In the morning, a young man looking for his livestock stopped by. We exchanged some greetings but were otherwise stymied from communicating, the language barrier being too high. He asked for food, a request we would normally demur. But here we were, camping in his homeland and his space, and we did not want to be the tourists who come in and take over, resulting in resentment from the populace. So we offered a couple of potatoes, and he was very happy with this. Perhaps this is how the begging culture is started, perhaps we are suckers, or maybe he was just hungry. 

A little over two hours later, we arrived at the village of Iona. This outpost has long been settled, the seat of the chefe de posto, the local government representative. It’s a village with a couple of dozen buildings spread out on the scenic valley floor. We saw an ambulance, a water point and general trappings of an organized village. There were some power lines here and there, so perhaps there is a generator running at night.

There is a stretch that is quite steep, and Jenny spotted me as we crept down slowly. In the back of my mind, I’d wondered what we’d do on these steep sections if we got to a washout. Backing up a steep section would not be easy. At these tricky sections, Jenny scouted ahead to make sure we wouldn’t paint ourselves into a corner we couldn’t get out of. Finally, the land flattened out, and I was able to loosen my grip on the wheel a bit.

The land is parched here, no sign of recent rain, and we picked up speed as the road smoothed out. Across more sandy riverbeds, over more rocks, passed some abandoned huts, and finally, we approached the Cunene River. 

The road spills onto the riverbank just opposite the Okahirnogo River Camp that sits on the Namibian shore of the river. It’s an incongruous sight, having just spent days and days driving into the remote hinterland of Angola, with hardly more than the odd mud and stick hut to be seen, and, ta-da! Here was a lovely lodge. Mind you, this lodge is quite remote itself, way up in the very top of Namibia, but to us it seemed like the big city. 

We followed the track along the river, through some soft spots that had recently flooded and up onto a rocky plain. Here we could look over and see a handful of simple huts, and we got a startled look from some locals as we waved down from the top of a rocky hill.

The precise GPS coordinates given on the African Park’s map for this campsite seemed a bit oddly placed, on the top of a rocky rise (no road in sight here), exposed to wind and with no access to the river, as well as relatively near this settlement. We backtracked a bit and found a spot just where the road meets the river and settled in. 

She set to work and cleaned out almost all of the debris. With our fingers crossed and a bit nervous, we started the engine. To our great relief, the needle plummeted back to normal range and we were back in business. 

The views continued to astonish as we moved closer to the coast. Fairy circles pockmarked the landscape and hour after hour, we drove through the amazing landscapes of Iona. In the distance we saw a couple of ostrich, shimming black dots in the heat, and the odd springbok.

Picking our way along we saw our first real wildlife, a handful of oryx. They were handsome, but also skittish, and left us in the dust. To our surprise, a few hills later we saw a huge herd of oryx, the biggest we’ve ever seen, over 100 animals. They did not like the looks of us, and took off at pace into the plains.

On the banks of the Cunene, the river rushing by muddy and brown, we picked a spot to bush camp for the night and settled in. Rain threatened but never came, and the evening in camp was wonderful. Our day had been filled with adventure, and we sat by the fire, relaxing and wondering what the next day would bring. We were camped by a path, and twice a local passed by, only giving us a nod without stopping. 

When we started to lose track of how many days we’d been camping at Kembu Cottages that seemed like it was a good indicator that we should get going. The next stop was the Masai Mara. In 2018 we visited the Mara and we were looking forward to returning. Andrew Nightengale, the owner of Kembu, consulted on our route and we settled on taking the C37 through Narok. 

With laundry done, the vehicle serviced and cleaned, provisions loaded and relaxing done we could think of no more reasons to delay. At the turn of the key the Cruiser’s straight six diesel rumbled to life, eager to get going.

The road was in great shape and my coffee was tasting especially delicious. As we drove towards the wilderness through the cool climes of the Mau highlands we were happy. 

The road between the towns of Mau Narok and Narok is brand new tar and was very easy going. It’s not quite finished in a few places but importantly they have not yet had time to put in all the speed bumps. What luxury. There was also no traffic and I couldn’t wrap my head around why there was this new beautiful road and nobody driving on it.

As we sailed along the crisp highlands we looked out at vistas of farms blanketing the hillsides. We also put on an appropriate podcast, Radiolab’s episode on the Mau Mau rebellion. Some archives have been recently declassified in England and lead to new information about the Mau Mau and this made for good listening as we trundled our way to the Mara.

In the busy hub of Narok we topped up on fuel, but we were otherwise ready for the bush so we kept going. The road from here isn’t quite the empty pristine tarmac we were on before, but it’s still pretty dang good and we continued our fast passage. 

This brought us to the Sekakani gate of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Here we explained that we were staying in the Triangle and they gave us a two hour transit pass for free. We would pay our fees at the Mara Bridge, the entrance to the Conservancy side of the Masai Mara. These little details, knowing that such a pass exists (thanks Andrew Nightengale), are the tidbits that make it practical to travel here without a guide. 

The Mara greeted us warmly, zebras and impala were grazing not far into the reserve and the grass was fresh and bright. Puffy cumulous clouds were forming, that looked nice now but brought with them a concern of thundershowers. It had clearly been raining recently, the hills were a carpet of green grass.

It was about an hour and a half drive to the Triangle side of the reserve, so we did stop for a little game viewing, but there was no time to take any divergent tracks. Still we saw good birdlife, elephant and many antelope and warthogs, all looking fat, sleek and happy with the good grazing on offer.

At the Mara Bridge we crossed into the Triangle. There is a small parking area, picnic site and ablutions here. Since it was midday we saw no need to rush and we had our lunch first, to delay our ticketing time as long as possible. This would allow us extra hours on the last day we had to head out of the park, as permits here follow the common East Africa rule of permits being valid for 24hrs from the time of entry.

