I got up early the next morning, packed, and was on a matatu headed to Malindi by 7:15, to catch a bus upto Lamu. After a brief wait I was on a bus toward Lamu by 9am...a ride I was assured would be no longer than 5hrs, even if the road was a bit bumpy.
Thinking that the road from Nairobi to Mombasa was the worst in Kenya left me ill prepared for what lie ahead on the road to Lamu. I had heard tht the road immediately ouside fo Malindi was pretty good, but that things got a bit bumpy soon after, however 2hrs into the ride (what I thought was the half way point) we were still riding smooth and I was thinking this was a piece of cake. Soon after that thought, the bumps began...
At first things were not too bad, a bit of a washboard with the occasional hard pothole. I still thought that another 2hrs of this would be no problem and even found myself smiling and chuckling to myself at the situation...not bad at all. Before too long however my neck and lower back started to disagree with me as the hits got harder and after each crunching bump I cringed at the thought that surely the next one would snap the axle, if not the entire bus, into 2 pieces.
My fears were realized around the 4hr mark when we stopped and everyone disembarked in a small town, and a welding torch was brought out and sparks started to fly from the rear under-carriage. I start to envision being stuck here overnight and having to hitch the rest of the way to Lamu, Paul Theroux style, on the back of a cattle truck, but before I could my mental scenario we were all loading back onto the bus and on our way, the 4hr mark having come and gone, the 5hr mark approaching fast.
I asked my friendly sear neighbor how far was left and he assured me not far. Around 5 1/2hrs we pulled into a slightly larger town and my neighbor started to get off and casually mentioned that I only had another 50km to go...an eternity on this road!
Upto this point we had managed to stick to the informal rule of one person per seat, a rule that was suspended at this stop; before long every free seat and the aisle-way were filled with passengers, live chickens, sacks of who-knows-what, and other assorted items. And we were on our way. With this new ballast crowding the bus and our slow speed preventing any breeze, the internal temperature soon reached sauna heat and my skin responded with an issue of sweat from every inch, which continued until I got off. Now I knew why my seat had been damp when I'd gotten on the bus that morning!
Around the same time my nose decided it could no longer handle the fine dust floating around; a volley of sneezes ensued and my snot factory started pumping out what felt like gallons of the vicsous liquid...and me with few tissues!
We continued for another 1 1/2hrs before reaching the water, during which there was at least one point, after a sneezing fit, where I wanted to jump up and yell obcenities. Fortunately I made it off and collected my bag without incident, alreadying trying to figure out how to avoid the ride back. 4-5hrs, HA! The experience left my body feeling like I'd spent the last 7 1/2 hrs in a cement mixer, my organs rearranged, my teeth ground down to nubs, and my back and neck knot ridden.
Thinking that the road from Nairobi to Mombasa was the worst in Kenya left me ill prepared for what lie ahead on the road to Lamu. I had heard tht the road immediately ouside fo Malindi was pretty good, but that things got a bit bumpy soon after, however 2hrs into the ride (what I thought was the half way point) we were still riding smooth and I was thinking this was a piece of cake. Soon after that thought, the bumps began...
At first things were not too bad, a bit of a washboard with the occasional hard pothole. I still thought that another 2hrs of this would be no problem and even found myself smiling and chuckling to myself at the situation...not bad at all. Before too long however my neck and lower back started to disagree with me as the hits got harder and after each crunching bump I cringed at the thought that surely the next one would snap the axle, if not the entire bus, into 2 pieces.
My fears were realized around the 4hr mark when we stopped and everyone disembarked in a small town, and a welding torch was brought out and sparks started to fly from the rear under-carriage. I start to envision being stuck here overnight and having to hitch the rest of the way to Lamu, Paul Theroux style, on the back of a cattle truck, but before I could my mental scenario we were all loading back onto the bus and on our way, the 4hr mark having come and gone, the 5hr mark approaching fast.
I asked my friendly sear neighbor how far was left and he assured me not far. Around 5 1/2hrs we pulled into a slightly larger town and my neighbor started to get off and casually mentioned that I only had another 50km to go...an eternity on this road!
Upto this point we had managed to stick to the informal rule of one person per seat, a rule that was suspended at this stop; before long every free seat and the aisle-way were filled with passengers, live chickens, sacks of who-knows-what, and other assorted items. And we were on our way. With this new ballast crowding the bus and our slow speed preventing any breeze, the internal temperature soon reached sauna heat and my skin responded with an issue of sweat from every inch, which continued until I got off. Now I knew why my seat had been damp when I'd gotten on the bus that morning!
Around the same time my nose decided it could no longer handle the fine dust floating around; a volley of sneezes ensued and my snot factory started pumping out what felt like gallons of the vicsous liquid...and me with few tissues!
We continued for another 1 1/2hrs before reaching the water, during which there was at least one point, after a sneezing fit, where I wanted to jump up and yell obcenities. Fortunately I made it off and collected my bag without incident, alreadying trying to figure out how to avoid the ride back. 4-5hrs, HA! The experience left my body feeling like I'd spent the last 7 1/2 hrs in a cement mixer, my organs rearranged, my teeth ground down to nubs, and my back and neck knot ridden.
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