New passengers, bit of a car faff and a thunderstorm

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We got up early after a great evening at the Carnivore restaurant in Nairobi where we all got to eat Crocodile, Ostrich and Bulls testicles. Then of course there was sausage, lamb, pork, ribs, beef, turkey and chicken. All of which were BBQ’d to perfection and by the end of it we were stuffed and poor Zac was practically falling asleep at the table.

The next morning we had to get up early to take Kate, Ben and Zac to get their flight which they did without any issues. We then picked up Dan and Toby for the start of Phase 3 and we headed out of Nairobi. The roads were relatively clear and as the sun rose we made headway and then Toby had a turn driving.

It would be fair to say Toby was keen and did not have an eye for speed humps. After about an hour this improved a little but the suspension (and brakes) were taking a beating. When it came to Dan’s first drive he started by nailing the speed humps and delivery a masterclass but then he missed one and all good deeds were forgotten.

We made our way to Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria and found a place beside the water that also appeared to be THE place for the good and great of the area to hang our for a beer on Saturday afternoon. We soon set about trying to fix the CV boot and brakes at the front which we knew were worn.

It turns out fixing the CV boot with the new one Toby had bought was easy and that job took little time. Unfortunately the new brake pads I ordered and had Dan bring out were for the wrong kind of Hilux. So we ended up having to saw off some bits of metal that stuck out in strange places to get them to fit. It was hot and this took a long time and we were all dripping in sweat by the end. To add insult to injury one of the four brake pads bizarrely didn’t seem to fit and after 5 hours playing on the car we gave up in a heap.

At this point the owner of the local Toyota garage came past a little drunk and happily explained we had the wrong pads and he could get the right ones. Having now got things working we politely declined, still dripping in sweat.

We sat hot and exhausted by the lake shore on rocky ground (the campsite owner had to bring in earth and rocks to lift his site as it was underwater so whilst it wasn’t flooded it wasn’t the smoothest either.

Finally we had a beer at the bar on the lake shore where the breeze meant the mosquitos found it hard to land. No sooner had we got to bed than an enormous thunderstorm erupted and thankfully having waterproofed the tent earlier we were able to see a spectacular amount of water, thunder and lightning descend and then eventually stop.

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