Kenya

KENYA June 18, 2006- Entry Barely arrived on Kenyan side of the border, we realized a difference in the behavior of people. Everything was more relaxed and friendlier. We received our visa for Kenia pretty quick for US$ 50,00 per person. Fortunately we were allowed to pay the fee in a bunch of 100 x 1 dollar bills. Even more the officer seemed to be thrilled about the rather big pack of money. Customs for the bike were also quickly performed and within a few minutes we were really in Kenia, in Moyale, to be exact. As it already was late afternoon, we looked for a hotel. Well, a small room with 2 beds, the bucket shower and toilet (a whole in the ground) on the corridor. But for one night it was quite ok. Then we took off to explore the village, we were looking for something to eat. But besides dry bred and French fries we did not find anything. Relative early we went to bed, as we wanted to take off early in the morning. June 19. - 21.2006 Ride to Moyale - Marsabit - Isiolo; We were told this is the worst road we had seen up to now. On this Monday we started with mixed feelings about 7 am. We were told about holdups and miserable road conditions. Concerning holdups the situation was relaxed during recent time and an obligation to build a convoy did not exist anymore. We decided to drive all by ourselves, as our experience with convoys was not the best. When we asked the police whether the tour would be to dangerous, they answered the road is in a very bad condition. Our question concerning bandit’s they answered with a grin only. Now then we took off for the first part: about 260 km to Marsabit. In the beginning, the first 100 km, the piste was in good shape, relatively even with some sandy and some corrugated passages. We were able to go with about 70-80 km/h and advanced fairly speedy. The landscape still was quite nice, a lot of akazies and red soil. During rain you can forget this passage, you never will make it, but fortunately there was no sign of rain on this day. Then the piste led down into lowlands, where besides whitely grass, big rocks and hotness there was nothing else. No human being was to be seen except us being the only in the whole area. Abruptly the road became miserable respectively pure hell for motorbiker. Further on corrugated, deep tracks, big rocks and a lot of gravel. That required fully concentration of both of us and naturally for a distance o 160 km quite exhausting. In the middle of field of gravel we only once did not pay fully attention and we were caught and fell into the dirt. The first overturn on our trip. We dropped heavily onto the left side. Fortunately we were not hurt but the left case was a little bit dented. There were 2 or 3 more drops, each time onto the left side!! Partly the gravel was too high and when Chri could not keep both wheels in the track he could not manage the bike anymore. You cannot imagine knackered we were! There was no fun anymore. Most of the time I, Rita, was standing on the footpeg to relieve the back frame from weight. According to this we had sore muscle the next day. After 8 hours we finally made it to Marsabit. And right away we looked for the camp site “Henry the Swiss”. When we switched off the “cow” to ask for the way, we could not start it anymore. Even the “cow” was exhausted, but no big problem: the ground cable of the battery was loose. After a quick fix we drove the last meters to Henrys site and found an idyllic little place. We just were putting up our tent when a landrover turned around the corner. It were Matt and Halszka, those two South Africans. We were very delighted and spent a nice informative evening together. I, Rita, was feeling like an old woman- every single bone was hurting. That made us to decide to take one day off before we attack the second part of the route. We spent the Thursday relaxing in Marsabit, changed some money, bought some things and took it easy. Matt and Halszka stayed one more day and were invited to a delicious vegetable stew. Wednesday we sat already on the bike at 8,00 pm and were anxious in what condition the piste would be between Marsabit and Isiolo. There was a positive surprise, it was strenuous but could be compared, what we experienced the day before. There was a lot of corrugation about 10 cm deep, but almost no gravel anymore and no deep tracks. During this day we also met quite often people -- Samburus with their traditional dresses. That means the men normally had one colored drapery around the hip and another one around the shoulder, in addition some jewels in the face, on the ears, in the hair and(!) a lance in the hand. The women had their drapery permissively wounded around their body and also carried plenty of jewels. It looked very nice. We drove till Archers Post, about 30 km till Isiolo. Here we were led to a campground, which offered almost nothing. The toilet again was a whole in the ground and the water-jet of the shower that close to the wall, that you had to lean against it, to get wet. Well, in exchange the river was close by, during the evening we saw 2 elephants and the best of all: we got guarded by 2 Samburus all night long. They were sitting in front of our tent with their lances and had to displace elephants in case they showed up. We had a very relaxing sleep this night. June 22, 2006 Drive to Nairobi The last 30 km were quickly managed and finally we again had tar underneath our wheels. What a feeling-- we were driving as “upon butter”. Although the asphalt was anything else but really good. Viewing on Mount Kenya we were driving south, crossing for the first time the equator and