Today is the day that both carnets are valid - the old one runs out and the new one has started, so farewell to Advesta with promises that we'll come back and it's off to the Tarakea/Loitoktok border post only about 20km from Snowcap.
At the border we got all our documents ready along with cash, lots of it in USD, Tan Shillings and Kenyan Shillings.
First stop - Tan immigration to get passports stamped "out", then Tan customs to get the carnet stamped to show that the vehicle had left Tanzania. The customs guy asked us for the road tax receipt from when we entered the country - he noted that we had paid for one month but had been there for 5, so there was extra tax to pay - no problem, we expected this and were happy to pay - how much do we owe you please? He disappeared with the carnet for quite some time. After our experience at Namanga the year before we were a little concerned, however when he came back he explained that he had been talking to his superior and because the road tax document had been marked as "transit" then there was nothing additioanl to pay! Hurray! We like this border post..... He stamped the carne out and wished us a good journry.
Next stop - drive 200 metres to the Kenyan side - go see immigration, fill in a couple of forms, pay $50 each for the visa and we are into the country. Next step to get the vehicle in - off to customs with the new carnet. They wanted to know if we were only going into Kenya to get the carnet stamped, when we told them we would be visiting Kenya itself they were happy and told us there would be road tax to pay - no problem we were expecting this, how much do we owe you? First of all we want to see the vehicle - so off we went witht he customs lady and a soldier. When she saw the vehicle she broke into a smile - a "Moving House"! The soldier was desperate to see inside, so in we went - he was very curious and found it all very fascinating, the customs lady noted the registration and chassis number, then back to the office. Where in Kenya will you be driving? We explained our intended route - they looked up the distances and told us it would be $56 - I offered to pay it there and then in either $ or Kenyan Shillings, the lady told us we had to use an agent as they don't have the correct banking facilities - and here is the agent (a very young man). At this point another officer interrupted the conversation, they got their maps out and reconsidered distances. We were worried again - were they going to increase the amount somehow?.....after a few minutes they declared that in fact they had found that they could DECREASE the tax to $42!!!!! We like this border post!.... We talked with the agent - he told us we had to pay him in cash, the customs people would issue us with a receipt as he is a trusted agent and we should add "what we consider it is worth" for his efforts - so we added 1000 Shilings, he was happy - and the customs people told us we had given him too much!!! As we were all happy (us in particular as we really didnt want to have to go back to Kenya Revenue Authority in Nairobi again!!!!), we left it at that, the paperwork was done, the carnet stamped and they all wished us a warm welcome to Kenya. What a difference from last year!!!!
Off we went into Kenya - to the small town of Loitoktok where we filled up with fuel (slightly cheaper in Kenya at about 52p/litre than in Tanz), bought some fruit and veggies from a little stall and some goceries from a tiny supermarket and then off to Amboseli.
The road to Amboseli was worse than earlier in the year year with evidence of water damage, but after letting air out of the tyres it only took a couple of hours from the tar road to get to the gate where we turned left to Kimana campsite to find the spot we had taken in January to be free. A little before the gate we started to see wildlife - antelope, giraffe, zebra and even ellies - in the wet the animals move out of the park as water is more widely available. At Kimana people recognised us and were very happy to see people returning and we gave them prints of photos that we had taken of them in January - they were even more pleased!
As it was now past 2pm we decided that we would wait until the following day to go into the park to get the best out of our time, so we settled into the campsite. In the early evening, David the campsite manager appeared looking very worried - do you havea battery we can use to get the generator working? Ours is dead! As our batteries are very difficult to remove we ahd to decline, but we had a set of very heavy duty junp leads and they had a pickup truck......so off we went to see what could be done. After much messing about it turned out that the alternator on their pickup wasnt working so it wouldnt start the generator, however iy was possible to jump start it from a visiting minibus, so all was well for now......
At the border we got all our documents ready along with cash, lots of it in USD, Tan Shillings and Kenyan Shillings.
First stop - Tan immigration to get passports stamped "out", then Tan customs to get the carnet stamped to show that the vehicle had left Tanzania. The customs guy asked us for the road tax receipt from when we entered the country - he noted that we had paid for one month but had been there for 5, so there was extra tax to pay - no problem, we expected this and were happy to pay - how much do we owe you please? He disappeared with the carnet for quite some time. After our experience at Namanga the year before we were a little concerned, however when he came back he explained that he had been talking to his superior and because the road tax document had been marked as "transit" then there was nothing additioanl to pay! Hurray! We like this border post..... He stamped the carne out and wished us a good journry.
Next stop - drive 200 metres to the Kenyan side - go see immigration, fill in a couple of forms, pay $50 each for the visa and we are into the country. Next step to get the vehicle in - off to customs with the new carnet. They wanted to know if we were only going into Kenya to get the carnet stamped, when we told them we would be visiting Kenya itself they were happy and told us there would be road tax to pay - no problem we were expecting this, how much do we owe you? First of all we want to see the vehicle - so off we went witht he customs lady and a soldier. When she saw the vehicle she broke into a smile - a "Moving House"! The soldier was desperate to see inside, so in we went - he was very curious and found it all very fascinating, the customs lady noted the registration and chassis number, then back to the office. Where in Kenya will you be driving? We explained our intended route - they looked up the distances and told us it would be $56 - I offered to pay it there and then in either $ or Kenyan Shillings, the lady told us we had to use an agent as they don't have the correct banking facilities - and here is the agent (a very young man). At this point another officer interrupted the conversation, they got their maps out and reconsidered distances. We were worried again - were they going to increase the amount somehow?.....after a few minutes they declared that in fact they had found that they could DECREASE the tax to $42!!!!! We like this border post!.... We talked with the agent - he told us we had to pay him in cash, the customs people would issue us with a receipt as he is a trusted agent and we should add "what we consider it is worth" for his efforts - so we added 1000 Shilings, he was happy - and the customs people told us we had given him too much!!! As we were all happy (us in particular as we really didnt want to have to go back to Kenya Revenue Authority in Nairobi again!!!!), we left it at that, the paperwork was done, the carnet stamped and they all wished us a warm welcome to Kenya. What a difference from last year!!!!
Off we went into Kenya - to the small town of Loitoktok where we filled up with fuel (slightly cheaper in Kenya at about 52p/litre than in Tanz), bought some fruit and veggies from a little stall and some goceries from a tiny supermarket and then off to Amboseli.
The road to Amboseli was worse than earlier in the year year with evidence of water damage, but after letting air out of the tyres it only took a couple of hours from the tar road to get to the gate where we turned left to Kimana campsite to find the spot we had taken in January to be free. A little before the gate we started to see wildlife - antelope, giraffe, zebra and even ellies - in the wet the animals move out of the park as water is more widely available. At Kimana people recognised us and were very happy to see people returning and we gave them prints of photos that we had taken of them in January - they were even more pleased!
As it was now past 2pm we decided that we would wait until the following day to go into the park to get the best out of our time, so we settled into the campsite. In the early evening, David the campsite manager appeared looking very worried - do you havea battery we can use to get the generator working? Ours is dead! As our batteries are very difficult to remove we ahd to decline, but we had a set of very heavy duty junp leads and they had a pickup truck......so off we went to see what could be done. After much messing about it turned out that the alternator on their pickup wasnt working so it wouldnt start the generator, however iy was possible to jump start it from a visiting minibus, so all was well for now......