Isiola to Marsabit

Day 2 - Monday 7th January 2008

Due to several warnings from Mike about the road from here, we awoke with some trepidation. We all took breakfast on the Hotel veranda and started out onto the road at 7.40am. Although rough, initially the road quality was not that bad, but it very soon got a lot worse. It was at this point, we were to later discover, that we had our first medical problem. Nick announced he had contracted Tourettes syndrome as we reached the first of the serious corrugations.

By the time we had reached Archers Post, we had lost Rennie & the mustard monster, only to find he had received the first of many punctures the group was to experience. Some of us had also lost fastenings on the lower part of the pannier frame, and Ross, with the aid of cable ties & duct tape managed to get everything back in working order. We then managed to find a puncture repair shop so Rennie could have the failed tyre repaired.

Mike was the first major casualty and fell on some awkward gravel, losing a pannier in the process. Fortunately, he remained unhurt.

Humble Scribe was belting along (having some serious fun actually), I had ceased worrying about my lack of clear vision, as the vibration was so bad it prevented any form of clear sight of anything, The highly virulent form of Tourettes had also been contracted by me at this point. When a rather large pothole momentarily parted my walnut buttocks from the seat. On it's return the seat had appeared to have relocated lower, a warm liquid feeling was dripping down my right leg, and a pungent smell was invading my nostrils. Making a mental check of all relevant sphincters, it dawned on me that my rear shock absorber had failed, and the oil contents had emptied down my right leg.

The shock absorber had failed within 10km of the scheduled lunch stop at Laisamis, Glenn rode the bike to the lunchtime stop (history repeating itself). One of two spare units was fitted in 90 mins, lunch (and plenty of water) was imbibed, and we carried on.

Rennie had phoned ahead (because of the political situation) and ensured we had 200 litres of fuel stored in Marsabit at one of his friends yards. We arrived in Marsabit at around 17:00 (9.5 hours to cover 267kms), and noted the place seemed fairly peaceful, but there was excessive activity around the main filling station. We located the yard (excessively secured) and we began the process of siphoning the fuel into the bikes and mustard monster. It took longer than anticipated, and we left the yard as night closed in.

Then on to the Jey Jey Centre. My first experience of a truly "Islamic" hotel. We were able to drive the bikes into the centre of the building (it had an internal open courtyard similar to the Moorish style). It was here that we started the fine art of "tactical" Immodium usage. An image I will leave to readers imagination.

We noted the availability of shower cubicles, and have had a hot, hard and dusty day, all opted for a "shower".

A shower consisted of going to see the "shower administrator" who then went downstairs to the Well with a large plastic basin and drew a large bucket of cold water. To this he added hot water from pot over a fire. The basin was returned and you then took it into the cubicle and doused yourself (in varying degrees) with the contents.

Ate & drank locally (beer was unavailable within the Hotel).

Shared my room with Glenn and what we thought to be a small but very noisy rodent. 

267kms