I left Dar for Kenya with the intention to cross Kenya within a week or so. Along the way though, I decided to go for a few days to Lamu – an island on the north coast of Kenya. From the LP I knew that there would be a festival at the 2th of May but I was sure that by then I would be at least in Nairobi or even already on the way to Ethiopia. Well, it turned out that the Maulidi-Festival (the birthday of Mohammed) was not at the 2th but at the 10th-14th and that I stayed on Lamu for it.

The festival was, after all, not that spectacular – some processions, sword fighting, drumming and old men dancing with there walking stick. That was actually hilarious to see since the men hardly moved. As I asked a bystander why the men are just holding the walking stick over the shoulder and not doing something a bit more ‘energetic’, he told me that this are old men and don’t have the energy for more ‘energetic’ dancing. I had to smile since you saw the same men during the day doing hard work on the fields or on the seafront – they probably were tired from the work :-). Although the festival was not that great, we were a good group of travelers and we had a great time.

I finally left Lamu for Nairobi where I meet Lisa, the tour-leader of the Overland-Truck-Tour I did, again. Back then, as I got here e-mail where she told me that she soon would be in Nairobi, I realized that I’m on ‘African-Time’ traveling here in Africa – she had been in England, Australia and back in England and would soon be in Nairobi and I was not sure whether I would be able to get to Nairobi on time to see here!!! Well, I managed – barely though – and I was back in ‘Overland-Truck-Territory’. Even we did not actually do a lot it was great to have seen here again.

Lisa left Nairobi and I stayed, waiting for someone to arrive from Lamu to go up to northern Kenya to see the area around Lake Turcana. With bus and truck Nizet and I managed to get to Lodwar on the western side of the lake. From there we tried to find a car that would go to Eliye Springs, a small town on the lake shore. We asked around and were shown around but nobody was going there. Somebody told us then, that the priest would go there, so we went to see him but we just mist him and had to look at the backlights driving of – damn, how could we miss that chance!!! …. but that is part of a normal travelers life …. :-).

By now everybody in town know that we looked for a car to Eliye Springs and were pointed to someone else who would go there soon – well it took some hours before he finally would leave so we waited – also this is part of a normal traveler’s life here in Africa and not always really pleasant – but at least this time we know that he would go there some when. We finally left with 1’000 liters of water – no, it was that we would have needed all that water in case of breakdown but, as we found out during the hours of waiting, they did not actually go to Eliye Springs directly but somewhere in the vicinity for drilling a well. Eliye Springs was just for getting more water and they would stay there for just a half an hour. Well, we thought better seeing it for just a half an hour then not at all and who knows, there might be another opportunity coming up once we are in Eliye.

And, as so often, this opportunity came as we meet Christopher on the way to Eliye. He lost his way on the open plain with numerous car tracks and so our driver showed him the way in ‘exchange’ for giving us a lift to Eliye. The haydays of the Eliye-Lodge are long gone and there was not really anything as far as accommodation is concerned. The only thing they could offer us was a mattress underneath one of the palm-trees – sometimes the normal traveler-life can be really hard, to have to sleep in the open with million of stars to gaze at ….. :-).

The next day Christopher gave us a lift to Kalokol along a sand-tack-road – it was a lot of fun!!! In Kalokol Nizet and I tried to find a boot for crossing Lake Turcana to Loyangalani. As always in Africa, we were shown from on place to the next and there would have been boots we could have hired, but the price we would have to pay was a ‘bit-over-our-budget’. Instead of taking a boot, we decided to backtrack some 300 km south just to get 250 km north again on order to get to Loyangalani on the eastern side of the lake.

Christopher was so kind to give us lift down south. Via ‘less-traveled-roads’ – we probably saw just two or three cars the whole day and those just as we were close to one of the few towns and in one place we meet a big group of men whit there guns shouldered – it looked like they just returned from a shootout – we made it to Nakuru from where Nizet and I were able to get buses to Maralal, the furthest north you can go by bus.