Often we are advised to hire a guide when entering game parks. It is easy to pickup a ranger or freelance guide for the day, for $10 or $20 dollars, and many have excellent success with this. On this day at the Mara Bridge there was a guide who couldn’t pay his client’s entry fees, because he’d only brought cash. In the Masai Mara they only accept Mpesa or credit card, and he had neither, and he and his clients were at something of an impasse. We ended up paying his fees for him on our credit card and he gave us a useful top up of USD, so all was well in the end. I share this just to say that hiring a guide does not necessarily save you from all travel snafus.

In our 2018 visit to the Maasai Mara we had stayed at the Eluai camp, more or less centered in the Triangle side of the park. At the time this was a bush camp with no facilities and it suited us just fine, so when we checked in we paid for three nights at the same campsite. 

The game sightings had been very good on our last visit and we had the general lay of the land. There is something about visiting a place when it doesn’t feel like a “once in a lifetime” chance that takes the pressure off, and less pressure makes it easier to enjoy.

The campsite was nicer than our last visit, with the grass trimmed back a bit. There also two long drop toilets and a shower enclosure (bring your own water) tucked back into the bushes behind the camp. They are very inconspicuous and the site still has a bush feel to it, it’s still unfenced wild camping and a great view of the plains below.

We spent the afternoon exploring the riverfront and we had a diversity of sightings, including two lionesses, hyena, black backed jackal, topi, warthogs, buffalo, elephant, impala, hippos and giraffe. The birds were also happy with all the rain, flitting and flying about all over the place. In particular the pin tailed wydahs were in abundance, the males hauling around their ridiculously long tail feathers. Long crested eagles also abounded.

Right at the end of the day we had the good luck to see a serval and cub in the grass, not far from camp. Rain came in the evening and we had a relatively subdued night, cooking on our stove and retiring early to prepare for an early start the next day. 

Over the next days we continued with our usual park routine, making morning and afternoon game drives with a little chill time in the midday. Rain came every day, and one day in particular it was very heavy. It was interesting to see the herds of elephants disappearing in the rain squalls.

Lions made an appearance everyday for us. Once we saw two big males on a buffalo kill, but they had long since had their fill and were sleeping off their fest. 

On another lion sighting we took advantage of the Masai Mara’s unique allowance to drive off-road for big cat sightings. Here we found four young males feeding on a buffalo calf. The dominant male munched away for 45 minutes or so while the other three lions dozed in the grass. When the dominant male finally had his fill the other three sprang with lighting speed from their formerly relaxed state to pounce on the remains, having waited for their turn to feed. One was too slow and got nothing. While all this was happening a few hyenas and black backed jackals patrolled a radius of the kill, hoping for some scraps, but this kill wasn’t big enough to leave them leftovers.

A rhino was sighted in the north of the park and we made our way to the scene. It was at the top of a rise and the track to get up there was thick deep mud. We would have never had attempted it if we didn’t see some lodge vehicles up there already. The Honey Badger acquitted itself well, bouncing and churning up the muddy track to the top of the rise, but by the time we arrived the rhino had disappeared into the bush. Unfortunately we didn’t get any more opportunities for rhino, but as a small consolation the guided lodge vehicles weren’t having any luck on that front either so at least we weren’t being left out.

One evening in camp as it was getting on towards dusk a Land Cruiser showed up and started unpacking. It looked like we’d have neighbors. After a little while the Land Cruiser drove away, leaving three young women with some lightweight mountaineering style tents and nothing else.

We invited them to share our fire and they explained their story. They work for the UN and were on a one night marathon trip to the Mara from Nairobi. It turned out that their guide hadn’t realized that they planned on camping and so he had no camping kit for himself. He dropped his guests off and went to stay at the guide quarters of a nearby lodge.

They had only a few snacks they’d bought at the supermarket, but no cooking kit, no chairs, hardly any water, and no flashlights or headlamps. They were just using their phones for light. We were incredulous, but had a great time chatting with two of them around the fire and sharing some of our dinner with them. The third was too scared to get out of her tent. 

When they finally went off to sleep Jenny noticed they accidentally left some of their food in the camp chair we loaned them, which included a pack of salami. Jenny returned it to them, but it wasn’t until the next morning that we pondered the wisdom of giving them meat to keep in their ground tent with all the wild animals about. They survived and we had a good laugh about  it. 

That night we had lots of wildlife around the camp. We could hear the grunting of buffalos, lions in the distance and the hippos were particularly vocal too. Our neighbors certainly got a good bush experience for only having a single night to spend.

All in all our Masai Mara stay was lovely, but a little damp with all the rain. Even the animals seemed a bit subdued. The scenery was glorious, it was something to see big thunderheads moving across the sky and dense squalls bring dark grey sheets of rain across the park. 

Heading north from the Masai Mara there aren’t any headliner destinations within a reasonable days drive, so at the advice of a veteran we headed to Kericho. This would make a good stop to points beyond. It’s about a five hour drive from the gate, not including the hour or so we took the wrong road and had to back track. This brought us through lush green countryside full of small villages and farms. In the small town of Kilgoris we bought a big stack of fresh chipatis, still hot. We feasted on these treats, delicious with perfect stretch and flaky layers to them.

Kericho is tea growing country and as we got closer we began driving through picture perfect hills of tea estates. The tea is grown in hedges that are packed close together, giving the appearance of huge blocks of technicolor green foliage. The thin rows between the bushes that the pickers walk are obscured by the fresh green growth. It’s very attractive country. 

Our camp for the night was at a place called “Ray’s Place,” a tea farm that has some rooms, a restaurant and a small campsite on trimmed green grass. Arriving we saw there was a ‘big rig’ camper in the campsite already, and funny enough we’d seen this one in Zambia months earlier. 

As we got settled in was clear rain was imminent, we grabbed our books and retired to a covered area that looked like it was sometimes used by the restaurant. 

The rain began and  it came down very hard. The drops slamming into the tin roof of our shelter were incredibly loud. It seemed to settle in for a while, a proper tropical downpour. It even hailed for a few minutes and little rocky ice pellets collected on the lawn.

It was impossible for us cook in these conditions so we settled on a dinner of cheese, crackers and veggies. It was raining so hard that even collecting this without getting everything soaked was going to be a challenge. We waited for a break in the weather, with the plan to eat in the tent.

The rain slacked off for a moment and we jumped into action. Jenny, the food, the boxed wine and my laptop all made it into the tent. I decided to pump my bilges before getting trapped in the tent for a while. This was a mistake, as while I was in the ablution block the rain came back with a vengeance and I got stuck there instead. The Cruiser was maybe 10 meters away and I could see it out the window, but there was no way to get into the tent without letting in gallons of rain at the same time. I will grant that this is a flaw with this type of roof top tent. Any ads for AluCab saying it’s an ‘all weather tent’ are not quite honest about the whole picture.

Lighting came too, violently. It reminded me of the big storm we’d gone through in Busanga Plains in November. The lighting was coming down fast, the thunder was tremendously loud and the rain was hammering on the tin roof of the ablution block so hard that I put my fingers in the ears, wishing for my ear plugs. 

Amusingly Jenny and I were able to WhatsApp each other, and she was holding up okay in the tent as it was buffeted about in the wind. The lighting was viciously close, and the thunder rippled and rolled loudly. Thankfully the campsite was on a slope, but even with the good drainage there was inches of water running under the cruiser. Finally there was a brief respite and I tumbled into the tent. We enjoyed an unconventional dinner, listened to the rain and watched the first movie we’d seen in months on my laptop.

The next morning we chatted with our big rig neighbors and we told them that we were envious of their spacious quarters during the rain. Interestingly they said we shouldn’t be, it leaked like a sieve last night! It turns out the vehicle wasn’t theirs, they had rented it from their neighbors in Denmark for just a few weeks and they hadn’t been in such heavy rain before. 

Unfortunately the forecast was for more of the same. Our original plan had been to drive up to Kakamega Forest, but after now four days of getting pretty wet and the thundershowers slated to continue we aborted that plan. We chatted with a guide at Ray’s and he confirmed that a scenic route to Lake Baringo was feasible in one day. That became the new plan.

The scenic route is almost twice as long as a direct drive there, but now the entire stretch is tarred and reportedly the going is easy. The route, if you want to follow on a map, was Karicho – Eldoret – Iten – Kabernet – Marigat – Baringo. 

The drive from Ray’s Place to Iten was uneventful. This was on the fringe of my old stomping grounds when I worked in Kenya back in 2009, we used to come to Eldoret on occasion. At the time the NGO I worked for also had a satellite project in Marigat. Though I had dispatched supplies, Land Cruisers and staff there I had never been myself.

Iten greeted us with a banner over the road, “The Home of Champions”. This is because Iten is the center of the Kalenjin tribe, who hold more records in running than anyone else. Ever. Anywhere. How this came to be is something of a not totally solved mystery. When we left Kericho this morning we listened to an old Radiolab podcast, Cut and Run, which details the ins and outs of the Kenyan runners excellence, it’s really worth a listen. 

It’s just nuts how good at running they are. For example, by 2013 there were 17 American men in history who have run under 2:10 in the marathon, but there were 32 Kalenjin who did it in October of 2011 alone.

From Iten we turned and stopped at the viewpoint above the Kerio valley. Here there are a few shops selling drinks and snacks and nice tables with fantastic views. Slightly disappointing was the persistent haze obscuring the view, but we could still see the outline of the opposite ridge, and looking along the escarpment the cliffs fading blue into the distance. The tidy square and rectangular outlines of shambas, small subsistence farms, painted an attractive quilt on the hillsides and ridges that dropped precipitously away from us into the valley. 

After a simple lunch at the viewpoint we hopped back on the road, which also dropped precipitouslydown the escarpment. We were in low gear, engine braking most of the way. We stopped at another viewpoint and still we could smell the brakes, having dropped almost a thousand meters of elevation in not so many kilometers. 

Here a half dozen women surrounded us, offering mangos for sale of various shapes and sizes. We were a little low on freshies and decided to buy some fruit. Herein lies a daily conundrum of traveling here. Who to buy from? How much to pay? I suspect the prices were elevated on our behalf, but not so much. A large bowl of multiple fat mangos was 200 KSH, just under $2USD. Jenny selected a bowl from a woman wearing a t-shirt saying “beast squad.” 

At another viewpoint further down I pulled over again. This one had a couple enjoying the view and a solitary old man in a suit jacket, but thankfully no vendors. We got out and I snapped a few photos of the hazy hills below. In the meantime Mr. Suit Jacket approached Jenny and began to offer some weak introductions to the viewpoint, a lead up to asking for money. While I took a few more photos he pointed out that he was suffering greatly from both elephantiasis, as evidenced by his enlarged feet, and leprosy, as evidenced by the shedding from the same disfigured feet. It wasn’t a pretty sight and both Jenny and I felt sympathy for the man. 

At the same time, we didn’t give him money and we cut short our stop at the viewpoint, getting back in the vehicle while saying apologies and getting on our way. I regretted not giving the man something, clearly the need was real, but we had defaulted to our normal practice “don’t give money to beggars.” We reflected on this for quite a while. Maybe it’s something of a cop out to say, “we donate money to various charities, therefore this relieves us of giving money directly to those in need.” I think going forward in some instances I will soften my stance in the future.

