Central African Trip Report

Detailed Journal - Khartoum (Sudan) to Johannesburg (South Africa)

27 December 2002 - 6 January 2003

Friday 27^th December 2002

Another miscalculation. It was a Friday, so everything was closed. There was nothing to do but to sightsee for the day. I started the morning visiting the Sunt Forest, and then spent some time driving into Omdurman and Khartoum North - reaching the confluence of the Niles (photo). So now I had visited both sources of the Nile - Lake Victoria (White Nile) and Lake Tana (Blue Nile), so that set my next target as the Nile Delta - but perhaps not this trip!

After this I spent some time in the Mogram Gardens on the banks of the Blue Nile. That night I stayed at a cheaper hotel - the Meridien - which accepted a credit card, and also had an internet cafe.

Saturday 28^th December 2002

My first stop was the Landrover dealer in Khartoum - En Nefedi in Khartoum North. There they had the necessary part in stock, and were able to fit the new front prop shaft - although with great difficulty as the key bolts had sheared. They also replaced my rear brake pads which had totally worn out, and in fact the rear disks needed skimming - but that would have to wait for South Africa. By 15h00 they had fixed up everything, another $500 gone so I had used up almost the last of my cash - I was now down to just US$ 300.

On leaving the garage I drove back to Khartoum, but got stuck in a traffic jam for an hour, before crossing back into Khartoum, and then heading back south. However, the traffic was quite heavy, so I was only able to travel 70 kilometres before sunset, where I found a small side road where I could camp.

I didn't see any significant birds on this final stretch.

Sunday 29^th December 2002

Again a sunrise start, and after crossing the Nile I headed east into the most desolate area yet (photos). However, the road continued as excellent tar, although in a couple of places it was beginning to become pot-holed - but there were workers repairing it.

I passed through Gedaref at about 12h00, stopping to change a further $200, as this would then get me to Port Sudan and back. I continued for a further 130 kilometres, and passed a series of UN refugee camps, presumably for the Ethiopian / Eritrean refugees from the war there - the border was only about 50 kilometres away at this point. On reaching Khashm el Girba I was stopped at a road block (this was the first one to stop me in Sudan) and they checked my papers. This is where they pointed out that the document clearly said I had to report to the Security Police within 24-hours of my arrival in Khartoum - and yes, there it was - in Arabic!

Well, this stumped me. While my goal was to get to the Red Sea at Port Sudan, I didn't have enough cash to return to Khartoum to get the papers stamped and then return. So after a bit of thought I realised that I really had no option but to return to Gedaref and drive into Ethiopia. A bit of a pity, as I would like to have completed the trans-African crossing, but I could survive with that failure (it was only a tar road after all).

So I returned to Gedaref, and then drove south east to Gallabat. This stretch was supposed to be excellent (in theory) for birds, but there was literally no birds seen on the road south. During my planning phase, this area appeared to have had plenty of interesting species. Why there was nothing to see is a bit of a mystery. I will have to restudy the species I was hoping for, and re-plan where I need to bird for my next trip. The road had recently been upgraded (and in places was still being worked on), so by 16h00 I had reached the border, and was able to cross over very easily. Before doing so I had to change the additional Sudanese Dinars into Ethiopian Birr - and found that the local shop-keeper did it at exactly the same rate that the bank would have given.

Obviously there was quite an extensive list of birds missed from Sudan, both in the west (as I had to concentrate on the driving, and the east on the Red Sea coast) including:
* Sand Partridge (Ammoperdix heyi)
* Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
* Pharaoh Eagle-Owl (Bubo ascalaphus)
* Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)
* Nubian Bustard (Neotis nuba)
* Savile's Bustard (Eupodotis savilei)
* Demoiselle Crane (Grus virgo)
* Sociable Plover (Vanellus gregarius)
* White-tailed Plover (Vanellus leucurus)
* Levant Sparrowhawk (Accipiter brevipes)
* Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)
* Hooded Wheatear (Oenanthe monacha)
* Pale Crag Martin (Hirundo obsoleta)
* Savi's Warbler (Locustella luscinioides)
* Clamorous Reed-Warbler (Acrocephalus stentoreus)
* White-header Babbler (Turdoides leucocephalus)
* Desert Warbler (Sylvia nana)
* Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia melanocephala)
* Bar-tailed Lark (Ammomanes cincturus)
* Dunn's Lark (Eremalauda dunni)
* Sudan Golden Sparrow (Passer luteus)
* Trumpeter Finch (Bucanetes githagineus)
* Cinereous Bunting (Emberiza cineracea)
* Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia)

In Ethiopia it was necessary to have the vehicle searched at the border at Metema, but to drive for 35 kilometres further to find the customs post. I had time to travel another 50 kilometres before sunset, and found a small side road to camp that night - and I had forgotten to buy a beer at the border!