arrived in Nairobi late afternoon. It was quite fresh, Nairobi is at about 1700m a.s.l. and in addition here is wintertime. The total distance was agriculturally used formed - it really did not look like the Kenya of our imagination. In Nairobi we first lost our way, but finally arrived in the “Jungle Junction”. “Jungle Junction” is a camp with a garage for mopeds and cars and is run by a German (Christoph). An oasis in the middle of a large city, which we really should not be leaving the next days. June 23 - 28, 2006 Nairobi We did not go to downtown Nairobi, we only were on our way in and around the camp. We were taken with the first big supermarket where we again could get what ever we like to. Besides that we worked in the internet and Chri inspected the “Cow”. Fortunately there were no serious defects. He changed oil, cleaned the air filter, controlled the valve clearance, fastened all kinds of screws and adjusted the bearing of the back wheel drive. Finally - the most important thing - he attached our loosened license number. In the “Jungle Junction” we met many “individual” drivers: Japanese with small mopeds, a German wit a bicycle, Dutch with a motorcar, Swiss with an old Mercedes bus…. There was a lot to talk about and exchange of information. One day we even had a small excursion, like sight seeing: we drove to a game reserve, where you could see young elephants, rhinos and also giraffes. That was quite nice. In Nairobi we had one moment of shock: our camera was on the blink. Two films could not be wound back. Finally we found that in both cases the film was ruptured in the cartridge while being wound back. That never happened before. Since then we only shoot till picture 35 and rewind by hand. Fortunately it works again. June 28 - 30, 2006 Trip to Lake Naivasha and Crater Lake National Park This Wednesday we finally could break ourselves free from doing nothing and left Nairobi towards North-West. We had to choose between 2 roads; we took the worse as it showed up in the end. What do you mean by street? There was no street anymore, only piste in a very bad condition, in addition truck and bus traffic with only dust. That was no fun. Finally we arrived at Lake Naivasha and drove to Fishermans Camp - a camp ground lovely located near the lake. As we were told every night hippos are supposed to come here browsing. For this purpose there was an electric fence, which we should not pass after 6:30 pm. For sure we wanted to see those hippos but sadly enough there was nothing to see or to hear. Bad luck! During the 2. Day we made an excursion to Crater Lake National Park. One of the few parks in Kenya where you can go by motorbike. This park is very small but we could pass through herds of zebras, giraffes and impalas. That really was beautiful. Also we liked the crater lake and walking around the lake we came pretty close to flamingos. We enjoyed this park! June 30 - July 2, 2006 Trip to Nakuru and into the Nakuru National Park The ride from Naivasha to Nakuru again was really dumb amd we had no fun at all. Asphalt which was no asphalt anymore, extremely heavy truck traffic and the open places in the tar filled with dust. In addition the emissions-- if somebody in Munich will tell me about a to high exposure of particulate matter, I personally will send this person to Africa for one(1) day. We got our part, enough for the next 50 years “choke….choke”. Close to Nakuru we found a nice spot for camping, the Kembu Campground. We barely made it to put up our tent, when Matta and Halszka turned around the corner. What a coincidence! We thought they already were in Uganda. Well, so for the next two days we had nice neighbors and interesting conversation. July 01. We rented a car, a thirty years old Range Rover, for you would not believe it, US$ 110,00 a day! It “only” took 30 liter gas for 150 km and was a rickety jalopy. Well, without a car we were not allowed to enter the park. We spent one day in the Nakuru National Park (entrance fee US§ 40,00 per person-- no more words!), and drove into all possible corners. There were many flamingos and herds of buffalos, giraffes, zebras, impalas and birds to be seen. The best of all were the four rhinos, which we discovered at the very end. It was a wonderful day, although we expected more animals. July 03 - 05, 2006 Drive to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria At last the roads became better and we could roll on relatively smooth tar towards North. The landscape changed quite a bit: scrubland took the place of fields and the red soil illuminated our eyes. Again it became pretty hot and we worked up a sweat. On Lake Baringo we camped out in Roberts Camp, a campground located directly on the lake side. Her again they had hippos, which really came on land for browsing (without electric fence). The first night we were a little bit in a blue funk, because we heard the noises of them, smacking and plucking the grass, only a few meters away from our tent. Obviously the animals are used to tents and human beings and as long as you are not in their way from and back to the water they will not tough you. But it really was a thrilling feeling. On July 04. we made an excursion to Lake Bogoria - unfortunately the park did not satisfy the fairly high entrance fee (US$ 20,00 /person). Besides the hot springs, which actually are beautiful, nothing else is to be seen. Therefore we did not stay to long in the park. The following night we spent again with the hippos, this time more relaxed. On July 05. We actually planned to arrive in Uganda, but we did not make it. We passed through a lovely