Turmi - Illeret (13.033 km)

tells a tale doesnt itletting the tyre pressure down for the thick sand
the border post out of ethiopia was a shack in the middle of nowhere at the border post. our entourage + support vehicle our first nights camp in kenya. we slept at a barracks. such wonderful policemen. so hospitable. arriving at lake turkana

we started off the ride quite early in the morning. we got all our fuel (200litres of it!) enough water for a week and food. the road just went from really bad offroad to camel tracks. i really felt like we were entering africa that day. ethiopia is still very much arab africa. kenya is the real deal. the ride was lovely. lots of sand and accacia trees and the border post was a little shack in the middle of nowhere. this is bandit country now. so we had to awares. we hit lake turkana in the afternoon and all 5 of us road off into the nothing to reach the lake. i had such a sense of freedom doing that. just riding over the countryside. no tracks nothing. just over whatever was in our way. we hit the lake and payed with the children in the water. there were dows and fisherman. it was a wonderful arrival. we hit illiret that evening and were immediatly offered beers by the local policeman. 'welcome to kenya!' we slept that night in the barracks with the armed forces. theyre stationed there in order to fight off the bandits that steal all the cattle in the area. such lovely people. its so nice to have a decent conversation. kenyans speak such good enlgish. these guys stationed out here have a very hard life. going home every 6 months to visit there families. some of the die out here fighting these bandits. so its hard and made me think how simple and uncomplicated my life was. we are so very lucky and we forget that.

Martedi 29/01/2008 siamo andati verso la frontiera con il Kenya attraverso la strada che costeggia la sponda orientale del lago Turkana. Qui inizia una delle zone piu’ inospitali ed inaccessibili dell’Africa ricoperta da tantissima sabbia e grandi rocce. Alla frontiera i militari keniani hanno fermato il 4x4 impedendogli di proseguire oltre, cosi’ abbiamo dovuto scaricare tutta la benzina e le provviste che avevamo raccolto.

La notte ci siamo accampati vicino alla capanna della caserma (N 04 18,751’ E 36 13,641’) dove i militari ci hanno fatto compagnia aiutandoci ad accendere il fuoco e prestandoci alcune pentole per cucinare. E’ stato proprio un bel benvenuto in Kenya.

Colonna sonora: “Think” Aretha Franklin