The beach and border ride
Answered Prayer
15 August 2021
Hero X-PULSE 200 at 2000km
31 August 2021The Plan
Day 1: Nairobi - Mombasa - Likoni - Diani
Day 2: Diani - Lunga-Lunga - Diani
Day 3: Diani - Kwale - Kinango - Samburu - Nairobi
Where to Stay
Simba Oryx Diani
Simba Oryx, above, offer self-catering beach cottages. It's a serene, family friendly place where you can escape the noise and stress of life.Soul Breeze Beach Resort
Soul Breeze Beach Resort, below, is a lively, popular place with great food and drinks. It offers Budget accommodation (bandas) and rooms. There's also great music, a swimming pool and beach volleyball.The manager, Mark Murimi K's, is a biker. A fun place to hang out, day or night.
Places to eat
Havana Bar
Diani Beach at Baharini Plaza on Diani Beach Road have an awseome seafood platter (1,500/-) nd their pineapple mint juice is sublime. Their coffee game iko juu pia.
Coast Dishes
On Diani-Ukunda road, Coast Dishes have a well made, well priced Swahili menu. The beef pilau was superb. And the portions are generous!People
We met Innocent Dan near Voi. It's always great to encounter fellow Dominarians on the road. We then paid a courtesy call to biker Morris Njue at Kinondo Secondary school.
We met Mark of Soul Breeze Beach Resort. He provided a clever temporary fix for a blown exhaust gasket using peeled aluminium can sheets and wire.
Worn out exhaust gasket made bike noisy and raised fuel consumption!
Creative use of wire to hold loose exhaust silencer
Ride highlights
Mtito Andei to Voi is lumpy tarmac that can unsettle a bike at speed. From Voi, towards the coast, headwinds are very strong, easily bleeding 20kph off your speed at the same throttle position. The Likoni ferry crossing was uneventful. Bikes get priority in boarding, which is nice.
Waiting for the ferry
Lunga Lunga
Diani to Lunga Lunga: 80km. This is a great route for a laid back ride. Stress melts away as you cruise through the rural coastal landscape of Kwale County to the KE/TZ border. The sight of swaying palm trees soothes the soul. No need to rush, just take it easy.
Return leg via Kwale. The 22km tarmac road that climbs up the Shimba Hills to Kwale town has pleasant scenery and not much traffic. It's a nice ride. Then the tarmac ends and you're confronted by a forest, an electric fence, and a dirt road with very red soil. This road runs through the forest and then descends into the vast savannah and on to Kinango.
The lowlands are sparsely populated. Mud-walled houses with thatched roofs are predominant. Schools here have funny names, like "Ndivyohivyo" and "Mdomo". The road is motorable, with a few rocky sections. Even our street bikes, ridden with care, didn't struggle. Though if it rains, some bits could be challenging.
From Kinango, 55kms of fantastic tarmac all the way to Samburu, on the Mombasa road junction. When fully tarmacked, the Samburu-Kwale road will be a game-changer for south coast tourism. Even in its present incomplete state, I would choose it over the Mombasa-Likoni route every time.
We rejoined Mombasa road at Samburu by 13:30. Onward to Voi, where by 15:15 we were done with a late lunch and fuelled up. And determined to beat the sunset to Nairobi.
We pushed hard, letting the bikes sing. The chase was on. All went well up to Mlolongo, where the epic traffic jam due to roadworks thwarted our "reach-before-sunset" plan. Imagine how it must have been for cagers...
1,214km covered. Enjoyed great scenery. Met interesting people. Ate great food. And most of all, rode great roads
Ride smart, ride safe 🖖🏽
1 Comment
Great ride. Let me know when you arrange other rides. 0725090520