After Moyale we tackled the first 60 Km of extreme corrugation with the intention of doing some bush camping. But no such luck: all of a sudden the heat warning light came on and Uli braked to a grinding halt. Konstantin was fuming and the radiator was leaking like a sieve. It was quite hilarious as we put ‘pot and pans’ underneath to collect the heavily overpriced coolant solution which showered out.
While we were assessing the situation a Cruiser from Moyale stopped and asked us ‘what actually we are doing?’ They pointed out that the radiator is buggered and needed to be repaired.
They offered to tow us to a village 10 km away (surely for a hefty fee!) as they themselves were actually scared about shifta (bandits) activity in the area and promised to send a mechanic to us that same evening.
We were obviously the star attraction at the village which was assembled with beehive huts behind thick thorn bush enclosures. The whole crowd admired our ‘House’ on the roof and using a gas cooker to prepare some warm food in the shortest time.
The villagers sold firewood for a living.
Just as it got dark Simon, the mechanic arrived in a rattling battered Cruiser, armed with his tool box and his cell phone as a torch.
By this time Uli was an expert in assisting to take out any radiator and in a short hour Simon was on his way again to Moyale. He promised that he can do the repair and that he will be back the next day at 9H00.
We had a very entertaining evening as herd upon herd of goats and camels passed us silently, only announced by the tinkling of their bells. From 2H00 in the morning this endless procession started again, very orderly and only encouraged by a few clicking sounds by the herders, strangely using the latest model LED torches.
That Sunday turned out to be a looong wait, as no Simon arrived at the promised time.
While waiting, Uli discovered that a cross member in front of the radiator had worked itself lose on the bad corrugation and had cut into the radiator like a ‘knife into butter’
Eventually at 15H00 Simon arrived. His excuse was that it was Sunday and all the shops were closed but he was able to obtain the parts to do the repair. In no time the car was assembled, test driven and declared fit!
At dawn the next morning we tackled the horrendous stretch to Marsabit.
We reached it and Henry the Swiss’ campsite after five grueling hours.
The camp seemed pure luxury with its bucket shower, long drop and electrical lights, compared to what we have had the last three days.
A strong wind, reaching gale force strength at times, rattled our tent for the duration of the night as well as into the next morning.
The remaining 300 Km to Isiolo were just as punishing as the day before. With the ‘4 open window aircon’ we and the inside of Konstantin were powdered with a volcanic red dust, but Simons repair lasted and we could cruise on tar to Nairobi.
Here we picked up a new radiator and the excess baggage and equipment stored at various places, did some shopping and headed to Nakuru to our well known Bhogals Toyota workshop.
No comments:
Post a Comment