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Published: January 28th 2020
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What started out as a good day ended up very muddy and poor Nelly reached the limit of how far we could go.
We headed into Turmi to try and buy some supplies but the sum total of potatos, tomatos, onions and garlic seemed all that was available. So after limited purchases we pushed North, although finding the road out of town proved harder than we thought as the one we believed to be correct ended in a footpath.
Eventually we did find the right road and headed out of town where they had started building a massive road, but of course we couldn’t go on it and had to go down a rather bumpy set of tracks down the side. Eventually and rather unexpectedly we reached a section of Tarmac in the middle of nowhere and crossed over a large river and into the wildeness, all on a tarmac road.
By the side of, in the middle of and wherever they felt appropriate we saw herders of goats, cows and donkeys wondering along. All armed with AK-47 assult rifles (apparently to ward off wild animals). The road continued and we passed an enormous irrigation scheme
that would apparently lead to 250,000 Hectares of Sugar cane being planted across the beautiful African plane in front of us.
We pushed on and the road ended and quickly became heavy going as we passed numerous checkpoints but were happily waved through. Eventually we crossed the mighty Mui river and were looking out for the National Park HQ of OMO National park which we had been driving through for the last 2 hours. Needless to say we couldn’t find it so pushed on North and ended up following a narrow track through rivers which came out in the National Park HQ, no signs!
At the Park HQ before they would discuss anything they wanted us to fill in a feedback form for how our experience was at the park. We tried (and failed) to explain that it was hard to do that when we only just arrived but filled them in anyway. They then made us pay for entry to the park, the last entry for which appeared to be in 2012 so I guess they don’t get many visitors. That said the date of our entry also appeared to be listed as
2012 so perhaps dates are less important here.
They told us the road North we proposed to take was impassable due to a landslide but apparently some vehicles can get through. Also the local tribe was not friendly to the national park and they shot a ranger last month. However we should be fine, they don’t mind tourists!
So we decided to give the road a go and see what happened and in about 15 km we found out exactly how far we could go and that was before we even reached a landslide. It would be accurate to say it was not a road, a track was generous, perhaps someone had driven it months ago but I think we were the first in a while. The “path” was very heavy going and about 20km North of Mui we got well and truly stuck in about 2-3ft of mud, the thickness of which is hard to appreciate.
At this point I should mention the insects. Now we are not talking small annoying insects we are talking large bee size insects that bite and draw blood and have no care for insect repellent. I should also mention that our truck was covered in a swarm of thousands all of whom seemed interested in eating the occupants.
Stuck deep in the mud we had no choice but to get out and dig ourselves out. We were well and truly stuck and it took 2 hours digging with spades and eventually spoons (as access underneath the truck was so tight) to dig it out. Eventually it came free and we decided to head back the way we came, having reached the limits of Nelly’s capabilities. Until of course we got stuck again, however by this point we were experts and it took only about 20 minutes.
We managed to make it to a river where we got in to clean off the stickiest mud you’ve ever seen whilst still being eaten alive by these annoying insects. I’d guess each of us was bitten at least 100 times, drawing blood everytime – thankfully they don’t seem to have left a lasting impact.
Keen to get away from this insect ridden mud pit we headed back the way we came, only to stumble across a Catholic mission running a refugee camp on the South Sudan border. They welcomed us in hosted us for the evening (not seeing many visitors). We re-grouped and think the “fun” limit for the day had been exceeded. Proper roads for a while we agreed.
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