North To Ethiopia

The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa

I leave Loiyangalani early in the morning, and immediately can see the difference in the road. It’s much smaller and less traveled, and I get the feeling very few vehicles venture in this direction.

In places the gravel is deep

Remoteness is a thing

The hours roll on and the road surface continually changes from rock to sand and even with the occasional mud section. The landscape is extremely barren, and I’m not at all surprised when I see camels wandering around searching for what food they can find.

Camels wandering around become a common sight

There is nothing out here

My lunch stop

In the scorching 100F heat I stop for lunch under the shade of a rare tree, and push on to the entrance gate of the extremely remote Sibiloi National Park. This park is famously known as the Cradle of Humanity, and it was on the shores of Lake Turkana where the oldest human remains ever to be discovered where unearthed – commonly known as Lucy.

The cradle of humanity at Sibiloi National Park

Rocky mountains rise from time to time

Loving the roads

The rangers working at the entrance gate explain they are lucky to see one lone vehicle per day, and can sometimes go a week without a single vehicle passing. After paying the entrance fee for myself and the Jeep, I continue North, into what is now clearly even more remote and barren landscape. Absolutely nobody lives in the park, and with only one vehicle per day passing, it’s unlikely I will see a single soul while I’m here.

Ten million year old fossilized trees

The occasional mud patches are actually sticky

I’m a little torn about going straight North through the middle of the park or cutting West to the lake shore, and eventually settle on the Northern Route. After only ten miles it’s extremely clear this route is never used, and I find myself in low range first with both diff locks engaged to pass one particularly sticky mud section. All the rivers are dry, though the crossings are at least a hundred yards wide and cut very deep into the rocky landscape.

The double rainbow leads to….

The storm rolls in

At one huge crossing I loose the track, and after walking around for forty minutes searching I start to lose the light to another approaching storm. I make camp on the bluff above the riverbed and am treated to a stunning display of clouds and distant storms, though I only get a few drops of rain.

I really did wash the Jeep in Nairobi not so long ago…

My campsite high on the bluff

The solitude is enormous out here.

-Dan