region - deep descents into the Rift Valley and ascent again, through scenic bush and then again agriculturally used areas until Kitale. Starting from here again we had planned via Suam around Mount Elgon to go to Uganda. The last 25 km to the border were red clay as well as the first 120 km on Ugandan side. Sadly enough it started raining just this day, so that the piste was only slippery and smeary. We tried to move further but after the wheels were plastered with clay and we only were able to slinger around we decided to turn around and go back. Ther was no sense to keep trying. The night we spent on a camp ground close to Kitale, which we found by coincidence, which was nicely located. The next day we planed to decide how to get to Uganda. July 06, 2006 Ride to Uganda As there were still many big clouds above Mount Elgon we definitely decided, to take the tarred street via Malaba to Uganda. We drove the remaining 150 km to the border. The formalities were quickly completed and we finally on Ugandan ground. +++++ UGANDA July 06. - 07., Entry to Uganda and Stay in Jinja As reported the border formalities were quickly performed. First an insurance for US$ 30,00 /month, then the passports stamped and customs. While I (Chri) was doing the entrance formalities, Rita was keeping all the money exchangers, coyotes and other annoying people at arm`s length. On the way to Jinja mostly is relatively good asphalt. Only at some places are road holes and for about 10 km no tar. Traffic in Uganda is verry bad. Cars, trucks, mini busses and other 4-wheel carriages do not take any respect of other road users. Pure madness. Even on unprepared roads- where there is dust like hell- they pass each other without seeing anything. At the end of the day we arrive at camp The Haven. Located directly on the side of the river Nile. The place for the tent -- beautiful lawn. The food -- delicious! It is managed by a German. He opened the camp in march of this year. We immediately decided to stay for a few days. Here in Jinja the white Nile has its source. It comes out of the Lake Victoria. This is quite unspectacular. A river is pouring out of a lake. The attempt, to read our mails in an internet café failed because of an electric blackout. This is almost normal. Either a blackout or no working network. The chance to get into the internet is relatively dim. We enjoyed the rest of the day on the campground and comfortably cook our noodles. July 09. - 12., 2006 Lake Mburro and Queen Elizabeth National Park On the way to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which also is called QENP or simple Queen E., we make a stopover at the Mburro National Park. The National Parks were one of the main reasons for us to visit Uganda. Here it is allowed to enter the parks with a motorbike! And in Mburro it is said you can watch many animals. We are very frustrated. During our 2 hours ride through the park we only see a fistful of warthogs, zebras and impalas. The so called lakeside ride is a flop, too. You can´t see the lake and neither animals. We also made a boats tour when we watched some birds and hippos in the water. That was quite interesting. One unforgettable experience we made in Mburro NP. We were sitting on the lake side about 7:30 pm to watch hippos in the water, when suddenly one hippo swam towards the bank and really left the water. Only about 15-20 meters away from us! After it opened its mouth quite wide to yawn it and by making terrible noises to scar away some warthogs it began to graze. We did not expect this. We did not know what to do, the route of the hippo was exactly between us and our tent. That beast came too early out of the water! Normally they leave the water about 10 pm. But we were told that is getting out of the water here and shortly after that will vanish into bushes. That was true. It was quit impressive to see a hippo on ground. In the water they don´t look that huge. In the water you only see the head. Outside the water you realize the full mass of it. About 1,60m high and roughly 3 m long was this exemplar. Really some thing. During this night several hippos left the lake and were grazing next to our tent. On the way to Queen E we stopped in Mbarara, to buy some food for cooking. The parking lot attendant asked us to use a parking lot on the other side of the street, because a car was intending to use this lot. (My question, why does the car not use this space - I got no answer). We just started to move, when it did a heavy bump; the “cow” had been hit from the right side and turned over. The stupid car driver has backed up without looking backwards and knocked over the bike. I got off the bike - which already was turned over - and hit with the flat hand on the rear window of the car, to stop him from proceeding. In addition I was unhesitating to show that I was mad. That guy really guessed I would be overreacting. That he kicked us over should not be a reason to hit on his car. In this moment I had to buck up, not really to overreact. He already thought we were gone. Fortunately nothing seriously broke. But again the “cow” dropped to the left side (the same side as in Moyale and Marsabit) and the case got smaller more crooked….;-( The Queen E is supposed the best park of Uganda. Here you can watch lions, elephants, hippos and different other animals. But sadly enough all the animals either set off for the Masai-Mara National Park in Kenya or our clattering front wheel brake rotor disc scared them away. Anyway we did not see one single animal on our 25 km trip through the National Park to the campground. We were really disappointed. Now we know why you are allowed to visit the park by bike…. !! The next morning shortly after sunrise we took off for a game ride. But again during this 2 ½ hours and 50 km long excursion we did see almost nothing. A few elephants, some antelopes, far away sporadic buffalos and warthogs in troops. The boats ride during the afternoon was neither the big hit. The boats driver had a bad day; with his manner of driving he even scared the elephants out of the water. Maybe we only were unlucky with our visits to the parks, but to our opinion neither Mburrow nor QENP are worth the money. Anyhow the entrance fee is US$ 15,00 for Mburro and US$ 20,00 for QENP per day and person. We also decided against a visit to Murchison National Park. A long, bumpy drive, to shell out some US$ for entry and again only a few animals?! No. Not with us. On our first night in QENP three overland trucks and several other cars were on the campground: The second night in contrast we were all by ourselves. At about 4,00am Rita woke up by a noise. A hit against the backside of the tent. Then two more hits against the long side. Some other noise made her being petrified with horror. We did not feel well at all, we were scared. Out of our cookware we took the knife and the two metal plates to be able to make noises in an emergency. As we did not know what it was, we assumed it was a big bird, which was disturbed by clothes which hang outside for drying and that it picked on the ropes of the tent. Next morning the park attendant told us the story of a BMW-motorbike and a green tent. Three weeks ago, during the evening those people were visited by two lions. The lions had been attracted by the fug of the boots, which were laying outside, but close to the tent. One of the lions even was inside the tent. Fortunately the biker had been in the restaurant of the lodge for supper. When we told him of our experience of last night, he mentioned that he saw fresh tracks of lions this morning, which showed in our direction. “Maybe one lion got stuck with the rope of the tent, when they walked along. The lions always stroll along this way. For the moment we have female lion with cubs back there.” He talked about it, as if there would be no danger!! Later we also saw those tracks. He really did not want to tell us a story. Fortunately we did not know about this last night, most likely we had reacted wrong. But from then we resolved in future to keep our boots, shoes and outdoor sandals not to close to the tent --during nights. July 13. - 17., 2006 Sipi Cataracts and Leaving Uganda We had the idea, to go to the Sipi cataracts and then passing Mt.Elgon on the north side to get back again to Kenya. This route we had to abandon on the way to Uganda because of the weather. We had tried it, but it started raining and shortly the wheels got clogged with clay and the road slippery like hell. The cataracts look interesting and the scenery is great. Even this time our perspective to drive around Mt.Elgon is not to good. The mountain is covered with thick thunderclouds. On Sunday we drive to the beginning of the mountain road to Kenya. Very challenging. The road is washed out and very steep. When it happens to get wet, we will be thrown into the banana plantation, next to the road, pretty soon. We decide not o take this route. This decision was appropriate. During the afternoon it starts raining and around the mountain there is a heavy thunderstorm. It would have been impossible to manage that piste. Again we cross the border to Kenya next to Malaba and the border formalities on the side of Uganda were quickly completed. +++++ Back in Kenya July 17.06 Back in Kenya After 12 days in Uganda we returned to Kenya. The visa still were valid - having a 3-month visa you are allowed to travel forth and back between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as often as you like to. Only customs reacted a little bit funny, they told us, with the “cow” we only were allowed to stay in the country for 1 week! --Why suddenly this situation?? --- Well, that is always the like that. --- But last time we also spent 3 weeks.--- Well, you were lucky. If you stay longer than 1 week, you have to pay US$ 20,00.---- We will look out for that. This day we drove 400km till Nakuru and again we stayed for overnight in Kembu Camp. The route was not very exciting, the road between Eldoret and Nakuru again one catastrophe. We did not have a lot of fun. July 18. - 19.06 Drive via Nanyuki to Nairobi This only was a 2 days ride partly through areas we already had passed. We again crossed ?-times the equator, we really did not know for sure whether we are on northern or southern hemisphere. On the July 19. We arrived in Nairobi early afternoon and pitched our tent in the Jungle Junction. Where else? This time many Japanese had arrived with their mopeds. Very interesting and nice to watch them. July 20. - 23.06 Back in Nairobi Here we are again, go to the internet, visit a nice supermarket for shopping, have a good coffee or chocolate shake. Briefly: we had a good time and relaxed. July 23. + 24.06 Departure On 23. We drove towards the border of Tanzania it was a pitty, that during the total route we could not see the Kilimanjaro. In Namanga we stayed for the night and early in the morning on 24th we drove to Amboseli National Park. The road was not to good, again we could not see the Kilimanjaro, we were approaching the border. Everything was performed quickly and without any problem, and already we are in Tanzania. We had been once more in Tanzania close to the coast -- we refer to our report of Tanzania.

