2017/09 Part 6 Samburu - Tue pm Nairobi to Heathrow |
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We arrived at Nairobi Wilson in early afternoon; our flight back to England wasn’t till midnight, from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta, the international airport. We were collected at Wilson by Elvira and driver Timothy. Elvira and I had been exchanging e-mails since last November but we hadn’t met. She was younger and more bubbly than I‘d imagined. She told us we’d been amazingly lucky. Most people were happy to see a few lions and maybe a leopard and a cheetah. But we’d seen dozens of lions and multiples of everything, including some things that even she hadn’t seen.
Elvira offered us a loan of their van in case we wanted to go sightseeing in Nairobi. We looked at the traffic and politely turned her down. They delivered us to the Ole Sereni hotel, where we had use of a day room until it was time to leave for the airport. This gave us time for lunch and a clean-up and a reshuffle of our luggage for regular air travel.
Timothy picked us up when Nairobi’s rush hour was at its height with horns at full volume. He was obviously used to it, zig zagging and using all the road. We had to get out of the van and go through security even to get onto the airport’s roads. Timothy dropped us off and we joined a long queue for the departures building. There appeared to be another security check there and it had stalled because most of the passengers ahead of us were British soldiers, carrying packs and duffles that were bigger than us, and definitely too big to go through the scanners. Eventually, there was a bellowed command and all the soldiers trooped off somewhere else, cursing their officers.
There was another security check for us to get to the gate holding area, which was obviously smaller than the plane itself as many people were left standing. There were a lot of kids waiting there, very well behaved considering that it was 11 pm and they were there for well over an hour.
We had a long time to think about how lucky we’d been on the trip, and not just with what we’d seen. The weather had been kind and never interfered with our plans. Apart from a few minutes with the tsetse flies we’d been largely bug free. A very complicated trip had gone smoothly, tight at times but not missing any connections. Lots of thanks to Elvira and our guides Nzuki and Ayoub for making it all work for us.
Before the trip we had been concerned about potential violence and disruption around the Kenyan presidential elections. Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo, was declared by the electoral commission to be the winner of the August election over Raila Odinga. However Odinga disputed the results, alleging corruption and manipulation of the results by the commission and this was upheld by the Supreme Court, which ordered another election in October. We were lucky enough to be there during the hiatus between elections. After we’d left, Odinga withdrew from the second election, saying that it was pointless to hold it with the same corrupt commission in place. Kenyatta won of course but nothing has been resolved.
If I have any regrets about the trip it is that we didn’t really take advantage of the wonderful hotels, lodges, and camps that we visited. There were a lot of hardworking people trying to make sure that we enjoyed them, but we were focused on getting outside and seeing something new. Bars and pools and exercise rooms tend to be much the same the world over.
Loading the plane was a bit chaotic as there were some first time fliers who were unaware of seat numbers, but it all soon settled down. Even those kids were quiet. So was Sandie; she’d asked for a Riesling, which seemed a reasonable request of a German steward, but what she actually got was a tumbler of neat Scotch.
On a cold morning in Frankfurt we were in a mob of business commuters waiting for our packed flight to Heathrow, when the gate official pointed to us “Komm her!” Wot us? I tried to look as if my 15 Kg carry-on only weighed the regulation 8 Kg. He just waved us on to the plane, ahead of the line of uber-commuters lined up for business class. Then we realized that this was all due to Sandie’s neck brace. She wears it because it’s more comfortable than those soft pillows, but it does make her look like a hospital transferee. I told her she had to keep it on until we got to Heathrow.
And this is a good point to end part 6 of this journal. The remaining part covers visits with family and friends in England.