Kenya

2017-03-13 to 2017-03-20

After scrambling to get my e-visa application done on Monday morning I head north to the Kenya border. Other than the fact that there is a complete lack of signage at the border I check out of Tanzania fairly easily. Once I get to the Kenyan side of the border it is obvious Kenya is more developed as the secure area doesn’t have touts, money changers, and sales people wandering around in it. The customs office is even air conditioned which is a blessing as I end up waiting for my visa to be approved which was my fault as I should have submitted my application in person rather than applying online, or applied earlier but the border officer phoned head office to have mine expedited so I didn’t need to re-apply (and pay again) at the border. Twenty minutes later I received my visa then checked my bike in to Kenya. I headed to Nairobi where I would be staying at Jungle Junction, a hostel for overlanders. On my way in to Nairobi the GPS misled me and tried to bring me in to Eastliegh (the area of Nairobi all the travel advisories mention) fortunately people yelling mzungu mzungu (literally: confused wanderer, practically: lost white man) tipped me off that I probably wasn’t where I wanted to be. Between the delay at the border and getting lost I then battled my way across Nairobi in rush hour traffic. The traffic in Nairobi is horrific and is really the only place that I feel like people are intent on running me over. That being said I receive lots of thumbs up and waves while riding around town including one guy leaving his seat on a packed bus to come to the door to give me a thumbs up.

Mount Kenya

Once I checked in I met up with the other travellers where we shared tales from the road. Like the Horizon’s Unlimited meeting was a great place to start in South Africa, Jungle Junction was a great place to end my time in Africa. During the week I went North to see Mount Kenya and cross the Equator. I spent my last three days preparing my motorcycle for transport back home to Canada.

Equator

On the Sunday night before I left I came down with another stomach bug. This one is easily the worse yet and results in me essentially spending the evening in the washroom before flying to Morocco then Montreal before landing in Vancouver on Tuesday all while quite sick. I picked up the motorcycle after I arrived and went straight to my parents place on Vancouver Island for recuperation.