Kenya Mombasa

Day 169
21524 km since the beginning of the journey

Mombasa is like an African city, but on the other hand it is not, in a way.
One of the biggest attractions is fortress Fort Jesus , built by Portuguese explores in 1593.

Kenya–Hell’s Kitchen

Looking for information about Marafa from internet I found this description –

According to the Lonely Planet, Marafa is "the most underrated site on the coast (if not Kenya)" and if you, "put this geographic phenomenon anywhere else on earth, families would plan vacations around visiting and a glut of shopping malls would surround the approaches." http://www.mydestination.com/kenya/things-to-do/111066/marafa---hells-kitchen

So I made up my mind to visit the place. As the place was away from major roads so while looking for the right road a thought came that perhaps this road is only for local residents and domestic animals as there were no car tracks in sight.

In any case I asked for a couple of time over if that was the road to Marafa. The answer was that it would take there.

And the recent rain had done its work – no dust on the road but instead brown mud – stucking to the wheels. By the next mud pond a local was standing and looking with interest how a „mzungu“ with his white bus comes through. He confirmed that this was the road to Marafa, and as he was going to the same direction and asked if he could come with. Of course he could, unquestionably. The mud ponds lasted about 10 more kilometres, then the road crossed a bigger one and moving forward went easier.

And here it is – Marafa Hell`s Kitchen.

Tsavo West NP

The road to Tsavo West National park. I had heard several stories about this road. It was said that this area was not very safe and a „security“ should be taken with. I tried to find out what kind of the events were the reason to consider this road an unsafe one and the answer was that at the beginning of 90`s there had been some problems. Nice. Twenty years have passed and still a guide is needed.

Anyway at first I could peacefully drive on without any accompanist and take pictures of cloud-free Kilimanjaro.



Kilimanjaro early in the morning.

Most of the pictures of this post are about nature, because no „action“ took place during these few days. And particulary I didn`t look for them either.

Amboseli NP

The attempt to avoid driving through the downtown of Nairobi ended with two hours of messing around on the so-called side-track, or to be more exact – by the side of the side – track , as some part of the road was not drivable because of the holes.

It was said that to visit the Ambosel National Park the most suitable solution was to drive from Nairobi southwards. As far as to the border of Tanzania and from a border town called Namanga a smaller road will take to the Ambosel National Park.

Reaching Ambosal an idea came to my mind - why not stay here for overnight as there is an hour left to the sunset . Anyway – a border town. But after visiting a couple of places I gave up the idea and drive on with the standpoint that when it gets dark it is necessary to turn either left or right and find a place to stay for the night. Because the human population in Kenya is much less dense compared to Ethiopia.

A road with local importance, the left side of it is even quite decent, but the right side has been driven into a typical „ladder“.