Limping out of Ethiopia

Its been 3 weeks since Konstantin's accidents and the flurry of blog updates, while Anka had internet access, so I thought I would update everyone, as the only means of communicating has been via horrendously expensive cell phone calls. Uli booked Konstantin into, what turned out to be a rather, unfriendly bureaucratic (maybe due to the language barrier)Moenco garage, the Ethiopian Toyota dealership in Addis. The first day was spent analyzing the damage and preparing the quotation to undertake the mechanical repairs so that Uli & Anka could continue 'B ing Mad' travelers. Konstantin was promised for Thursday. Being a season African explorer and after this trip a garage veteran, Uli stationed himself at Moenco to make sure that work continued. As it turned out, the promised repaired radiator did not materialize and Moenco made various attempts at soldering K's damaged radiator until Monday 21 September, when Uli decided enough is enough and severed ties with Moenco. To add to their woes, it was discovered that the alternator was putting out a far greater voltage than is the norm.

But, you do not easily deter Uli & Anka. Armed with 2 bottles of radiator Stop leak, they gingerly left Addis behind and headed towards Awash National Park, about 250km's away as a test run. The radiators leak persisted after the first bottle, but miraculously the second did the trick. Buoyed up by this stroke of good luck they headed towards the Bale Mountains.

This past Saterday, Uli advised that they were heading back to Nairobi, their intention was to travel via Moyale (Ethiopia/Kenya border) back over one of the worst roads in Africa to Marsibit and then on to Nairobi, arriving hopefully today and even more hopefully a replacement radiator, that the ever reliable Claude of Bhogals Toyota had secured for us.

But, Africa still had a couple more hurdles to test the stamina of team Mad 2. A strut on the radiator that had not been secured corrected worked its way into a position, allowing it to slice a gash into the already weakened radiator. Uli's decision to take the busier (1 vehicle every other day road), but far worse condition road had been correct. They managed to flag down a lonesome traveller, who towed them to area where there was less treat from Shiftas, who move through this area from Somalia. Nothing is for nothing in Africa, so after receiving payment the driver agreed to arrange a mechanic to come out to Konstantin. As usual, problems always present themselves on weekend, so Uli & Anka had a long wait until the mechanic arrived on Sunday afternoon, remember there are no facilities and temperature soar way up into the 40's in this part of the world.

Very fortunately the mechanic new his stuff, his soldering has held, Konstantin has brought his weary, dirty and rather relieved passengers to Marsabit. They still have a very long road ahead, with the 250km section tomorrow being the worst, before they finally reach the relative sanctuary of Niarobbery, if all goes to plan on Wednesday.

But as Uli says, after a shower(cold or hot) and a night to lick their wounds, they will be fighting fit and ready for the next leg of their Rwemad adventure.

We wish them the very best of luck, they are an inspiration.

Marc & Lorna