddling makes them wait a lot
longer than usual and when I get to the top of the hill they can see that Im
absolutely exhausted and the wait around while I rest and take a drink. I
explain that maybe its better if I go in front and they agree… I actually have
an ulterior motive for the request: You see every time they race off into the
distance I can see their wheels tearing up an otherwise pretty smooth trail –
Which is the cause of my riding difficulties!... Once I get in front of them,
the stones in the wheel ruts are in fact all nicely pressed down and the ruts
are wide enough to balance the bike in… The next 15Km goes far more smoothly
and I neither have to paddle along, nor have any further topple-overs J
And so after a mere three hours we have covered the 50Km to the
junction and then the road does indeed get far more rideable for me. My escort
stays with me for a further 10Km and then they stop and give me my luggage
back, and I in turn “show my appreciation” as I had said I would. And so we
part company with everyone well pleased with the result J
And here I am again in the middle of the desert with my huge bike,
enough water for a day and virtually no food… Oh, and I seriously doubt I have
enough fuel to get the remaining 40Km to the next town (and it is in fact a
town this time)… But, I am pretty sure that I do have enough fuel to get me to
within 10Km of the next town and from there I can choose to either walk it or
wait for someone to drive by J. Off I
go and the road stays great (and by great I mean Im driving along at 60Kmh or
so) for only another 5Km before it starts to get worse, but this time its
deteriorating in a different way… Sand!
The sand starts out as a thin covering on the hard base which is no
problem but before long its 3cm deep and Im really starting to slow down. Then
its 6cm and Im back to 2nd gear and there are long stretches of
deeper stuff etc… Three more hours and Im still 15Km short of my destination,
or maybe its only 12Km… who knows? but I have not had any falls… But Im
exhausted again and I stop at one of the deep sandy river crossings after
having push/paddled the bike through (barely made it over). Again Im laying in
the dirt under a the shade of a larger tree that grows in the river bed for an
hour or so before Im ready to move on. Again I ride on and I know Im close to
my destination but I also know I must be getting real low on fuel… But every Km
I manage to ride is a Km I wont have to walk. I ride carefully on but within
2Km I can hear the tell-tail sign of the fuel pump clicking away loudly as it
fails to find any fuel that it can pump… Im on vapours now… it wont be long…
The bike makes it another 2Km and then the engine runs on one cylinder for
about 100m and then it dies and I coast quietly to a halt in the baking sun… L
Ok, I knew this was the likelihood. But I also passed a road sign
a little way back and I now know that Im only about 6Km from town J But
first I try tipping the bike right over on its side to get any fuel from the
other “lobe” of the tank that may still be there… No luck! OK, looks like Ill have to wait or walk, but
Im really tired and the sun is really hot so Im feeling inclined to wait till
the sun goes down. And so Id just sat myself down in the shade (there were
small but effective enough trees about) when I hear a distant motor
approaching… Indeed it is a car and within a couple of minutes I have company.
A couple of minutes more and the guy (from the town as expected) has agreed to
do a fuel run for me with my only remaining external 3litre fuel container (I
knew I kept it for a reason J). Im
not sure how long it will take him so after he drives away I stroll off into
the scrub to my shade tree and I sit down and cross my legs and meditate on
“the fortuitousness of my situation” in a bit of barely adequate shade in the
deserts full afternoon heat… ah, I love it when a plan comes together! J
About half an hour later the distant sound of the motor gently
disturbs me from my reverie and I get myself up and wander back to the bike.
The fuel man arrives and I pay him for the expensive fuel (about $2 per litre
out here in the remote end of the universe) and I again “show my appreciation”,
and within a few minutes Ive got the bike running again and proceed cautiously
through the deep sand toward the little town of Ileret. The sand is getting
pretty deep here but the bike is so heavy that it pushes the wheels right down
into the sand and it cuts through about 10cm to get somewhat more grip on the
substrate. Its only over about 15cm of sand that the bike really gets unmanageable…
and indeed there are a few sections of this stuff but for the most part Im Ok
and after about 15min Im in town…
Well, maybe “town” is overstating it a bit. There is a police base
with about 80 people tho you only seem to see 20 or so of them about. There is
a Christian mission doing their thing; There is a archaeological/anthropological
research centre (German I think… The Omo valley here has been home to humans
since before we were even humans… loots to study), and then there areb a few
hundred “locals”. There is nothing
visibly approaching a shop though the police station has a small stall and I
can by soft drinks there though they are as hot as the sand Im walking on! The
locals are “Turkanas” (From Lake Turkana) and are very hardy desert people.
