When we last checked in, we were in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. We are now in Isiolo, the ‘start’ of Northern Kenya and a completely welcome and stark change to the Ethiopian highlands that we’ve left behind. As usual, it’s been an interesting journey to get here; Hyenas, arguments with hotels, bandits, toppled cars and malaria…here is the story of that journey. 

After a week of couch surfing in Addis, eating nice ‘Western’ food and generally hiding away from the incessant beggars and the Ethiopian roads, we finally packed up our panniers and put rubber back on tarmac. 

Addis was nice and the couple we stayed with was extremely accommodating and helpful. Nels and Eline took us to a jazz night, an amazing Korean restaurant and helped us to get around the busy city. But, as usual, after a few days in a big city we were craving the open road and, despite the impending climbing ahead of us, we were so happy to be cycling again. 

In order to get to Moyale, the border town between Kenya and Ethiopia, we had over 7000m of steep climbing to conquer. Having already done well over 7000m in Ethiopia, we knew what was lying ahead of us and to be honest, it’s a pretty daunting prospect. Nevertheless, we strapped in and got on with the task at hand and, over 8 days, we finally made it to Moyale. 

On the way we saw, without doubt, the most beautiful and epic scenery of the trip so far and, in hand with this, we had the best cycling experience too. The landscape gradually changed; long winding mountain roads, lined with tall eucalyptus trees slowly transformed into dense forest with short and sharp climbs. Eventually the typical African red dirt started to peak through the lush grass and the mountains turned into rolling hills. Mounds of red clay lined the sides of the road like enormous anthills, and children relentlessly ran down the embankments to greet the firanjis and scavenge what they could from their newfound rolling ATMs. 

In synchronization with the change of the scenery, the number of people varied as well; the further south we travelled the less people there were harassing us and asking for money. This made our experience a much more pleasurable one and we were even fortunate enough to have a nights camping with almost no human interference whatsoever, a first for Ethiopia. 

In addition to the decreasing number of people and the dramatic change in scenery, the wildlife started to change as well. In Hawassa, we were fortunate enough to see wild hippos in the lake, multitudes of bird species filled the sky, mischievous monkeys stole our food at the local 5* resort we sneaked into and dead hyenas lining the road (making us rather paranoid about sleeping out in the wild). 

The three of us were excited at the prospect of leaving Ethiopia with a sweet taste in our mouths, animals and scenery washing away the sour taste left by so many of the unsavory Ethiopians we’ve encountered. Unfortunately, on the penultimate evening before we departed the country, we checked into a hotel that was to leave a horrible stench on our palate for a very long time. 

After a 112km day and a shed load of climbing, we eventually arrived in the town of Mega, 110km away from the Kenyan border. We found the only ‘hotel’ in town, agreed to a price and that we would pay in dollars, happy that we’d got a relatively good deal. After a moderately good nights sleep and some warming porridge in the morning, we were eagerly awaiting getting on the road to Kenya. An early start was needed in order to get to the border in time, but unfortunately the hotel manager had other ideas. 

Adamant that no price was agreed, the manager spent half an hour re-negotiating with us, only to then say that we had to pay in local currency, Birr; only problem being that we had none.  He angrily locked us into the hotel complex and proceeded to shout at us. Thinking it was rude not to join in local practices, we joined in and threatened to call the police. One trip to police station later, and we were off to the bank to change some dollars into local currency. The police couldn’t care less about what we were saying, and in fact, they wouldn’t even let us tell our side of the story. 

Finally back on the road we spent the first few kilometers bitching about the hotel and it’s manager. Not a good start to our last day in Ethiopia. Our problems were further compounded by our lack of money and therefore our lack of food. We had half a kilo of pasta left and some chicken stock – making only a small dent in the huge holes developing in our stomachs. We needed food and we needed it quick. 

As if in answer to our prayers, a local coffee shop owner invited us in to his garden for a coffee ceremony. After explaining that we had no money whatsoever, he was still insistent on hosting us for a much-needed break, and upon sight of the coffee and accompanying bread, we found it hard to resist (despite the fear that he would want some form of payment at the end).  Thankfully, the kind Ethiopian was a genuinely pleasant man and didn’t want anything but a handshake; it just goes to show that there are nice people and bad people in every single society…it’s just a shame that we had to cycle 1700km through Ethiopia in order to find a good one. 

After a hungry day on the bike we arrived in the relatively nice border town of Moyale.  We passed into our 20th country (Tobias’ 5th) with relative ease and with the help of our self appointed guide, we checked into a hotel with a pretty epic view over a lush mountain landscape. We filled our stomachs and got an early night; tomorrow we had a journey that none of us wanted to take and one that will go down as one of the more uncomfortable days of our lives. 

The area south of Moyale has a road named the A2. For those who know the A2 in England, get that idea out of your head straight away. This road isn’t even a dirt track. It is a corrugated, single lane mud path, with potholes the size of elephants! In addition, it’s infamously known as the most dangerous road in the world, with around two people a day being killed, either by road traffic accidents or the bandits shooting the truck drivers for their cargo. These factors meant that the 500km stretch of northern Kenya was simply too unsafe and impractical to pass by bicycle, and therefore, we’d have to hitch a lift with one of the many trucks that pass through that way everyday. 

The journey is a hard one to describe; imagine all the worst parts of EasyJet and Ryanair thrown in together, add 800 stinking goat carcasses into the equation, plus the worst turbulence you’ve ever had and the notion that the one truck driver would be doing the entire 23 hour journey by himself…only taking 3 breaks for the entire duration. Needless to say, it was not an enjoyable journey and it was only made worse for Tobias by the fact he was experiencing issues from both of his main orifices. 

Eventually, we arrived in Isiolo at around 5.30am, and after some cycling around the town, we managed to find a cheap hotel and more importantly a bed. With Tobias still feeling unwell, Tom and I sat down for a much-needed sausage and egg breakfast and then hit the sack. 

The next day, Tobias’ condition had worsened, so we took him to the nearest clinic, where he had a blood test and then patiently waited for the results. Unfortunately, the results weren’t good and Tobias had tested positive for malaria, a huge issue throughout the majority of Africa and now a huge issue for us and, more to the point, Tobias. People may ask why we weren’t taking malaria tablets, and the main reason is we had been advised, by a number of GP’s, that taking the pills for such a long period of time can be extremely harmful to your liver and long-term health. Now, you’ll be pleased to know, we are taking preventative tablets as our time left in Africa can be classed as a safe period to take them. Tobias has taken some medicine, and luckily, the parasites were caught an early stage and he will make a full and speedy recovery. 

Our next stop is the Sosian Game Ranch, 300km north west of Nairobi. We’ll be staying with some friends of friends, and will hopefully see some big and deadly animals whilst we are there. We are in Africa now, the Africa we have dreamed about and longed for, and with that comes the highs of seeing wild animals on the side of the road, and the lows of malaria. This is Africa. 

Thanks for reading. x DD Tom, Phil, Tobias.

After a music-dry journey across Sudan we were finally tipped-off about some live music in Khartoum. In an alcohol-dry venue we enjoyed the Sudan Roots Band fuelled on caffeine and popcorn.