Monday 30^th December 2002

Now I was on my return route, and knew the road from here on. This meant that I could leave at sunrise, and drive on to my next target campsite, which I should reach at sunset. However, for this first day I had badly miscalculated since there were almost non-stop road works.

The road continued as a good dirt road - through spectacular mountain scenery (first photo), to Gonder, after which it was a "normal" Ethiopian road, which means it was relatively smooth and un-potholed, but extremely rocky. The road to Bahir Dar passed a spectacular rock pinnacle (second photos) but before I reached Bahir Dar I had had my first puncture. On all of my trips, I have had more punctures in Ethiopia than anywhere else - but this is slightly made up for by the fact that they have the best puncture repair people in Africa - and there is always one in each village! This puncture was a very dramatic failure (due to a nail being driven straight through the sidewall), and the failure badly dented the rim, so I didn't bother to try to repair it, and abandoned the wheel with the repairman - who was delighted. He fixed the other tyre (the one from Cameroon that had not yet been properly fixed) free of charge.

From there it was more of the same, although the scenery was somewhat flatter (first photo), and every single bridge required a detour as they built a new one. Although the road had a few patches of tar, these were not yet finished, so one couldn't drive on them. Some of the detours were extraordinarily dusty, and I was completely coated in a not very thin layer of dust. It was for stretches like this that I carry some chewing sweets, which are invaluable in this type of a situation to keep your mouth and throat wet. Finally, I reached tar that could be driven on - which lasted just 30 kilometres before I reached the Nile valley. This is one of the most amazing spectacles of all the African roads I have travelled (second to fourth photos). The road drops from 3 000 metres in altitude to 1 000m where the Nile is crossed, and then one must climb back up to 3 000 metres on the other side - over a distance of about 40 kilometres - which means the average slope is about 1 in 10. The road is also in very bad condition, and the turns are so sharp that it was very slow going.

Once up the other side, the road was better, but still quite bumpy. Even so, it was well after sunset when I arrived in Addis Ababa. About 1 kilometre before the Hilton hotel, I had a puncture in on my rear tyre - which had totally disintegrated. Since these were very expensive American BF Goodrich tyres, the right rear one being fine, while the left rear one had disintegrated. Since both tyres had only done around 50 000 kilometres, I was very disappointed.

Anyway, it didn't take long to change, and I soon reached the hotel. By then I was very dirty, and the reception kindly allowed me to go and have a bath before registering - I think I was ruining the looks of the hotel (also, since I had previously stayed there, they had me on their records).

Tuesday 31^st December 2002

Leaving the hotel just after sunrise, I managed to get out of town relatively easily - Addis Ababa's traffic is less bad than most African capitals. Also the tar road was in very good condition - and remained that way right to the Kenyan border. I drove south to Lake Langano, reaching there about 10h00, and spent over an hour birding along the cliffs there, hoping to find the Red Sea Cliff Swallow (Hirundo perdita), but without success. After that I continued relatively slowly, stopping regularly for various birds, and found several quite interesting species.

Soon afterwards, the vehicle started to loose a lot of power, and it sounded like I had blown the turbo-charger - a lot of noise at higher engine revs, without any extra power appearing. After several stops without finding any problem, I finally tracked down the problem - the clip holding on the air-hose to the turbo had broken, and at high revs the hose lifted off the pipe - but it slipped back on at lower revs. At the next village I was able to buy another clip, an the problem was solved.

Passing through Mega there were the usual endemics of that area which are quite easy to see and include Stresemann's Bush Crow, White-crowned Starling and White-tailed Swallow - the latter nests in the ant-hills so common in the area (photo). From there I continued south to reach Moyale just before sunset, and stayed in the local hotel. There was, of course, no New Year's celebration, as Ethiopia is on the Gregorian calendar, with its new year on 25^th September, and Christmas only on the 7^th January.

Wednesday 1^st January 2003

Not an early start, as the border post only opens at 08h00 - or 02h00 local time (Ethiopian time starts (quite sensibly) at 6 am - i.e. dawn). After passing quickly through, I reached the border into Kenya, where the police check and Customs took only a few minutes. However, the Immigration Office was still locked. We assumed that they had just had a good New Year's party. Here I met up with a Slovakian biker, who had driven down from Slovakia over the previous 4 weeks, and was going on to meet his girlfriend who had flown to Dar-es-Salaam, where they would continue together to Cape Town. However, we were unable to continue without the passport being stamped, and the convoy was due to leave at 09h00.

