The road with the bad reputation is awesome, so far…

Last night at Laisamis it was unbelievably hot and even more so when we got up this morning. We saw the sun rise for the first time on Crossing Africa at 6h10 this morning, which is rather embarrassing! We might have seen it before, but then we weren’t up yet (like at Bagatelle Lodge in Namibia). We wanted to get on the road before it got any hotter and quickly stopped for water at a small shop at the edge of the village. A couple of colourfully dressed women came over selling bead-works and we bought some bracelets in the Kenyan flag colours. Sadly my wrists are too fat to put mine on. They were very friendly and we regret not taking photos, but there were more than ten spectators in less than a one metre radius. After exiting town through a deserted police barrier the people got less and less until we were completely alone in one of the most beautiful piece of Earth we’ve seen so far.

The road is severely corrugated, but where possible vehicles have created new roads next to the main one for two reasons: Either the corrugations got too harsh or someone got stuck one the main route. This is evident from the deep ruts in dried mud in some places. Wherever possible we took these smaller tracks which remind me of the Makgadigadi Pans.

At places they fan out in all directions, but eventually meet up again after a while:

There are not a lot of traffic on this road and at a moving average of 27 km/h we were the fastest (except for one Land Cruiser and one Land Rover racing past at speed), overtaking a few trucks and passing some from the from. There also weren’t a lot of people, but those we saw were dressed in traditional wear and asking for water. The only wildlife was a lone ostrich and a small group of camels:

We got to the Jey Jey Centre in Marsabit before 12h00 where we’ll be staying tonight. We had lunch. Tania had samosa and chips and I had fried meat (which came as stew) and chapatti. Then we read our books (which we bought for the long wait for the ferry at Lake Aswan..) and supper. More samosas and chapatti. Since before we left home all we worried about on this stretch of road was bandits and as we came closer our fears turned to the condition of the road. Being here on the road itself we don’t feel unsafe at all. It was a bit scary seeing some goats-men just outside of town with big (ancient) guns it has to be said, but the waved and we waved back. As for the road, the worst bit is apparently North from here toward Turbi, some 125 km from here. We’ll pack up early again tomorrow and take is slow. Pole pole as they say in Swahili. Riding like this is tiring and it’s necessary to stop every so often to stretch before lamboudia sets in:

The internet connection is pretty weak, so I’ll post this via email again, thus the photos might not come out so good.