Cycling The Globe

A Cycle Touring Expedition Around The World

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Day 2057, Kainuk – Lokichar: A Painful Night

Posted by Thomas Andersen Posted on Oct - 15 - 2016

Distance: 81.2 km
Ride time: 5:48:19
Average: 14.0 km/h
Max speed: 26.3 km/h
Total: 51002 km

No, I’m not in Africa anymore. In fact I’m sitting in a comfortable couch back home in Copenhagen, but it’s time to return to Africa and pick up the story where we left it in Kenya. So, without further ado:

It had been a rough two day bus ride from Nairobi and back to Kainuk where my bike was waiting. The distance between the two cities is only a mere 500 km, but the road is no German autobahn. The last quarter of the ride, the road turned into one of the worst dirt roads I have ever experienced. The bus was only able to move forward at about 20 km/h, so this part alone took most of a day. It was on this last part of the bus ride that I started to experience a pretty strong stomach pain. The pain would continue all through the hot, tropical night in my very basic guest house in Kainuk.

I didn’t manage to get much sleep during, but in the early morning hours the stomach pain suddenly stopped; thus I felt fresh enough to continue into the unknown Turkana territory.

The area around Lake Turkana is full on tribe country with the locals walking around in their traditional dresses. Even after cycling for 5 months in Africa this was pretty exotic to me. The area is also very remote with only a few scattered villages. The villages are connected by a very rough dirt road that hasn’t been maintained for many years. Again, even by African standards, this is pretty much in the middle of nowhere 🙂

Lake Turkana is situated at only 360 meters above sea level – much much lower than for example Nairobi which is at 1800 m. Temperatures down here are in the 35 – 37°C range. Furthermore, most of the Africa I have seen lately has been green and tropical. Now I’m once again in desert country, and I got quite a surprise when a camel walked across the road just in front of me!

By the end of the day I lost phone coverage, but was happy enough to see that the tiny village I was cycling through had a tiny guest house. Let the adventure continue!

Categories: Kenya
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7 Responses so far.

  1. Definitely the middle of nowhere! I guess you don’t have to worry about too much traffic, though. 🙂

  2. John o2 says:

    Hahaha. “…by African standards..”??

  3. Faye says:

    It’s okay to lose the signal on your phone or else you’ll miss that beautiful views around you. I love this place. Less traffic at the same time less pollution.

  4. I completely agree Faye… the only thing is that if you are getting sick it might be more comfortable with some kind of connection.

  5. Joe Mutonga says:

    Courage Level=100%. I am Kenyan and I wouldn’t ride on a bike on that road.
    All in all, do visit us again!

  6. Thanks a lot Joe. Would love to come back to Kenya – hopefully sooner rather than later.

    Best wishes,

    Thomas