Kenya: Tsavo East to Nairobi

Wednesday 18^th march

Mombasa Highway, Kenya: Having had a light breakfast, we were on the road by 8.45am. The Swiss guests were checking out at 6am and they were so noisy we may as well have got up then, there was no more sleep to be had.

The Highway was definitely calmer than last night, not so many lorries at all. Our first stop was Makindu to visit the famous Sikh Temple there. That was a 175km drive and we arrived there at 1115. We were shown around and then invited for something to eat. You can call in anytime apparently and there is always free food. Also, if you want, they will provide free accommodation. All you do at the end is leave a donation. We had a delicious vegetarian meal, quite spicy for 1130 in the morning and it was actually the end of their breakfast service. We were back on the road at 1215, having had a walk around the grounds.

Now, the next stop was Nairobi and that was about 160 kms. There’s a lot of road works on the A109 as you get within 50kms of Nairobi and that slowed us down considerably. Of course, we saw two more truck wrecks as we passed through this area..

We eventually arrived in the city at about 3pm and then it just became a traffic jam. Anyone who is familiar with the city will know how bad that can actually be. We headed for Jungle Junction, a small guesthouse and campsite in a very nice part of the city. The last 2 kms probably took at least an hour and as it was up an incredibly steep hill, with stop start traffic, I had to engage low ratio or I would have burnt the clutch out by the time we got to the top. Dusty is amazingly strong but put it on a steep hill in that situation and it would struggle to pull away in normal gearing.

We got to Jungle Junction and got the last two rooms, they only have six. Not long after, 2 South Africans rode in on their BMW 1200GS bikes. They had arrived from Cairo & both their shocks also went on the infamous road from Ethiopia to Nairobi. They decided to camp as they didn’t wish to travel any further today. They are heading to SA after this.

We left the lodge after breakfast and after about 4 hours on the road, stopped at a mosque for brunch. 

I use the word brunch as they were in between breakfast & lunch so everything was on offer. It was all free, and seemingly very popular. We had to cover our heads which is normal in a mosque. 

The food was excellent and the welcome very friendly. That set us up for a straight run to Nairobi. About 100kms from Nairobi, the road was under construction and it was awful. Yet more truck wrecks. 

Once in Nairobi, we headed for Jungle Junction, a good overlanders spot.


At about 6.45 pm we headed to a local shopping centre, to an Italian Restaurant I’d eaten at during a previous trip to Nairobi. Had a very nice pasta dish followed by a decadent dessert and we headed back to JJ about 9.45 pm & straight to bed. We’ve got King size beds in our rooms so a good sleep is anticipated. Tomorrow, we have about 250 kms to travel to Nanyuki and at that point we will cross the equator, 25 kms from our final destination, into the Northern Hemisphere