Well the day started well with an early wake up call from the mosque. We had slept I he floor on the 5th loot of he funny out of place hotel

Sam was quite crook with a bug but managed to get to the ca bu missed breakfast.

When we ventured out onto the street early we found the military guarding the cars as well as the police.

Fuel and Ben an issue the day before as the bit of the dirt that had a petrol pump sticking out of it had run out

Whether this was correct or not but some of the folks in town miraculously fnd lots of fuel available in 20l drums for US$5 per liter

We all led on time for who was advertised as a rough rn to the start, supposedly 1 hour allowed for 9km run

Well we nailed it in less, and I guess then thought the bad road ahead would no be so bad

Disappointingly the condition of the road we had met when immediately arriving and traveling through town was a car indicator of what was to come

We had about a 75 kilometer timed section to do first up

We decided to take it eAsy and the road was pretty bad. We blew 2 rear shocks I the first 420kms then a front one not long after. Most passed us gong what we thought was way to fast. W limped into the control, and then found a least 6 cars sidelined with issues.

We pulled up and replaced the 2 front shocks but we didn’t have spares for the rear.

So off we went ingot one of the worst tracks [not roads) I had ever sen . I can only best describe it as a river bed.

We had poor control of the car and not too soon after the front shocks failed again. It was very hot and we were reduced to walkin speedd for comfort. Sm was quite ill, and actuAlly sound asleep thugh some of the incredibably bad sections

Th loss of 4 shocks was a disaster. We had to contend with th lack of mechanical fan, and rely on the electric fan, which couldn't cope. S we had to rn with the heater on full blast .not very good for Sam, nor the car

So we had to travel at a minimum speed of 50kph to get enough airflow so we could shut the internal fan own. I can't describe how bad this road was bu we should not hv been on it in cars.

Th loss of shocks meant we had subtotal lay reduced control, and with big ok ruts etc we were unable to contol he I've on the font suspension which of course meant we had. Lot of hits on th ump guard, and the front springs then started to fail.

We manged to stumble though to about 30ks from our finish when th electric fan came off an holed the radiator. So still very hot, we saved mot of the water, changed the radiator and off we went. Apparently we had pulled up on the rim of. Volcanoes, bu hadn't noticed. Sam remained unwell, but very hot

We got into marsabit some 12 hours after we started our 250km day, to find no fuel amiable until he morning. We were directed off to our accommodation which was a national park camp site.

A very pretty site and wound fully catered for by National park staff who drove down from Nairobi, a trip taking them 2 days. Good food and conpmrble mtess on h loor of h TNT.

Marsabit was the same mess hat morale is, an old western town..

Into bed ready for IOC run to or row to Nairobi, with 100kms of much better dirt road and the rest. new chinese built highway