KENYA

June 18, 2006- Entry
Barely arrived on Kenyan side of the border, we realized a difference in the behavior of people. Everything was more relaxed and friendlier. We received our visa for Kenia pretty quick for US$ 50,00 per person. Fortunately we were allowed to pay the fee in a bunch of 100 x 1 dollar bills. Even more the officer seemed to be thrilled about the rather big pack of money. Customs for the bike were also quickly performed and within a few minutes we were really in Kenia, in Moyale, to be exact. As it already was late afternoon, we looked for a hotel. Well, a small room with 2 beds, the bucket shower and toilet (a whole in the ground) on the corridor. But for one night it was quite ok. Then we took off to explore the village, we were looking for something to eat. But besides dry bred and French fries we did not find anything. Relative early we went to bed, as we wanted to take off early in the morning.

June 19. - 21.2006 Ride to Moyale - Marsabit - Isiolo; We were told this is the worst road we had seen up to now.
On this Monday we started with mixed feelings about 7 am. We were told about holdups and miserable road conditions. Concerning holdups the situation was relaxed during recent time and an obligation to build a convoy did not exist anymore. We decided to drive all by ourselves, as our experience with convoys was not the best. When we asked the police whether the tour would be to dangerous, they answered the road is in a very bad condition. Our question concerning bandit’s they answered with a grin only. Now then we took off for the first part: about 260 km to Marsabit.
In the beginning, the first 100 km, the piste was in good shape, relatively even with some sandy and some corrugated passages. We were able to go with about 70-80 km/h and advanced fairly speedy. The landscape still was quite nice, a lot of akazies and red soil. During rain you can forget this passage, you never will make it, but fortunately there was no sign of rain on this day. Then the piste led down into lowlands, where besides whitely grass, big rocks and hotness there was nothing else. No human being was to be seen except us being the only in the whole area. Abruptly the road became miserable respectively pure hell for motorbiker. Further on corrugated, deep tracks, big rocks and a lot of gravel. That required fully concentration of both of us and naturally for a distance o 160 km quite exhausting. In the middle of field of gravel we only once did not pay fully attention and we were caught and fell into the dirt. The first overturn on our trip. We dropped heavily onto the left side. Fortunately we were not hurt but the left case was a little bit dented. There were 2 or 3 more drops, each time onto the left side!! Partly the gravel was too high and when Chri could not keep both wheels in the track he could not manage the bike anymore. You cannot imagine knackered we were! There was no fun anymore.
Most of the time I, Rita, was standing on the footpeg to relieve the back frame from weight. According to this we had sore muscle the next day. After 8 hours we finally made it to Marsabit. And right away we looked for the camp site “Henry the Swiss”. When we switched off the “cow” to ask for the way, we could not start it anymore. Even the “cow” was exhausted, but no big problem: the ground cable of the battery was loose. After a quick fix we drove the last meters to Henrys site and found an idyllic little place. We just were putting up our tent when a landrover turned around the corner. It were Matt and Halszka, those two South Africans. We were very delighted and spent a nice informative evening together. I, Rita, was feeling like an old woman- every single bone was hurting. That made us to decide to take one day off before we attack the second part of the route. We spent the Thursday relaxing in Marsabit, changed some money, bought some things and took it easy. Matt and Halszka stayed one more day and were invited to a delicious vegetable stew.
Wednesday we sat already on the bike at 8,00 pm and were anxious in what condition the piste would be between Marsabit and Isiolo. There was a positive surprise, it was strenuous but could be compared, what we experienced the day before. There was a lot of corrugation about 10 cm deep, but almost no gravel anymore and no deep tracks. During this day we also met quite often people -- Samburus with their traditional dresses. That means the men normally had one colored drapery around the hip and another one around the shoulder, in addition some jewels in the face, on the ears, in the hair and(!) a lance in the hand. The women had their drapery permissively wounded around their body and also carried plenty of jewels. It looked very nice. We drove till Archers Post, about 30 km till Isiolo. Here we were led to a campground, which offered almost nothing. The toilet again was a whole in the ground and the water-jet of the shower that close to the wall, that you had to lean against it, to get wet. Well, in exchange the river was close by, during the evening we saw 2 elephants and the best of all: we got guarded by 2 Samburus all night long. They were sitting in front of our tent with their lances and had to displace elephants in case they showed up. We had a very relaxing sleep this night.

June 22, 2006 Drive to Nairobi
The last 30 km were quickly managed and finally we again had tar underneath our wheels. What a feeling-- we were driving as “upon butter”. Although the asphalt was anything else but really good. Viewing on Mount Kenya we were driving south, crossing for the first time the equator and arrived in Nairobi late afternoon. It was quite fresh, Nairobi is at about 1700m a.s.l. and in addition here is wintertime. The total distance was agriculturally used formed - it really did not look like the Kenya of our imagination. In Nairobi we first lost our way, but finally arrived in the “Jungle Junction”. “Jungle Junction” is a camp with a garage for mopeds and cars and is run by a German (Christoph). An oasis in the middle of a large city, which we really should not be leaving the next days.

