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Once again, i had such a brilliant title for today’s post, but completely forgot it. Oh well, onwards to more important things. 3 days in to what is known to be the toughest 6 days of the entire rally, and tomorrow is told to be the worst; The road to Mars. Marsabit will have waiting (to those who make it) a comfortable camp site specially set up for us, with hot water and amenities. Most probably much needed. On paper it doesn’t look too bad, 250km and not even a border crossing, but the truth of the matter is that it will be hell. Mr Phillip Young himself doesn’t give people on an ‘endurance rally’ an easy 250km for no reason, especially even if the following day is only 500k’s. There is no reason why we couldn’t do a single 750km (we did one the other night including a border crossing) day, well yes there is! It is because it will sort out the men from the boys. Time will tell…

Today was another spectacular day, left Awasa hotel that was on the edge of a massive lake (hippo’s live in it, but we didn’t see any) and drove a fairly tight schedule for 400km’s. And my god did that landscape change drastically. It began in an almost tropical setting, thick and lush bushland with villages amongst it growing copious amounts of coffee beans and banana trees. It was astonishing that it was warm enough and wet enough that banana tree’s flourished even at 7000feet. In the 100 or so k’s we drove through these parts, I felt like royalty! The roadside was littered – not with rubbish – but with spectators. For the hour and 20 minutes we drove through, i honest think we saw 50-60thousand people.There would be a village every 2 or 3 k’s, and at least a thousand people on the road in every village, on and on and on. In the centre of some villages there was moshpit-esc like crowds, 3 and 4 people deep in the thick bits. I would like to wave to everyone to see their smiles and joy they got from our car, but i honestly couldn’t. My arm was getting exhausted. I was getting waved-out, and quickly. And then it all changed.

We descended a thousand feet or so, and within 40km’s we had gone from prosperous tropical forests, back into complete barren desert plains. Not full on sand-deserts, but very very few trees and short grass and scrubs around the place. And dry, so dry!

Then all of a sudden, we saw baboons! Like 20 of them, they started crossing the road but we kinda cut the pack in half and the scattered, it was awesome! Big red but’s and everything.

Fuel availability was big with everyone this afternoon, many towns are empty. The single fuel station that had fuel on the Kenyan side of the border this evening decided to charge people upwards of 5dollars US a litre for shitty quality fuel. Why? Well, because he can. Demand is massive, and supply is almost at zero. No fuel for another 300k’s at least tomorrow. Troopers like we are, we have plenty, no problems for us 😀 Maybe we could sell some of our stocks hahaha.

Everything changed on this Ethiopian/Kenyan border. The side of the road we drive on, currency, road quality. The road into town was fairly good, very potholed but still allright, then we passed through customs and immigration, then over a shitty tiny bridge (which every non-4×4 car bottomed out on) and then on to what some people would call a road. It may have been a dirt road 40 years ago, but it hasn’t been touched since! It was a hardcore 4×4 forestry track in its own right, not a main road in and out of Kenya. Once again, pictures will come soon, sorry for the wait.

James