We left home about 6.30pm on Tuesday, having packed Linda's Micra with the six cases, hand luggage and our overnight bag. It was a slow drive to the hotel as the car was well laden. We found a parking spot at the Travelodge and then checked in, leaving most of the bags in the car overnight.
On Wednesday we were up at 4.30am and got ready to go to the
airport parking site, where I had to unload all the bags, put them on the bus
and then on arrival at T3 unload them. We checked them all in, they were all
under the allowed amount, perhaps we could have put more bits in, but then they
may have been to heavy to carry. The
Fastrack security was quick and we were soon in the lounge enjoying bacon
sandwiches and drinking coffee. We had a couple of hours to relax, read the
paper and Linda caught up on some tv viewing.
It was a short walk to the gate and by 8.30am we had boarded the
plane and in our seats. It was a smooth flight to Nairobi, lasting just over 8
hours.
The new international arrival terminal is open at the
airport and it was very impressive. We flew through immigration and luggage did
not take too long to arrive. We stopped at customs and told them what we had,
they had a look at one of the bags, full of knitted items and then waved us
through. Our driver Kemal, who we have used before, was waiting for us. It was
then off to the Hilton and check in, with all 6 bags. Kenya is three hours
ahead, but it was gone midnight before we got to bed.
On Thursday we woke up just after 8am and felt slightly jet
lagged, but soon got up and went for breakfast. It was very nice with fresh
omelette cooked for you and a varied selection of food. After this we wandered
into the city to sort out some sim cards. It used to be very easy to buy them,
but now you have to go to an authorised Safaricom dealer, produce your
passport, fill out loads of forms and then you finally get a sim card.
Alice had arrived at the hotel and so Linda had morning tea
with her whilst I added airtime to the phones, so we could use them. Alice was
telling Linda about her work up north of the country amongst girls at risk of
FGM. On a positive step we gave her one of our ‘Sports Direct’ bags full of
dresses and pens for her work. She was very pleased.
Our driver was picking us up at midday so we could go to the
Galleria Mall in Karen to meet James and Grace for dinner. Traffic was very bad
and it took ages to get there, the driver wasn’t sure where it was so we used
Google maps to find it. James was slightly
late UK time but early on African time, he had been interviewing in town and was
delayed. We chatted and caught up on his family, his daughter had recently
graduated as a barrister. He was telling us about the work at his church, where
they have up to 500 young people at the weekend. I have an invite to preach
there, but we can’t fit it in on this visit.
The temperature was mid 20’s and there has been patches of
sun, but it is definitely not cold! Linda went for a swim in the evening and I
visited the gym. I had a problem with the treadmill as when I tried to make it
go faster, the machine refused saying ‘can not obtain target speed’ so I had to
run slowly.
On Friday morning we were up early as we had a long drive to
Kericho. We had loaded the car up and left just after 10.00am. It is warm today around 27 degrees. There is a
lot of traffic on the road, which makes it a slow drive. It took about 3 ½
hours to reach Nakuru where we stopped for lunch. We saw several zebras and
baboons by the side of the road. We
finally arrived in Kericho at 4pm – just as the thunderstorm also arrived. We
had to wait in the car for a few minutes due to the torrential rain. Then we
unloaded, we are staying at our usual B&B Ivy’s Inn in our normal room.
Linda is very happy as it has a kettle in it. We have a small balcony so we can
sit and watch the warm rain.