Isiolo- Marsabit

If people had told us the 257 km from Isiolo to Marsabit is just like the dirt road to South Luangwa in Zambia we would have slept better. It was like that. Hunderds of kilometres of unpaved road, sometimes smooth, mostly with rocks and sometimes wash board. Some people say you have to drive very fast over washboard, but our experience is that the car would start sliding so for us that was no option. The average speed was 30-40 km per hour, maximum. As Mr Pitt from Newlands Home would have said: “endure it” and that is exactly what we did. Hang in there, shaking, eating dust and keep going, hour after hour. Every kilometer counts! . Again the scenery was breathtaking beautiful, mostly volcanic. We saw beautiful birds, some gazelles and very exotic people, the Samburu. We also saw our first camels and in the Losai Nature reserve we saw also the Gerenuk. Funny gazelle with a tiny head but a very long neck. That was the animal lacking in Evert’s experience, so he was very happy.
On the road we met a German couple, on the road since November last year, coming from Germany first along the West coast all the way down to South Africa and now up to Germany again in the eastern part of the continent. It was nice to know that you are not alone on the Trans- East African Highway !!
Very close to Marsabit we met Swiss Henry. A relief worker who never left the area, married to a local girl and now he has his own construction company. We were already planning to go to his place where you could camp or stay in a masaai hut, very convenient and very cheap. He also had fresh eggs and bread. What a wonderful place to recover from the road. But next day would be even worse, that is what all the travellers and books promised us.