Well, we had a great trek up to northern Kenya, to the shores of Lake Turkana to catch this rare hybrid eclipse (see past posts). However, we had a massive dust and rain storm hit 45 minutes before the event. Unfortunately, those clouds hit the sun just the few minutes before the eclipse.

All of us in Sibiloi saw the light dim out, but didn’t get to see the moon cross over the sun.

An airplane just landed, that we think got the eclipse from above the clouds. Wish we had one of those!

We’re now catching a partial bit of the eclipse as the clouds break open. Image shortly if we can capture it.

6am rolled around and we all jumped up, hungry, but rested. Sunrise was amazing. A beautiful color that shed some light on where we actually were. As I type this, there is a warthog about 20m away to my left, while both greater and lesser flamingos, along with some kind of wild goose, feed 20m away in front in Lake Turkana.

Sibiloi is distant and harsh. It’s a forgotten mixture of austere beauty, heat, wind and silence – that though it isn’t welcoming, is still a joy to be at.

I can think of no reason why 200-300 people would come here, except for the rare hybrid eclipse that we’re about to see tonight.

We swore we had driven through trees, but there were none around, not within 10 miles. This should be an object lesson in the illusions that one sees when riding and driving after so many hours on the road at night. It also became apparent that we’d have to lose any sense of privacy when it came time to find a restroom. It’s a good thing that this is not a mixed group. 🙂

All morning we’ve been working on getting a couple things tested:

1. Internet, we’ve got a BGAN terminal for satellite data connectivity provided to us by Indigo Telecom in Nairobi. They rent them out to people everywhere in the region, and have been great to work with. That’s working nicely, and hopefully we’ll get the eclipse livestreamed at brk.com/eclipse.

2. Mobile phone signal, Wilson has provided us with some long range amplification antennas. We tested them in Kurungu, where we turned a weak Edge signal from Safaricom that couldn’t transmit any data into a very strong Edge connection that was usable. They gave us a couple to test out, and we’ll do so again on the road back to Loiyangalane, from the a hill about 20-30km away. We don’t have a good line of sight from where we are to the tower in Loiyangalane from Sibiloi, so can’t get a signal here.

3. Camera setup for the Eclipse. What we’ll be streaming with is a Frankenstein-like beast, that’s cobbled together from a web cam, toilet paper roll and a Schneider large format lens, all held together by gaffer tape. It’s really amazing, the fact that the team has such a mix of camera and digital know-how to pull this off by Jon and Philip, was great to watch.

4. Power for the computers and BGAN. There’s a lot of “hack it together” knowledge on the team, and between Reg and Philip they were able to jimmy rig some solar to car battery to inverter to hacked together power plug. some people will tell you that this is “real field constructed power distribution” – we all know it’s a jua kali rig job.

While all that is being set up, it’s great to see the BRCKs humming along quite nicely. The BRCK flag now waves above the Land Rover at Camp Jawbone (named after the zebra jawbone we found when setting up camp last night).

Now we’re waiting for 5pm to get the livestream rolling. Crossing our fingers now for a cloudless sky tonight.

Update: It’s 5 minutes to the eclipse, we just had a massive sand storm and rain storm pass through. barely getting connection and a lot of clouds. Probably can’t stream, so will try to upload images.

Day 3 started a little late as we had to fix Taylor’s front forks, which had met with an untimely collision with some mud and sand the day before. He rode about 100 kilometers on a skewed front tire, which just made the sand at night a bit harder, so it was a miracle that he didn’t go over again.

After an amazing breakfast from the Swanepoels, we made great time on smooth roads from Kurungu to Loiyangalane, this day resolved to stop and eat lunch, refill the water and relax for 30 minutes before we did the last run to Sibiloi. Now, the road to Sibiloi has always been an adventure, and it didn’t disappoint us… It’s about 125km from Loiyangalane to Sibiloi, and it’s full of massive boulders, though those had been cleared and a beautiful road put up the incline of the escarpment.

Again, we made good time for the first half of it. Then, Philip took a bit of a tumble on the open sand flats. There’s a real tricky bit of riding where the sand becomes talcum under you with little warning. He hit a patch and as he went down hit his hand on a rock. A bit of blunt trauma treatment later it was decided that he couldn’t ride any longer. This left us in a bit of a bind as no others in the vehicle knew how to ride a motorcycle.

We were about to hoise the large Honda 650 XLR onto a passing Kenya Wildlife Services vehicle. Right before we lifted it, Fady decided he’d give it a try…

Fady is some kind of superman. He learned to ride a motorcycle on the sand flats at 5:30pm and rode for the next 3 hours into the night through the African bush. It was quite amazing really, I’ve never witnessed anything like this before, and know that I could never have done the same. Your first 3 hours EVER of riding a motorcycle are done in some of the harshest terrain – at NIGHT!?

Needless to say, we’ll be providing Fady with a certificate of excellence. (special note from Fady: “Smurfy don’t kill me”)

We were the final vehicles into Sibiloi National Park last night. It was about 8:30pm and we were completely exhausted. Now, you’re normally not allowed to bring motorcycles into any national park in Kenya. However, this time the warden made an exception, as long we agreed to ride straight to the camp and not ride them again until we left. I can’t tell you how good that made all of us feel and we owe the KWS a huge note of thanks for taking so much good care of us last night. In particular, a gentleman by the name of Sode was exceptional and I just wish all government employees were as pleasant and helpful.

Once past the gate, we drove down a road until we literally drove into Lake Turkana. After we backed out of the water, the KWS guys showed up again, along with Andrew Nightengale – someone I know from staying at his farm with my family a few years ago. He pointed us towards a place right along the lake a few hundred meters away.

Once again, exhausted at the end of another African bush night drive, after a full day on the road, we set up our tents. A few bowls of my wife’s chili later (promptly announced as the “best food ever” by everyone), with some Dickel Bourbon whiskey as a chaser, we collapsed into our tents and slept like the dead.