Eburru Forest and Lake Elementaita

We started our day with breakfast at Earth Camp together with Zina, another cyclist who is cycling a portion of the KBO, but in the opposite direction. After exchange of lots of tips and a final chat with Kaz we headed towards Eburru Forest. Kaz is the owner of Earth Camp, and as we learned spent many years in Africa as a development worker, before escaping a certain future at an office desk in Tokyo to build his off grid home instead.

After lots of climbing towards Eburru, we reached the ranger station, which proudly proclaimed themselves a Corruption Free Zone (and even charged VAT on the entree fee). We didn't see much wildlife in the forest, but the noises and the lush green nature made up for it - except for the especially stingy nettles, which caught Laura multiple times.

Coming out of the forest, the scenery changed again dramatically, making way for rolling hills of golden fields. After some nice descents on backcountry dirt roads, we reached the settlement of Elementaita, where we stopped for a bite to eat at one of the local "Hotels" (which is how restaurants are called here), and learned the hard way why you should always ask the price in advance - we clearly got the tourist rate, which was five times more expensive.

From there, we cycled the last stretch of the day on the long straight Old Nairobi Road, to finally reach the Oasis Eco Camp, a peaceful campground at Lake Elementaita. Zina had already warned us about the monkeys there, but even though we tried to be extra careful, it only took about 20 minutes until one of them had snatched Tim's pack of nuts and fruits, which he had carried here all the way from Switzerland, leaving him devastated.

Nevertheless, the campsite was very nice, and even had warm showers. We pitched our tent, washed the dirt of the day off, enjoyed a big plate of food for dinner, and called it a night.Read more