East Africa Classic Safari Rally

On Saturday the East African Rally came through the valley. Of course, as we're so remote with nothing happening much over the weekend, this event stimulated great excitement. It rained all night on Friday with no thought of easing up the next day. The company safety department barricaded the road at the intersection to the river and had a tractor and cable straps reader in case a car was swept off the bridge.

Continuous rain caused slush and slippery conditions for all

The tractor being parked in position in case of emergency. Doesn't Grant look strange wearing a jersey?With the incessant rain, the weather had turned very cold

The locals gathered at the cement (concrete) bridge below the mine offices to watch the cars coming through

A view of the raging river looking up towards the mountains

There were many Porche 911

 Datsuns, a Ford Caprice, several Ford Cortinas were the order of the day 

...and even a Mercedes

450 SLC!

There were no 4x4 vehicles, no quad bikes (four-wheelers), no trucks and no motorbikes allowed. This was a classic rally with cars from 1974 and older. The rally started on 18 November in Mombassa on the Kenyan Coast, spent three days in Tanzania, returned to Kenya driving for three days before their first rest day in Ambosile National Park. Next they worked their way up towards Naivasha and Nakuru eventually arriving in the Baringo district. At Karbenet they turned off into Keirio Valley and traversed the horrendous road to where we saw them cross the river. From there they rode past the mine offices, over the Moong River to Karbenet. Returning to Nakuru along the B4, they will arrive in Nairobi. There are more details my post is about the cars passing through the valley, so that's where I'll end!

Note: If you have time, do click on the links above. You'll be enchanted by the beautiful national parks, towns and valleys in Kenya.

A helicopter flew over the area before the first car arrived. It then flew off into the distance.

Later it returned and flew over us again

This time it landed in between the parked cars surrounded by trees. You can see it behind Grant's vehicle!

Later when it took off again, everyone ran towards it to get photos and videos, the cars momentarily forgotten!

Above is my photo of the helicopter rising up in between the cars and trees while our neighbour Borries loaded his video clip onto YouTube (below)

 He apologizes for the typo in the title, but the video is well worth watching!

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