DIRT and TRAIL DECEMBER 2021

PER
South Africa
to Slovenia part 4
By Cronjé Bruwer
A LITTLE BIT OF
R ‘N R IN KENYA
LINK
Photo 1
As you would have read in the previous episode, our friend
Jacques Nel contracted malaria in Uganda and was really
struggling so we decided to make a dash while he still had
a little bit of strength to handle a heavily laden GS through
tough off road to Nairobi where a friend of Jacques has
been living for quite a while now.
We entered Kenya at Busia and met up with a fellow adventure
biker from the Czech Republic at the border post who was
really loving travelling through Africa. Most of the African
countries have a one-stop border post where both the
country’s border officials share, this make crossing the border
much easier.
We crossed back into the Southern hemisphere on our way to
Nairobi, see photo 1
Enroute to Kisumu, considered the second most important
city, after Kampala, in the greater Lake Victoria Basin with its
climate classified as humid (over 1,100m a.s.l., for those who
know what that means), and temperatures reaching as high as
34 degrees Celsius during the hot seasons and covers an area
of approximately 417 Km² on the shores of the majestic Lake
Victoria, we experienced our first major breakage on Cronje’s
motorcycle, The link above the driveshaft broke! The reason
was hitting an unexpected speed-bump with a heavy loaded
motorcycle just a little bit too fast. The true friendliness and
generosity of the African people was once again shown when a
local truck driver took me on his motorcycle to an engineering
shop which repaired the link within 2 hours, see photos
2 and 3. Jacques in the interim also managed to contact
some industry mates back home and “B&N, (Brad and Niel),
motorcycles” in Edenvale, (give Niel a call on 060 070 5517),
donated a link which was flown to Nairobi with a biker friend,
who happened to be travelling to that part of the world, in his
hand luggage so we had a spare just in case we got stuck
again. Biker’s brothers standing together!
We stayed at Jacques’s friends house in Nairobi in utter luxury
for a couple of days so Jacques could recover/recuperate
from his bout of malaria. It was great to put our feet up a bit,
wash off the trail dust, rest our weary bones and rejuvenate our
spirits as well as do some much needed maintenance to our
trusty and faithful steeds. Thank you so much folks, you can
never fully understand how much we needed that!
Spare parts were obtained from Jungle Junction, a camp site
and resort based in Nairobi, owned by Chris, that also stocks
a bunch of essential parts for the cross Africa adventure bikers
and has a fully kitted out professional workshop in his garage,
we serviced our bikes, see photo 4.
Thankfully, after a few days of airconditioned comfort and
luxury, Jacques was feeling much better from the malaria and
decided not the fly back to South Africa but to complete the
rest of the trip to Europe with Colin and Cronje. We managed
to wander around a bit and experience a bit of the Kenya
lifestyle. The farms on the outskirts of Nairobi is well organized,
beautifully maintained and form very pretty scenery.
Nanyuki is a Market town in Laikipia County of Kenya lying
northwest of Mount Kenya along the A2 road and at the
terminus of the branch railway from Nairobi. The name is
derived from Enyaanyukie, the Maasai word for ‘resemblance’.
It is situated just north of the Equator, (0° 01’ North).
E
W
bea
84 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2021