Short Update

Short Update

The plan is to drive down to Moshi, Tanzania in the morning after I have done some last minute checks on Bridget's repairs. I have replaced her fuel tank, fuel line, brake line, rear shock absorbers, front disc pads and a few cosmetic items (most important as any woman will tell you). There is a picture in the Gallery under the heading Nairobi, of Bridget with her new windscreen. When we return to the UK she will need several replacement panels and a re-spray. So I am taking applications from spraying specialists wishing to secure the prestigous contract for spraying Bridget in her new corporate colours (details currently not disclosed). As well as the picture of Bridget, there are some photos of Marabou Storks, a truely pre-historic bird, not unlike my cousin!! There is a colony, if that is the right word, of these birds in the area surrounding CMC Motors Group in Lusaka Road, Nairobi. Standing at a height of...
Read More
Kenya

Kenya

Putting motoring matters aside, what is Kenya like? My first impressions, given the location of my entry, were understandably of rural Kenya. The north of the country is eighty percent plains where you can literally see for miles. The landscape is splattered with bushes but few trees; most of the bushes appeared to be covered in very sharp thorns and the trees that do grow resemble mushrooms with flat top foliage, often no more than fifteen feet tall. The hills and mountains at the edges of the plains are mostly barren at the top, very craggy, with some vegetation at the base. Rarely are there any trees. The rural population still includes many very traditional tribesmen looking quite ferocious in their colourful dress. They carry traditional tools and weapons and presumably hunt and forage as their forefathers would have done. Mixed with these are the villagers that are scratching out a living by growing their own produce, keeping a few head of...
Read More
The Difficult Bit

The Difficult Bit

The drive from Addis Ababa to Awassa is only one hundred and ninety miles. The road is generally good and the hotel I was hoping to stay at, The Haile Resort, is less than a mile off the main highway. As is often the way the most difficult part of the journey is finding the correct road. Indeed the town of Awassa was only mentioned when we had been on the road for forty-five miles. However the drive was otherwise straightforward and we arrived at 11:30. I was met on the steps of the resort by the General Manager, no less. An educated gentleman that has spent some of his life in Sheffield and Cambridge, England he was aware of MG and genuinely interested in the drive. The Haile Resort is a gem of a hotel set on the banks of Lake Awassa. Associated with Haile Gebrsalassie, the Olympian athlete, the hotel has all the health and fitness facilities you could...
Read More
New Meaning to ‘Breaking News’

New Meaning to ‘Breaking News’

From Khartoum we drove 250 miles east to the town of Gedaref close to the Ethiopian border. The heat was not as intense as it was across the desert, but it was still in the mid-thirties centigrade. The road surface deteriorated considerably for the last one hundred miles and although Bridget has been through worse, it was unexpected after the great roads prior to Khartoum. On inspection of the cars that evening Chris discovered Dorothy had a broken rear leaf spring. By the usual MG good fortune a passer-by offered to help and whistled up a good mechanic within half an hour. It was arranged for Dorothy to go to the workshop the next morning and I would chase the British Embassy for the letters we needed for the border crossing. I phoned the Embassy and, full of apologies, they admitted they had misread the dates and thought we needed the letter the following week. They promised to e-mail me later that...
Read More
Aswan to Khartoum

Aswan to Khartoum

You should be aware from the two previous bulletins of Chris’s misfortune although it has turned out alright finally. The dog involved was identified by a local vet treating him for food poisoning and was not Benji. The Aswan to Wadi Halfa ferry is not your usual car ferry as it consists of a passenger boat, a general cargo barge and a vehicle barge. The barges travel independently of the passenger boat, are slower therefore take longer, and as they leave at more or less the same time do not arrive until one or two days after the ferry. We actually loaded our cars onto the barge on Sunday and returned to board the ferry ourselves on the Monday at 09:30. The ferry does not leave until 17:00 and by then is a seething mass of humanity. It appears that every Arab that travels carries several huge bags of goods, enough to fill most small shops. So by the time the ferry...
Read More