30th April - 3rd May 2009, Northern Kenya

We arrived at the border at 1pm to find it was lunch hour at the border, no one would be back to work until 2pm, they obviously don't do cover here! So we thought if you can't beat them, join them! So we found a shaded area and made some lunch, recharging and ready to face the customs procedures! It all actually went very smoothly, no money was changed hands and we were through within 2 hours, the Kenyan Customs officers were really friendly and helpful.

We met 2 guys travelling north, their landy needed serious attention after the infamous northern Kenyan roads! We knew they were going to be rough and all we could do was take our time and drive really really carefully! We soon realised that we weren't going to reach our target destination tonight, so we decided to camp up in the bush, something we had been warned not to do but it was safer than continuing on in the dark on this terrain.

We were up and on the road by 7am the next day, back on the constant corrugation of the road! It was raining this morning, the rain smells of wet tarmac even on the dusty roads! Weird!

We soon had to stop to change Red Robins tyre, as the tyre was being changed we messed around in the puddles foe a while!

We found a puddle that looked like the map of Africa, Neilo pointed out our current position! He also HAD to have an action shot! 

Even though the roads were pretty bad the scenery was spectacular and we saw a lot of wildlife along the way, and we knew the roads were going to get a lot worse!

We arrived in Marsabit where we would stay for a couple of nights, while lady Jane had a bit of work done!

We camped at Jey Jey camp-site (400Ksh a night) 1 pound = 116 Ksh. The boys put up the portable goals and had a kick about with some of the local lads.

The Football Africa crew had arranged a football match with a local team, we were mobbed! Kids surrounded us wanted to look at the camera equipment! They though we knew all the premiership players and asked if we could get them onto English teams! The match started an hour late as we just couldn't clear the pitch! It ended 2-2, it was a pretty good game actually! I was filming it for Football Africa and had a crowd of about 25 kids around me the whole game!

We left Marsabit the following morning to hit the terrible roads again! Today was going to be a long day! We wanted to reach Isiolo, it wasn't too far away but the roads are not to be underestimated. It was a slow process that wasn't helped by Lady Jane loosing both shocks, soon followed by Red Robin loosing his! We ended up with Ed and Charlotte travelling in with us to lighten the load on the other vehicles. It was getting dark and we were still 30km away from Isiolo, and travelling at 10 mph with 2 injured vehicles, we weren't going to make it. Plus, by now Lady Jane's battery was dying and Andy was driving between us and Red Robin with no lights! To ad to all of this Northmen Kenya is known for bandits and vehicles being hijacked, so we were doing to one thing at the top of our 'what not to do list' but it was out of our control.

We had been told about 'Arches Post' a police post that you could camp at, we knew we must be close to it, after another hour of driving through the dark, we found it with the help of a drunk guy jogging in front of the Landy to lead to way!
What a stressful day! The boys went for a well earned beer and us ladies hit the sack.

4th - 8th May 2009, Nairobi, Kenya

  We left Archers Post at 9am and headed to Isiolo, we had been told there was about 20km of bad road then we would hit tarmac, at last! Ed and Charlotte jumped in with us again until we hit the tarmac, it was so good to be on the smooth stuff again!

It was a real testament to the Defender that it completed the journey virtualy unscathed, whereas the two Discoverys really struggled with the 400 miles of nasty terrain. We got Isiolo and stopped for breakfast then carried on to Nairobi.

We would be passing the Equator on the way, we were so excited to make this mile stone, but we drove past it and had to turn around and go back! The sign wasn't very big at all! It wasn't the amazing experience that we expected a real tourist trap with people trying to scam us left right and centre! We got the must have pictures and left for the capital.

But we'd made, we we're in the Southern Hemisphere about half way through the trip!

We arrived in Nairobi just before dark, we had been told about Jungle Junction a place that was popular with over landers, so we went straight there. It's a lovely place 500Ksh each a night, with free wifi internet, kitchen area and a living room, and hot showers! Bliss.

We spent the next few days chilling out, catching up with online stuff and washing! Going to the cinema and just having a rest really. Of what we've seen of Nairobi, it's a beautiful city, lots of greenery and fantastic shops! The British influence is still seems strong in Nairobi, it's a very westernised city, like being in a city in the UK, English is widely spoken here and all advertisements and posters are in English.

Football Africa had linked with a charity in Nairobi who had offered accommodation just outside Nairobi in the Ngong hills, and we had very kindly been invited along, it was a camp run by Masai people, we arrived late in the evening, and it was blowing a gale! We were staying in traditional Masai built houses, built out of wood and mud, they we're so warm inside, you never would have known it was so windy outside. There were beds ready made up for us and oil lamps burning. It was the best nights sleep we'd had in ages!

Waking up refreshed we had a lazy morning and the boys played football in the afternoon, we did a bit of shopping, cooked our dinner under the dim light of the oil lamps and went back to those inviting beds.

9th May - 12th May 2009, Masai Mara, Kenya 

We left the Masai Camp this morning and hit the road for the Masai Mara, not long into the journey we were pulled over by police, Neilo wasn't wearing his seat belt, so it was are own fault! The police man was threatening court appearances, and kept saying 'what can I do to help you?' Very careful to make sure he never suggested the hand over of money! We ended up paying 40 quid (no receipt obviously) to get back on the road there and then! Oh well I suppose it's another thing ticked off the list....bribing a Kenyan policeman!

