I love Nairobi. For a few days, its a great place to hang around but for five days its a little too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a great time and caught up with many old friends and met some new ones along the way too but I am done. I long for the bush and the simple quiet life where the dramas of the city are out of sight and out of mind.
I was supposed to be enjoying the mud and rainy days in the Mara but plans changed, it turned out that they just couldn’t send me so I found myself in Nairobi for longer than expected. Aside from it being too many days it has actually been great. I met the driver and the other tour leader and spent a couple of days in and out of the Nairobi base with them. For people who have been doing this for a long time they seem like great people to be starting this adventure with so it was a relief to know that indeed we could get on well with each other. The first day was spent cleaning and organising the truck. Not very exciting but it was nice to finally have everything organised in my new mobile home so that if I was asked where the butter would be I would know where to look for it. Plus I also had a sneaky peak inside one of the lockers to establish if my mountain of belongings would fit, turns out that it wouldn’t so a re-think on the packing front was a must. After everything was organised and sorted I headed home, thankfully home is literally across the road making my life easy. And when I say home I actually mean my sister in laws house. Thanks Lou Lou for letting me stay, without your Nairobi house my life would be a lot harder. So I appreciate it so much. I then had a quick bite to eat and headed out to the centre of town to meet my fellow nomads. Being Nairobi, the traffic is obviously horrendous and I am constantly complaining about this but it is just so frustrating. Out in the bush the only traffic is wildlife crossing the roads! As it is so bad here I found myself leaving 2 hours before I had to be there just in case. Luckily I did though, I got there with hardly any time to spare. Armed with my fountains of knowledge about Africa and overlanding I headed to the pre-departure meeting. The other members of the group seemed really lovely and excited so that got me excited too. Hopefully we can have some fun on our way to Namibia! I also proved to be quite useful answering many questions about dollars and diseases. I even impressed Pete the tour leader which is a good start. Fake it till you make it right?? After that was all done, I had a chance to sit down with Pete and discuss working for Acacia Adventure Tours a little bit more. I think we will be a good fit, it seems like things will go well but it is early days yet and I am still to pass my training. Anyway after that it was home to bed, after being in holiday mode for so long going back to work is exhausting! I also don’t think my late night on Friday helped either.
Sunday morning after the group left for the Mara I had some paperwork to take care of and then was off for the rest of the day. Finally a chance to really catch up with people, and that I did. Thanks to all who were there at Sunday lunch. It was so nice seeing you all and we definitely must catch up again when I get back! As for Monday, well I spent the morning re-packing. Turns out I don’t need all of that stuff and my bag is a hell of a lot lighter with more space for goodies a long the way. My new mantra is “if I don’t have it, I will just have to live without it”. After that it was a civilised lunch all by my lonesome and then a not so civilised dinner with my crazy aunt and cousins. A final catch up with the rest of the family and some more friends before work really started on Tuesday.
Tuesday was quiet, well the morning was anyway. The afternoon I spent most if it trying to pack my locker. Thankfully I left a lot of stuff behind, it’s a tight squeeze! I then set up the breakfast table and cooker for Wednesday morning as we planned for an early departure.
After we put the tents up and the group re-packed their stuff Pete and I headed out for some shopping. Just a few things for the start of our journey and to keep us fed for the next few days. The shopping was then packed in to the truck and we settled down to a delicious meal cooked for us by the team at Indaba camp in Karen. After all was organised and sorted for the last time before our departure the group and I sat down at The Rubber Arm and got stuck in to a few bevvies to catch up on all the drama and excitement from the Mara. It was so refreshing to see that they were all still so excited! This was a good start to what is going to be a long journey down Africa! Full to the brim on food it was early to bed for a long day of driving to Tanzania the next day.
It is now Wednesday morning and I find myself sitting in the truck listening to all the excited stories from the others and In between being bombarded with yet more questions about Africa I find time to update you all. Things are going great so far and I am glad to be finally out of Nairobi and to be at the beginning of very exciting times ahead. Hopefully today’s driving is met with few problems and we arrive safe and sound in Arusha. I will of course update you again whilst I am there. Until then, thanks for reading and please keep following!
Next Stop: Tanzania!! Jealous much?
