Day 274 - Cape Town to Nairobi - 7th May, 2005

The alarm was set for 4:30am and we were both dreading getting the boys up after the day they had yesterday. In the end they were pretty good and we got out of the hostel around 5:15am. Sammy was delighted to see that the bar was still open and that there were a couple of die hards drinking and playing pool.

We had kept the car an extra day so we could drive ourselves to the airport. We only just managed to get all the baggage in. We only had a very small compact car called a Toyota Tazz but with bags on everyone's laps we set off.

It's only a 25 minute drive to the airport. You drive through all the shanti towns on the outskirts of the city and we saw little fires burning and a deal of activity even at this time of day.

We had a 12 hour flight to Jo'burg and 2 hours before our connection from there to Nairobi. If you have 2 hours to spare, Jo'burg airport really is quite a pleasant place to be. On a par with Hong Kong and Denver. We all got something to eat, we found some shoes for Sammy and even found an USB headphone set that my Mum has been needing for ages, to be able to use Skpe telephony on the internet.

The 4 hour flight to Nairobi was very pleasant. 4 hours on a plane with a meal, a few beers, a newspaper and a chat with your wife is very acceptable. It's the 5 hours and up flights that start becoming a chore. We were on a 767 wide bodied Kenyan Airways plane which was half empty. We therefore had lots of space to move around and very good cabin service.

Julian did spend some time in the toilet. At one stage, after he had been gone from his seat for 20 minutes I went from toilet to toilet looking for him. I was shocked to discover that he was in none of the toilets in our section at all. Having found them all occupied he had snuck into first class and was on the toilet up there reading his book!

When we arrived in Nairobi we found that we needed to fill in a visa form. We went off into a corner to do this and we were then approached by a suited official who asked us to follow him. We went to one of the immigration counters and he started to stamp our passports with the appropriate stamps, even though we had yet to complete the forms. He then whispered "Two hundred dollars please".

I was immediately on the defensive for the little "rip off the dumb tourist scam". I had had to do this several times before on my trips to Africa. I replied with an apology but I had no funds of any description on me. He asked me if there was anyone collecting me from the airport and I told him I was hoping so. He then took me through to the arrival hall and I met up with Kevin and Eunice. I told them the story and they assured me that this was a standard requirement for entry into Kenya. Kevin kindly came up with the Kenyan shillings that we were able to change at the bureau de change into the required number of dollars. After completing the transaction, the passport stamps were completed and we were on our way.

Kevin and Eunice, whom we had not seen for 2 and half years, had brought 2 nieces with them to meet us. It was a very tight squeeze to get 4 children, 4 adults and 9 items of luggage into the car. But the Toyota 4 x 4 coped well.

We had another drama on the way back to their house from the airport. Literally minutes after setting off we saw, 2 cars ahead of us, a car hit a cyclist. The man's body flew through the air and landed just ahead of us. At first we thought it was a large bag that had fallen off the back of someone's car but we pulled over and could clearly see the truth of the situation. The taxi driver who had hit the cyclist stopped, his windscreen had been shattered. Other motorists stopped too and Kevin and I went to assist.

The man was paralytically drunk and we found a bottle of brandy in the road that he had been drinking from. He was not moving but he was breathing. All his limbs appeared unbroken and there was no outward sign of bleeding. The taxi driver's passenger (a white guy who didn't even interupt his mobile phone conversation) got out of the taxi and several people after some discussion, collected up the injured man (contrary to any known medical advice about possible spinal injuries or other such nasties) and literally threw him and his bags into the taxi.

The taxi driver then drove off presumably to the nearest hospital. I thought this was a very dodgy undertaking. Let's say the taxi driver was not insured properly (the taxi looked very unofficial) and reporting such an accident would have involved an investigation into his own affairs. He could quite easily driven around the corner, dumped the poor man and driven off.

We got back into our car after the taxi with the injured man had driven off and attempted to see if we could follow him for a while. A mile or 2 later we saw him pull up at the side of the road and start talking to a few people. We pulled over ourselves and Kevin and I both walked back to see what he was up to. We weren't sure why he had stopped but we gave our assurances to the taxi driver that we would be witnesses to the accident should it be required. Kevin gave him his business card so he knew where to call him if needed. He then drove off again.

We never discovered why he stopped. Kevin thought it might have been because the taxi driver had seen the owner of the taxi on the road and had pulled over to tell him what had happened. We will never know either, if the poor man ever got to hospital but Kevin assured me that there had been a change in Kenya over the last ten years. Ten years ago no one would have stopped at all seeing an accident like that but now many did stop and it was most likely that he would have been cared for.

This was an interesting experience for the boys, who were most concerned to learn of the man's injuries and follow the events as they unfolded. It seems like we met life in the raw for the first time. Somehow we don't seem to come across this sort of thing in Europe so much.

We got back to Kevin and Eunice's flat and discovered that the next door neighbour (by about 20 feet) was the minister of foreign affairs, whom they had come to know quite well. Kevin used to be the Regulator of Electricity in Kenya and seems to know just about everyone you would need to know in this country. He met his wife Eunice when they were both studying at UMIST in Manchester and from where he received his doctorate. We are moving in the highest possible circle of Kenyan society. It is such a privilege to know these people.