Saturday 6 March 2010

A DAY IN MARSABIT...

Marsabit is the Machu Picchu of Kenya. If Kenya had to hide its civilisation from Armageddon, Marsabit is the place they should use...


It is the weirdest, most remote and most difficult place to get to, I have ever been. Most of the 50 000 strong community who live in this 1400 meter high hidden town have never seen what tarmac looks like. To do that they would have to travel 250 km north to the the Ethiopian border or a same amount south until reaching Isiolo (where we are heading next). Both options include this horrible lava rock roads making it extremely difficult. As a matter of fact this whole area is so remote and unreachable, it is hardly mentioned in the travel guide books. My 400 page travel guide about Kenya has 6 lines about Marsabit and a few words about the beautiful volcanoes that surround the city. That"s all... This feels real good, I finally feel like an adventurer, having made it to a place that travel guides have not even discovered yet. Except for the TDA riders who cross this town every year since 2004, very few tourists make it here, and the one who do all have stories to share. On the road we passed 2 Spanish women from San Sebastian on an old Renault Espace heading south. It had taken them 4 days to cross the top section of the desert. We were faster on our bicycles... One of the two was walking in front of the Renault car removing the bigger lava rocks by hand so that it could go forward... Anyway last night, they pulled in front of the Jey Jey hotel where we are staying...

The other foreigners here are all equipped with rough looking 4 x4 's, this included a South African couple going around the world for the past 21 months and now heading back home.

The Jey Jey hotel was one of the 6 lines about Marsabit in my travel guide, it said "Jey Jey lodge is the best and cleanest in town"... he he... "best and cleanest"... Well, I don't wanna see the rest... OK, lets face it Jey Jey is probably the closest thing I have ever been to spending a night in jail. The hotel is a double storey building with a central courtyard and rooms disposed along straight dark and dirty corridors. each room has one small window that opens up to the courtyard. Well, let me rephrase this, my window has been sealed with tape and rotting wire so, it does not open and the amount of dirt on the glass actually makes it look more like a thin brick wall. As I entered the room, I noticed a strong acidic smell, which I thought was the detergent they use to swipe the floors. Unfortunately, I later discovered that the "flavour" was coming from my 5 cm thick bed foam which is supposed to act as a mattress.... It has slept so many dirty human bodies that by now it is impregnated with a strange mix of musk and sweat odours. Almost 2 months into this trip, I have lowered my standards to such a point that I did not even bother worrying about things like bed bugs or other strange diseases that the western world is fantasising about. I just decided that I would add my own body smell to this highly subtitle human made perfume. I even had fun trying to identify what would be the closest perfume to this, and interestingly enough, I came to the conclusion that Kouros from Yves St Laurent was the one...

He he... I must be losing it... Don't worry, apparently after we pass Nairobi, things do get better and the comfort levels on the tour rises to a whooping 2 stars (out of 5).

The Jey Jey hotel is run by Mohamed. As the name gives it away, Mohamed is a full scale Muslim and he makes sure that the voice of Allah is heard in the hotel, not just by placing hand made signage everywhere about "Allah is able here" but also by broadcasting his 5h00 am prayers. Marsabit might not have tarmac, but it has loudspeakers...

It poured with rain the whole night and the air is filled with a thick fog adding to the mystic appeal of this place. I am glad I have a room at Jey Jey, no matter about the smelling mattress, at least there are no leaks in the roof. Of, the shared toilets at the back of the corridor are a bit smelly as well, but that makes them easier to spot at night when the town runs out of electricity... And Jey Jey has a small restaurant where they sell Yogurt! Yes Yogurt! First Yogurt I found on this trip. Big 1 liter pots of chocolate yogurt. I had 2 yesterday already and it tasted so good! I am actually on my way for more just now...

