Last night our preliminary plans were to bicycle the first 50km to lunch and then get on buses instead of cycling our convoy into Nairobi. However, that was before it was final that election results would be announced this morning. With that updated information and advice that people could flock to Nairobi for the celebrations/protests of the results – we ended up being on bus instead. This morning we stayed at our nice whitewater/kayak camp and then had lunch before boarding two overland trucks for trip to Nairobi.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
Compared to our earlier buses, this was all pretty easy and all on paved roads. There were a few hills starting out and then it became flatter. Meanwhile we went from two-lane road to four lanes and then six and eight lanes as the highway became busier approaching Nairobi. We saw some supporters of the new president with trademark red “TNA” (also known as Jubilee) shirts. However, we didn’t really see large groups collected together. Without too much difficulty we found ourselves on the overland camp for our rest day here in Nairobi.

We are in outskirts of town, though there is a large mall pretty close to here with all familiar comforts.
Photo below tells you several things about where we’re at:

• Gasoline is approximately $5 per gallon
• The Libyan oil company still has stations here
• There is pizza delivery, grilled chicken and other pizza

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As a whole it feels like a richer area than places we’ve been.

We’ve been resting for a while, so not as much need to clean or do laundry but still a chance to regroup before what hopefully will be bicycle departure to Tanzania on Monday. I’ve already been to the mall and like many Kenyans stopped and listened to president elect make his victory speech as well as the opposition make a (graceful but not conciliatory) speech still challenging the results. I have already noticed some occasional election posters coming down, so hopefully post-results period will be at least as calm as while Kenya waited for results.

With exception of occasional potholes, the road is well paved though without much in way of paved shoulders. Traffic is busier and hence we need to keep out for passing traffic both from behind and from ahead. Overall, vehicles do at least take care to safely pass.

We see coffee, tea, bananas and other tropical fruits. Along the road we even saw fruit stands with variety of fruits. Overall, the area appears more prosperous. People are friendly, and less reserved than the Masaii in Northern Kenya but also more willing to engage.

Today started with a synchronized start at the equator. We stopped for a group photo with the equator sign. Photo below shows the pile of cameras that all needed to get that photo, so instead I got the photo of the picture takers (I’m sure I can link to an official equator shot :)). Also here were pitchers the locals used to “illustrate the Coriolis effect”.
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[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
The next 20-30km as well as much of the day I would categorize as going along Mt Kenya. This 5000+ meter peak on our left, we went along some gentle ups and downs as we crossed into different drainages. I stopped briefly at 22km for coke stop and then we passed through town of Chaka at 48km with a number of roadside vendors. After this point, the hills became a bit shorter and steeper. We also passed along some chicken processors.
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At 57km was a left turn and then a few hills before lunch at 60km. In photo above, Adele, the afternoon sweep gets her bike ready. The next 9km also hilly but then we reached an area with mostly descents as we the road had long declines. This was also the area with some curio shops and the fruit stands along the way. I was even surprised to see someone set out a series of chairs for sale. An indication that we’re coming closer to urban areas.
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At 101km we turned off and then 2km of rough road to our camp. We’re camped at a “whitewater camp” with kayaks, swimming pool but especially nice is good lawn for camping.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

The election commission is manually counting votes and has said not to expect a pronouncement before Friday. The TV stations are still in an endless loop showing the last results they had – some of which are stale after electronic transmission failed and updates halted on Tuesday. With latest election commission ruling to count “spoiled ballots” as part of the total ballots cast, it will be more difficult for one candidate to have 50% of the total and hence more likely for this to continue for a while into an April runoff.

Otherwise, things appear very calm, both locally in Nanyuki and what we see in the media. At dinner tonight I’m sure we’ll get our next update but I’m hopeful that we’ll be back on our bikes and cycling tomorrow :). [Update: we ride tomorrow, hooray!]

From here it is two cycling days to Nairobi, one rest day there and then two cycling days to Arusha, Tanzania. We have a three day rest in Arusha including chance to find local tour operator for more traditional Africa wildlife safari.

For another for fun link, here is Tour D’Afrique’s summary of our equator party. It was a costume party and I decided to go as a collage of African countries we had cycled in: a head scarf for Egypt/Sudan, a Fly Emirates jersey for Sudanese/Ethiopian kids, a stick for Ethiopia, election posters for Kenya and a hula hoop for the equator.