June 23 - 28, 2006 Nairobi
We did not go to downtown Nairobi, we only were on our way in and around the camp. We were taken with the first big supermarket where we again could get what ever we like to. Besides that we worked in the internet and Chri inspected the “Cow”. Fortunately there were no serious defects. He changed oil, cleaned the air filter, controlled the valve clearance, fastened all kinds of screws and adjusted the bearing of the back wheel drive. Finally - the most important thing - he attached our loosened license number. In the “Jungle Junction” we met many “individual” drivers: Japanese with small mopeds, a German wit a bicycle, Dutch with a motorcar, Swiss with an old Mercedes bus…. There was a lot to talk about and exchange of information.
One day we even had a small excursion, like sight seeing: we drove to a game reserve, where you could see young elephants, rhinos and also giraffes. That was quite nice.
In Nairobi we had one moment of shock: our camera was on the blink. Two films could not be wound back. Finally we found that in both cases the film was ruptured in the cartridge while being wound back. That never happened before. Since then we only shoot till picture 35 and rewind by hand. Fortunately it works again.

June 28 - 30, 2006 Trip to Lake Naivasha and Crater Lake National Park
This Wednesday we finally could break ourselves free from doing nothing and left Nairobi towards North-West. We had to choose between 2 roads; we took the worse as it showed up in the end. What do you mean by street? There was no street anymore, only piste in a very bad condition, in addition truck and bus traffic with only dust. That was no fun. Finally we arrived at Lake Naivasha and drove to Fishermans Camp - a camp ground lovely located near the lake. As we were told every night hippos are supposed to come here browsing. For this purpose there was an electric fence, which we should not pass after 6:30 pm. For sure we wanted to see those hippos but sadly enough there was nothing to see or to hear. Bad luck! During the 2. Day we made an excursion to Crater Lake National Park. One of the few parks in Kenya where you can go by motorbike. This park is very small but we could pass through herds of zebras, giraffes and impalas. That really was beautiful. Also we liked the crater lake and walking around the lake we came pretty close to flamingos. We enjoyed this park!

June 30 - July 2, 2006 Trip to Nakuru and into the Nakuru National Park
The ride from Naivasha to Nakuru again was really dumb amd we had no fun at all. Asphalt which was no asphalt anymore, extremely heavy truck traffic and the open places in the tar filled with dust. In addition the emissions-- if somebody in Munich will tell me about a to high exposure of particulate matter, I personally will send this person to Africa for one(1) day. We got our part, enough for the next 50 years “choke….choke”.
Close to Nakuru we found a nice spot for camping, the Kembu Campground. We barely made it to put up our tent, when Matta and Halszka turned around the corner. What a coincidence! We thought they already were in Uganda. Well, so for the next two days we had nice neighbors and interesting conversation. July 01. We rented a car, a thirty years old Range Rover, for you would not believe it, US$ 110,00 a day! It “only” took 30 liter gas for 150 km and was a rickety jalopy. Well, without a car we were not allowed to enter the park. We spent one day in the Nakuru National Park (entrance fee US§ 40,00 per person-- no more words!), and drove into all possible corners. There were many flamingos and herds of buffalos, giraffes, zebras, impalas and birds to be seen. The best of all were the four rhinos, which we discovered at the very end. It was a wonderful day, although we expected more animals.

July 03 - 05, 2006 Drive to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria
At last the roads became better and we could roll on relatively smooth tar towards North. The landscape changed quite a bit: scrubland took the place of fields and the red soil illuminated our eyes. Again it became pretty hot and we worked up a sweat. On Lake Baringo we camped out in Roberts Camp, a campground located directly on the lake side. Her again they had hippos, which really came on land for browsing (without electric fence). The first night we were a little bit in a blue funk, because we heard the noises of them, smacking and plucking the grass, only a few meters away from our tent. Obviously the animals are used to tents and human beings and as long as you are not in their way from and back to the water they will not tough you. But it really was a thrilling feeling.
On July 04. we made an excursion to Lake Bogoria - unfortunately the park did not satisfy the fairly high entrance fee (US$ 20,00 /person). Besides the hot springs, which actually are beautiful, nothing else is to be seen. Therefore we did not stay to long in the park. The following night we spent again with the hippos, this time more relaxed.
On July 05. We actually planned to arrive in Uganda, but we did not make it. We passed through a lovely region - deep descents into the Rift Valley and ascent again, through scenic bush and then again agriculturally used areas until Kitale. Starting from here again we had planned via Suam around Mount Elgon to go to Uganda. The last 25 km to the border were red clay as well as the first 120 km on Ugandan side. Sadly enough it started raining just this day, so that the piste was only slippery and smeary. We tried to move further but after the wheels were plastered with clay and we only were able to slinger around we decided to turn around and go back. Ther was no sense to keep trying. The night we spent on a camp ground close to Kitale, which we found by coincidence, which was nicely located. The next day we planed to decide how to get to Uganda.

