We left Moyale bright and early at the crack of dawn to set off on what had been described to us as 'the worst road in Africa'. It's a bad road, but it isn't the worst....by a long way. We bumped along for 12 hours on some truely awful stuff. The middle part was shingle, so we were sliding all over the place. I'm pleased to say though that Monty did us proud. He handled everything thrown at him with the tenacity and true British spirit of the General he is named after. Mitch and Bruce Lee (Anna & Roberts VW) also handled it well. Mitch in particular faired well considering he is a 2-wheel drive with only about 10 inches between the bottom of the car and the road.
At about 6.30pm we rolled in to Marsabit tired and dusty. We stayed at Swiss Henry's place. Ric keeps calling him Swiss Tony. We were in bed by 9pm!
The next day was another early start and another bad road. The drive was quicker (and through a couple of national parks) but the road was worse. The corragation were shaking Monty (and us) really bad but we survived with just a missing light. Amazingly Mitch and Bruce Lee survived with just minor problems. I'm amazed no-one got stuck and no flat tyres! I think we were lucky that it hadn't rained in the days leading up otherwise it would have been very muddy!
We arrived in Archers Post at a campsite run by a group of Samburu women who have fled their abusive husbands. The site now supports about 40 women. We found it a little expensive and the ablutions poor (well non-existent really) but it was for a good cause so we stayed. Many beers and some good Kenyan food followed - still no bacon.
This morning we had a little bit of a well derserved rest and didn't leave the campsite until about 10am for the drive down to Nairobi. We stopped off at the equator for lunch (a bacon sandwich!) and the obligatory photo. It feels like a real milestone to have come this far. We cranked up Toto on the wireless and motored down to Jungle Junction. It's a great campsite for overlanders - fast internet, laundry services and clean showers - so happy!
A bit about the Moyale road for other travelers.
• From Moyale you enter a dense bit of scrubland, the road is ok for about 100km and you can travel at a reasonable speed. Make the most of this bit.
• After the scrub you enter a really long and boring section of desert where the road is like a pebble beach so you slow a bit. Look out for the Ostrich herds on this bit, it's the only thing to break the tedium.
• Approx 100km from Marzabit the road gets sandy and a bit more fun, as you get closer to Marzabit you climb into a lush green park. If it's been raining this is where you'll get problems with mud.
• There's a few petrol stations in Marzabit the first ones since Moyale (as far as I saw)
• Swiss Henrys is on the road out of Marzabit on the right. Turn off at the sign for the observatory and carry on down that path for about 1km
• From Marzabit you descend down out of the park back to the flats. Again this bit can be a bit muddy.
• Once on the flats the rest of the day was filled with corrugations, the road was worse on the second day in my opinion. We chose to do as the locals do and drive fast over them effectively skimming on the top. It's quite dangerous because you only have about 40% of the grip you normally get and it can fish tail a bit but doing this meant we did the drive in 6 hours rather than 10 if you go slower.
•The tar starts 40km from Isiolo but they're working on it as we speak in the direction of Marzabit.
• On the second day we found a few little roads that run parallel to the main one which were much smoother and worth taking.
• I lowered the pressure in all my tyres to 2 bar to take some of the stress off the suspension and increase grip a bit.