The Scenic Route to Voi – Welcome to Hungry Giraffe! 🦒

Today I took the scenic route to Voi. Total 482km: From the Western Bypass via Ngong, Isinya, Mashuru, then past Kili and the 70 clicks of dirt to Taveta.

Besides scenery and some interesting rough surface I wanted piece of mind for my Friday. The vast emptiness of roads up North spoiled me!

I didn’t want to share the road with careless drivers today 🥺

The 250km from Ngong to Shell Oloitiktok took me four hours. 125cc manenos, some twists, lots of lifestock and enough tall bumps along otherwise smooth and empty tarmac. It’s quite hot and has little development, so I was happy to just keep throttling away to some smooth jazz and keep sipping from my hydration pack. Nowadays my helmet is like a lounge 🤣

Quick pic of Kili in dark clouds. Hoping it won’t rain on the off-road!

Tarmac ends in Laset. Cruising speed from Laset to Taveta was 60… Smoothest dirt road I’ve done lately (if you know, you know). Very happy with my improved speed since my Taveta roadtrip 18 months ago. The hundreds of Kms up North clearly unlocked new levels of swag!

Until I jump over a bunch of holes towards sunset and decide to slow down a bit.

I found these holes in Aug 2020. How is this road still not fixed? 😱

At Lake Chala I shake my head when seeing some ugly looking concrete tourist (?) developments but too busy maneuvering the holes to overthink it. I had been up the crater rim before so I didn’t stop this time. Veeeery beautiful lake! A must see.

I pass Lake Chala by sunset and hurry onwards

I make it to the tarmac in Taveta at 18:47 but decide to head onwards to Voi. I still feel fresh and given I want to be in Mombasa by 10am the next day, this feels like the better option. 106km should be a two hour affair, even in darkness.

Black smooth surface. Always reassuring, especially solo!

My friend who grew up in Taveta had sternly warned me from riding through Tsavo at night, remembering accidents with elephants or stalled trucks. Guess what, I run into a herd of zebras and giraffes just past 7. Shock on me! 🦓🦒

The giraffes panic between my headlight and that of an oncoming car, but somehow find their way off the tarmac. Exhale!