July 06, 2006 Ride to Uganda
As there were still many big clouds above Mount Elgon we definitely decided, to take the tarred street via Malaba to Uganda. We drove the remaining 150 km to the border. The formalities were quickly completed and we finally on Ugandan ground.

+++++

UGANDA

July 06. - 07., Entry to Uganda and Stay in Jinja
As reported the border formalities were quickly performed. First an insurance for US$ 30,00 /month, then the passports stamped and customs. While I (Chri) was doing the entrance formalities, Rita was keeping all the money exchangers, coyotes and other annoying people at arm`s length. On the way to Jinja mostly is relatively good asphalt. Only at some places are road holes and for about 10 km no tar. Traffic in Uganda is verry bad. Cars, trucks, mini busses and other 4-wheel carriages do not take any respect of other road users. Pure madness. Even on unprepared roads- where there is dust like hell- they pass each other without seeing anything. At the end of the day we arrive at camp The Haven. Located directly on the side of the river Nile. The place for the tent -- beautiful lawn. The food -- delicious! It is managed by a German. He opened the camp in march of this year. We immediately decided to stay for a few days. Here in Jinja the white Nile has its source. It comes out of the Lake Victoria. This is quite unspectacular. A river is pouring out of a lake.
The attempt, to read our mails in an internet café failed because of an electric blackout. This is almost normal. Either a blackout or no working network. The chance to get into the internet is relatively dim. We enjoyed the rest of the day on the campground and comfortably cook our noodles.

July 09. - 12., 2006 Lake Mburro and Queen Elizabeth National Park
On the way to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which also is called QENP or simple Queen E., we make a stopover at the Mburro National Park. The National Parks were one of the main reasons for us to visit Uganda. Here it is allowed to enter the parks with a motorbike! And in Mburro it is said you can watch many animals. We are very frustrated. During our 2 hours ride through the park we only see a fistful of warthogs, zebras and impalas. The so called lakeside ride is a flop, too. You can´t see the lake and neither animals. We also made a boats tour when we watched some birds and hippos in the water. That was quite interesting. One unforgettable experience we made in Mburro NP. We were sitting on the lake side about 7:30 pm to watch hippos in the water, when suddenly one hippo swam towards the bank and really left the water. Only about 15-20 meters away from us! After it opened its mouth quite wide to yawn it and by making terrible noises to scar away some warthogs it began to graze. We did not expect this. We did not know what to do, the route of the hippo was exactly between us and our tent. That beast came too early out of the water! Normally they leave the water about 10 pm. But we were told that is getting out of the water here and shortly after that will vanish into bushes. That was true. It was quit impressive to see a hippo on ground. In the water they don´t look that huge. In the water you only see the head. Outside the water you realize the full mass of it. About 1,60m high and roughly 3 m long was this exemplar. Really some thing. During this night several hippos left the lake and were grazing next to our tent.
On the way to Queen E we stopped in Mbarara, to buy some food for cooking. The parking lot attendant asked us to use a parking lot on the other side of the street, because a car was intending to use this lot. (My question, why does the car not use this space - I got no answer). We just started to move, when it did a heavy bump; the “cow” had been hit from the right side and turned over. The stupid car driver has backed up without looking backwards and knocked over the bike. I got off the bike - which already was turned over - and hit with the flat hand on the rear window of the car, to stop him from proceeding. In addition I was unhesitating to show that I was mad. That guy really guessed I would be overreacting. That he kicked us over should not be a reason to hit on his car. In this moment I had to buck up, not really to overreact. He already thought we were gone. Fortunately nothing seriously broke. But again the “cow” dropped to the left side (the same side as in Moyale and Marsabit) and the case got smaller more crooked….;-(
The Queen E is supposed the best park of Uganda. Here you can watch lions, elephants, hippos and different other animals. But sadly enough all the animals either set off for the Masai-Mara National Park in Kenya or our clattering front wheel brake rotor disc scared them away. Anyway we did not see one single animal on our 25 km trip through the National Park to the campground. We were really disappointed. Now we know why you are allowed to visit the park by bike…. !! The next morning shortly after sunrise we took off for a game ride. But again during this 2 ½ hours and 50 km long excursion we did see almost nothing. A few elephants, some antelopes, far away sporadic buffalos and warthogs in troops. The boats ride during the afternoon was neither the big hit. The boats driver had a bad day; with his manner of driving he even scared the elephants out of the water. Maybe we only were unlucky with our visits to the parks, but to our opinion neither Mburrow nor QENP are worth the money. Anyhow the entrance fee is US$ 15,00 for Mburro and US$ 20,00 for QENP per day and person. We also decided against a visit to Murchison National Park. A long, bumpy drive, to shell out some US$ for entry and again only a few animals?! No. Not with us.
On our first night in QENP three overland trucks and several other cars were on the campground: The second night in contrast we were all by ourselves. At about 4,00am Rita woke up by a noise. A hit against the backside of the tent. Then two more hits against the long side. Some other noise made her being petrified with horror. We did not feel well at all, we were scared. Out of our cookware we took the knife and the two metal plates to be able to make noises in an emergency. As we did not know what it was, we assumed it was a big bird, which was disturbed by clothes which hang outside for drying and that it picked on the ropes of the tent. Next morning the park attendant told us the story of a BMW-motorbike and a green tent. Three weeks ago, during the evening those people were visited by two lions. The lions had been attracted by the fug of the boots, which were laying outside, but close to the tent. One of the lions even was inside the tent. Fortunately the biker had been in the restaurant of the lodge for supper. When we told him of our experience of last night, he mentioned that he saw fresh tracks of lions this morning, which showed in our direction. “Maybe one lion got stuck with the rope of the tent, when they walked along. The lions always stroll along this way. For the moment we have female lion with cubs back there.” He talked about it, as if there would be no danger!! Later we also saw those tracks. He really did not want to tell us a story. Fortunately we did not know about this last night, most likely we had reacted wrong. But from then we resolved in future to keep our boots, shoes and outdoor sandals not to close to the tent --during nights.

