Lake Turkana Day Five - Punctured

That morning we woke once again to Jim Ross, "this is your 5:30 wake-up call!" We said our goodbyes and followed the trucks into Sibiloi. They stopped and we kept on going. We estimated that we had just enough petrol to get us to Marsabit, the nearest town with petrol, some 400 k's away. We were prepared for a full 12 hour drive.

We got lost a few times in Sibiloi. It is really the worst national park to visit as a tourists, the roads are not marked at all. We probably went 30 k's too many to leave the park, a nearly devastating mistake given our short supply of petrol. We hoped the rest of the trip would be smoother. It wouldn't be.

The road to North Horr was marked by desert and once again we didn't see a single car. Louise mentioned that we were "very lucky" not to have had a puncture this far into the trip with the poor, tubeless tires that we had. So in the desert heat we were sweating a puncture. We reached North Horr without any problems and, as happens in all tiny towns out in the middle of nowhere, we got hounded by the locals. MZUNGU! MZUNGU!

We found a guy that needed a ride to Marsabit (atually to Nairobi) and so we picked him. His name is Abdirahman (Slave of god), or Abdi (slave) for short. I think it is really funny to go by slave but that's just me. We would be very lucky to have him with us.

The desert that we had been crossing for 3 days was only a mild desert compared to the Chelbi desert,a sandy desert that looks very intimidating. You cannot see the horizon because of the thick mirages that occur. The heat must have wore our tires and at roughly 4:30 we hit the wrong bump and POP, something burst. I opened my door and saw that our weakest tire (the one with a slow leak) had completely burst. No big deal, I thought, lets just replace it. But then Nathan said, "this ones gone too!" Sure enough, both back tires were gone. One a blowout, the other a nasty leak that would deflate the tire in about 20 minutes.

We estimated that we were 30 k's from town and might be able to make it if we changed the blowout. Nathan grabbed the jack and started going but no sooner and our jack broke. So we started digging a hole improvising a jack. It was a futile effort as the other tire had slowly leaked its way to a flat. We were screwed. We hadn't seen a car in days.

Abdi told us not to worry, that a convoy of trucks was coming tonight and that they would be able to repair the tires. I liked his confidence but it was not what I had experienced in the last few days when no one came through. We hung out till dark and then after dark until we could see some lights coming in the distance. The SOB was right. A convoy of trucks were slowly making their way toward us. I've written about how I enjoy these misfortunes when they give you opportunities to get closer to the people and this was one of those times.

The convoy showed up and the guys went to work on the tire. They repaired only one tire (the other was beyond repair) but they didn't do such a great job and after putting it back on the car we could hear another slow leak. Some suggested that we turn around and follow them into the nearest town. We refused, not wanting to backtrack and took off for Marsabit, nearly 50 k's away.

About 20 k's down and we heard it. A pop that turned into a hiss that turned into a thud. It had blown. And we would be spending the night in the desert, hoping for another truck. Thsi time, Abdi was not so certain that one would come within the next few days!

I got out and sat on the hood watching the crystal clear night sky. My thought was, in one week, I will be home with Sheila. In one week. Surprisingly, we all 3 slept in the tiny car seats and I slept just fine. Probably because of the bad sleep I had the two nights before. I woke up once when Nathan asked me to roll up my window and then again as the sun was coming up.