Thread by @mwarv

After 11 years of faithful service, I let go of my 2001 Subaru Forester this January.

Here are some of the adventures Silvester and I have been on around Africa.

Part 1.

Firstly, why Silvester? It's a Silver Forester and you know how Kuyos are big on combining names...

I acquired Silvester in March 2008 as a direct import from Japan with 58,000kms on the odo. At handover, I'd taken it up to 268,189kms.

Some of the first trips we did were camping ones to Lake Elementaita with friends and colleagues from @ARKafrica_. Back then, you could camp by the lake shore for free.

More photos at the links below.

flic.kr/s/aHsiZBmi9N
flic.kr/s/aHsiX3PBxw
flic.kr/s/aHsjbpDvPB

We also visited Kakamega Forest, which included a trip to Kisumu for boat rides and fish at Lwang'ni. Most memorable experience getting lost during a forest hike and the sound of a twig breaking guiding us in the right direction.

More photos: flic.kr/s/aHsjetxHJH

In January 2009, we visited a friend's shaggz in Mutulani where the effects of a drought had hit hard and Silvester turned into a relief vehicle.

More photos: flic.kr/s/aHsj9dTKZ8

The first epic road trip we did was to Tiwi, via Amboseli and Tsavo. The idea was floated on a Saturday, discussed on a Sunday, and come Monday, we left Nairobi. This was in September 2009.

We called it Wrong Way Down.

Our first night was in Amboseli.

flic.kr/s/aHsjojWL19

On the second day, we drove to Tsavo via Shetani Lava Flow and camped in an open campsite where the crack of dawn revealed lion paw prints not far from our tents.

Such fun!

It was a dusty experience and we didn't shower because we're guys and showering when camping is a waste of water.

On the third day we discovered Twiga Campsite in Tiwi. I'm yet to find any campsite in Kenya with better beach access. If you know of one, please let me know.

While at Twiga, we met a French family who had sold everything they had, bought a truck, kitted it out into a home and were now touring the world while home schooling their daughter.

Lanes.

I returned to Nairobi and started planning for a Nairobi to Cape Town road trip for the 2010 World Cup. I got four friends in on the idea. Realising how epic our goal was, we picked Wednesdays as days for fasting and prayer, and broke fast at G&R.

As planning was ongoing, I took a trip to Baringo with a nephew and cousin in Easter 2010 and introduced them to camping.

Back in Nairobi, hopes were fading for our Cape Town road trip. We were nowhere near our 1 million bobs budget and time wasn't on our side. Many doors were shut in our face, regrets received on email and calls unanswered.

A big shout out to Brancom who branded Silvester, @bonkstore who clothed us and @SubaruKenya who serviced Silvester for free.

We shot a series of videos during our epic trip. Here's episode 1.

We left Nairobi on 26th June 2010 with nothing but a full tank of faith. We were nowhere near our 1 million bobs budget but we'd heard God say 'Go'. So we went after a flag-off by the @KWELIMedia team from Uchumi Hyper on Lang'ata Road.

Our first night was spent at Pangani Campsite in Tanzania. Beautiful place on the road from Holili to Mombo.

Night two was in Iringa, and three in Tunduma. We'd hoped to cross into Zambia but didn't get to the border in time to do so.

We crossed into Zambia and spent our fourth night on the road at Forest Inn, Mkushi.

Watch episode two here for more :

When driving through Lusaka, we bumped into Jamaicans who were also headed to South Africa for the World Cup. We got them to autograph Silvester's bonnet. It's something we asked people we enjoyed meeting along the way to do.

Night five was in Livingstone.

We got to Jolly Boys at 2am and by 7am we were up, eyes set on Botswana.

But first, we updated our blog, backed up footage and images and had breakfast at Wonderbake.

Crossing from Zambia into Botswana was via the Kazungula Ferry over the mighty Zambezi.

So unpleasant was our experience at immigration in Botswana that we decided not to sleep in Bots. We drove the whole afternoon and entire night via Francistown and Gaborone and at sunrise, we were at Lobatse, ready to cross into South Africa.

First thing we did in SA? Eat!

We got behind the National Breakfast at Wimpy in Zeerust.

Tummies full, we drove on to Kgaswane Mountain Reserve in Rustenberg. It was the first time we had pitched our tent before sunset.

Just before heading to the Rustenberg Fan Park to catch the Ghana - Uruguay game, we had dinner at Fa Mpa-Mpolae.

Seems I've reached the Twitter thread limit.

More in the next tweet.

Here's part 2 of the thread

https://twitter.com/mwarv/status/1085896284496523269?s=19

Here are all the threads. 

Part 1 goo.gl/r3hvnd

Part 2 goo.gl/nNXTJx

Part 3 goo.gl/nKsFnJ

Part 4 goo.gl/Kn8nHb