My goodness. We are certainly having experiences. As of 4 days prior to our application, the embassy here in Nairobi was not authorised to give Ethiopian visas anymore. Who knows what had happened. Our existing Ethiopian visas expired late March; if only we had known. After Ajay and I both hasseled the guy and confirmed the situation, the Ethopian Emb. in London got involved and petitioned Addis Ababa on our behalf. Our options are very few and we were looking at turning round, or selling the car. The other overland routes were Somalia (the UK Embassy here told us they didn't want more kidnappings), Southern Sudan in amoungst the post election killings, the DRC .... or flying over Ethiopia with the car.
We are fortunate with the UK helping us. There are other people here who just have to make alternate plans. So that's Kenya, for us. We'll leave this coming week - hopefully. Never definate (in this country) until it's history.
We are well and happy, staying at Jungle Junction in Nairobi with a random group of 'overlanders' of every nationality, many stuck here for various reasons with visa or car issues, waiting for parts; waiting, waiting. We have excellent internet access, lots of lovely people for us and the kids to enjoy. In Kenya we've not intergrated, apart from one lovely family who hosted us overnight. The kids are so stressed when we pull up somewhere like that! But the potholes were unbelievable especially as the evening drew in early with the fast approaching black thunder clouds.
It seems that part of driving through Africa is car issues. Our brakes stopped working the other day, brake fluid came out of the broken brake friction hose. We were so fortunate that they failed on a nice stretch of road .... rather than the hairpin bends of a few days later.
Having had initial reservations about Sudan and Ethiopia - I am so looking forwards to these two countries. We may miss out Egypt on the otherhand. Our wait here in Nairobi means that we will hit Ethiopia during their elections, and the long rains. Hoping neither of those will be a problem.
I've just uploaded a few pictures on facebook!
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