The small but cheerfully chaotic Maasai town of Namanga is the most widely used land border with Tanzania and the main road funnel into Amboseli National Park.
Boasting an agreeable riverside location at the base of Mount Namanga (also known by its Maasai name Ol Doinyo Orok, meaning Black Mountain), this busy border town also sometimes offers exceptional views of the volcanic Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, whose lofty peaks lie in Tanzania. Namanga’s main road is the last stretch of asphalt likely to be seen for a while by travellers driving from Nairobi to Amboseli National Park.
It is a good place to break for a chilled drink or a leg-stretch before embarking on the insanely rutted road to Amboseli, and the roads are lined with small stalls selling beaded Maasai jewellery and other handicrafts. Where tourists are concerned, Namanga is probably also the busiest border town in East Africa, lying as it does on the main road between the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the Tanzanian safari hub of Arusha.