In the end the Immigration Officer arrived at 11h00, very apologetic - he had been out with the army rounding up illegal immigrants! He simply stamped our passports, and arranged for the army to let us catch up the convoy. Since the convoy (or at least the tail end) was made up of about 15 trucks, I passed them all within the first 50 kilometres!

The Kenyan convoy is not a very formal affair, and although I would recommend that an armed guard be taken on the first time you take the desert road, once you know it, and understand the problems, I feel quite happy driving it alone. First time it is essential that you drive it in two days - doing it in a single day is very hard work, and you need to be confident that you understand the road and its vagaries. The first stretch (from the north) is generally fairly poor, as it runs through quite thick bush. However, this time it was appalling, as it had recently rained, and the trucks had made a right mess of it (first photo). But once past this stretch - which is the part heading west, it improves on the southerly section. From here it is usually a drive along a stony dirt road through dusty, scrubby desert. However, this year I was amazed - the rains that were so apparent in the north near to the border were also reflected over this stretch of the route (second photo). This greenery even extended into the black lava desert of the Didi Galala desert.

Due to the long delays at the border, I only reached Marsabit at 15h00, and passed straight through the town to the next army checkpoint, to get permission to complete the desert crossing. But as I stopped at the checkpoint I heard a hissing noise, so immediately returned to the local garage before the tyre and flattened totally. We quickly jacked up the vehicle and had the tyre repaired and within 20 minutes I was back on the road. This time, the army checkpoint was less happy about letting me through, since at 15h30 it was definitely late for leaving on the second half of the journey. However, they allowed me to continue. The next stretch was relatively good, so I was actually able to reach Archer's Post by sunset. However, I was planning to stay at the entrance to the National Park, where it used to be possible to camp free of charge. Now, however, there is a community campsite. While this might have been good, the insects were terrible here, and also I was apparently "too late" to camp there, so was turned away.

This was a little bit of a surprise, so I decided to take a real risk, and try and drive the last 30 kilometres to Isiolo. From my previous experiences, this stretch is totally awful - on every previous occasion it has taken around two hours. However, although the road didn't seem to have been improved, it was actually quite drivable, and I reached Isiolo within the hour, and continued to the first campsite, located at the Range Lodge. I had never stayed here before, and while there was no restaurant, the campsite was fine, and a hot shower was provided. I spent a hour in the bar (why is no-one surprised at this?) during which I was extensively questioned about my attitude to the presidential election results. It was a revelation as to how much Daniel Arap Moi was hated the moment he was out of power. However, they insisted on playing a very load radio through loud-speakers until 23h00. Apart from that, it was an excellent site to camp both before and after the convoy route through the desert.

Thursday 2^nd January 2003

Leaving the hotel campsite at dawn, I decided to try a new route through to Nairobi, as I had plenty of time - this was my short day of the return trip. Rather than taking the western route round Mt Kenya, I went to the east. However, at the T-junction, I got the best sight I have ever had of Mt Kenya itself - for once it was not covered in cloud (photo) - perhaps because it was still around 05h30! The road to the east of the mountain is not as good as the western road - but has a series of excellent cultivated valleys, each of which should have held Hinde's Babbler, but it took about 12 stops before I found a small party of them. However I was very lucky to find Sharpe's Longclaw close to the T-junction on the north of the mountain.

Once the Babbler had been found, I then headed straight to Nairobi, in order to get at some more cash - almost every bank in Kenya will provide cash against a credit card. One small problem - every bank was closed. Following his presidential win, Mwai Kibaki decided to declare a bank holiday! There was not a single bank open. I had wondered why there was so little traffic while I drove into Nairobi - normally it would take over an hour to reach the city centre, while it took only about 15 minutes. The only chance seemed to be to try the airport. Here, there was quite a queue - I suppose I wasn't the only one to think of it - but after 20 minutes I reached the only teller on duty. Here I was able to obtain $500 cash - and in US dollars - which was ideal for me.

From there I drove south to Namanga, where I crossed over into Tanzania. Here there were no problems at the border, and I left within 20 minutes. I was immediately stopped at a police checkpoint, and they were not happy that I was not wearing my seatbelt. However, after 10 minutes of discussion, I was allowed to continue. Within a couple of hours, I reached Arusha - and it was still only about 14h00. This allowed me to drive to the west towards Tarangire and Manyara. I had never spent time on this stretch before, and was able to find several of the local special birds. I didn't go much further than the end of the tar before turning round. I spent the night at the Masai camp site.

Friday 3^rd January 2003

It wasn't a dawn start - I had a flat tyre. After a quick change, I drove to the local garage, where I filled up with diesel - I hadn't done that since Ethiopia. I travelled east, and got some excellent views of Mt Kilimanjaro before reaching Moshi and then continued to the east to Taveta, hoping to find the Taveta Golden Weaver (Ploceus castaneiceps). No luck. After that I took the road south to Segera, but stopped of at an interesting looking campsite next to the Elephant Hotel. I decided to have brunch there, which was actually very good. Definitely a place to consider for future trips.

