Day 51 - Feb 28

Today was an 80 mile day with a tailwind for a good part of it.  That helped quite a bit.  We are traveling down from the border on the main road to Nairobi.  It is hard to believe that it is the main road because a good portion of it is all torn up.  The first 30 miles was off road, I say that because they completely tore up the old road.  It was gravel and loose dirt.  Some places the dirt was 8 inches deep and swallowed the front tire... completely stopping forward progress.  

We hit nice new Tarmac after the thirty and it was fantastic.  Then we hit the no road section again... :(    It was like riding on an old washboard, very rough.

We are in the section of the trip aptly called meltdown madness.  The temp while riding hit 48 degrees Celsius,  that is ...  118 degrees Fahrenheit!  It is now 9:16 at night and it is still too hot to sleep in the tent.  I am just laying here sweating...  :(

Kenya it seems is not as safe as Ethiopia.  We picked up 4 new staff members for our time here.  They are policemen who are as you can see in the picture well armed.  Each one is to travel in one of the tour vehicles.  They say that bandits and heavily armed rustlers work these areas that we are traveling through.  That and the decision has been made to bus us for 175 kilometers through an area north of Nairobi where bandits and Somali groups have been very active.  Better safe than sorry, right!?

Here are a couple of our new staff people.

Here is a road sign from the crew working the road.  

Another road sign.  Not sure if they are referring to the camels or road conditions.  :)