An African WRR

I thought I'd start posting a few photos of my WRR in Kenya - perhaps the only one in East Africa and perhaps the first IMS 4.7 tank on the continent!?

I had planned a first picture of soaring peaks, shimmering plains, ferocious animals and so on but as luck would have it I picked up an acacia thorn on the way out of town. No need to break out the puncture repair kit though as Kenyan towns are well served by roadside puncture repair specialists who will patch a tyre for a couple of dollars.

I'll try and get that shimmering plain photo next time!

John

A couple of just round the corner - I'll photoshop the bike in.........

THAT is GREAT ! Definitely a header shot ! !

Looks like beautiful riding !

Watch out for rhinos ! !

Always a good idea when traveling in Africa to have a well honed pit crew like the one pictured here.

Have an amazing trip!

I bet there is some really amazing riding to be done there! Is there a dealership there? Or did you have to buy the bike from somewhere else?

OMG that last pic...too bad the bike wasn't in there or it'd be on the header.

foofighter wrote:

I bet there is some really amazing riding to be done there! Is there a dealership there? Or did you have to buy the bike from somewhere else?

There are some Yamaha delerships but they seem to only have 175s and Ag bikes. I brought the bike in from the UK.

Yesterday, headed up into the Mt Kenya National Park and made it up to about 11,500' before my head started hammering too much and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed downhill again.

Quite alot of elephant sh*t on the roads in the forest and stopped to let some zebra and waterbuck cross. Too slow with the camera this time.

The guy I was riding with had an interesting experience last year. Riding through the forest he came across a bull elephant. H bailed out one way and bike slid along ground. Elephant then proceded to toss bike in air breaking its frame (KTM's ain't built tough!). Poor old H then had to plod back to town and get help to recover the bike.

John

Had an afternoon off so headed out for a wee ride. !00km took me through the forests, potato fields and thick clay of Mount Kenya down to the flat sandy acacia plains of Laikipia. As a rain squall passed I took shelter with Stanley, a subsistence potato farmer on the slopes of the mountain. He spends Mon to Fri in his small wooden shed weding and guarding his crops from Colobus monkeys, buffalo and elephant and then manages to spend the weekend with his family 30km away while a hired help watches his plot.

Cheers

john

Stanley's shed:
Stanley:
In the potato fields:On the disused Nairobi-Nanyuki railway with Mount Kenya shrouded in mist behind:
Log bridges over rivers:

Aweosme shots, John! Love seeing the landscape and wonderful places you travel on your bike in Africa. Keep them coming!

awesome pics and adventure!

id love to do that.

keep the updates comming

very cool pics,, I thought dodging a deer or wild turkey here in connecticut was an adventure but I think you have us all beat..please post more pictures and watch out for those elephants.................Jason

Well, have finally got round to posting a few photos of a two day trip I did with a mate last week. Started out tracing an old route through the forest reerve by Mount Kenya National Park. The map showed a road but what we found was a rough track, frequently washed out and often only the width of the bikes.


The reserve is full of wildlife including elephant and buffalo so it was with some trepidation that we ducked under the elephant fence into the forest. We rode carefully with lots of revving and tooting of horns and our hearts in our mouths. The route occassionally ran through small farms and were we glad to take a breath and relax in these before heading into the forest again!

We eventually left the reserve in one piece and headed through Naromoru over farm tracks - managing to get stuck in one of the few patches of mud around. At Nyeri Station we filled up with fuel and headed through the Nyeri coffee plantations before heading north to Sangare Tented Camp. The road in was 13km to the turn and after a fall of rain was like riding on ice. No falls but fun! Then a turn down a gravel track to a gated bridge - the last vehicle through according to the guard's book was 2 days before.



We rode up through another elephant fence into the conservancy. Warthog, impala and zebra scattered as we rode the 4km to the camp where we were the only guests. The staff met us with hot towels to wipe our faces and hands before handing us fruit juice cocktails. We ate on the verandah of our tent that night quaffing a few beers and watching/listening to the birdlife.



The next day we awoke to bikes cleaned of every trace of mud by the staff, ate a buffet breakfast and headed off into the Aberdare foothills then across the Laikipia plateau back through Naromoru and onto the mountain to complete the loop and ride back along the elephant track to Nanyuki. Braver now we tooled along until the rain and mud started. We slid down hills in the ditches - searching for any traction we could find. As we stopped for breath and fluids we noticed that an elephant had recently slipped and slithered down the hill in the same direction! That gave strength to our legs and arms and despite a couple of falls in the red mud made it home safe and sound.



Roll on the next trip!

John

Difficult to capture the scale of the vistas. A few views just north of Nanyuki (sorry about the orange object).











John

Great pics! Definitely in for more.

I promised animals and here we are. had a great ride up the Ewaso Ngiro river and camped out. Woken to munchings in the morning and grabbed a few photos:







John

awesome pictures, amazing scenery. im jealous

Been riding but not snapping!

Very muddy ride out on Saturday but made it back to town for a quick photo on the Equator.

Tomorrow we have a ride up to a place called Crocodile Jaws - should be fun and I'll try and post some shots.

Just curious, but what do the crossed macheted stickers on the bike mean??

Great pics by the way

Very cool, thanks for sharing

The crossed pangas (Kenyan version of machetes) is the unit badge of a British Training unit here.

Weel, as promised a few photos from Tuesday's day trip. We covered about 250km of mostly fast track but there were some sandy dry river beds to cross and a few animals to dodge. We headed north to meet up with the owner of Sabuk Lodge above the Ewaso Ngiro river near the evocatively named Crocodile jaws. The river was in full flood and raging through a narrow gorge into a deeper valley. After a late breakfast with Verity we headed over to a local village to scope how we could help out as they equip a clinic and school. They really have nothing and if folk get ill they have no way of moving them to help - they just die. We hope to start raising some money for a motorcycle based ambulance which would be used for medical purposes and in between to help monitor the local African Wild Dog population. Our roiute then took us north to Ol Donyo Ngiro where market day had brought in Samburi Moran draessed in amazing finery from all over. There was nothing fake about this and not a tourist for 100km. Like a film set with a backdrop of the Matthews range and a passing rainstorm in the distance. So mesmerised was I with everything that I failed to get the camera out but I'll return there soon. A brisk ride back brought us home by 1800 to a well earned cup of tea and H's statement that the ride was amongst his top 3 ever!

Haven't posted for a bit but have been making a few trips. Also acquired a second WRR! A few random photos of the last few months: