nairobi to addis: road quality?
 

looking for info on the quality of the main road from nairobi to addis ababa...from anyone who has done it recently...any advice re. it much appreciated...

ok, let me be the first to say, "its shit!" - from my experience back in January.

and calling it a road is indeed being magnanimous.

But otherwise, like you say, its the main road.

So, don't leave Nairobi without your visa for Ethiopia. Being told to go back to Nairobi to get it would leave you crying.

Its just a deeply rutted, rough, hard, rocky, pista of 550 kms or so, you can do in two days. Other than it never quits, never lets up, just pounds you for all 550 kms, its really not that bad. Unless of course, you hit it during rain season! Suerte!

BTW: the Long Way Down boys - this is where they blew out 4 shocks. So if you don't have support behind you carrying extra rear shocks, then you need to try to figure out how to save the one you got!

you have alright tarmac up to near Archer's post, then you hit the dirt road with the corregations. Its not hard in the sense of some of the tracks in the Congo, its just corregations that shake everything. Our shocks were on the way out on our Defender, these completely finished them. Having lost the shocks, we then had to limp along at 10mph and stopping each time the springs popped out to jack up the vehicle and push them back in. Lots of the local african 4x4s are set up with double shocks. Also road is reasonably safe but there are some intermitted bandit problems. However not usually interested in bikes or 4x4s, after the trucks. Once you hit the border at Moyale, its good tarmac all the way to Addis. We did Addis to the border in one day. Have fun.