From here we continued our scenic drive, across the floor of the valley, through than many twisting turns of Kabernet and then into the village of Marigat. 

Marigat is the largest town on Lake Baringo, but the access to the lake is a bit further north. When we arrived at the lakeshore we confirmed what we had read online, that the old standby and well loved campsite of Robert’s Camp had closed. The lodge and campsite is completely flooded and derelict now.

Many East African lakes, and Kenya’s in particular, have flooded significantly in the last decade. This has been a slow motion disaster, displacing whole villages, flooding schools and farms and everything else. Lake Baringo has risen something like 15 meters, and then receded two. This has caused the lake shore to come up to three kilometers inland in some areas, and about  800m inland at Roberts Camp, thus its loss. It has been devastating for the local community. 

Explanations for this relatively rapid rise in lake level are varied. Climate change. Geologic shifting causing new underground springs to feed the lakes. And more. Here are two great articles on the topic if you are interested from the Guardian and Quartz Africa.

Across the road we found the Bush Baby campsite, run by one of Robert’s Camp former employees. Here they are recreating Roberts Camp in a way, and we were welcomed.

We settled into the Bush Baby campsite enjoyed a cold beer after our day on the road. For dinner we reheated leftover chicken Thai curry we’d made a couple days before. A couple cats came over to beg for food. I am not a fan of cats, though Jenny likes to point out my inconsistent feelings, that I like the big cats, lions and leopards, but domestic cats I distain. 

It’s hot in Baringo and we enjoyed cool showers before retiring to the tent. The next day we booked a boat trip on the lake, famous for its birding. The world record for the number of birds seen in 24 hours (three hundred something) was made here. 

We can’t claim to be quite so dedicated at birding, but I was looking forward to a morning out on the lake. Luka, the owner of Bush Baby, introduced us to our boatman and we just walked across the road to the boat launch. The remnants of Robert’s Camp is now being used as a place to store and launch a few boats, tucked between thick stands of dead flooded trees and a few dilapidated half flooded buildings.

With flat morning light and haze on the lake, combined with all the dead trees it was a bit dystopian in feel. 

It was warm and calm and the boat sliced through the water easily, it was wonderful to be on the water. Our boatman knew his birds and we ticked off many, though most species we had seen before. For whatever devastation the flooding had on the community it didn’t seem to affect the birds, if anything they were happier. Herons, egrets, weavers, kingfishers and bee eaters all abounded. 

The boatman wove us between the dead trees, indicating when we floated over the old reception office of Robert’s Camp and pointed out bird species as we went. He also took us by the enormous Soi Safari Lodge, now completely derelict due to flooding. He said he had used to work there before it was forced to close, and that unemployment in the community was much higher because of the flooding. 

He brought us out the one of the islands in the middle of the lake and we saw huge numbers of pied kingfishers. Once a dozen in one tree. Here he brought the boat close into shore to pick up some driftwood, which turned out to be the highly buoyant balsa wood. He also bought a few small fish from fisherman out on the lake.

With these ingredients he cut a small piece of balsa wood and inserted it into the belly of the fish. Then he whistled loudly several times, and a fish eagle appeared on a tree on shore. He gave another loud whistle and threw the fish out in the water. 

The balsa kept the dead fish floating, and the fish eagle swooped down impressively close so we could take pictures. This practice seems somewhat questionable, interfering with wildlife and so forth, but it is longstanding practice here and was certainly impressive. 

Crocodiles also inhabit the lake, but they are small and he said present no danger to swimmers. We were not confident enough to test this theory, and anyway, swimming among the dead snags of the lakeshore held no appeal.

After the boat trip we lazily whiled away the afternoon. Serious birders also take a walking excursion along the cliffs behind the village, to see the cliff and land dwelling species, but we were satisfied. Amazingly it rained here too. In parched Baringo this is very unusual this time of year, but it was short lived and served to cool things down a bit. 

Sadly Island Camp, the lodge out on Ol Kokwe Island, had closed during Covid and had just reopened, but not to day visitors. We had hoped to enjoy their well reviewed restaurant and pool, but not this time around. 

We enjoyed our stop at Lake Baringo, a sort of understated attraction. At the same time one can’t help but see the flooding as a massive hit to the tourism here and it made us wonder if those remaining can hold out. The dead trees and lack of lakeshore do detract from the atmosphere. 

Tomorrow we would head out on another scenic drive, over the Kito and Marich passes. I had been in contact with Richard Barnley, of Barnley’s Guesthouse, and he confirmed that the road and security conditions should be okay. I was looking forward to seeing some remote parts of the Kerio Valley and driving the scenic Marich Pass.

The Nitty Gritty

Kembu Cottages to Sekakani Gate – 195km, 3h 35m

Sekakani Gate to Mara Bridge – 41 km, 1h 22m

The Masai Mara Background

The Maasai Mara is roughly 1500 sq km in size, but is confusingly divided into to two parts, roughly 2/3rds and 1/3rd, with the dividing line being the Mara River. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is the eastern portion, the Mara Conservancy is the western portion. To confuse things further, the Conservancy side is often simply referred to as, “the Triangle” due to its triangular shape. The eastern boundary of the Triangle is formed by the Mara river, the southern boundary by the Tanzanian border, the western boundary by the Siria escarpment.

The entirety of the Maasai Mara protected areas (the Reserve, the Triangle and a number of adjacent protected areas that are the next tier lower in the level of protection provided to animals) abuts the northern boundary of Tanzania’s Serengeti, making one very large contiguous ecosystem for animals to move about freely within. In this ecosystem there are numerous geographic barriers that only motivated animals will cross, such as the Siria escarpment or the forbidding landscape of Natron, and other boundaries are formed by settlements and farms. This means that even though the area is almost entirely unfenced that the bulk of the wildlife, mostly, stays within the protected areas. 

