Last Leg

We left the Impala Hotel at 07:30, packing our “boxed breakfasts” into our panniers. The deal is that we will ride to the border at Taveta (estimated at 2 ½ hours), get the paperwork done (estimated at 1 hour), ride to Voi (estimated at 3 hours) have lunch and then decide if we want to continue to Mombasa. 

Having stayed at Voi previously, it is a one horse town, with one very basic hotel and I for one do not wish to stay there; Martin, on the other hand is concerned that it may be too much to complete in one day.

We fill up with fuel at the first available station and are off! Despite a couple of fruitless stops to buy water, we set a reasonable pace, stopping at Moshi for a quick break and for Martin to be sick (although he isn’t). Martin writes…I was actually wretching in my helmet for the first section of the ride, once I had downed a ceral bar and some water and my empty stomach had something to go on I was fine.

We reach the border quicker than we think and have everything completed by 09:53 putting us ahead of our schedule by nearly an hour. Result! Looks like we’re going to Mombasa.

The road from the border at Taveta is truly the worst we have encountered, rough, bumpy and with large patches of sand that snatch the handlebars from our hands which makes steering the bikes impossible. 

 

Just 70 miles of this

 Both of us have a number of “moments” when it looks like we’re going to be thrown off; fortunately there is only one occasion when Martin drops his bike but it is at such low speed that the crash bars do their work, preventing any injury or damage. It is also good that the road is virtually deserted although passing vehicles do kindly check on us when we have a pit stop.

 

We stop at 10:53 to eat our breakfast. Martin is concerned that as we are in the wildlife corridor of Tsavo National Park we may be eaten by lions! (Reasonable thought given that we have just ridden past a wildlife corridor! Why do you think the road is deserted and everyone looks strangely at us when we stop). Paul remarks that it may be the equivalent to having a picnic on the M25. I suggest it is more like having a buffet at Longleat!

  

Here kitty kitty!

"Breakfast Box"

Breakfasted, we resume the ordeal, stopping only when the windscreen and mudguard on Martins bike have lost so many screws from the vibration that remedial action by way of cable ties is required. The one thing we do know about this road is that it will eventually end. And it does. Sand becomes gravel becomes sort of hard bumpy surface and eventually utter tarmac! 

 

We head into Voi on said Tarmac and find the ‘Fine Breeze’ Hotel where we stayed in 2010. Martin particularly remembers the night we had there as he got the most horrendous cramp in the middle of the night and had to empty a salt seller from the restaurant into his water bottle at 3.00 in the morning whilst still in his underpants. It did relieve the cramp which was in a leg muscle he did not know how to stretch!

                                 Cramp Hotel. I don't have cramp in my mouth I am sucking a mint!

I digress…

We both had half a chicken with chips and the ketchup that Africans have which tastes nothing like ketchup. Martin ordered a Coke but the girl who was serving us did not understand so after several failed attempts Paul asked her for a Cock and all was well.

Martin’s earlier wretching is long forgotten and after a brief breather and a ‘just what the doctor ordered’ meal we agree to continue to Mombasa and set off. But not before we told the waitress what happened in the episode of the soap on the TV as we had seen that one in the Continental hotel in Uganda…they must be a week ahead there!

We set off for Mombasa refreshed and hit the east Africa highway. One can never be complacent on African roads but we have got a little better at handling the craziness of this road which includes some of the most unpredictable overtaking decisions ever seen. We make good progress with MP3 players keeping us going. Martin says he felt a twinge of emotion as Mombasa coast line came into view knowing that we were almost at the end of our journey. The bikes were amazing yet again taking everything we threw at them.

Back to the beginning

We hit the Mombasa traffic and start looking for the Lotus Hotel - the one from which we started this journey. Martin pulls over to ask Paul to get two sachets of dioralyte out of the depths of his pannier as he had cramp in that same muscle and could not stretch it any-which-way. It was ridiculous that this should happen but the dioralyte in double dose did the trick and we went back into the traffic. After some canny navigation by Paul and some asking for directions we found the Lotus. Happy Days!

 

 Weigh bridge queue coming out of Mombassa

What was lovely was the huge convoy of bikers from the city who had heard we were coming into Mombasa at the end of our trip and they all followed us through the street beeping their horns and creating a convoy of two wheeled vehicles! (No…not really!)

 

Celebrating with a nice cold beer