Featuring Grant Guerin and Julie Rose with special appearance by some other guy

Our flight from Addis took us to Sydney via Bangkok. For the first time in three and a half years we were eating seriously good Thai food. How we had missed it. The eight hour lay –over saw us having Thai massage and eating noodles non-stop!

Ethiopia at last

Finally arriving in Moyales we found the town to be as dusty, dirty and tired as we were, yet it was a blessing to find sanctuary at the Catholic Mission where we could erect our trusty tent and bed down for the night.

The TV news of late had been warning of a great famine to rival that of an earlier, more famous, famine in Ethiopia. Visions of dry deserts and suffering all around were filling our heads. Stories from other riders had told tales of excellent roads and spectacular scenery marred by unfriendly Ethiopians hurling rocks, sticks and abuse.

We entered Ethiopia with some trepidation.

Its official.... it's just like Equatorial Africa

Little can be said about the road to the border of Ethiopia except that the 540 kilometres of dirt road is extremely isolated, rugged, rough and tiring. The scenery is spectacular as are the people who inhabit this area and indeed with many of the horror stories prevailing of that route, either be it security or road conditions none should deter the adventurous mind, having said that, our water and food stops were brief and also road conditions are such that you should expect possible damage to your bike.

We completed the journey in three days with a full days rest in Marsabit and when all is said and done it is in fact one of the only routes between the two countries and the most preferred.

Shocking!

The idea of corruption is to make as much money out of the muzungus (white foreigners) as possible. However, in our case it all backfired on the KRA (Kenyan Revenue Authority). Eventually, essentially, they disorganized their way out of money. We paid a maximum of $11.00 on 'special taxes' which started out as about $150.00.

'So, where are the four lanes?'

According to our map the road, from Tarveta (border town with Tanzania) to Mombasa, was nothing short of a four lane super highway. Our map has been proven wrong in the past!