Leaving Home
Day 1: 28 July 2002, 4:30 pm
Tom and Penny arrive in Nairobi, apprehensive about what lies ahead, but ready to meet their fellow truck mates.
(US $1 = 75 Ksh)
Nairobi, Kenya. Those very words evoke images of leisurely, luxurious safaris, the big five (elephant, black rhino, leopard, buffalo, lion), savannah plains, "Out of Africa", the Maasai Mara and of course ... mugging! Yes, in my own mixed up world, I had convinced myself that as soon as I stepped out of the airport, I was going to be mugged at knife point and that's not just the Lariam talking.
It did not help that for the last 10 days I had been on a crash diet - not excellent preparation by anyone's standards. It all started when I tried to remove my diamond engagement ring. My finger swelled up to massive proportions (like a pig's trotter) and no amount of vaseline or soap would shift it.
And I knew why. I had been fattening myself up, safe in the knowledge that I was going to lose weight in Africa. I had assumed that the food would be bad but my cunning plan had backfired. The traditional staple food is ugali (a stiff dough) or uji (porridge) made from maize meal, millet or sorghum flour. It is eaten with a stew of beans, goat, beef, lamb or chicken.
Well, I'm off to catch my flight to Nairobi now and the M25 is absolutely chocca due to an earlier accident, so let's hope I don't miss my flight.
Nairobi, Kenya
29 July 2002, 10:00 pm
The reason for my growing paranoia about arriving in Nairobi was triggered after reading Lonely Planet's facts on Kenya:
'rarely does one come across a country where such lawlessness is so ingrained that it's accepted as a part of life ... indeed it could be argued that the authorities are among the worst offenders'
So I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Jomo Kenyatta airport and nothing happened at all. In fact it went so smoothly, I don't know why I worried myself to death over it. I had expected the airport to be as disorganised, chaotic and dirty as Cairo airport, but the toilets were gleaming, we only waited 15 mins to get our Kenyan visas ($50) and our bags were waiting on the carousel. We strolled into the arrival hall and were immediately asked if we wanted a taxi. We couldn't be bothered to haggle so it cost Ksh1500 to the centre of Nairobi.
The weather was a wonderful, cool 70F and we drove past vast plains of scrubland dotted with stunted trees where the occasional shepherd herded his cattle. Our taxi driver was a jolly fellow who obviously wanted to take us on a tour. He pointed out the new U.S. embassy that was built after the terrorist bombing in 1998 and the ramshackle Kenyan National Museum. We declined the tour but chatted about Kenyan athletes in the Commonwealth Games, David Beckham and Manchester United.
Nairobi itself has a shabby and derelict feel but is teeming with people all trying to make a living. We arrived at Sirona Hotel and immediately noticed the security on the gate. Our room had bars on the windows but was not worth the $40 per night by any stretch of the imagination. There was no hot water and yukky bedspreads.
We popped out down the road to send email from the Kenyan School of Professional Studies, surrounded by wealthier Kenyan students. The fruit here is gorgeous - we bought some bananas from the local street vendors and tasted the most amazing mangoes and passionfruit. Fruit never tasted this good back home.
That evening, we met most of the people on our trip and discovered that two trucks would be running in parallel down of Victoria Falls.
Don't send any hate mail, but we had already decided that we did not want to be on the truck with the Aussie vet group (I have nothing against Aussies or vets in general). They had all met during the foot and mouth crisis in the U.K. and were very 'cliquely', continually sharing private jokes and drinking as much beer as physically possible.
Everyone else seemed fine on first impression - most had done a lot of travelling before and some had even done organised overland trips previously.