Welcome to Africa

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As we touched down the pilot announced ‘Welcome to Johannesburg…it is 5 degrees…’
‘5 degrees’ I thought, ‘even chiller than I had expected!’
Pulling on our jumpers we ventured into the airport and sipping at a hot chocolate each we watched in amazement as a huge ball of red glowed from the horizon and slowly rose up forming a spectacular sunrise.

After hanging around for 4 hours we finally climbed aboard our 3rd and final plane to Nairobi. As we landed stepping outside the plane we were hit by heat and humidity. ‘This is more like I was expecting’ I thought to myself.
After the drag of waiting in line for a visa we were the last to leave the airport where a friendly chap greeted us called Jimmy.
‘Welcome to Kenya! It is winter here.’ He told us ‘very cold for me – its 29 degrees…’

The traffic in Nairobi reminded me of South East Asia (each to their own and swerving between each other.) People stood in the road dodging the traffic selling anything they could get their hands on to open windows – newspapers, nuts, bananas, blankets. Unfortunately for us we arrived just as peak hour traffic was building up. Our 20-minute car journey in fact took us closer to 2 hours. As I sat in the heat with the car bumper to bumper, beads of sweat began falling down my face and I realized two things:
1.) I will never again take my air-conditioning in my car for granted.
2.) I will never complain about waiting in traffic again.

Arriving at the hotel I was quick to notice a swimming pool and hit the ice-cold water (literally) to cool down. We met a friendly Polish couple that will be joining us on our safari and they and Tim were quick to jump out the pool after it being just too cold. I kept swimming for quite some time and eventually found I became quite refreshed. After being told not to go into town at night (there is an armed guard on the gate) we ate at the restaurant with a Dutch girl we met.

It is actually 5am here and I can’t sleep due to jet lag and my body clock having not yet acclimatized– the safari is leaving at 8am (very excited!) I thought I’d type this up and post it whenever I reach Internet next which hopefully will be sometime soon.

African proverb:
If you want to go fast go alone.
If you want to go far go together.

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Comments

[The Quintons]

Enjoying your trip report
Hi Ellie and Tim, Sounds like a great start to your adventure. After going to Africa for our honeymoon I read on with great interest, and recall our trip again..Time flies. The memories are so special expecially seeing all the animals for the first time. Do all you can while you are away, somethings you can't do anywhere else. Look forward to your next entry.

[elliesadventures]

Thanks Tash, glad you are enjoying the blogs. Hope you and the kids are doing well. Say a big hi to Mitchell for me.