Early mornings...eurgh!

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Heading for Kenya, the final destination

3.30am came to soon (not soon enough for Annabel who woke up at 2am), but we were out of the apartment and in the car just before 4am to drive to Cape Town International for our 6.20am flight to Johannesburg en route to Nairobi. Berk did a reasonable job of directing us, and on the way to the airport we drove past another expansive township - this time in the dark, so you could see how sparse the distribution of electric light was (and, presumably, electricity per se).

Another slight digression here - something we haven’t touched on yet is the presence of the so-called ‘informal settlements’ or townships outside most major towns in South Africa. The areas and environments that we passed through or were exposed to in South Africa were white middle class. Many, many members of the working class cannot afford proper housing and find themselves building or occupying a small shack in a township on the outskirts of town, probably quite a way from their place of work. These shacks are typically made of a combination of cast-off wood, pallets, tin sheeting, polythene and even old signs! The floors may be concrete or dirt and the many do not have the luxury of utilities. These, of course, are largely the legacy of the apartheid regime but now the government is starting to address the problem of housing via entry level housing schemes. ‘Housing’ is a very grand phrase for these tiny bungalows, but they are better than the alternative.

The concept of a township seems degrading to the occupants, illustrative of inept social policy and nothing less than grim from the humanitarian viewpoint. It is therefore a real tribute to the African people that the vast majority of the working class people that we met - at work or not - were well presented, bright and cheerful. The memories of the people we shall take with us are of warm smiles, easy chatter and friendly concern. It’s a real regret that we weren’t able to visit a township to see this community spirit in action.

Anyhow, to continue, as we plan to leave two of our suitcases in Nairobi when we travel to the Masai Mara we had them plastic wrapped to make them tamper-proof. Bargain at £2 each, even when we couldn’t understand a word the operator was saying.

We had a bit of a problem trying to return Berk as the Vodacom place didn’t open until after 8am so Mark rang the help line and agreed that we would drop him off when we arrived in Jo’burg. An uneventful flight later we dropped off Berk and raced to the International Terminal at Jo’burg to get our connecting flight to Nairobi. We made it to the gate 5 minutes before boarding began, thanking South African Airways for having already checked us in and forwarding our luggage for us.

After what was probably the smoothest landing of the trip so far (must be due to the new tyre they were putting on the front wheel of the plane as we boarded) we had arrived in Kenya, our last country and Ellie’s choice of destination. Well Kenya is exactly how we imagined it so far, flat, dusty, with clapped out minivans aplenty, including the one we were ushered into for the journey into Nairobi to our hotel. Annabel thought that she was going to pull the door handle off when opening the door and the plastic was coming off the seatbelt clip but otherwise it seemed we may arrive in one piece.

The roads are poor from what we have seen so far, the Kenyans seem to be able to make 5 lanes out of a 3-lane stretch of road and take no notice of red traffic lights at roundabouts. There were also many more hawkers lining the roads trying to sell us peanuts, fruit, maps or even footballs as we sat in a variety of traffic jams. We arrived at the Holiday Inn safe and sound, Jack having slept the whole van ride, even with all the bumps, shakes, rattles and rolls.

Having checked in Mark discovered that the staff at the Holiday Inn had written him a card and left a present of a pair of carved wooden giraffes in one of our rooms. This was probably due to Annabel informing Wendy of African Welcome that it was Mark’s birthday and could she ask the hotel to leave a bottle of wine in the room. Pair of sneaks! Annabel was quite disappointed that the bottle of wine hadn’t materialised but Mark was chuffed with his present. This was also another example of the fantastic service we’ve had from African Welcome throughout the African portion of the trip - many, many thanks to Wendy Fisk for making our itinerary run so smoothly.

Whilst familiarising ourselves with the layout of the hotel we discovered a pond in the garden which housed a handful of koi carp and surprisingly a red-necked terrapin, it is strange how wildlife appears when you least expect it.

We had dinner, which was very average, in the attached Spur restaurant before retiring to catch up on our lost sleep from the night before. TV in Kenya is as mixed a bag as in South Africa. And so the second day of Mark’s birthday concluded.

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