Four more days to the finish line! Four!!! It has been a full month on the road!
We bid farewell to the Tsavo and start to feel the full coastal environment. The humidity is beginning to weigh in. The road is tough. The highway is under construction and because of that, the team is walking along a diversion billowing with dust. The truck drivers are impatient and on edge with the traffic and the team must be extra careful to avoid accidents.
The destination is Mackinnon Road. A little dot on Google map with a rich history. Apparently it gets its name from the fact that it was the junction of the Uganda Railway and the Mackinnon ox cart road at the end of the 19th centuary. It has a little mosque which houses the tomb of Seyyid Baghali, a Punjabi foreman at the time of the building of the railway who was renowned for his strength, believed to provide safe passage to travellers from the grave!
During World War II, Mackinnon Road acquired an airfield for the Royal Navy. Later, between 1947 and 1950, it became the site of a large British Engineering and Ordinance Depot for holding 200,000 tons of military stores to replace Egypt that was experiencing an uprising. The depot was abandoned and eventually became a detention camp for Mau Mau suspects until 1955.
Who thought a nondescript little township could hold such detailed history. Well, now it is home to schools, churches, business enterprises, gas stations and a pretty ordinary existence. I bet it is prettier when there is no dust from road construction. The team is happy to be able to wash off the layers of red dust at camp and have a rest.
Only four more days left to finish line!!!
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