Woke up in a scene reminiscent of the Grampians (an isolated series of mountain ranges in western Victoria, Australia), so like home it took me back there.
Tried to hurry everyone by clearing up quickly but two eggs each and a lazy morning attitude defeated me. Finally on the road and soon in the fringes of a city with excellent roads, electric streetlights, beautiful houses, grand government buildings. A huge loop road took us onto a motorway of sorts and then, finally, we saw Nairobi's skyline. Everyone excited, looking forward to a holiday at last – lots of relaxing and good food.
Raced off to Amex where an unsmiling staff member produced a green card for me and told me that I can get only travellers’ cheques not cash. Bad news on the camera scene, too: horrendous prices in Nairobi so I will have to continue with Jim’s Minox. From there we headed to the post office, where I picked up six letters, two from mum, one interspersed with scores from the Australia-India cricket match she was listening to while she wrote to me (I inherited my love of cricket from Mum, the daughter of a Yorkshireman, not Dad). Read them during my guard duty shift on the truck – which was unnecessary on the quiet rubbish/car maintenance block where we had parked. Stayed with Vicki during her guard shift and then raced off to the famous open-air Thorn Tree Café (still operating) where travellers had long left messages on the central acacia. Chatted with Kel, Nicki and Dave, off a Guerba overland truck, for ages. The vegie burger I ordered for lunch nearly blew my head off with chilli heat; I pick through it for a delicious meal.
Back to the truck for another guard shift before we camped in the grounds of the Grosvenor Hotel, where we had hot showers, washed clothes and then relaxed and wrote around the pool. Kelvin quashed our plan to take Stanley to the drive-in.
The Guerba truck crew were going to the Carnivore restaurant (still operating, and now part of a chain of eateries) for dinner, so Vicki, Jim and I decided to go for a feast.
Seemed to drive a long way out of town before we arrived, but it was worth the journey. At the centre of the dining area was a huge bed of glowing coals, above which were suspended thirty or so Masai swords loaded with chicken, beef, giraffe, kongoni hartebeest, producing mouth-watering smells. Opted for the a la carte – and had the most amazing meal. Mushrooms cooked in garlic wine sauce, a ¼ kg of selections from the barbecue (chicken, giraffe, port sausage) and baked spud with sour cream and garlic sauce, following – almost had to force it in - mulberry cheesecake and gin & tonic all for 133 shillings (about $A10). We had a wonderful night, watching the Flintstones on a giant video screen while we ate, and didn't need to pay the astronomical fee to dance at the disco. Got "home" at 1am, most of my needs satisfied – the other will just have to wait.
Full house on the truck with Adri back (Albert has returned home), but we were minus Bob and Karen (several of our group had spotted them and said they looked very happy) and Bill and Julie, who have dashed off to Treetops Game Lodge for a break.
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