Travel between the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara used to be allowed many years ago, via the Sand River border post, but this is long closed. Anyone wanting to travel from one park to the other must go the long way around, the least bad way is exiting the Mara at the Oloololo gate, crossing the Isibania border, and then driving to one of the western Serengeti gates, or visa versa. This is a two day drive for all but the most motivated, but it does at least give you an opportunity to provision and fuel while you are out of the park.

Back to the Mara. The Reserve and the Triangle are managed by different entities, but the park is contiguous and fees paid on one side allow you use on the other side. Entry fees are the same on both sides. We’ve been to the Maasai Mara before and visited both sides, but predominately spent our time in the Triangle. We found the Triangle to have excellent game viewing, well maintained roads, and importantly you can camp within the park. On the Reserve side the only public campsite, Sand River, was closed some five-ish years ago and now you have to camp outside the gate. Rumors of the reopening of the Sand River campsite persist, but for the time being they are just rumors. 

On top of all that we found the Reserve side to be less organized and professional, and last time we witnessed animals swarmed by vehicles at sightings. On the Triangle side they allow a maximum of five vehicles at a sighting and if there are more than five they limit sightings to 10 minutes, so everyone gets a turn. The final cherry on top in the Triangle is that they allow off road driving for cat sightings if you are not in the high use area. This well policed privilege allows really great sightings of animals that would otherwise be out of view. 

Campsites in the Triangle

There are three campsites in the Triangle, the Oloololo Campsite, near the Oloololo Gate, Eluai near the middle of the park and Iseiya, noted as Serena on T4A. 

Oloololo has the most facilities and a very nice view, but is near the gate and staff quarters, so there is more traffic. 

Eluai until recently was a special campsite with no facilities, and is still marked, incorrectly, on the Mara Triangles own map. It is now a public campsite, but until just the last couple months had no ablutions of any kind. Now it has a basic toilet and shower enclosure, you must supply the water.  Somewhat humorously, but also inconveniently, the builders of these new ablutions used the wrong kind of toilet. It’s a squat toilet, but normally when you build a latrine as a squat toilet with no water it is just a keyhole shape in the floor to the long drop hole below. In this case they used the a porcelain squat toilet that is intended to flush, but as there is no water, any thing that doesn’t manage to go down the hole just sits there. So, uh, not super practical.

Eluai is on a rise and has a good view in the distance, but there is no shade. 

Iseiya/Serena is nearby Eluai and has no view and is tucked into the forest. It has a long drop but no other facilities. It’s fairly tight in there, with not much flat spaceif you on using a roof top tent. There is no view at all, but good shade. So to each their own for campsites. They are all good in their own way, all unfenced, and all wild. 

The Mara Conservancies website is a wealth of information: https://www.maratriangle.org/home In particular their monthly reports provide detailed insight on anti poaching and other trials of conservation.

Special Campsites require a booking fee, I think of 1000 Kenyan Shillings for individuals, roughly 100 USD. This is regardless of how many in the party or how long you stay (or perhaps it’s per week?), so this amortizes well if you have more in your group or stay longer. 

Entry fees are $70 USD pppd (24 hr rule), camping is $30 pppn, vehicle fee is…400 shillings? Payment is by credit card or Mpesa only, no cash. 

Firewood can be purchased from the park staff at Oloololo gate or Mara Bridge, but they have a monopoly on the market and it’s expensive. We paid an exorbitant 1500 shillings for an admittedly huge pile of wood. So did another set of campers we met. I suspect you could bargain down to 1000, but we didn’t.

Fuel is usually available at the Serena lodge in the park. There is also fuel outside the Sekakani gate, in a modest fuel station of unknown quality, and the same for outside the Oloolo gate. So you’re unlikely to run out of fuel, but those are not large fuel stations so the quality is suspect. 

If you are headed to the Triangle from the east, as we did, ask for a transit pass at the gate. They’ll give you a free two hour pass to get to the Mara Bridge, where you can pay your entry fees by credit card. 

Andrew Nightengale strongly advised us not to use the C13 to drive to the Oloololo gate, he said it’s in terrible condition and is a miserable drive.

There is a Naivas supermarket, as well as many other shops, in Narok, if you need to provision. On the Oloololo side there isn’t much for stocking up, your best bet might be Lolgorien, but it will be more modest pickings.

When leaving from the Oloololo gate there are two roads marked C17 on T4A. The eastern one was not passable and we had to double back. The “correct” one the western one, shown in the screen shot below.

To Kericho: 175km, 5h13m including a stop for a car wash.

Lake Baringo

The drive from Ray’s to Baringo via Eldoret – Iten – Kabernet – Marigat is not the efficient way to go. It would be better to break this up, either by camping at Kakamega or maybe at the Naiberi Overland Campsite outside Eldoret (if it’s still open). The drive from Iten down the escarpment is beautiful and I think well worth the diversion. It would be double excellent if you were motorcycling, I imagine.

Bush Baby campsite was 800 KSH pppn, well worth it. The ablutions were clean and new, the shower is cold, but in the hot weather of Baringo this is no issue. The campsite has rubbish bins, a device charging station and a couple picnic tables. There is a basic restaurant and cottages under construction. Shade is pretty good, and they have planted many new trees that will add to that. There is a water tap with water from a borehole. The only negative is the campsite is fairly close to the road, so there is some road noise, though not at night. Also we had some kids staring at us from the road, but that was no great hardship, they were friendly. As the foliage grows in it will become more private. 

*the internet here is not good and I’m sadly unable to upload photos. I’ll update when I get a chance, but for now, this is what we’re up to.