From there it was back south to Segera, then continuing south to Chalinze, before turning west towards Morogoro. From there I continued on through the Mikumi NP and to Iringa, where I reached the Riverside campsite just before dark. Sadly, it then decided to rain very heavily for about 3 hours. However, there were a couple of American Peace Corps volunteers, with whom I spent a pleasant evening. Sadly David Moyer was unable to join us. A Spotted Eagle Owl decided to call very loudly just outside the tent just to keep me awake.

Saturday 4^th January 2003

Leaving the campsite at dawn, I drove west through Iringa to Mbeya, but it was raining the whole way. From Mbeya, there were extensive road works right to the border at Tunduma. Of course it decided to rain even harder at the border. Anyway, there were no problems at the border, but I was a bit surprised to be told that I didn't need to pay the local toll (which I had always paid before). It then continued to rain for virtually the whole of the rest of the day.

Once into Zambia, I drove south to Isoka, but thereafter the vehicle started misfiring, and the engine would cut out as if it had no fuel. While the fuel gauge indicated there was no fuel, I knew still I had 60 litres of fuel in the second tank - it was just not getting through. In the end I had to disconnect the fuel line and drain fuel out of the second tank into a water bottle and then tip it into the main tank. As soon as I reached the next garage (at the turn-off north to Kasanka NP), I was able to buy a new petrol filter- it was simply a matter of the in-line filter having blocked full of gunk. After that it was an easy drive on to Mkushi and the Forest Inn - and a hot shower, a beer (or two) and good meal.

Sunday 5^th January 2003

Another sunrise departure. From Mkushi, I passed quickly through Kapiri Mposhi and Kabwe to Lusaka. Since it was a Sunday, it was a pleasure to drive through Lusaka. Obviously I stopped off to fill up, as I wasn't sure of the fuel situation in Zimbabwe. From there I drove straight on to Kafue, and then to Chirundu. Before reaching the border various traders were offering Zimbabwe Dollars - and I changed some at what I though t was a reasonable rate of about 200 Zimbabwe Dollars per South African Rand.

Entering Zimbabwe used to be easy, but this time, it took over an hour. Immigration was easy, but before one could complete Customs, one had to get the Carbon Tax certificate. Sadly, the official - who was located on the exit side (so one had to walk through the offices to get to the opposite side of border post) was unable to get the computer to produce a receipt - the system had only been introduced from the beginning of the year. Having waited nearly 45 minutes for the receipt, Customs was handled quickly. But then it was off to the police to get a clearance certificate to import the vehicle. No-one was manning the post, and so another 15 minute wait was required for someone to look at the registration document, and I was waved on.

Once into Zimbabwe, I was able to drive quickly to the base of the escarpment, where the normal tsetse control post was. From there it was up the escarpment, and then through Karoi, Chinhoyi and on to Harare. What was unmistakable was that the farmland was suffering - partly due to drought, but it was also quite clear that much of the land had not been planted.

Again, being a Sunday, Harare was a pleasure to drive through. From there I was able to reach Masvingo before sunset, and drove to the campsite next to the Ruins Hotel. This drive south was even more depressing, as the drought was clearly a serious problem.

I spent the evening at the hotel, since it normally provided good food and drink. However, I was the only guest. Speaking with the staff, they said that they had had no guests recently, except a few locals on New Years Eve - but no-one from overseas. I had an excellent bottle of local wine and a large fillet steak - for about US$ 5.

Monday 6^th January 2003

Leaving at sunrise (again), I reached Beit Bridge by 09h00, and decided to spend the rest of my Zimbabwe Dollars on a breakfast. This still didn't use the balance of my 100 SA Rand I had changed in Zambia. Crossing the border into South Africa was straight-forward from Zimbabwe, but in South Africa there was a delay while the Agriculture Department had a major check-point - there had apparently been several cases of Foot-and-Mouth in Zimbabwe, so vehicle wheels were sprayed, and shoes had to be dipped. Only after this, would they issue the border pass, which was the stamped by Immigration and Customs. But before one could leave the border post, they checked every vehicle for any meat. Luckily I had none, because I admit I was hoping to buy some cheap meat in Zimbabwe, but the farmers there were not offering cheap meat - it was actually more expensive (even at the rate I changed my money at) than in South Africa.

From the border it was a five hour drive to reach Johannesburg, and I reached my house at 15h00 - exactly as planned when I entered Ethiopia.

A few species were seen in the latter stages of the trip, not recorded in the above lists.