It was a fun hike, though walking back was surprised at how long the return seemed. We got some good views of Mt Kenya as well as trail hiking without devoting our entire rest period to a summit hike. The highest summit that is non-technical is 4985 meters high. Overall a fun though longer day. Some images of the hike below:

The entrance gate
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We crossed the equator, sun was better on the Northern Hemisphere side of the sign but we actually crossed north to south
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Hiking started on a road
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Highest point (still a ways to the real peaks)
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Baboon on the way back
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Now watching the live results of the election on TV (one candidate seems to be over 50% of early vote returns with 2.5% counted but we don’t know where those votes are from). In Nanyuki voting all seemed pretty orderly:

• There was a large park block in town. Along one side of the park was a row of tents marked alphabetically by “stream” and then first name. I understood stream to be similar to last name.
• Lined in front of these tents were half a dozen lines each with at least a hundred people carefully waiting their turn. Unlike the political rallies, I didn’t see much in way of bright campaign colors, e.g. orange, yellow or red. The TV tells us that overall voter turnout was 86% of registered voters (14.3 million registered voters, 33,000 poling stations, ~100,000 police). Don’t know about rest of the country, but Nanyuki looked very orderly. Polls were apparently open from 6am to 5pm. Once people credentials were compared with registration, they voted and then had their index fingers marked with indelible ink.
• Talked with one man who showed me his marked index finger and asked if I had voted. Told him I wasn’t Kenyan and hence it wouldn’t make sense for outsiders like me to vote. He laughed and observed I probably would be a Odinga supported (I could have the coalition wrong but it was opposite of his favorite).
• Shops and businesses in town were mostly closed. A few cafes and local supermarket were open. However, most banks and other shops seemed to be closed today for the election.
• Voters were asked to vote in six different positions: president, parliament representative, women’s representative, senator, governor, senator and county representative. There are eight presidential contenders with two leading candidates (Kenyatta from Jubilee coalition and Odinga from Cord coalition). If any presidential candidate receives 50.1% of the vote and at least 25% in half the counties, they win outright. Otherwise there is a runoff.
• The election commission has up to seven days to declare a winner, but has promised to deliver results within 48 hours. TV stations also have live results coming in in the evening as I’m watching them.
• US embassy had a twitter feed and mid-day was reporting only isolated violence in north east and along the coast. The newspaper reports that British government had previously sent message calming fears and advising tourists and expats to go about their daily routines normally, while the US government had issued more cautionary notes prior to the election. Newspaper has big editorial asking winners to be magnanimous and losers not to be sore losers – and pointing out how much the country can lose economically with poor election response. Stock and currency markets were apparently positive as investors guessed the election would go well.

First reports coming in are presidential level, but over time these will start getting broken down by county as well as showing the other races. We still have some time before the results really start coming in as well as seeing how the country reacts. However, what I can see and read from Nanyuki looks encouraging so far of this election being a process with high level of interest but also being conducted orderly fashion.

Tomorrow more shops should be open and look forward to venturing further, e.g. to find and cross the equator which is just a few km south of town.

Today the bus ride was 350km, but fortunately only ~120km of this was on very rough roads. Some of this is a mixed blessing as it would have been some challenging cycling to ride the first bit on rough pavement. What surprised me today was how much the landscapes changed. It definitely feels like we’re not in northern Kenya anymore but now in a more prosperous, less tribal and more lush part of the country.

Initially from Marsabit we came around bend into some rough roads and just a few km down the road came past two elephants grazing off to the left. The landscape gradually became drier and drier again. Road was still rough and took us almost two hours for the first 50km where we made our first stop. A small village, desert oasis. Election posters were up but one of the locals was willing to explain several things: this was tribal and this village (and tribe) was voting for the ERP candidate who they saw as leading. In addition to ERP there was “Cord” coalition and some smaller parties as well. He thought tribal didn’t make the most sense – but this is how it was. When I mentioned I was from USA, he asked if we were similarly tribal (my answer, no the politicians fight over other things). He also noted that Obama’s father was from Kenya, though from a different tribe than his tribe.

After our desert stop, we continued on rough roads to Liamisis just shy of 100km. Again still dry area though slightly larger town. We came through town and stopped for lunch. Here were more people in Masai tribal dress. We saw a pair of ostriches along this part of the route.

Fortunately about 15km after Liamisis we came to new paved road and our speed increased. In addition to the road getting better, the area soon became more lush and more developed. By Isolio there was enough change with crops such as corn and later wheat beginning to appear. Shops looked more prosperous, more people but not as much election stuff in proportion. We also started a climb from here slowly in the bus as we drove up to Nanyuki.

