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Being told our plane had been struck by lightning on the way to London was not the most encouraging start to our trip. This led to a more than 2 hour wait in the departure lounge at Heathrow while they checked the plane was safe before deciding to just use another one.
We finally arrived in Nairobi at midnight and thankfully our driver had waited for us. For a heart stopping moment when we arrived at our hostel for the night we were told our room might have gone but everything worked out fine and we settled into our deluxe safari tent with a comfy double bed with proper bedding and an ensuite shower room.
It was a bit disorientating arriving in the middle of the night though and we could hear all sorts of wildlife outside the tent. We lay awake, despite our increasing tiredness, imaging all manner of predators were stalking us. In daylight however we discovered that we are surrounded by high walls and the only wildlife is the owners' two dogs and a giant tortoise. Phew.
We walked into the nearest shopping area today to get supplies for our long drive tomorrow - about 6 hours to get into Tanzania. We walked along the pavement (more like areas of broken concrete and muddy patches) and dodged vehicles that seem to operate in a free-for-all way as buses, bikes, lorries, cars all jostle for space. There are no road markings and few signs and it is completely alien to anything we are used to in the UK. The supermarket shop was straightforward enough even if we did pay £4 for 6 slices of turkey. Our taxi driver was telling us last night how Kenyans are crazy for football and in the supermarket it is possible to buy cakes decorated with the badges of Arsenal or Man U.
We have another early start tomorrow as we join our tour at 8am so will probably have an early night after the communal dinner in the dining room. Not sure what's on the menu but if breakfast is anything to go by then it will be amazing. We had double egg on toast this morning and you can pretty much order anything you fancy. I fear we are being spoilt too soon.
I'm not sure when we'll get chance to access the internet again but rest assured we are both healthy, well and happy and plan to stay that way. In typical calamity Simon fashion his phone doesn't work and he can't withdraw cash. The cash thing is not a problem as we have enough with us until Cape Town but if anybody is waiting for a reply to a text then it'll be a long one. He'll sort it out when we get back to the UK.
That's all for now. The next entry will be full of tales of proper wildlife encounters - not just dogs and tortoises.
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Su and Nick
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Lightning!
Well, talk about a lucky start to the trip - you weren't in the plane when it was struck! It sounds amazing and I'm looking forward to lots more entries xx