Breaking a Golden Rule (for a good reason)

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We have made it to Nanyuki near Mount Kenya after some fairly eventful driving both day and night. However we did break a golden rule of driving at night, but we think with good reason. Let me explain...



We left Mombasa at 6pm on Wednesday. Unfortunately the President was apparently in town and just to add to it they seem to be re-building every major road going. All told we took an hour to get off the island and the sun was setting so we had a decision, find a place to stay or keep going. Well the outskirts of Mombasa are not the kind of place you want to stop and in fact we took a wrong turn and ended up in a much lesser part of town with no roads and we had to do a u-turn in raw sewage with some eager looking locals on hand. So we decided we would keep going until we cleared the outskirts and found a hotel or in fact anything that look sensible, well simply put there wasn't anything. Truly nothing.



So we faced sleeping in the car at a service station or driving a night in Africa which any wise man will tell you is a bad idea. Firstly, many cars have no or missing lights. Secondly, many drivers are not in full control of their senses through either alcohol or drugs. Thirdly, there are sometimes bandits who try and stop your car and steal your stuff. Well we decided driving a night main benefit was being able to see cars (well 99% of them) and on such a busy road (it is the main trucking route from the coast to the capital, there are literally thousands of trucks) that we were unlikely to have trouble. All told we drove on overtaking many trucks driving at no more than 10mph up hills and actually we were absolutely fine. Albeit i wouldn't do it again.



We made a nice hotel north of Voi and bunked down to get up early and in the dawn light make our way to Nairobi to meet James and pick up my elusive bag on its return from its trip to Equatorial Guinea. In the dawn the driving was harder because trucks turned their lights off and were harder to spot, but we made good time and reached Nairobi and all its traffic by 0930.



A quick trip to the airport and several desks, pieces of paper and random checks later they led me to a room full of bags and asked which one i wanted. After so many checks to get in there i could of taken anything. However i decided to stick with my bag as my pant supply was running low and left the others be.



We then made our way to meet James in the centre of Nairobi who had been patiently waiting a day (and was very relaxed). We had to go and do some paperwork in the centre of town where the traffic is truly terrible and i've attached a photo of a traffic jam! After all the paperwork and sillyness of getting the car out we expected that getting our passports and carnet (the passport for the car) sorted would be a nightmare, but we were all done in 20 minutes, amazing!



Fueled by this new found efficiency we hit the road and drove on up to Nanyuki on much better roads in far greener lands and better views (unfortunately though Mt. kenya was in cloud). We found our self a lovely campsite, give the car a full once over and are now ready to go "off grid" for 4-5 days as we head into Northern Kenya and on into Southern Ethiopia all of which are rather sparsely populated!

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