Days 89 & 90: Kenya

Day 89

It was raining for the entire night, and so a few people who were camping on the ground had decided to sleep indoors rather than in a tent. I was OK in the rooftent which was raised 2m (6ft4in) above the flooded campsite and therefore only got a bit damp during the night.

After driving off road again the Landrover needed some slight attention once more, and so me and Nathan got the tools out and started fixing things which had rattled off, whilst at the same time tidying out the back of the Landrover which now looked like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle.

Nathans’ now fiancée Caz had to catch her flight in the evening, and so we drove her out to the airport to say goodbye. I yet again informed Caz on her departure that it’s never too late to change her mind.



Day 90

With Caz out of the way [I’m only joking Caz!!!] it was time for the two of us to back get on the road to Cape Town. The new route we had decided to take was along the coast of Kenya, through Tanzania and then into Malawi, and so our next destination was Mombasa. The entire road from Nairobi to Mombasa was just full of idiots for drivers. The worst incident of the trip happened as I was overtaking a series of slower moving vehicles on the single-carriage road.

Having overtaken one vehicle I continued to try and overtake an articulated lorry, keeping my indicator on and even beeping the horn to warn him that was overtaking. Just as got half way past the long trailer, he decided to pull out leaving me the only option to brake the hardest I ever have and to swerve onto the opposite hard shoulder. The brakes were smoking as we came to a halt only inches away from both the side of the lorry on one side and the grassy ditch to the other side.

After briefly venting our frustration with the driver we sped off towards Mombasa lucky to avoid a serious incident. The roads south of Mombassa along the beaches are cut off by the port, and so we thought the only way around according to the maps was to drive on back-roads through the countryside. This route contained poor roads again, and took a lot longer than we thought. At one stage one of the rear shock absorbers had fallen half way off, and after stopping to remove it completely we continued in the dark to the hotel with one shock missing.