Marsabit

We were lucky and hitch hiked a ride all the way up to Marsabit way up in northern Kenya. Marsabit was famous at the time for having the world's largest elephant in the Marsabit National Park. It is also famous for all the nomadic tribal people that come to the market in Marsabit. The first day there we went out to see the gigantic old bull elephant. He had two caretakers that stayed with him 24/7 to make sure poachers did not kill him for his huge tusks. He was like their pet elephant. He seemed to be happy and very gentle to be around.

I was used to seeing lots of wild animals by now. East Africa with all of its game parks has a chance of saving some species of animals from the wanton killings going on in most places in Africa. I loved seeing the large herds of antelope and wildebeasts grazing on the savanahs with the predators quietly watching and picking out their next meals. The cranes and buzzards that were common to see on a daily basis were always good to see also. The herds of elephants especially around Tsavo National Park in the south eastern part of Kenya were always exciting to see. There was always the chance that an elephant might charge so there was an element of danger to watching them. The elephants seemed to know this and sometimes would make sudden loud noises and do a short run at people watching them. I think they did it just for their own entertainment. I think they were silently laughing at the stupid humans backing away from them. An elephant can easily outrun a human. If they want to catch you you are in big trouble unless you have a vehicle to flee in. Their sense of smell is better than a bloodhound too so they can track you down if they want to. They kill many people all over their range in Africa.

We spent a lot of time hanging out around the local marketplace. It was a major trading post for all the nomadic tribes that wandered around the arid area with their cattle. The other local tribes that lived in fixed housing were also represented at the marketplace. The most famous tribe is the Maasai who are famous for their tall warriors dressed mostly in red. Then there are other unique tribes that stretch their necks or lips or ears and wear colorful clothes or have some other identifying trademarks. I enjoyed the diversity. The various tribes did not always get along. Two people were killed while we were in Marsabit over tribal disputes. We felt safe and the vast majority of the locals were all extremely friendly to us.

We met a group of crazy Italians living in Marsabit that were there to build a new road through the desert going north to Moyale in Ethiopia. It was a long way through desolate arid desert. The men worked during the day surveying and placing markers for their route to build the road and the rest of the day they got drunk. We joined them most afternoons for a few beverages after we had done whatever tourist activities for the day. We had a lot of fun with them and became good friends. They were all in love with Kirsten with her long blond hair.

We told them about our plans to go across the desert to Ethiopia and they told us we were crazy because the area is full of bandits that will rob and kill us or worse to Kirsten. Their solution was to give us a ride themselves so that we would be safe. We talked about it for a few days and then we got in a Landrover with them and took off for Ethiopia.

The Italians had several cases of booze with them and were cracking new bottles from sun up to sun up. In other words they were drinking the entire time. The driver was totally drunk. Luckily for us there was nothing to hit out in the desert as long as he could go around the large rocks and rare trees without hitting them. We basically just headed north with no plans or knowledge of what we were doing. Their excuse for giving us the ride was that they were surveying possible routes for the future road. Well if they used this method of surveying then this road would be going in circles and winding back and forth. It would be twenty times the length of a road that went straight as the crane flies. We were laughing all day long and having a blast. We ran into some trucks that were traveling through the desert one day and we all stopped and tried to talk. Our driver was totally smashed and could not even stand up when he got out of the car to talk to the drivers of the trucks so they had to get out of their trucks and come over to us to talk. Two of the Italians had guns in their hands and openly displayed them in case these were robbers. I don't know if guns and drunks should have been together like this but nothing happened so it was all ok. The drivers told us that there was a path through the foothills of southern Ethiopia that we had to find otherwise the foothills were impassable to get through. They pointed in the general direction of the pass and told us we could follow the tire tracks to find it. They must have thought that we were totally insane to be out in this isolated desolate place with no supplies except for booze and no idea how to get where we wanted to go. I admit it was stupid the way we were approaching this dangerous drive.

We ended up finding the pass. At least I think we did. We found a dry creek bed that cut through the sharp hills. It was basically just a boulder strewn dry riverbed that cut through a steep walled canyon in the hills. We headed up the pass in our landrover.

The climb up the pass was difficult to say the least. It required a skilled driver who knew how to use the four wheel drive efficiently and correctly. We had a drunken Italian with no experience of knowledge about this difficult part of our journey to Ethiopia. We made it almost all the way to the top before we had a serious problem. Right at the crest there was a rather severe climb that was very steep and covered with boulders. It must have been a waterfall when there was water flowing in this river. We stopped at the bottom and got out of the vehicle to examine the pathway. After much discussion in Italian and a few more swigs out of the bottle we got back in and made our assault on this final barrier. We twisted and turned upwards, sometimes on three wheels as we tried to get over this hump. Just before we crested the Landrover slipped on a rock and started to slide with a sideways downhill motion and before we could react we rolled. The vehicle rolled several times and finally came to a stop against a big rock. All the windows were broken. We were covered in glass. The roof was caved in, the side panels were all dented and one door was hanging open.

I looked around to make sure Kirsten was ok and then checked the Italians. Nobody was seriously injured. One of the men had his arm out the window when we rolled and his arm was clearly broken with an almost compound fracture. The rest of us were just bruised up. The broken arm was bleeding. I helped him get out of the wrecked vehicle and attended to his injury. He was feeling no pain because he was about as drunk as you could be and still be conscious. We stood around excitedly checking out the Landrover and we decided that if we just turned it back over on its wheels and pushed the top up from inside we could still drive it. That is just what we did. Everybody without a broken arm got inside and we pushed the top back up as much as we could and climbed back in for a second attempt. We made it all the way up on the second try. Kirsten and I both walked up this section just in case it rolled again.

From the top of the pass there was a more well defined trail to follow that was not too difficult to traverse. We drove on until we came to Moyale Ethiopia and we went looking for a doctor for the broken arm. We had made it across the desert. It was a really dumb method we used to cross but it worked out for us.