Eldoret

Today, we have spent a relaxing day in Eldoret. We slept into the morning, had breakfast and took a walk to the city centre. We stay at a place called Rosewood that is just walking distance to the city centre.

It is 17th December and Rune so much enjoys wearing just shorts and sleeveless when going out. The temperature in the middle of the day is between 25 and 30 degrees. The sun is hot. The evenings, though, is cooler.

Eldoret is located in western Kenya. The local elevation varies from about 2100 metres above sea level to more than 2700 metres. The population was about 194,000 in 1999, about 230,000 in 2007 and is now about 400,000. There are people everywhere.

The name "Eldoret" is based on the Maasai word "eldore" meaning "stony river" because the bed of the nearby Sosiani River is very stony. The white settlers decided to call it Eldoret to make it easier for them to pronounce it.

Eldoret was established in the midst of the farms that the settlers created. The official town site of Eldoret itself started in 1910 with a post office on what was known to the white settlers as Farm 64, "64" og "Sisibo" to the locals because at that time it was 64 miles from the newly built Uganda Railway railhead. When the governor decided to establish an administrative centre, the post office was renamed from "64" with the official name "Eldoret" in 1912. Becoming an administrative centre caused an enormous increase in trade within the prospective city.

The latest years, Eldoret has grown rapidly and today it has approximately 400,000 inhabitants. There is heavy traffic through the city. The road on the picture above is called Uganda Road and leads to Uganda, one of Kenya's neighbour countries. The others are Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Goods transported from the port in Mombasa to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi goes through Eldoret.

Walking in the city centre means that you have people everywhere and the air is very polluted because of many trucks and cars. Quite many of them would probably not have passed the so called EU control in Norway. At this time of the year with little or no rain, it is also extremely dusty. Then it is nice to take a break in the backyard of the hotel Sirikwa. Being in Norway, Sharon has been missing the Kenyan sausages. Obviously, we just had to eat those sausages for lunch today.

Make sure to visit our travel blog soon again. A new report with more information about our stay in Kenya is waiting to be published.