Our Year in Kenya: The long cross-country trek from Samburu to Lake Bogoria

It is hard to describe the terrible state some of the roads are in. We thought it would take at most 2 days to get from Samburu across to the West of Kenya. Dream on! Two days later we had only managed to go a few hundred kilometers and were shaken through and through. We can be thankful we didn't get a flat tire en route - the day after returning home to Nairobi we woke up to find the tire flat. But, the trip was absolutely worth it. As one of the very few cars driving this route, the people living in the bush in the region were curious to see us and often bummed a ride off of us. We had a string of 8 passengers in the back seat. People were clearly living lives untouched from the outside world up here. We felt we were experiencing a real side of Kenya that most tourists never see.

A few of our hitchhikers during the journey West:

The road started out looking pretty good.....

Some amazing rock formations on the horizon driving North from Samburu.

Up in the hills.

Some communities have turned to raising camels, especially those that originate from Somalia. The camels tend to tolerate the dry climate better, give milk, and the meat is supposed to be tasty as well.

A young Samburu warrior

The countryside is rather dramatic with boulders strewn around due to volcanic activity a long time ago.

Is this some kind of a joke? After miles and miles of bumpy roads, we came across this sign in the middle of nowhere. As we stopped to take the picture, the entire village came out to see what was going on. In fact, this village had a self-made speed bump.

Rangers from a private conservancy who let us in for a view of the spectacular landscape.

Miles and miles to go before you sleep......

Our back-country campground on a ranch/conservancy en route. Unguarded, so we had to refrain from wandering too far so as not to run into any wild animals like elephants, buffaloes and the like.