We got to the Masai at about 5pm and found a camp that was promised it would be 700 Ksh a night when we got there they said it was 700 each plus 300 each for security! We said we wouldn't need security and that we would pay 1000 Ksh total for the night, good old Neilo and his haggling skills! Turns out security were there all night anyway!

The following morning we headed for the Masai Mara entrance gate, after getting our tickets $40 each for 24 hours and 800 Ksh for Yolandy for 24 hours we we're in the famous Masai Mara. The price really isn't that bad, especially when you compare it to the organised tours! Sure they have an advantage with the guides who are all in touch with each other so if they see something they radio each other to keep everyone in the loop! But we had each other and Yolandy and we'd do just fine!

As soon as we entered we saw Zebra and Gazelle, it was so exciting! We drove up the road and saw a white mini van, one of the organised tours, we stopped next to them and asked if they had seen anything of interest this morning, he told us that there were female lions off to the left, so we off roaded up to the left in pursuit of the lioness.

We spotted one within minutes! Incredible, we'd only been in the park for half an hour and already we'd seen a lion! This was going to be good day! We drove as close as we dared and just watched her, her kill was to our left, a poor warthog, (it must have been his time!! ) that was also being eyed up by a couple of Jackal! We were hoping she would chase the Jackal off, but she seemed pretty chilled just watching them creeping about!

We watched her for a while then left her peace and drove back to the road to see what other treats the Masai Mara had to offer.

We were soon passing herds of elephants, and being watched by giraffe! They just stand there looking at you, as if posing for the many photos we were taking!

The day was sunny and bright and we were seeing so much! It was incredible! We soon came across another tour vehicle which was stopped by the road side, the driver signalled to us to slow down, he whispered to us that there was a male lion in the bush next to the road, we never would have seen him! After the tour moved on we sat and watched him, we were only about 10 foot away! Its easy to forget where you are, these are unpredictable wild animals and here we were sitting right next to one!

We had decided where we would camp tonight so we headed towards the camp, we guessed it would be about an hours drive away so we could take our time.

We drove through the park passing lots of zebra and cows being shepherded by young Masai boys. The roads were pretty rough in some parts and we came to one particularly bumpy bit that looked a little too much for Yolandy to handle! (if only we'd known)! We reversed and decided to mount the grassy verge to the left! All was going well until we sunk to our bumpers! There was no shifting her! We jacked up the back with no luck, the jack just sunk into the boggy swamp that surrounded us! We moved to the front and jacked up the car and tried to push the right front wheel on the higher harder ground, we almost did it too, but she just kept slipping back into the sludge! A couple of Masai shepherds came to have a look, they weren't much help to be honest!

Neil ended up hurting his thumb pretty badly to the point where we thought it might be broken for a couple of minutes. Luckily we've got a Kenyan sim card and we had signal so I rang one of the camp-sites from our guide book and they said they would phone someone to help us, by now Neil was wiggling his thumb and was back jacking up the Landy, typical!

We had a phone call from the rescue team who said they would come and help us! I bet they they were thinking, bloody cheap skate Brits on holiday doing the Masai alone!

It was getting dark by now and we soon remember where we were, plus there was a storm brewing! A car was passing, it wasn't the rescue team but it had 4 well built guys in it and we weren't going to refuse the offer of their help! After helping us put big stones under the tyres and attaching a tow rope, it was decided that I get in the drivers seat and all the boys push from behind!......It worked, we were out! Thank god!

The guys we're heading to the same area as our camp-site so we followed them. I phoned the rescue team and told them we were safe and no need to worry! Where were they anyway!?

We passed Hyenas on the way to camp! Thank goodness for the 4 guys passing when they did!

We arrived at the Riverside camp (350 Ksh each a night) and were greeted by the lovely Mary, it was a really nice camp, although there were some scary noises coming from the trees in the night, which we decided were wart hogs and elephants! (we'd find out later it was baboons)!

After the ups and down of the first day in the Masai Mara we had an early night!

The next day we saw the much the same, it is so quiet here, as if we have the whole park to ourselves! We visited a couple of the posh lodges and treated ourselves to lunch at one of them. We saw some monkey at the lodges, one of which grabbed my leg and chased Neilo! I am now officially scared of monkeys!

There was another storm on the way so we decided to make our way way back to camp, we came to a river crossing and again for a moment forgot where we were, Neilo got out to check the crossing and how deep it was, he was greeted by a grunting hippo surfacing the water, he promptly made his way back to the Landy! We ummed and arrred whether to cross the river after yesterdays troubles, but we decided to go for it, we were only here once and thats what the trip is all about after all! So off we went through the river with the audience of one angry hippo!

 We passed a large herd of cows, a little disappointed that they would be the last animal we would see in the Masai! But we were thrilled to have seen what we had there.

 We were about 10 miles from camp when we saw 2 organised tour vehicles ahead, there lots of heads popping out of the top of them, they must be looking at something good! We looked through the binoculars and we saw a cheetah with 2 cubs! It was brilliant! We were on such a high, it was amazing to watch the 3 of them together, plus we could now say the last thing we saw was a cheetah and not cows!

We left the park for Nairobi the following morning, it was a rainy so a good day to leave the park.