Nanyuki looks like an interesting town to explore further. We’re about 3km from the equator, on side of Mt Kenya and its national park and otherwise the town looks larger than we’ve seen before. This is a bit of a tourist area and we have good camp site at a local hotel here. I’ve gotten a hotel room here with plans of updating blog and internet over the next few rest days. Also will see how well the bike did on the bus ride. Otherwise a chance to relax and get set up for the trip ahead. So far the internet connection is very sluggish but hopefully this is our group overloading things with uploads…

• Crossing the border in Moyalle, Kenya there were two noisy political rallies that came by. Supporters wearing bright orange colors for their candidate
• In our first day cycling in Sololo, a very small village we stayed near the first day of Kenya cycling – again election posters and supporters with bright yellow shirts.
• Today when we arrived in Marsabit, the town was alive with people everywhere. Noisy rallies and one group with orange, one with red and one with yellow. We took some photos from the bus but were later advised that a naturally reserved nature of Kenyans and sensitivity of political rallies that this wasn’t a good thing to do.

The excitement and activity is much more than the equivalent pre-election hype in the USA, particularly since these are essentially small towns.

The wild card with these elections is that this excitement remains calm as results are announced, i.e. not with some of the violence that marked the aftermath of the 2007 election. That particular violence caused TDA to skip over Kenya and have riders regroup in Tanzania to continue the trip.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
As a precaution, TDA has also modified our plans. Originally there were ten cycling days through Kenya – though last year there were only nice with one skipped over with lawless area in the north. This year the plan is to have five cycling days. The remaining five days have been replaced by two days of riding a bus to skip those sections and then three extra rest days just after election to monitor things. Hopefully all is well and we will continue after that.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
Today was first of those two bus riding days and we ended up in town of Marsabit. The two days we skipped totaled 170km and were some of the roughest roads we’ve seen. Heavily corrugated and occasional mixtures of soft sand. It took us eight hours on a bus to cross this region (on smooth roads, most cyclists would have covered same distance in same time). The area became very dry, first only a few thorny bushes and then even those left. The biggest part was coming into the town of Marsabit with excitement and activity mentioned above.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
We’re camped on edge of town in area of local catholic center. The nuns are excellent hosts and even prepared dinner. Also nice to get showers and nice place to relax before our next and longer bus ride tomorrow.
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Last night we camped near a prison in Moyale. The ride started out going through the center of Moyale, which was still quiet from the day before. Locals helped guide us and point us in the right direction. That road headed down a hill. It was some rough riding, but there was still enough of a track to find.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
After Moyale, we were in the dry desert areas crossing a village after 5km or so. The Kenyan villagers are a little more shy than the Ethiopians, though they still yell out, “How are you?”. I try replying, “I am fine. How are you?” but this gets another “How are you” reply at least as often as anything else.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
We passed along several large herds of camels. These beasts are big! Still figuring out how they move along the road. Cows will generally stare for a while but then slowly move along the way. Goats will dart across. Donkeys in Kenya are a little more skittish and unpredictable, so give them some berth. Camels I haven’t fully figured out.

After the village it was some steady cycling and was surprised to find myself at 40km by 10:30am or so. That wasn’t so bad! After lunch that road continued rough but passable though it also got warmer. At 60km my rear tire developed a slow leak. I pumped it up and that lasted another 10km. I also passed the TDA trailer where the welds holding the hitch had failed. Staff was figuring out how to get it repaired again. Without too much difficulty I found myself at campsite next to small village of Sololo.

Below is a picture of the local “hotel” that had small store to buy some drinks and snacks.
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These birds (I’m told ibis) all liked to cluster in top of the tree.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

In Northern Kenya, the huts now seem to get adorned with lots of loose stuff to patch all the gaps.
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Also there was this poster showing people with various dress.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com] ; dress poster

The road was smooth and not much in the way of hills. After having breakfast it was thus a pretty quick ride to lunch at 50km. We passed through a few small villages and locals were out watching as we cycled past. Some children were having fun chanting in unison at riders to see what response they might get. Women here are more likely to be dressed in tribal colors.

Those hills weren’t too steep, at photo below, Tessa and Claire were crossing almost last hill into Moyale. There was no race and hence it was an easy ride. What we didn’t realize was that the Ethiopian immigration office would take a two hour lunch stop from noon to 2pm.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

I arrived just a little past noon and hence like half the other riders, could see Kenya below but needed to wait at local cafe before we could check out of Ethiopia. Money changers came past to get rid of remaining birr, at least those not spent on coke or a snack.
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As 2pm came we crossed out. Both Kenya and Ethiopia had new biometric scanners that took our finger prints. We filled out the appropriate forms and without much difficulty checked out of Ethiopia, crossed to Kenya and were into the fourth country of the trip. I bought a local SIM card, but vendor failed to tell me about the registration step (or do it for me as others had done) and hence my phone didn’t work yet. By time I figured it out, the vendor had closed.

We also learned of a revision of plans ahead. We are advised not to travel on election day and also that we’ll be in better position out of the northern areas in unlikely possibility of any election unrest. Hence, we replace five cycling days with two days of bus travel. We’ll then watch election results and few days after before proceeding on the road again.