Kenya

31 July – 2 August 2011 Karibu Kenya! Welcome to the land of vast savannahs, desolate deserts, verdant forests and sublime beaches. Kenya straddles the equator and is blessed with a variety of landscapes and peoples who have made this the most developed East African country. Most of that development lies in the southern portion…

2 – 4 August 2011The first leg of the Lake Turkana Route, from the border with Ethiopia to Loyangalani, was an epic journey through an untamed part of Africa. I only had two falls in the sand and quickly got to grips with the loose surface and started enjoying myself over the desert landscape. After…

4 -5 August 2011The journey down from Lake Turkana continued across the beautiful savannahs of northern Kenya, ending in Maralal, up on an escarpment. Our convoy had bush-camped a few nights on this trip but most of them were hurried as we rode right up to sunset. Now, with the convoy smaller and no party…

6 – 10 August 2011Successfully riding the Lake Turkana route was a major accomplishment for me and it was an exciting end to the first half of my round-the-world journey. I was planning on taking a break in Nairobi for a few months and the drive from Maralal to the capital felt like a short…

August – December 2011When I left Chicago at the start of this trip, I had a vague idea of taking a long break somewhere in Africa. Besides a desire of getting to know one place really well, in contrast to my transience while on the road, I needed this break to conduct research for the…

December 2011While traveling might seem like a holiday to some, there’s come a point when long-term travelers actually need a holiday from their travels. And I think a beach holiday is just what I needed. Christina, David and I headed down to the small fishing village of Watamu on the Kenyan coast for a few…

January 2012 I was taking a break in Kenya primarily to conduct research for my masters thesis in sustainable development. I was taken on by ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) to conduct research on gender and agricultural water management use under a bigger farm water productivity project. I spent my first…

February 2012 For the second half of the field work for my research into gender and agricultural water management, I moved to Makindu. It’s further down the highway towards the coast and lower in elevation than Machakos. The land was considerably drier and the farms were bigger as the terrain wasn’t hilly. The farmers here…

March – May 2012After two months in the field, I returned to Nairobi to complete the report writing and get back to some city life. I celebrated my birthday, went to some yoga classes, did some second-hand clothes shopping and enjoyed cooking for myself again. It was good to revive our Food without Borders dinners…

April – August 2012During my break in Kenya, I acquired some sponsors to replace gear and parts that had worn out during the first part of my trip from Chicago to Nairobi. I also got some sponsors for a few new jazzy parts, like Pivot Pegz. But the major items for this rebuild on sanDRina…

7 July – 11 August 2012In the last few weeks of my time in Kenya, I went around and visited some of the country’s attractions, namely Hells Gate National Park, Lamu and the Elephant Orphanage near Nairobi. The beautiful cliffs of Hells Gate National Park, about two hours north of Nairobi. The columnar basalt face…

31 July – 5 August 2011As I get ready to leave Kenya, I remember back to the epic journey that I had when I entered the country from Ethiopia, riding the rugged route along Lake Turkana. Here’s the video from that journey. It’s a bit long at 17 mins, but I think it captures what…

27 September – 14 November 2012My long breakdown in Tanzania had pushed my trip to go in a new direction. As longtime followers of this journey know, I’ve been pursuing a distance masters over the past three years and I was due to give my last exams for the degree in South Africa. So, I…