Road Rage!

So I have just come back from a ride with the wags - it was fun! We did a whopping 25kms. I must say its really cool just to ride... not to have a race to train for and not to ride for fitness (of which I have almost none left). And its REALLY cool to have female company instead of being the only girl!
So now I wait for Benedikt to get back from his 125km ride :-)

And its time to moan some more about the roads here and the drivers on them. I love the fact that I have a 10000000 wide audience to vent too :-)
These are my main issues:

- There are NO road signs anywhere. Ever. There are street signs in the fancy suburbs but thats it. No highway signs, no suburb signs, no town signs, no speed limit signs, no warning whatsoever of speed bumps (and there are MANY giant bumps) and no give way/stop signs/yields etc. And there are no traffic lights. Well there are some random sets, but they get ignored. So you get to a junction and there is just mayhem. Every car just pushes in until he gets through.

- All the main roads are single lanes (one lane each way). So you ALWAYS get stuck behind a battered old truck moving at 10kms per hour, emitting such huge amounts of exhaust fumes you can barely see or breathe. Its always very dangerous to overtake as its hilly round here and the corners are overgrown with bush and trees. But that doesnt stop Nairobeans from overtaking boy. Its a national sport here. The goal is to see how many cars you can overtake on a hill where you cant see whats coming, or with a blind corner coming up, and you should only marginally drive a little faster than the beaten up truck. And you should ALWAYS overtake. Never ever sit behind a slow car. Are you mad?! If there is a car coming from the other direction its their job to move over into the mud on the side. I cant tell you how many times we go around a corner and there is a car or matatu coming for us head on. Its a normal part of driving here.
Oh yes, and even if their is an island in the middle of the road, no worries, just sit on the wrong side of that while you overtake and wait for a spot where you can ramp over it again.

- I'd reckon at least 50% of cars and trucks here have no brake lights. Its unbelievable. Petrol tankers and police cars are my worst. Yip - police cars whose brake lights dont work. Its shocking! But oh so normal. And its a real problem with matatus as they just pull over whenever they like, from a main road, and you have no warning, suddenly they are at a complete stop right front of you. But its the worst when there are speed bumps as you just dont see the cars slowing down. And you certainly dont know there is a speed bump coming up.

- Potholes. Well, should I say CRATERS. It is raining SO so so much these days which is great for my veggie garden and for Bayer as they sell more crop sprays etc, but wow the roads deteriorate fast. And they have been badly repaired so many times, its just a mess on top of a mess. And overnight a small hole can turn into a crater. This doesnt slow the cars down though, they just swerve into the oncoming traffic. Its their job to move over remember.
Just yesterday we were in Benedikt's big prado and we literally fell into a hole in the road. It must have been about 1m deep!

- Another thing about the roads is that they are just plain strips of (bad) tar. No planning goes into them it appears, there is no design or standard. There are very few white/yellow lines and there are hardly any shoulder lanes or pavements. There is no widening in the corners. 90% of the corners are off camber. And the erosion on the sides of the roads is so great that often there is a half meter drop to your left. And you are on this narrow strip of potholed road with cars overtaking willy nilly and swerving into your side. Its hair raising man! Especially when cars cut corners. There is just ZERO room on the road for you. You really have to slow down when another oncoming car is in the corner already as there is often no space for both of you to pass.

-Then another thing that is peculiar is the drivers dont switch on their lights in the evening. I think they think its bad for the car? You can flash them and hoot but they dont react. I dont know what that is about AT ALL. They certainly must work as flashing ones lights is the most common way of communicating on the roads. So driving at night here is real scary. Besides from their being no street lights, many many craters to avoid and dodgy corners to be careful in, you also cannot see half the cars from the front. Or when they brake!!

- Now this is Benedikts worst by far: the drivers SLOW down on all the downhills. They brake and brake and brake all the way down the hill. Sometimes to like 20kms per hour! Its crazy and infuriating! I think they think they are going to lose control of their cars if they let them roll down?? So this only makes the uphills even slower of course. Its maddening actually!

- Another weird thing here are the presidential entourages. I doubt its even presidential... any arb dude in government probably gets these special escorts. They have like 5 motorbikes followed by like 10 fancy black cars: some SUVS some bentleys and sometimes even a limo. And they take up the ENTIRE road. Often there are police at all the intersections on their journey that shut down the intersection so that the parade can pass. (which causes a massive backup of course) They drive really fast and totally intimidate everyone with all the flashing lights and beeping and bullish driving. And its probably just Kibaki's wife nipping off to have her hair done.

I will make it my mission this week to take some photos of the potholes and the dodgy roads. Cos as my sister said you only really believe it when you see it!