We arrange to have both a packed breakfast and a pack lunch
as we want to get away by 06h00am and we once again achieve our objective and
will be taking the most direct route that the Camp manager assures us is doable
and will cut off 2 hours of travel time, with a border to tackle this will be a
great bonus.
For the first 100kms we are travelling through come game
conservancies on a fair road, then we start to pass through some villages
before reaching the Mara Bridge, at a couple of the villages we have to
reassure ourselves with members of the local community that we are on the right
road, my Swahili is improving by the day and certainly assists in some of the
remote areas.
The scenery is constantly changing and it starts to get
greener at the higher altitudes near Tunduma. We pass a huge open cast gold
mine owned by Barrick Gold near Tunduma called Mara Mine, which is the only
sign of industry of any sort that have seen for at least 5 days.
The Tanzania
side of the border is a breeze, but the Kenya side is a duplicate of the
Botswana/Zambia debacle with everyone wanting to be your agent. I have to say
thank goodness for the Carnet de Passage I got from the AA, but one should try
and get the currency of the Country you are travelling to as the agents seemed
to be the only ones with such currency and for some permits they want local
currency and others US$. We eventually get through in about one and a half
hours.
I am going by my map and we turn off towards Loligorian
after some 30kms after consulting with a local who tells me the road is much
better than the alternative, well heavens knows what the other road was like,
because the one we took was from hell.
To cap it all a few kilometres down the road there is a road
bock and they want KShs200 to pass (US$2.20) I ask them what is it for, they
said the road, I say what road, they say it will be fixed in a few days
(100kms). So on we go, Denise has the wheel and it is very slow going, in fact discounting
stops and the border time we averaged that day 37kmph.
If we had not saved ourselves 2 hours by taking the direct
route we would have arrived at our next destination in the dark and I can
categorically state that we would not have found it. They have tried to
rehabilitate the road down to the Talek Gate, but it is almost impossible to
drive and people have taken to making their own roads and there are many of
them off in all directions, depending on where you live, it is pretty flat and
grazed to the ground by the Masai cattle and goats. The place we were staying
had its name on a couple of rocks that you could easily miss if you were
avoiding the so called main road. In fact I still do not know how we found it.
Denise got her off road - rocky, rutted, sandy, non existent
road badge today in fact one particularly bad rocky section she asked me if I
wanted to drive and I declined and she did a magnificent job.
We eventually arrive at Nyumbu Eco Camp where we will be
staying for three nights in a tented camp, whilst we would not write home about
the food it was edible and it is a nice camp and the people were great and
nothing was too much for them. We still have not found anywhere that has
powerful hot showers and comfortable beds, but hell it is Africa .
We immediately notice that Kenyan towns and villages are
much more filthy than Tanzania ,
perhaps it is the population or the Kenyans being more affluent, the African
flag flies high in Kenya
(Plastic Bags). Tomorrow we visit the Masai Mara and are looking forward to
seeing some of the Mara
River
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