A Saturday in Hell’s Kitchen

By Morris Njue

We had missed two weekends of riding and Ralf Kamau was adamant that this ride must happen. I was game. Kelvins Kartel and Moses Yaa were not to be left out either. Shebz Delmon and Subaru Leone would have made it but they were caught up with work.

For SAKAYO and i, it would be the first fully tarmac stretch of road, 4hr.20min to Marafa from Diani, 190kms and back.... Making it 380kms covered in one day and 8hrs of riding. I started early(6.30am) to Nyali to meet up with Ralf. Mother nature decided to start making things exciting by introducing a slight shower and slippery tarmac. The ride to likoni from Diani was therefore very sketchy, what with trailers from Tanzania filling the road with spray and matatus in a hurry to overtake. The ferry crossing was uneventful and the ride to Nyali rather pleasant. The weather had dried out as i crossed thr ferry and it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. Om arriving at Ralf's place, we talked a while and had coffee, before leaving for Kilifi.

Communications had be relayed to the rest of gang and a meet up point had been scheduled for Tuskys at Kilifi. Subaru had mentioned that we would most likely meet on the road as he was on his way to Mombasa.

For SAKAYO and i, it would be the first fully tarmac stretch of road, 4hr.20min to Marafa from Diani, 190kms and back.... Making it 380kms covered in one day and 8hrs of riding. I started early(6.30am) to Nyali to meet up with Ralf. Mother nature decided to start making things exciting by introducing a slight shower and slippery tarmac. The ride to likoni from Diani was therefore very sketchy, what with trailers from Tanzania filling the road with spray and matatus in a hurry to overtake. The ferry crossing was uneventful and the ride to Nyali rather pleasant. The weather had dried out as i crossed thr ferry and it was going to be a beautiful sunny day. Om arriving at Ralf's place, we talked a while and had coffee, before leaving for Kilifi.

Communications had be relayed to the rest of gang and a meet up point had been scheduled for Tuskys at Kilifi. Subaru had mentioned that we would most likely meet on the road as he was on his way to Mombasa. Upon arriving in Mtwapa, the distinct Blue and silver ZMR was spotted incoming on the other lane. The county council officials were much amused by the manner in which we all came to an abrupt halt just to say hi to each other. He gave us briefing about the weather ahead and the road conditions then we were off again.

Soon, we had cleared the tedious traffic jams of Mtwapa and were zipping past cars to Kilifi....well....

We arrived at Tuskys Kilifi at exactly 9.35am and had to wait for a while for the others to show up. Moses was the first to arrive on a 600cc Yamaha, followed by David Shukrani and then later Kelvin. He did not have a working rear disk brake, but he showed up for the ride either way. After talking shop, we decided to leave and were joined by "ONE OF THE TWINS" Ronald Raymond Baya a tall fella who has a twin whose names i embarrassingly forget....forgive me if you come across this.

After exchanging hearty greetings with him, he mentioned that he was to join us but couldn't because he was also caught up in another schedule. David escorted us on his Bajaj bm100 and now, we were off to the races.

The ride to Malindi was fast paced and a few times the boys would disappear only to reappear again. Moses's Yamaha developed an issue with the Dash and we had to stop and make some changes. At one point kelvin meandered onto the shoulder, flicking loose gravel all over and we assumed he had developed some problems....turns out it was a spot bikers naturally take pictures at!! He had assumed we would stop but he was quickly ushered along by Ralf and we sped off again.

We arrived in Malindi at 11.30am stopped at Shukrani restaurant, ate and at around 12noon, were off to Marafa. If there ever was a stretch of tarmac with fun twisties, the newly carpeted road to Hell's Kitchen is just magnificent. Turn after turn after turn of glorious twists.... Two of them were markedly sharp and i nearly ended up flying into some bodaboda guys on the first one.... I hadn't seen how sharp it was and had come in too hot....with less than capable brakes, i had to shift down furiously to help the brakes and lean like a ninja, half confident, half scared, half laughing....probably one of those epic life moments when you are on the twittering edge of life and death!

The rest of the way was fairly straightforward stretches with cow and goat hazards here and there and no bumps. We had to detour off the newly created tarmac to a dirt road that opened up into a murram road. Then the gate to Hell's Kitchen was visible....something to note if u want to visit. The detour is small and sandy.... About 500m. We were greated to some of the most surreal scenes i had ever seen. Basically, Hell's Kitchen is extremely adverse gulley erosion made worse by soft sand stone rock. We were told it would get hot once down into gulleys. We rested a few minutes then got our guide to take us down there.

Few words can explain it...hence the numerous pictures...you just have to go there yourself!! And these are just a few. In the end....i learned a some things when i got home at 7pm:

1. Carry an extra pair of comfortable hiking shoes if you plan to go there.
2. Better to use a motorcycle!
3. Carry lots of drinking water with you as u go down hiking there.
4. I need a bigger faster bike.....any donations are welcome

Marafa Hell's Kitchen is a karst depression in the Malindi hinterland. In time, real canyons and multicolored rock sculptures have formed visited every year by thousands of tourists, For more information on Marafa Hell's Kitchen, click here