My plan to regain weight has been crushed by difficult riding and little food availability this past 2 weeks, so I have to report even further weight loss. It is now so bad that I can admire pieces of of my skeleton sticking through my flesh... Yesterday at camp on arrival, I took my cycling shirt off and some riders commented that I now looked like coming out of a concentration camp. The good news at Jey Jey is that there are no mirrors, so I cannot frighten myself... I also know that from Nairobi, things will be improving. Previous riders told me exactly this "you will lose weight all the way to Nairobi and then you will start picking up mass from there on as you head south and have access to better food more often. "

The last 2 weeks of the tour have been really hard core. We have had long and difficult riding days and very little access to food, except of course to the one they give us at camp. But to make up for the huge amount of calories we spend each day one would need to eat a lot more than that. And I also find it difficult to eat huge amount of food at a time. I think that my stomach has also shrunk. Some younger riders are all going for a second helping of food at camp, I simply struggle to force down one full plate at night, but then an hour later I am hungry again and by then there nothing to eat. Unfortunately the places we have crossed have so little food for sale. Only the same horrible sweet biscuits everywhere. The last place I found some salty stuff for sale was Khartoum! Since then, there has been nothing serious to stock on. I bought so much in Khartoum, salted peanuts, dry fruits, springles, energy bars and so on, but I run out of that a week ago. I would have never imagine how difficult it would be to find simple things like a packet of dried fruits or even chips. Impossible!

Yesterday's ride was definitely a killer stage. Apparently, based on a rough estimation, less than a third of the riders completed it, so that means only about 25 riders rode the entire stage yesterday. Out of those were of course all the EFI's left. We are actually 13 EFI 's left. 11 guys and 2 women (Gizi and Juliana). Yesterday was definitely the hardest cycling day so far because of the roughness of the terrain. 85 km of lava rock road has an horrible impact on your body. Today is actually the first time I feel crampy on this tour. Dinder was somehow harder because of the convoy delays and all the time wasted under the burning heat of Sudan, but yesterday's stage was far more technical and demanding from a cycling point of view. At one stage it was so bad, the rocks were just everywhere, The bike was jumping in all directions, it was so bad that my knees kept on hitting the frame of the bike, there was irrigation, there was heat, there was loose gravel, sand, the road started climbing and suddenly a strong headwind came to add to our misery.I burst laughing thinking to myself what is next? Are they going to start throwing banana skins at us?


                                                         Simon walking around Marsabit

                          Dana and Aren after the 3 kilometer walk from camp to "Marsabit center"
                                    Always be suspicious when the board promises too much....
                                       The JeyJey hotel where I am staying for the rest day.
                                       The "best in town" according to the Lonely Planet guide...
                                                                 The rules inside my room
                                                  The ceiling of my bedroom (best in town)

                                        The next 6 cycling days information board at camp.
                       Early afternoon, the fog and rain finaly cleared leaving quite a mess in town
                                                                       Bike wash
                                I always recomend to eat first and check the kitchen after in Africa,
                               otherwise you will starve.... This is the kitchen of the restaurant
                               where we had French fries... Not sure if the goat is waiting to be
                               milked or slaughtered... The pan next to the goat is for frying the
                               potatoes.
                                                    Marsabit is a gloomy place when it rains
                           The good news about Marsabit is that it has an Internet cafe which TDA
                           riders have taken over during this rest day...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you concentrated so much on the bad aspects and missed out the beauty and fun of marsabit. I was born and raised in marsabit and currently training as a kidney specialist in Cape Town, South Africa. I wish you knew how much i miss the "gloomy" marsabit if i may borrow your words.

Anonymous said...

Wow! this could just be one side of town. I dont think you explored enough there are some hidden places like Chicho for finger licking meals!
There is none like Chicho Meals, Delicious, Tasty and made to your specification. The rain is a blessing for the communities who live with drought for most part of the year! This is an oasis in the middle of a desert with rough road and rocky views all along until you come to the cooling zone on the Mountains. Am a resident here! The place you called 'Gloomy' is home to me!