From Germany to South Africa-Part 6
Kenya: Land of the Maasai
By Rainer Ebert
We spent the night of June 20 in the border town of Moyale, and headed out for Marsabit in northern Kenya in the morning. As we rode from Ethiopia to Kenya, the asphalt road ended. We did not think much of it at the time. The first 120 kilometres on the dirt road were easy and fun, and brought us to the village of Turbi. But then, as we entered the Dide Galgalu Desert, the troubles began.
The road there, if one can call it that, was really just a pair of deep tracks left behind by trucks forcing their way through a seemingly infinite collection of stones and not much else. The condition of the road quickly went from bad to worse. At some point, we were forced to walk our motorcycles, which slowed our speed to less than a kilometre per hour. After doing this for a while, the physical strain became too much and our minds and bodies started to fail us, and our motorcycles started sinking into the ground. It was only a matter of time until one of the motorcycles_ my friends_ gave up, and refused to go any further. There we were, stranded in the middle of the desert. Luckily, a Kenyan government vehicle came by and took us along to the next village, Bubisa. There, we found a friendly local with an old truck who was kind enough to pick up our motorcycles and take us to Marsabit. The 250 kilometres from Moyale to Marsabit took us a total of three days _ the toughest and most adventurous days on our journey from Germany to South Africa.
Once my friends motorcycle was fixed, we continued on to Isiolo. I think it was on the ride from Marsabit to there that we first saw free-roaming elephants. Seeing these sublime animals in their natural habitat is one of the things that will change your perception of the world forever, if only a little bit. Somewhere near Isiolo, maybe in Merille, the asphalt started again, and the rest of the ride to Nairobi, which included crossing the equator at Nanyuki, was quick and without problem.
In Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, we stayed at a place called Jungle Junction, run by German expat Chris Handschuh. The place is a meeting point for overland travellers, and a wonderful place to get to know like-minded people from all over the world. It includes a garage where cars and motorcycles are serviced and repaired. It was this garage where I brought my motorcycle after we got into an accident in Tanzania, about which I will write in my next report. For now, I will just say that the accident gave us an additional two weeks in Kenya that we utilised to go on safari.
We first went to the Maasai Mara, a large game reserve contiguous with the Serengeti, where we had the opportunity to visit a Maasai village. The Maasai are an ethnic group of semi-nomadic people inhabiting southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. We then moved on to Lake Nakuru in the Rift Valley of Kenya, which is known for its large number of flamingos. The flamingos are attracted by the lakes abundance of algae.
To be continued.
The writer is a moral philosopher at Rice University in Texas, USA.
