Wednesday, 7th March 2007

To: Archer's Post

Oh my God, what an adventure! So, yesterday, everybody in Marsabit town was telling me that I have to start early if I want to find a lift, heading in the direction of my friends. I tried to start early, but the Italian priest that I'd met yesterday said that he was going to Nairobi, leaving this morning, and I could ride with him. When I went back to the church this morning, however, he'd changed plans and is leaving tomorrow! Under normal circumstances, I would have thought, "O.k., no problem - another day in Marsabit." The only problem, however, is that I had told the Tour d'Afrique leaders that I would catch them up today! Now, if I didn't catch them up, they'd wonder where the heck I was!

So, starting at 11:00, I was on the road, looking for transport. There are no busses. Most people ride on top of big long-haul trucks. Yes, you read that right - ON TOP! It looks very scary. They could fall off! I did NOT want to climb up on top of one of those things. People told me I would have to - that's the only transport around here. But I said, "I CAN'T! I'll DIE!" So, after about an hour, I did find a lift with a private car that was going about 50 km down the road. They asked me where I was headed, and I told them I was headed about 160-170 km down the road. They asked, "What village?" I said, "I don't know. My friends will be out there somewhere, bush camping." They then said that they were only going about 50 km. I said, "That's o.k. 50 down. 110 to go." They smiled and let me hop in. It was quite an interesting ride, really, because it was with a water engineer and his driver. This water engineer was working for an NGO and he was stopping at schools along the way. Interesting because, from the main road, you don't even see or notice these schools. To get to one of them, we had to wiggle our car through a village, and I am just positive that that village had not seen a white person come through there, ever. It was just a village, in the middle of the rocky desert area. The mud houses were interesting, because they were round. I'm used to square ones.

So, after about an hour and a half, we finally made it the 50 km to the village where the engineer's final destination was. So, I hopped out and there was a little roadside "restaurant" there, so I got a soda and started waiting for my next lift. It was very, very hot. The owner of the "restaurant" told me that my friends had all stopped there yesterday. I was hot on their tails! I waited and waited. After about half an hour, a truck came by, but wouldn't stop when I tried to wave it down. After another half an hour, a small 4-wheel-drive vehicle came by, but again wouldn't stop. I was getting worried that I wouldn't reach my friends in their bush camp before dark because by now, it was already 2:30. I decided I might have better luck getting the next vehicle to stop if I walked a bit out of town. So, under the glare of the sun, I grabbed my bag and walked about 1/2 km outside of town. I then started to wait... and wait ... and wait. No vehicles. Not even one. I was hot, and getting thirsty. I finally decided to hike back into town and continue waiting there, and just at that time - a truck came by! They stopped!! I got in. It was now 3:30. "Yippeeee!" I thought, "I may make it to my friends before dark."

But then we started to move and I realized within minutes that we would never make it to my friend's bush camp before dark. On those bumpy, rough, dirt, currogated roads, that truck was moving about 10-15 km an hour! I am NOT exaggerating! I got in the truck at 3:30 in the afternoon. We finally made it to Archer's Point, about 150 km down the road - at 2:30 a.m.!! My trucker friends were very friendly, though they spoke very little English. They did manage to tell me that they were Somali's. They told me this when I told them that we had come through Ethiopia. They said "Ethiopia - bad." I guess the Somalis don't like Ethiopians too much! At about 7:30 p.m., we stopped for dinner in a village/town called Lisaimis. The owner of the restaurant said that my friends had all come through there and stopped for cokes this afternoon! Hot on their tails, I thought! Nicely, the Somalis bought my dinner for me - some meat stew/rice thing. By 10:00, after we'd travelled about 25 km (only) from Lisaimis, I started trying to look out, in the dark, for the tents and vehicles of our group. But by about 12:00 midnight, I was sure we must have passed them in the night. So I tried to sleep. Hahahahaha. Bump, bump, bump. By 2:30, exhausted, we arrived at Archer's Post, a rinky-dink little nothing town. I told my trucker Somali friends that I'd like to get out there because I was sure I had already passed my group in the night. They were worried about just leaving me there, in the middle of the night, so they got out with me and made sure I had a place to sleep, before they left again. Very nice.


---------------- TODAY -------------- TOTAL
Cycled ----------- 0 ------------------- 3,030 km (1,902 mi)
Sagged ----------- 85 km (53 mi) ---- 1,625 km (1,119 mi)
Total ------------- 85 km (53 mi) ------ 4,655 km (3,021 mi)