Blogs from Moyale, Eastern Province, Kenya, Africa
Djibouti City to Nairobi (Part 2)
Published: February 22nd 2011Africa » Kenya » Eastern Province » Moyale
January 19th 2011
Heading towards Nairobi, there are three ways to leave Moyale, the dusty border town with Ethiopia - either bus, bean truck, or cattle truck. Until a few years ago there was no bus, and locals and tourists alike were forced to travel by truck. In the cab for the lucky, and rich, ones, in the back and on the roof for everyone else. Clearly I had the option of the bus, but I also had a sadistic desire, and moment of madness, and wanted to ride on the roof of a truck - I'd never done it before (reason enough to do it now?), I guessed you'd get great views, and it felt like the perfect arrival into Kenya. I was hoping for a ride in the relative comfort of a bean truck - wanting to ... read more
April 8th 2009
The landscape as the bus continues south is plains with a patchy covering of trees, which I know will continue into Kenya. I see a small tortoise crossing the road, which the driver expertly navigates around. At the breakfast stop, a man shouts "China!" at me, which I can only laugh at - it makes no sense to me that with so many people here fans of Premier League football, which features players of every colour and shape, I can be mistaken for Chinese. A couple from the bus invite me to share breakfast with them. They are Ethiopian but have been living in South Africa for the last decade. Even so, they don't have South African citizenship and the man complains that they have to jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to get back into ... read more
November 25th 2007
The rising sun awoke us to the magical atmosphere of total isolation in the African bush - lovely! We soon packed up and set off, delighted that we had not been “found” in our camp. We drove only a mile or so down the road and were into a small village - how lucky had we been, we asked ourselves! It was only 20 miles or so to Mega and the next village we came to we found there was a deep volcanic crater which produced an abundance of soda which the locals harvested. We got out of our cars to look into the crater and to talk to the locals about it. There was clearly a market for the soda, the black stuff going to the livestock and the white for human use. I think ... read more
KENYA TAKE 2: THE RIFT VALLEY, HIPPOS AND BROKEN TOES
Published: January 6th 2008Africa » Kenya » Eastern Province » Moyale
October 20th 2007
Returning to Kenya our goal was Ethiopia, and even though we had not planned to do or see anything along the way, we managed a few fun stops and had a crazy journey through northern Kenya on the back of a truck. The Tororo border coming from Uganda was fine, though one official on the Kenyan side did try to tell us that since it was “outside office hours” we had to pay for our free gate pass. As we had just come from the Ugandan side which was open, and it was a Saturday morning and thus well within office hours for a border post, we were not about to pay for a free pass. I suppose we are more likely to be overly sensitive to demands for fees after hearing all the stories about ... read more
Simply the hardest, most uncomfortable, most painful, most agonizing, most miserable and most mentally draining journey I have ever done
Published: October 5th 2006Africa » Kenya » Eastern Province » Moyale
August 10th 2006
The Ethiopian immigration officers hand is hovering, he has the stamp in his hand but for some reason he's hesitating and it’s been in mid air for the last fifthteen seconds. He’ already studied my visa so I’m unsure about the delay. Then - smack. Stamped. I'm officially out of the country. Why it took him so long I don't know. I'll put it down to the oddities of Ethiopia. I wonder over to Kenya. The Kenyan immigration officer tells me the guy that issue's visa's isn't around so I sit for a ten minutes looking around the office. It’s full of anti corruption posters. "Corruption free zone" and "Don't pay a bribe, it’s your right to be served". There plastered all over the walls but it seems to have little effect as the immigration officer ... read more
The Road To Addis Part 4: Erm I Thik We're In Th Middle Of No Where
Published: August 1st 2006Africa » Kenya » Eastern Province » Moyale
June 26th 2006
We had set off just before sun set. I took a look at the terrain on the way up it was this weird mix of highland plataeu surrounded by mountians and covered by low bush and grass land. There wasn't much out there. On the night drive itself I had decided to actually enjoy the experience rather than just sit there and wait for it too end. As a result I was looking all around, rather than try to get some sleep. In the dark you could see traces of some settlements, the odd building here and there and the occassional lantern in the distance. There were initially 15 other passengers on that truck. Most of them got off at a settlement of some description along the way. Others, however, seemed to get off in the ... read more
