Having the previous day clocked up enough miles to take our journey past the 10,000mile mark we headed south in convoy with Joachim to reach another big landmark on our journey as we crossed the Equator just south of Nanyuki. At the Equator we had the obligatory photo under the sign, and I was given an explanation on the Coriolis effect by one of the locals, where he demonstrated the water flowing in opposite directions downwards either side of the equator, and directly down on the equator. (Although this is true in theory, at the close distances at which he demonstrated this it is certainly a magic trick, but one which I couldn’t work out how he had done it.)
The next stage of our journey was to drive to Nairobi, and so like we did along the Isiolo road, Joachim and us decided to drive at our own pace again (as his car needed several fixes in Nairobi) and so we agreed to meet at some stage along the main road. We sped off towards Nairobi at lot faster that Joachim, and decided to wait for him at one of the junctions about midway. After waiting for over 30minutes, we realised there was something wrong, and so decided to drive back to try and find him. After a long drive back to where we thought we had seen him last, we were just about to give up when we spotted a 4x4 parked at the side of the road in the distance. It was Joachim, and his gearbox had failed meaning the car couldn’t move at all. He was so glad to see us as one of the locals had offered him a tow for over £135/€150, but with us returning in our trusty tow truck of a Landrover and a virgin towrope we continued our journey to the capital once more.
We knew we would have to find somewhere to stay along the way as the distance was too great to cover before it went dark, and so just before I saw the sun descend from its midday position in the north to its evening conclusion in the west for the first time in my life, we found a random hotel/restaurant/bar where we could camp for free for the night.
Day 82
The next morning we resumed to tow Joachim to Nairobi where our intended destination was an overland campsite called Jungle Junction. By the time we arrived in Nairobi, the traffic was absolute chaos, and trying to tow another vehicle through congestion whilst still trying to navigate was proving an extremely laborious task.
Eventually we found the campsite just after midday and were so glad to see what a brilliantly comfortable place it was to stay. Most other overlanders who come through Nairobi also stay here, and the owner who is motorcycle crazy has his own garage in the compound with all of the tools and equipment you could ever need.
In the afternoon we visited the local supermarket which we were absolutely amazed by. It was just like being back in Europe with different sections stocking various foods and goods, and it was strange to see such a multicultural place once again as people of all races were doing their shopping there. We spent the remainder of the evening cooking and relaxing in the garden, whilst Joachim tried to find a garage where he could get his car repaired.
No comments:
Post a Comment