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Africa: North to South, Part 4

Africa: North to South, Part 4: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania

Simon and Jennifer
2006-04-26 10:27:46

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coffee, it's well worth the wait.

Kenya

Well visited and never seeming to change, unless for the worse, Kenya found us at the East Coast of Africa for the first time, but not before taking what had been described as the worst road in Africa from the border through Marsibit and down to Nairobi, through Somali bandit territory where a military convoy was in operation (what this meant in reality was that the journey was split into sections through which you were logged and couldn't pass through after certain times of day, and if you were unlucky enough to brake down or be foolish enough to stop for any reason there was a high chance of the bandits reaching you and taking your valued possessions from you before the military did). The road itself, thankfully, failed to live up to it's reputation and we were still waiting for the really bad section when we reached the end. Obviously these people have never traveled the highly corrugated roads of Mali or the sand tracks of the Sahara.

After a visit to the infamous Thorn Tree in Nairobi where travelers have left messages for each other for decades (no messages for us, in fact with the onset of email it seems that the tree is all but redundant) we headed for the coast and had ourselves a little beach holiday at a run down but deserted resort at Tiwi. That suited us just fine, there was hot water (usually) and power (for the most part), clean sheets and mosquito nets, a swimming pool and direct access to the beach with the sound of the ocean to lull you to sleep each night. On those evenings when the thought of cooking and washing up seemed just too much then there was a town nearby with a decent restaurant.

Tanzania

From Tiwi we headed to Tanzania without further ado, giving the unique but extortionately priced Kenyan game parks a miss this time round.

Not having any interest in the capital Dar-e-Salaam as such, our planned route was through the centre an Dodoma. However after swapping information with a few other travelers we decided to take the tar road down the East instead, having decided that we'd had enough of gravel roads for a while.

The advantage of our new route through Tanzania was that it took us naturally from the lush area around Arusha and Moshi to the foot of Kilimanjaro itself. We were lucky enough to see the top of Kilimanjara peep out a couple of times as we traveled, but don't blink or you'll miss your chance!

Again we forfeited the unique parks of Tanzania, deciding to save our money for the parks further south where for the same money as a 3 day safari in Tanzania or Kenya we could spend a fortnight! That said we hope to return and spend some time in these parks on our return journey. The good thing about having reached the east coast is that all the countries are far more accessible from the south, no Sahara desert or closed borders to contend with!