CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 167 km, Nairobi to Nakuru - roughly 2 h 23 in the saddle. It goes by way of Great Rift Valley and Naivasha. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Nairobi sits at about 1,700 metres on the edge of the Kenyan highlands, and it is the capital of East Africa in every sense: busy, noisy, hopeful and full of traffic. With nearly three million people in the city and more around it, it is a big and fast place. The name comes from a Maasai phrase meaning cool water, a reference to the stream that once ran here, and the city grew in 1899 as a railway depot on the line from Mombasa to Uganda. It is the only major capital with a national park on its edge, where lions and giraffes can be seen against a backdrop of skyscrapers.
Read the complete Nairobi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nairobi is where the day begins. Next is Great Rift Valley viewpoint.
The ground drops away. One minute you are on a busy highway, grinding through traffic on the highlands north-west of Nairobi, and the next you are on the lip of an escarpment, looking down several hundred metres into the Great Rift Valley, a vast, hazy trough that runs from here as far as the eye can see. On a clear morning you see the cone of Mount Longonot across the plain, an old volcano with a crater, and the pale glint of Lake Naivasha and the Mau escarpment on the far side. It is one of those views that makes you stop and be quiet for a moment.
Read the complete Great Rift Valley viewpoint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Great Rift Valley viewpoint comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Naivasha.
Naivasha is a working town on the floor of the Rift Valley, at about nineteen hundred metres, and it exists because of the lake. Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake, a rare thing among the soda lakes of the Kenyan Rift, and its shores have been farmed, fished and fought over for a long time. Hippos graze on the lawns at night, fish eagles scream from the acacia trees, and the water is a shifting grey-green under a big sky. The surrounding land is covered in huge greenhouses that grow roses and cut flowers for Europe, which has made the town an unlikely player in the world flower trade.
Read the complete Naivasha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Naivasha. Next is Nakuru.
Nakuru lies on the floor of the Rift Valley at about 1,850 metres, a bustling farming and market city that serves a rich agricultural region. It has about 260,000 people, so everything is here: fuel, banks, hotels, workshops, supermarkets. The name comes from a Maasai word meaning place of dust, and in the dry season you can see why. Beside the town lies Lake Nakuru, a shallow soda lake that is protected as a national park, and it is famous for the flocks of flamingos that feed on the algae in the water, sometimes in hundreds of thousands, though numbers vary with the water level.
Read the complete Nakuru write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nakuru closes the day.
Nairobi → Great Rift Valley viewpoint is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Great Rift Valley viewpoint → Naivasha is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Naivasha → Nakuru is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.