Day 46 - Wednesday 15/11/2006

Here some background information from the guys, to paint a clearer picture of the last couple of weeks;

Ok I think I'm back in the land of telecommunication! Its been a long time sincethe blackberry was in action, Egypt I think, 3 countries back. The boat fromAswan took 17 hours. We are not talking QE2 here! Arrived in Wadi Halfa aboutmidday. Usual custom hassle, followed by Mick and Rachels bike packing up almostimmediately. They took the train to Kartoum. We headed off to the desert. Ngfell in the soft sand. No harm. I fell 30 minutes later. Cut elbow, hurt shoulderbit of damage this only an hour in the Sudan! Limped 50 km further on. Camped inthe desert saw a wolf and a great sunset. I have a pet fly! We rode continuouslyfor three more days very little food but plenty of water. Camped on the banks ofNile when posible. It’s like the moons surface but yellow and black. Rode through market villages on the Nile. Crossed the Nile on a little ferry together with 2 cows! Arrived in Dongola and registered with police. Is there any tarmac in this country? The Sudanese people are warm, friendly, colourful and very hospitable. They are also very poor. More to come over weekend…….


"Another couple of days of sand and camping in the desert. Only things to eat are oranges that look and taste like lemons. The maps we have are very inaccurate which is frustrating. Made it to Khartoum but missed Mick at our rendevous. Apparently his bike is still kaput.

We saw the Blue Nile and White Nile convergence which was very impressive. Headed south to Gedaref and the Ethiopian border. On the way out of Gedaref the police stopped us and escorted us to immigration. There, a character very similar looking to Idi Amin told us we had not registered within the 3 day period and the punishment was a fine of 32000 Sudanese Dinar or 80 dollars each. Rather than kill him which was my first choice we paid and left 4 hours later. Made the border and crossed into Ethiopia, nearly. Immigration held us for 24 hours because our names were too similar! Into Ethiopia and green. Scenery lush hair pin bends tarmac heaven. Following Blue Nile to Bahir Dar around lake Tana. Camped over night and made it to Addis Ababa the following day. Two days riding south on tarmac and we crossed the border at Moyale into Kenya. More to come."

My Blackberry is playing up again or the signal is anyway, so am handwriting this and asking Andrew if he would kindly email or scan it to you . It should be the Blog from Moyale down to Nairobi and if I get time a mention of the trip to Karangi Kiana School.

Stayed overnight at the Moyale Police Station , the only place to camp and also the only place that sold Tusker . Left early in the morning as usual and got off to a good 50 mile start. The rest of the day took 10 hours of gruelling bike riding over very inhospitable territory. A barren wasteland that looks like the surface of Mars. Bit more damage to the bike , but not too bad . Saw Baboon and lots of wonderful birdlife. Arrived in Marsabit and stayed in the JeyJey hotel , not owned by Mr. Williams though ! Overnight the heavens opened, torrential rain meant that we could go no further on bikes . We hired a cattle truck and drove across flooded roads to Isiolo , not a place to holiday. The bikes were very roughly tied to the sides of the cattle truck and unbeknown to us this caused damage to my fuel injection pipes. Un-rideable , but limped to Nyeri and hired a bakki to Nairobi with my bike on the back . Straight to BMW service garage and hope for the best . Met Nick and Andrew Jones " our man in Africa" at the Nairobi Safari Club Hotel for a pint and a bit of R. and R. Forgot to mention that the bakki had a puncture on the way down , no jack or spare so a relatively short trip actually took 4and a half hours !!!! That's Africa, I guess !!!!.

The Karangi Kiana School, Thika , twinned with Rodmarton Primary School .
The Karangi Kiana Primary School is not easy to find ! Our man in Africa , Andrew Jones , a friend of many years , has agreed to drive me up there from Nairobi to deliver the children’s letters from Rodmarton Primary School, now somewhat tatty but intact and legible. You all may be thinking " get on your bike Mate !" but I can't its poorly and being fixed.
40 Km north of Nairobi lies Thika an area renowned for its Tea and Coffee plantations [also pineapples ASJ], and beautiful they are too. The school, not just around the corner, is another 40 Km into the hills across rough terrain but beautiful scenery .Eventually we found the school nestled in a steep sided valley surrounded by tea and coffee. Water is supplied from the Kiana river which flows through the grounds. There is no electricity, the school has 350 pupils including a nursery with 40 pupils, mostly orphans. 11 teachers are employed here, 3 are voluntary. The children, who were beautifully polite, were bedecked in lovely maroon uniforms. Received warmly and enthusiastically, I did a little speech to one class whilst Andrew drew a map of the bike ride. They clapped and cheered, although some looked terrified at the sight of a huge white man in bike gear with a striped beard! They were not expecting me until February. Letters from the children will be sent to Andrew in Nairobi, who will kindly then forward them to me in UK. Thank you, again, Andrew. We left after joining the teachers for lunch and were waved off by all the pupils. The whole exercise was a very humbling and emotional experience for me and I am determined to help this school to the best of my ability on returning to the UK. Thanks, again, to Andrew Jones for enabling this day to happen, it has certainly been one of the most rewarding of the trip. P.S. I couldn't take photos, it was torrential rain when we left, however Andrew had agreed to return with a video camera and forward the film to us.


So , that's the official bit , the guys may have to stay in Nairobi for a few more days whilst a new rear shock is being DHL'd from wherever, unfortunately we are having lots of rain at the moment so they haven't even been on the golf course, yet !!
Andrew