July 13. - 17., 2006 Sipi Cataracts and Leaving Uganda
We had the idea, to go to the Sipi cataracts and then passing Mt.Elgon on the north side to get back again to Kenya. This route we had to abandon on the way to Uganda because of the weather. We had tried it, but it started raining and shortly the wheels got clogged with clay and the road slippery like hell. The cataracts look interesting and the scenery is great. Even this time our perspective to drive around Mt.Elgon is not to good. The mountain is covered with thick thunderclouds. On Sunday we drive to the beginning of the mountain road to Kenya. Very challenging. The road is washed out and very steep. When it happens to get wet, we will be thrown into the banana plantation, next to the road, pretty soon. We decide not o take this route. This decision was appropriate. During the afternoon it starts raining and around the mountain there is a heavy thunderstorm. It would have been impossible to manage that piste. Again we cross the border to Kenya next to Malaba and the border formalities on the side of Uganda were quickly completed.

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Back in Kenya

July 17.06 Back in Kenya
After 12 days in Uganda we returned to Kenya. The visa still were valid - having a 3-month visa you are allowed to travel forth and back between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as often as you like to. Only customs reacted a little bit funny, they told us, with the “cow” we only were allowed to stay in the country for 1 week! --Why suddenly this situation?? --- Well, that is always the like that. --- But last time we also spent 3 weeks.--- Well, you were lucky. If you stay longer than 1 week, you have to pay US$ 20,00.---- We will look out for that. This day we drove 400km till Nakuru and again we stayed for overnight in Kembu Camp. The route was not very exciting, the road between Eldoret and Nakuru again one catastrophe. We did not have a lot of fun.

July 18. - 19.06 Drive via Nanyuki to Nairobi
This only was a 2 days ride partly through areas we already had passed. We again crossed ?-times the equator, we really did not know for sure whether we are on northern or southern hemisphere. On the July 19. We arrived in Nairobi early afternoon and pitched our tent in the Jungle Junction. Where else? This time many Japanese had arrived with their mopeds. Very interesting and nice to watch them.

July 20. - 23.06 Back in Nairobi
Here we are again, go to the internet, visit a nice supermarket for shopping, have a good coffee or chocolate shake. Briefly: we had a good time and relaxed.

July 23. + 24.06 Departure
On 23. We drove towards the border of Tanzania it was a pitty, that during the total route we could not see the Kilimanjaro. In Namanga we stayed for the night and early in the morning on 24th we drove to Amboseli National Park. The road was not to good, again we could not see the Kilimanjaro, we were approaching the border. Everything was performed quickly and without any problem, and already we are in Tanzania. We had been once more in Tanzania close to the coast -- we refer to our report of Tanzania.