They are nomadic cattle herders and also often keep desert sheep (Dammara breed
I think) and goats… They have very slim bodies and very dark skin. They get
about the place wearing next to no clothing which in the heat seems quite a
good idea given that they are protected from the suns worst effects by their
very high levels of melanin. Ive seen more “bare brown boobs” in the last few
days than in an entire life of accumulated watching of National Geographic on
TV and more than a few “public penises”J The
Turkana apparently only need drink water every other day or so and often don’t eat
for days… Its amazing what the human body can adapt to given a little
experience J. And other than that,
they don’t seem to have a lot. They always walk around carrying a stick (to
whack the cattle) and a very small hand carved stool that doubles as a pillow
to stop insects crawling into their ears when they sleep on the dirt. I saw
quite a few of these people at the start of my crossing around the towns of South
Hor and Lolyungalyani and then some more in their little villages when I was
right on the lake shore, and then nothing till Ive again got near civilization.
Their huts (“humpies” really) are simple domed structures made of thin wooden
poles and covered with bits of fabric or plastic or, around here, with bent
sheets of corrugated iron when they are a bit more permanent. The locals mostly
ignore me but everyone gives the big motorbike a long look as it rides very
slowly by and wanders around alarmingly as I cross the deeper sandy sections.
Anyway, I ride over to the police end of town and start chatting
with the guys there (after finding a space in their shade). It doesn’t take
long to learn that yes I can indeed get some more fuel here which is very good
news but it also doesn’t take long to figure out that the road ahead (which is
only about 76Km or so and gets me to the first town and a good road across the
border in Ethiopia) has got more sand and a couple of very wide very sandy
river crossings… In fact, the road follows along a dry river bed which explains
the sand! Hmmm not so good news. I go fill up my bike with petrol which it turns
out is from the mission and I find that I can get a bed and a meal there for a
very reasonable price so I “opt in” for that and then I wander about for a
short while and take a few pictures of the very well grown “desert rose”
trees/shrubs that are native and blooming in the area (they are quite surreal looking…
very bonsai). While doing that I am accosted by one of the local young
entrepreneurial type young men (you know the sort – Their main goal is to
figure out a way to “help” you so they can get some money from you) and I don’t
mind talking with them if they are not too pushy, and anyway at this point I
still need to find some help for the last section. I explain my predicament and
there are no immediate solutions but I let him know where Im staying if
something comes up. Then I wander back to my room and lay about while the days
heat is still in full swing here at 4pm.
Time inches by and I pass the time laying there sweating wondering
why it was that “colonial” westerners insisted on building solid earth/brick
walled buildings (one of which I am currently baking in at the mission) that
just absorb and seem to concentrate the days heat, rather than open shaded buildings
that let the air move through and as soon as the sun goes down get cooler as
the air does (the solid earth wall keep emitting the accumulated heat of the
day for many hours and stop any air flow at all!)… I didn’t solve the puzzle
though, I just produced a lot of sweat! And while I was sweating I decided that
Id probably have to stay here a day or two till another tourist came along that
could help carry some of my luggage to get through the deep sand that was
undoubtedly ahead.. Oh well, better than being at the previous location.; At
least here I could get food and petrol J Anyway
after a few hours there was a basic meal and then as I was going back to lay in
my own sweat the little “fixer” guy showed up and said I was incredibly lucky
and that there was a car with an Ethiopian guy heading up the road/track
tomorrow morning and that he (the fixer) had already more or less sorted things
out for me. This was indeed good news and we agreed to meet tomorrow morning at
about 8am and head off together. So, again my tricky situation seemed to have
fortuitously worked its self out in short order J I
should clarify here that there really is very little traffic on these tracks…
For the past three days Id seen only two vehicles other than the rangers 4WD
and they were both headed in the other direction and were both on the much more
used sections of road of the first and last days! Anyway, I went to bed feeling
like I was just about out of my self-created “predicament” and that I was
feeling VERY disinclined to do any further “solo off-road” on this trip if I
could possibly help it! J
