Finally on the road

I had spent 4 days waiting for my delayed motorbike that finally arrived at Nairobi airport. With the help of my fixer, Gabriel, getting the bike out of customs was relatively straight forward but it did take 4hrs of waiting around. So with the bike back at the hotel it wasn’t until the final evening before I start my epic journey, that it dawned on me the magnitude of what I was about embark on and I suddenly started to feel quite apprehensive.

However once the bike was loaded up the next morning and I was ready to start my journey down to Cape Town all my cocerns seamed to disappeared.

Before leaving the Nairobi Hilton It seemed an over tune moment for a photo to mark the occasion but I soon realised that the security guard kept photo bombing me, so thought the photo would be better if I asked him join me in my leaving photo.

I was finally off but It wasn’t long before I realised that riding a motorbike on the Mombasa road was a little more challenging than I had expected. Lorries were overtaking on this A road, knowing that I was heading towards them, resulting in me moving over onto the hard shoulder to avoid them. This would happen continually on my way to my first overnight stop at Maneaters Lodge, next to the Tsavo National Park.

The journey from Nairobi to Maneaters was only 163 miles but it took me over 5 hours to do the trip as the main Nairobi to Mombasa road is extremely busy and slow.

After completing about only 40 miles I realised that something wasn’t right with the bike. Stopping at a Shell petrol station I found that due to the weight of my luggage the chain was way to tight, a simple thing to fix if the Yamaha factory had not overtightened the axel spindle bolt which I could not undo with the tool I had purchased from Rally Raid. I needed to find a 27mm long reach ring spanner. Where the hell was I going to find this when I was in the middle of nowhere. I really didn’t want to ride on as the chain was so tight it may snap if I hit a large bump in the road. I stood looking at the bike for some time, as if that would fix the problem, then a local man appeared..”can I help you” I immediately thought ’what does he really want’ but to my surprise Julias genuinely wanted to help me and managed to find a roadside mechanic with the correct spanner.

With the wheel nut undone, adjusting the chain tension only took me 5 mins before I was back on the road to my destination of the day, Maneaters Lodge.

After experiencing a couple of police checks which only resulted in the policeman wanted to look at my bike, I looked at the mileage I had completed on my bike speedo to determine if I was close to my destination as I didn’t have my Sat Nav. (It was being sent from the UK to the Nairobi Hilton hotel but guess what...it had been delayed, so after going to the east coast as originally planned I now have to return to Nairobi to pick the Sat Nav up before going into Tanzania next week)

The Mombasa road seemed to go on and on but eventually I started to go through the Tsavo National Park but did not want to stop to take photos for obvious reasons, but it was amazing to see Elephants 50 yards from the road and Baboons and Zebras at the road side.

Another 30 miles completed and I still hadn’t seen the sign that I was told to look out for for the Maneaters Lodge. It was now 4.30pm and I did not want to be getting lost so I stopped at what I thought was a cafe at the road side to ask for directions.

I was told that I had gone way past the turn off by at least 25 miles!!! After receiving some solid directions, I turned around and eventually after 25 miles found the roadside sign which I had missed.

The track off the Mombasa road was a red dirt track taking me into the bush and went on for some time. Only a 4x4 would get down this track As it was really rutted. After a few minutes I started to get a little concerned as I had visions of a lion jumping out from the undergrowth but I continued on as quick as I could until a man came running towards me. He was the security guard for the lodge...I had finally arrived at Maneaters.

I had an amazing welcome and given a drink and cold face cloth which was incredibly welcome having spent over 5 hours on the bike in a very humid climate.

After showing me to my tent (Permanent Safari tent with a reed based roof) I realised that the only thing separating me from the National Park was a small river. Standing by the bar area I looked directly into the bush area where the Impala had just started to come down to quench their thirst. Just beneath where I was standing about 10 ft away the water seemed a little unsettled and before I new it a crocodile head appeared. He was clearly giving me the eye! Then in the background I could here the elephants on the other side of the river.This place is truly amazing....