Yesterday evening we discussed how we could plan our trip so we could leave town without much delay, using the good friend google maps and streetview.
The trip goes to the border of Tanzania to a place called Namanga.

At 08:30 in the morning we had breakfast, and after a short new team instruction how to place the bags on the Range Rover we left at 10:30 to Tanzania.
A short lunch prepared by Trudy we were good to go, we needed to do some groceries in a local town.
At that time we found out we had a problem we did forget the most important thing Beer!
2 towns further down the road we stopped to get our beer, that was a small mistake because of the fact that there was a very unfriendly person who approached the T-ford and started talking out loud and probably swearing in Swahili next that his lunch was coming out of his mouth while talking he was encouraged by the local people.
Quickly picked up Trudy and Renzo at the store and left town.

5 kilometres before the border we found a nice campsite, after a nice beer we make our camp.

Tomorrow we go to the border of Tanzania

Today is was it the departure day of the team Arnaud & Casper but before this we Arnaud, Casper, Jon en Renzo made a daytrip towards the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Dirk and Trudy used this day to make some adjustments to the T-ford and Land Rover one of these adjustments was to place the freshly flown in steringbar, so the cars are ready to go for the trip towards the border of Tanzania.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is next to the Nairobi National park which is a remarkable park on its own because it is situated next to Nairobi. After a short drive of about 20 minutes we were in a completely different surrounding, the temperature is quiet higher than in the city and the noise makes place for a serene quietness.
The organisation is dedicated to protection and the preservation of the Africa’s wilderness, and in particular endangered species like the elephant and the black rhino, the way they do this is to give shelter to orphaned animals.

The park is open everyday for about 1 hour in which they feed the elephants in 2 sessions. First the young elephants are up for the feeding from, which the youngest was brought in when it was when it was just 2 weeks old, the parents of the animals are pouched for their ivory.
It was really funny to see how these animals where fed by means of a large bottle. After a few pictures we were driven back to the hotel with our cab driver Benson2. Before the departure of Arnaud and Casper we had a few beers next to the pool and afterwards a lovely diner at the hotel. At 18:30 it was time to say goodbye from Arnaud and Casper they were driven towards the airport by our cab driver Benson2.

Tomorrow is the first trip for Jon and Renzo.

Sunday September 16 2012, 

Today we take it easy, that means no driving, we make plans for the coming days, catch up on our emails, but we also say goodbye to our guide Naty and help the new team, Jon and Renzo into their new role. The sticker is put on the car, the keys are officially handed over, so we are done.

We have had an incredible journey, seen a lot of beautiful things and made new friends. The visits to the SOS villages where very special and that the slogan “a loving home for every child” is absolutely true, so donate! 

To the new team we say good luck and have a lot of fun! 

Goodbye, 

Casper & Arnaud

Saturday September 15 2012,

We leave the SOS village in Meru where we stayed two days, we like to thank the staff and the kids for the beautiful time we had. They escort us 30km on the road after that we said our final goodbye. On the way we see a sign next to road that we passed the equator, we turn around to make some pictures. We would have missed that. A then Nairobi here we come, the two members of the next team, Jon and Renzo, are going to accompany Dirk & Trudy on there travel through Tanzania. We meet in the hotel and then the party starts, it’s going to be a long night! 

Casper & Arnaud

Friday september 14 2012,

We are still staying in the guesthouse of SOS Meru and we’re going to visit a National Park nearby. It’s amazing to see all the animals from such a short distance. We take beautiful road back to the SOS village where Peter is waiting for Dirk & Trudy for a promotion tour around town. Later that evening we turn our guesthouse into a movie theatre, we promised the kids that we would show them the greetings from the other villages we visited. It was a lot of fun for them, and also for us, to see the kids from other villages. But the most fun for them was to see themselves in the movie clips we shot yesterday. When the show was over, some of them thanked us in a very touching way. A great evening! 

Casper & Arnaud

Tuesday september 13 2012, 

We have a short trip to Meru where we are going to visit a SOS children’s village, the manager, Peter Wambugu and his team are waiting for us at the road. What a warm welcome they give us, the children are all excited about the T-Ford and it does not take long before they climb on the car and behind the wheel. Some of them can even sit in the car while Dirk takes them for a small ride around the premises. We haven lunch in one of the houses where we also get a small tour, in every house live ten children of different age. The youngest is four year old and the oldest boy is about 16. The village is beautiful maintained and the houses are big and very clean, what a difference if you compare it to normal houses we see everywhere in the country. It’s good to see that there is so much love for the kids, the staff and mothers provide. They get a good education and when they leave the village there are social workers who support them further in their life.

The staff is so friendly, they even invite us to stay in the guest house in the village! All the kids help us to offload our luggage and within a few minutes all our stuff is in the house. In the evening some mothers have cooked us a nice meal, we get spoiled, what a hospitality

Casper & Arnaud

We woke up early in Liasamis, after a quick check, Dirk discovers that the stirring rod has broken for the third time! We find a welder and reinforce it with an extra piece of metal, now it must hold. It has to be because we have one more day of dirt road ahead of us. After a few kilometres the Land Rover begins to act strange. We stop and find that the stabiliser has come off. Luck is with us, a couple off cars pass by and one of them happens to have the right bolt, how amazing is that! We fix the car and move on, and then it suddenly happens, after 400 km of bad roads, shaking and rambling, there is the tarmac road. We make a small dance, the average speed goes up from 15 km to 70 km per hour, and soon we reach Isolo where we spend the night.

Again a day of driving through the dust over rambling roads, we drove from Marsabit to Laisallas, which is small town in the middle of Kenia. Underway we have met two Geman adventurers. One on a 24 years old BMW motorbike and the other one on an old vespa motorcycle! They have both driven almost around Africa in 23 months, really amazing. After a photo session we say goodbye and continue to our destinations. We stay in a simple guesthouse where the shower is a bucket of water, refreshing!

Wederom een hobbelige rit door een deel van Kenia, we rijden van Marsabit naar Laisallas, zo’n 100 km door een stoffige omgeving. Onderweg komen we een Duitser tegen op de motor en later zijn maat op een vespa brommer. Beide zijn bezig Afrika in de rondte te rijden, eerst de westkust en via Zuid-Afrika weer omhoog. Het laatste deel dus de omgekeerde weg die wij afleggen. Zeker voor de jongen op zijn vesta een hele uitdagende prestatie! Bijzondere mannen, en dus zeker een foto momentje waardig. Laisallas is een klein dorp, we slapen in wat Trudy een bouwkeet noemt en de douche is een emmer water. Het plan is om morgen naar een lodge te rijden en daar een rustdag te nemen. Wel verdient naar 500 km hobbelen en rammelen.