October 18th – 22nd, 2021

Here we are, back in Namibia again. Last time we were in Namibia it was March 2020 and as you recall, not a good month for international travel. Then we left under the hurried threat of covid-19 closures, catching the last commercial flight back to the states. This time we hope to do better.

Ngepi

I write you from the very spectacular Ngepi Camp on the banks of the Kavango River in far northern Namibia. Even though Windhoek is a fine enough city, by the time we were done with all our chores we were really itching to get on the road and to some wilderness. We made a big push and drove the ~935km to Ngepi from Urbancamp in about 10.5 hrs. This may seem sort of ridiculous but was totally worth it. We arrived at campsite No. 6 on the banks of the river to comfortable temperature, antelope grazing on the opposite bank and birds everywhere, it was magic and totally worth making the long drive. 

Just that evening from our camp chairs we saw waterbuck, bushbuck, wart hogs, river otter, hippo, crocodile, a host of birds, impala, and a very active bushbaby. We heard it had rained heavily the night before, and all the animals and birds were active, the temperature exceedingly pleasant, and a nearly full moon rose from across the river from camp. We grilled chicken and portobellos over the fire, had ice cold beers from our fridge and were elated, feeling that we had really started our journey. 

*birds may or may not be limited to: crested barbet, cape turtle dove, African skimmer, Egyptian goose/duck (depending on who you ask), African Jacana, blacksmith lapwing, black winged stilt, some sort of heron very far away, red billed spur fowl, starling (meeves?), meyer’s parrot, paradise fly catcher, a yellow bird that might be a weaver, or something else, grey lourie, arrow marked babbler (?) and a bunch I couldn’t identify. It is birding mayhem here, like being in an aviary. They were coming very fast this morning, so much that I couldn’t keep up. Still though, not too shabby for a very amateur pair of birders.

To get here we had to make a series of sprints, a sprint to leave home and a push through the logistics of Windhoek. Let me catch you up… 

The day before we flew from the states was a big day. Getting ready for leave for almost a year turned out, to the surprise of no one but us, to be more work and more complex than we initially thought. We blithely forged ahead, but it has been stressful getting our stuff packed and getting out of the house between many heartfelt good byes.

Windhoek and Urban Camp

Seeing the wide expanse of acacia plains from the air was wonderful, we were back in Africa. After so much anticipation and planning it hardly seemed real. 

When you land in Windhoek there is no jetway, stairs are wheeled up to the aircraft. I like disembarking this way, as you instantly feel the weather, the temperature and smell the smells. It was a bright sunny morning and we kept grinning. 

The grinning didn’t last long, as it was cold enough that my teeth almost started chattering. Cold? Even though October is normally the hottest month of the year, it was less than 50° F. I had been wearing just a t-shirt on the plane, and walking across the tarmac I was freezing. Later the taxi driver confirmed it was very unusual for this time of year.

We had a good chat with the Taxi driver on the way to the vehicle storage place. He said tourism is picking up in the last month, but is still much less than before covid. He also volunteered that he was vaccinated, and that anyone can get vaccinated that wants to in Namibia. There are a lot of vaccine conspiracy theories circulating, leading to hesitancy for some. He also said some employers are mandating it, but also organizing vaccinating for their employees. 

The cruiser was ready and waiting for us, keys in the ignition. Manfred was off with other customers somewhere and this displayed a curiosity we have experienced frequently in Africa. Reputedly Africa is full of scams and corruption, but we have found many times that we are simply trusted to pay our bill. In this case we had a significant repair bill from Manfred’s shop, and we could have easily have just driven away without paying. 

After about 30 minutes or so we had loaded our luggage and were standing around wondering how to pay Manfred when he finally rolled up. We paid him for the storage, 400 NAD/month, and then asked if it would be alright if we did an electronic transfer later for the mechanic fee. He said no problem, and off we went. Another example of the trust we have been extended many times.

Being back in the land cruiser was great, the rumble of the 4.2 straight six diesel, shifting through the gears with the low down torque and just being on the road again, even if just the road from the airport, was great. 

We had a list of things to do in Windhoek, so right out the gate we started with a few stops. First we went to the Offroad Centre 4×4 shop to pick up a new auxiliary battery, as we knew that ours was shot last time we were here in 2020, and no doubt almost 18 months in storage was the nail in the coffin. They were able to quickly install the battery and kindly took the old one off our hands for disposal. 

After that we made a quick stop by Bushlore to pick our Carnet de Passages en Douane, aka carnet, or CPD.It had been couriered to their office from Johannesburg. The CPD is required to take the vehicle into Kenya. More on this in the section at the end.

Urban Camp, chores & the solar saga

After the flying and all the running around we were getting tired and we made our way to Urban Camp, where we have stayed several times before. Urban Camp is a little oasis in the Eros neighborhood of Windhoek, with campsites and nicely furnished safari tents if you don’t have your own camping gear. It also serves as a convenient logistics stop for many a long haul overlander, as well as the numerous self drive rental vehicles that are ubiquitous in Namibia. 

They have a restaurant, bar with very cold draft beer and a small pool. Wifi available for guests in the pool/restaurant zone. In the evenings the bar is a popular place for Windhoek locals. 

Around the compound are thoughtfully designed bathrooms (no trip report is complete without the ablution report!), with great outdoor hot showers. Nicely tiled indoor showers are also on offer for those that prefer to shower inside.  I give the ablutions a 5/5, but mind you I am not that picky. You are forewarned.

We are comfortable at Urban Camp, and it was great to settle in to familiar surrounds so we could get organized to head off to the Zambezi region (aka the Caprivi, though the reasons for the name change remain unclear to me) as soon as we can. 

After a very frosty victory beer the days started to melt together, unpacking and repacking the cruiser, trying to figure where all the stuff we brought would get packed away, provisioning, and getting organized. 

