Yes we have made it to the Ethiopian border, it was a long trip but good
fun, no really it was!
After leaving our luxury pad at Shaba Game Lodge, breakfast was a great
buffet of all things you could want, we headed across to the Buffalo Springs
NP the other side of the main road. With another set of parks fees paid,
these are the things that really hurt the budget, we set off into the park.
A totally different landscape to that of Shaba NR, very open, very dry, and
plenty of game. The morning was spent meandering west through the park
aiming for the bridge over the Ewaso Ngiro river and north into the Samburu
NP. We heard of a Lion spot from another game vehicle but were not lucky
enough to see any cats ourselves. Plenty of Elephant, Oryx, Gazelle, Zebra
(both Grevy's and Burchell's), Buffalo, Giraffe, and Kirk's Dik Dik. One
heard of Elephant had a very young little chap running around amongst them.
He or she can't have been very old and the legs and trunk were flaying in
all directions with complete lack of control as he ran around in circles
until his mother gathered him up and he fed for a few minutes. Just so funny
to watch! After arriving at the bridge, signing in to Samburu NP and paying
for the campsite for the night we went to find the campsite to see what
delights were on offer. It was a nice spot right next to the river. No-one
in the tents for hire and only one other couple on an organised trip. So we
decided to stop and have lunch. Well it is wild and you expect animals but
the bloody Monkeys and Baboons were a pain in the arse! One Monkey snuck up
and stole our cucumber from the table, just appeared from nowhere from
underneath the truck, and popped up into a tree above us to sit and munch
it. The Baboons were looming and one of them didn't seem to be very afraid
of me, even with my best Baboon scaring face on! It was quite determined to
get as close and as aggressive as possible so with Sue dispatched into
Mufasa I packed up what we had got out keeping an eye on the nasty beast.
When they come at you with teeth bared it is quite alarming. The plan had
been to have lunch and also cook dinner so that we would not have to worry
later. Best laid plans and all that! Anyway, we went off for our afternoon
game drive and put the Baboon incident behind us, but knew we would return
there later. We did however discover more areas of the campsite which were
nicer and not as infested with Baboons, well not then anyway! The afternoon
went well and we saw much more of the same animals we had seen earlier, and
also plenty of Gerenuks (Sue's ET). The bird life was good also and several
new spots were seen. The park was pretty dusty and quite often the dust we
were kicking up would catch up with us and flood into the cab before we had
a chance to wind the windows up. Eventually returning to camp, the new spot
we found not the lunch time Baboon fest, we sorted ourselves out and got
ready for our first real bush camp of the trip. There were plenty of people
wandering back and forth, as you would expect in a game park, as the KWS
Ranger post was right next to the camp and at close of play they were all
wandering back to base for the night from the gate at the bridge just a few
KM away. They seem totally at ease wandering around despite the obvious
animal dangers, and there were plenty of Elephant in the river next to us.
Camp was set and dinner was prepared. Time for a nice quiet evening in the
bush on our own, well plus the guard. Oh, big truck, overland truck, full of
people. Silence shattered! I guess it is nice to have company to make you
feel more secure, but bloody hell!! Hey ho, we ate and retired early and
listened to the Elephants, well when we could here them over the goings on
with the people on the overland truck.
Right, a new day, an early start, and a few hours game drive making our way
east and Archer's Post gate and the start of the haul north. Nice morning,
good game viewing, 'do we really have to leave?'. Yes we did and by just
after 09h00 we were out of the park back to the main road and ready for the
onslaught ahead, 250km of unknown road conditions, other than what you hear
of. How bad was it, well actually not too bad at all. Yes the road is badly
corrugated in places, loose rocky gravel in places, and very dusty, but
apart from it just being long it was OK. I evolved a suitable driving style,
and at around the 60kmh mark you skimmed the surface enough to make the
passage smoothish. Having to slow for donkeys, goats, and people dragged you
back down to a bumpy speed and sometimes it was hard work convincing Mufasa
to grind his way back up to cruising speed again. Bugger, what's that noise?
Doesn't sound good. Puncture, sod it. Right rear had a lump of metal
sticking out of the tread right in the middle. So in the midday hot burning
sun in the middle of nowhere we set about changing the wheel. The one we had
repaired in Nairobi was put on and inflated to pressure. Crossing fingers
that it would hold up we hit the road again. We eventually made good time
and it only took about 5 hours of driving plus stops, so pretty good. Just
as we were approaching Marsabit, the halfway stopover, we came across a GB
plated Land Cruiser, Paul and Lizzie. We stayed at the same camp that night
just on the edge of town, Henry's Rest Camp, a very nice if not a tad windy
spot. Paul and Lizzie had many a tale to tell of their trip from the UK down
the west coast of Africa to SA and then their trip up the east coast. Their
truck had taken quite a beating, especially rolling it on the way to the
Masai Mara! They were lucky to get away with only a couple of scratches and
bruises. They even managed to find a replacement body for the truck in
Nairobi. However they did still have some truck issues, namely a leaking
radiator and a leaking battery. We helped try and patch the radiator using
some epoxy glue I had packed, and made good use of the cheapish beer for
sale in the camp to ease away the trials of the day. They left about an hour
before us the next morning as they could not go as fast as us over the bumps
due to issues with the 'S' word, suspension. We did however catch them up
after we had only been on the road again for a couple of hours. They had
stopped twice to fill the radiator as the repair patch had started leaking.
We made coffee for all of us and had a break from the road. It seemed to
make sense to follow them just in case they had major problems, so we did
that and ate dust all day! By the time we eventually made Turbi, about 100km
to go, the radiator was needing of some more repairs. So lunch was had and
the radiator was removed and more epoxy applied, about the 3rd or 4th lot.
We turned down the offer of a guard to protect us for the rest of the
journey north as we had heard of several people making it with no issues,
and set of. The last 100km was a delight, dusty but mostly smooth gravel and
sand, with the odd bump and hole here and there. The radiator held up, and
we set camp at the KWS camp in town. Paul had to go and check if his visa
was still valid for another night, which the border guards seemed to think
it was and they joined us in camp. Radiator re-patched, will see how it does
today. But they have another problem now, their left rear shock is
knackered, another thing they will need to replace.
So on the whole an eventful 500km stretch of road, but not horrific, and we
have to come back this way. It was good to see the road conditions and if
they had been really bad then the thought of returning would not have been
good, but now we know it is cool. Today we cross the border and enter
Ethiopia. Not sure of telecom connections there so this may be the last blog
for a while until we can find an internet cafe. Not sure of our route but we
need to get the puncture fixed so perhaps towards Addis Ababa, who knows!!
N3'31.111 E39'3.029
No comments:
Post a Comment