Maralal is a pleasant town and is amazing to see to the Samburu peoples in there traditional dresses walking around, riding a bicycle with there Nike’s or talking to there friends via a cellular phone – just really fascinating to see the intermix between there traditional life and the modern life. As amazing it is, after some days you have seen it and you would be glad if there would come a truck who heads north – but there wasn’t.

It was not that the boys did not tell us that there soon would be a truck coming, oh noooo, it was that this truck never really materialized. We spent days with waiting, just hanging around town and doing internet with the faint hope that the next ‘promised’ truck might materialized – the worst part of waiting is that you never know when a truck will come, could be in 5 minutes or in two days, and so you are not ‘free’ to actually do something and go somewhere – well, that is also part of the normal life as traveler, not the most exciting though.

Then, at the last day before I would have given Loyangalani a miss and would have had headed for Ethiopia, there was this LandCruiser in Maralal and he was on the way to Loyangalani. After the days of waiting we had now to hurry packing our backpacks and get organized in order not to miss the LandCruiser – luckily we managed, barely though :-).

The ride up to Loyangalani was absolutely breathtaking – mountains and flat plains, green fields and forest, a fertile landscape changed into arid and then into plains dotted with volcanic boulders the size footballs and finally we reached the lake just as the sun was setting over the South Island – the frustrating days of waiting where more then compensated.

We spend a day with waking around the area, visiting the tribal villages, strolling along the lake shore and, manly, taking in the whole surrounding. As exceptional the area was, we soon started to think of how we would get back to ‘civilization’ from Loyangalani – could take anything from a day, two to a week or two. Somehow we were very luck since peoples from Nairobi decided to make a little Sunday excursion to Loyangalani – with there airplane! Unfortunately there was just one free seat available and so Nizet and I said goodbye and she flew back to Nairobi.

Now alone, I was afraid that I would get stacked for a long time in Loyangalani. Fortunately I had to wait just for one day – actually, I probably would have had a ride to Marsabit, close to the Ethiopian border, the very next morning if I would not have trusted Nicola, but that is another story – and got a truck back to Maralal. (The truck brought material for a film called ‘The Constant Gardener’ to Loyangalani which partly plays there)

The time around Lake Turcana was just very exceptional. The whole landscape and the tribal peoples was something I have not seen anywhere else in Africa and was exactly – as I realized then – what I missed/was looking for. I got a really content feeling: ‘Now I saw and experienced Africa a bit, at least the eastern part’.

Via some towns in the vicinity of Mt. Kenya, I got to Isiolo and, with reaching Isiolo, I finally started to head for Ethiopia – some 6 weeks later then once thought but, because I had a great time and saw beautiful things, with absolutely no regrets.

Isiolo meant once more to wait for a truck to come – not a thing I particularly was looking forward but, since there are no busses going all the way to the Ethiopia border, the thing I had to ‘endure’ – a traveler’s destiny. Fortunately it was not days I had to wait but was woken up at 1:00 AM in the first night. “There is a truck to Moyale at the Ethiopian border, hurry up”. I did hurry but by the time I reached the ‘truck-stop’, the truck was gone. Since I was already awake I decided to wait a bit and see whether there would be soon another truck. After sitting for a half an hour in the cold wind, another truck came and he also went to Moyale – for once there was sure ‘bastante trafico’.

With my backpack I climbed the back of the truck and joined the other 10 peoples or so already sitting on the truck-freight. We left Isiolo and drove along a gravel road over hills and trough dry riverbeds into the night. The thing with traveling for a long time and doing many different things is, that once very exciting and special things get normal, Might sound a bit sad but I think that is how it is – after all, traveling starts to be daily life and therefore somehow normal. Nevertheless, there are always situations where you realize that it might be not that ‘normal’ after all what you are doing. Sitting on top of a truck, seeing the landscape going by in the light of the headlights and watching millions of stars is, even you are freezing and covered in dust, probably one of this few moments. The drive to Moyale toke about 20 hours and was a great ending of Kenya – there is defiantly another world out there then the ‘Overland-Truck-Tours-World’.