I was starting to think we had brought too much stuff. When we were packing we were a little frazzled, and when presented with a decision we erred on the, ‘bring it, we’ll figure it out when we get there’ side of things. Now that we are here, it seems like a lot of stuff. After a lot of cleaning and organizing things started to get tucked away into their spots and it seems like maybe this might actually work

We also noticed that our solar panel didn’t appear to be charging the auxiliary battery. After some poking around with the multimeter I was worried it was dead, but by the time I reached this conclusion I couldn’t repeat my test as the sun was too low. I wanted to measure the DC voltage out of the panel while disconnected one more time before making the call that we’d have to sort out a replacement panel. Some internet research indicated that fried diodes in the panel are common, but on this panel that is a sealed unit, so no cheap fix this time around.

Though we were really excited to be on the outset of our trip, all the packing and organizing and dealing with solar panels was starting to feel like we were doing more of the same logistics and planning we had been doing from home. That combined with jet lag and we were getting a little worn out, and ready to leave the city as soon as possible.

We did enjoy a nice breakfast at the restaurant, though due to covid Urbancamp isn’t offering their really great breakfast buffet they used to have, and instead you order at the bar and they bring it to your table. We accomplished a few digital chores and I already got back an email from National Luna (makers of our MPPT solar charge controller, packaged into the DCDC charger) on some solar troubleshooting tips. 

Sure enough, I confirmed the panel was dead. To Jenny’s chagrin this meant we got to spend a lot of time talking electrons and whatnot, which is not a favorite hobby of hers. After calling around a bit Offroad Centre, said they no longer deal with flex panels since they had so many issues with them, but that they could replace it with a glass panel. 

They only had 90w panels in stock, and since I’d already been mulling upping our solar capacity we went for two 90s, giving us a total of 180watts. That should be plenty for our relatively modest needs. We run two fridges that each draw 2.4A when the compressor is running. The small 15 liter fridge is in-between the seats for drinks and we can turn off anytime we’re worried about not having enough charging capacity. 

Offroad Centre was able to squeeze us in for the installation the next day, adding an extra day in Windhoek. Though we wanted to be on the road already, it did take the pressure off a bit. 

We provisioned at the Super Spar in the Grove Mall. Pro tip: we know from before that if you use the outside parking area has parking that is high enough for our vehicle. A surprising amount of parking areas in Windhoek are limited to 2.4 meters, and the cruiser is 2.5 meters or so, making finding parking stressful. We still have PTSD after our incident in Botswana. 

We stocked up on things harder to find further north. Black beans, coconut milk and some gluten free goods for our gluten challenged (can I say glutard?) friend we’re meeting in Zambia. Also the staples, eggs, peanut butter, cheese, beer, biltong, chicken and some veggies. There is a fruit and vegetable stand near Urban Camp, so we went light on the freshies to go there later.

After all this we treated ourselves to a dinner at the famous Joe’s Beerhouse, where I had the Namib Trio of Kudu, Springbok and Zebra, where Jenny went all in on an enormous Zebra steak. Feeling very satisfied we collapsed, with a plan to bring the vehicle in for the solar panel install first thing the next morning.

Which we did, dropping of the cruiser and taking a taxi back to Urban Camp, we find ourselves with a forced day of leisure, giving me time to bang out this not too exciting blog post.

In closing

All this seems very mundane when compared to our lofty aspirations of exploring backwater dirt tracks and wildlife viewing. But when we’ve told a lot of people about our trips we frequently get asked, “How do you even do that?”, Well, here it is folks. If you find this interesting let me know, and if not I promise I won’t be offended if you don’t need to hear about the intricacies of finding ≥2.5m parking spots in Windhoek and other similar fascinations.

I’m also going to be adding a section to each post that I used to call “Logistical Notes”, but that is too boring, so I’ve retitled it, “The Nitty Gritty”. This will have technical notes for those that care, but stuff that might be boring to most. It is hard to know where to draw the line, for example, I couldn’t bring myself to move the solar stuff down there. 

The Nitty Gritty

The Flight

Namibia currently only requires PCR tests within 7 days, but they update their covid protocols on the 15th of each month. As we were flying on the 16th I felt there was a chance they would switch to 72 hrs, as most other countries are. We scheduled quick result PCR tests the day before the flight and had our results the same day, for an extra fee of course. We saved digital copies on our phones, along with photos of our vaccination cards, as well as physical copies of everything.

Our route was San Francisco – London – Frankfurt – Windhoek. The San Francisco airport was fairly empty. Mind you SFO’s international terminal is rarely overcrowded, but it felt sleepy this time around. 

Before arriving at the airport we started checking in online from home, and it felt like I was filling out a job application. Upload copies of our passports, our covid tests, our vaccination cards. The route is checked by the airline, and it automatically prompts you with additional forms to fill out based on your layovers (London, Frankfurt) and destination. All pretty remarkable actually, and it seems to actually work. 

A huge shout out to the person who checked us in at United, he was the most helpful airline person I have had the pleasure to interact with, ever. He made sure our travel documents were in order.

This is the longest I’ve not been on a plane since I was a kid and it was novel to be in the airport again. SFO now has a nice outdoor patio where we sat and ate, enjoying a bit of last minute not masking before 30 hours of mask wearing.

We lucked out and the United flight was pretty empty. The other two flights were fairly full and uneventful.

Windhoek immigration and customs had a long queue, with covid test results checked thoroughly. Only one of the two “required” covid screening forms (the one with the blue outline) was taken at the Health Inspection station before immigration. Our travel health insurance and itinerary were not checked, even though officially I believe this is a requirement for entry.

In the airport while we waited for our taxi we managed to get some Namibian dollars at the ATM. Note, the FNB ATM max withdrawal is 2000 NAD, the other one, Standard Bank, allows 5000 per withdrawal. 

