From Kombolcha we made it to Addis by mid afternoon and joy of joy, found our recommended camping site fairly easily. It was an oasis of green near the railway station in the heart of town. The only trouble was - barking dogs! From sundown to sunrise, they howled, chorused, revelled, socialised, held barking competitions, and generally did their darndest to keep us awake. This however was not what decided us to move on, rather it was the realisation that we had only just enough time to make our rendezvous with our Kilimanjaro climb organiser in Arusha, Tanzania, on Saturday 5th March if we pushed on rapidly now. This late realisation blew our second night in Addis out of the water and forced us to commit to being on the road to reach Nairobi by Thursday 3rd, pick up next driving crew on the Friday from the airport, and get down to Arusha by Friday night. We were due to meet our man at 8am Saturday morning. So, no tourism I'm afraid. So from Addis on to Dilba where after much searching we found shelter in the compound of the "Get Smart" hotel. We did, and overnighted there. Then down to Moyale on the border between Ethiopia and Kenya, where after a relatively easy border crossing after a wait of about 2 hours while the border officials had lunch, and an interesting attempt to buy diesel from three garages in Ethiopia where they all wanted more than the official petrol pump price, until we managed to persuade one petrol station boss that we were genuine travellers and not Kenyans trying to get a cheap fill up, we found on the other side, a Catholic Mission with quiet grounds where they let us stay the night. About midnight we heard loud revellers beating a noisy homeward path. Manchester United had been playing, and won.
The road south from Moyale to Isiolo is over a hundred miles of nasty, corrugated, lumpy, bumpy vehicle bending breaking dirt road which if you are lucky you may manage to drive unscathed in a day and a half. We bust a radiator and an automatic transmission oil system. We limped into Isiolo about 3pm after a wonderful night at Henry's Place in Marsabit, the usual overnight spot for travellers on this road. We also saw elephant, deer, warthog and camels in abundance.
Radiator repairs in Isiolo. Andy removed it and the guy in the shack repaired it.
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