News from Jupiter
From My Notebooks In 1974: Kenya to Tanzania
March 8, 2026
After a few days in Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu, I rode on to the border at Lunga Lunga. In a strangely fearful mood. Monday, January 27th Rain stops. I drive on. No more tarmac. Packed sand. Looks like slippery trouble after the rain, reinforcing my expectation of disaster but it proves easy enough after all, and dries out quickly. But my thoughts stay morbid. […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Still in Kenya
March 1, 2026
The heat on the road to Mombasa melts the patches on my inner tube, and I’m stuck. Kibwezi, 18th and 19th January Could have been just another place. Jumble of buildings on a dirt road. Buses pulling in. Stalls selling fruit and a few vegetables. Main store on the corner (Asian of course). [I cursed myself for not having what I needed to repair […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Day 2 with the Turkana
February 22, 2026
Yesterday Lucas flew me to a remote tribal area, home of the Turkana, north of Nairobi and close to Lake Rudolph. This is my second day. Lodwar, January 10th [Outside the hospital, on the sand with Doctor ”Jerry” who invited me here. We’re waiting for the flying doctor who does operations.] Outdoor surgery. Doctor arrives in LandRover. Soon a woman arrives with her baby […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Turkana in Lodwar, Kenya
February 15, 2026
Nairobi, Tuesday, January 8th Mike Pearson, the bluff and hearty boss of Lucas, Nairobi, says: “I say! We just bought a plane. Where would you like to go?” So I told him I’d got a postcard from a doctor working with the Turkana tribe in Lodwar. [Before I left London a few letters from readers arrived at the Sunday Times wishing me well. One was […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Kenya
February 8, 2026
The road from Moyale, on the border, to Nairobi had a bad reputation. It was unpaved, of course, and boasted a rich variety of stones of all colours and sizes but I found it relatively easy. There was game of all sorts – I saw my first wild ostrich and giraffe – but no traffic, and it was dry. The vibration, however, finished the job […]
From My Notebooks In 1974: Ethiopia
February 1, 2026
On my way south from Lake Hawassa, the first stop was Yavello where I had an extraordinary dinner with two drunken teachers who tried to stuff their food into my mouth. I recorded none of this. Happily, when I came to write the book I remembered every detail, but not with pleasure. January 1st, 1974 New Year’s Day. Leave Yavello for Mega. Road is […]
From My Notebooks In 1973: Ethiopia
January 25, 2026
The five hundred or so miles from Gedaref to Gondar were the toughest five days of my entire journey – in part because I was still new to the game. When I returned 28 years later it was virtually unchanged. Then the Chinese came. Today, I’m told, it is paved. December 17th By the fourth day I was ready to contemplate the possibility that […]
From My Notebooks In 1973: Sudan to Ethiopia
January 18, 2026
From the desert to the mountains. Those days crossing the desert in Sudan were among the most influential of my life, an apotheosis. After my abject performance on that first day, running out of fuel and water and burying myself in sand, the schoolteachers of Kinedra lifted me up and made a hero of me, and from that day on I was treated with the […]
From My Notebooks In 1973: Sudan continued
January 11, 2026
After two more days as a guest of the boys’ school in Kinedra the teachers finally gave me permission (because that’s what it felt like) to continue my journey. I was confided to the care of a government official on his way to Kassala, 200 miles away, from the neighbouring village, Sedon. Wednesday, December 12th From Kinedra in morning. Thermos flask of tea prepared. […]
From My Notebooks In 1973: Sudan
January 4, 2026
On December 5th the ferry from Aswan came ashore at Wadi Halfa or, more correctly, at a ramshackle assemblage still growing to replace the town, which now lay below the waters of the lake. I had hoped to get back on the bike but was refused permission and petrol, so I had to take the train. With the Dutch couple I had befriended, I […]