Sim Cards

We also both got SIM cards for our cell phones. Contrary to what I had read before, you do not need a passport to register a phone number and new SIM. Using a package recommended by the MTN staff we each got 3 gigs of data + 700 MB for WhatsApp, valid for 7 days, total a 65 Namibian dollars each, or $4.50 USD. Getting the package that expires after a week is more cost efficient than the one that last a month, and you can just re-up if you need after the 7th day. 

The Carnet de Passages en Douane

The existence of carnets in general is of diminishing importance in international travel, as less and less countries require them and will issue instead a temporary import permit (TIP) at the border. However Kenya does require them. Until recently Kenya would allow visits for up to 14 days without one, renewable, however reportedly this is no longer possible. 

To obtain a carnet you have to provide a cash deposit based on the value of your vehicle to the issuing authority. The issuing authority is located in the country the vehicle is registered in, in our case the Automobile Associate of South Africa. After paying a fee of 6000 ZAR and the deposit AA South Africa issues the carnet to use, valid for one year. Each page of the booklet is for one country. Each page has three coupons. One for customs upon entry, one for customs upon exit, and the third one we keep. Customs in turn match up the two coupons and then they have a record that the vehicle came and went and no import duty is required. If you illegally sell the vehicle and they only have the single entry, then they submit it to AA South Africa who pays the duty, and you lose your deposit. The third coupon is to resolve disputes, as you have evidence you came and went. 

After the booklet is full or your year is up you return the book with all entries made to AA South Africa and get your deposit back, less the 6000 ZAR fee (about $413.80 USD at current rates). If this seems a bit convoluted, it is compared to the TIP alternative. However it does provide recourse for countries that have high rates of vehicles, often stolen, being brought into the country and sold illegally, and as long as it gets us to Kenya then it is alright with me. 

We’ve also been told that it smooths border crossings and makes them much faster, though in our experience getting a TIP is no great hardship and is also not expensive. In many countries they are free, and mostly they seem to cost between $15 and $50 USD per country. No doubt the CDP allows for greater freedom, but it certainly comes at a steep cost. 

How did I learn about such things? A lot of time on the internet. And it’s not quite as esoteric as it sounds, for example, my employer needs carnets for some of our specialized high value assets that are occasionally shipped around the world.

Water

I filled our water tank from the camp water and found that the charcoal filter I’d brought for drinking water has the wrong threads, and none of the handful of adapters I have will work. This was disappointing, I had been trying to up my water game a bit. 

Typically we only treat the water if it’s suspect. I wanted to start out right after everything had been sitting for so long, so I dosed the tank with Katadyne Micro-Pur Forte treatment powder. I had to order this from Europe as in the states it’s only sold in tablets for treating 1 liter at a time. We have tried Aqua-Selvo in the past, which works but we didn’t like the taste, though we still have some if the mirco-pur stuff doesn’t work out. 

First pass and we are happy with the Katadyne Micro-Pur, which comes with a little dosing spoon to scoop out the powder in 1g increments, which will treat 100 liters of water. Our tank is 60 liters (or 67?) so I used ⅔ of a scoop. We also have some Katadyne Anti-Chlor, which you can put in a water bottle to neutralize any chlorine taste. So far the taste is palatable, though not undetectable, and the anti-chlor does help a bit. 

Next time around I’ll give the full low down on the solar setup and Ngepi Camp.

The 4.2 liter diesel engine remains largely unchanged since it was brought into service in 1990.  The inline 6 generates an underwhelming 129 hp, it has no computers under the hood, it’s under powered, slow, and it’s been said that it’s shudder on shutdown will register on the Richter scale.  But it is also dirt simple, faithfully reliable, parts are widely available and mechanics the across the continent are familiar with it.

It’s unimpressive speed is hardly an issue when on dirt roads, as one can’t drive that fast anyway, and even on tarmac many of the roads in Africa don’t allow for much speed either due to poor road condition, steep inclines and or optimistically sharp corners.  Particularly when loaded one must plan overtaking far ahead of time, and you can forget about passing someone while going uphill, it’s just not going to happen.

To illustrate, on a particularly empty stretch of pretty flat road in South Africa we thought we’d test our 0-60mph time.  So Jenny stopped in the middle of the road, I got the stop watch ready and on the “3, 2, 1, Mark!” she was off…slowly.  The manual says 0-60mph in 30 seconds.  Not much to write home about to begin with, and that is unloaded.  We were in full overland configuration and at 30 seconds I was starting to laugh as the Cruiser gently trundled faster every so slowly gaining speed.  Jenny wound up the revs, mashed through the gears and at 60 seconds I was starting to lose it, marveling at our spectacular slowness.  We made it up to the big 60mph in….90 seconds.  I was laughing so hard I couldn’t tell Jenny how bad it was.  But to the Cruiser’s credit I think there might have been a slight incline, and it’s also possible that Jenny could’ve been more aggressive on the revs and the gear changes, but it’s hard to thrash your new to you engine.  Or maybe it was the altitude?  Yeah…that’s it.  The altitude.

The 70 series is made in many configurations.  We have the 79 double cab pickup.  4 wheel drive, low range gear box, front and rear diff locks, long range (130 liter) fuel tank.  It’s also fitted with a snorkel, not just for those more-daring-than-we-should-be water crossings but also to move the air intake higher off the road, which reduces the amount of dust being sucked into the air filter.  An awning to provide shade in the sun and keep us a bit dryer in rain.  2 full size spare wheels, high lift jack, spade, air compressor, tool kit, first aid kit, 12v fridge, recovery kit, gas cooker and many more accouterments.

The goal of all these numerous extras is to turn the vehicle from a capable 4×4 into something that we will also want to live out of for the duration of our trip.  More details about the vehicle setup in future posts.

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