Close to the end: Kenya

3rd March 2009, Kembo

Wake-up time is very early, not a surprise! I disassemble my tent and have break, following everyday's routine. This is now an automatic procedure for me. Today is another day of transfer towards Kenya, there's no more destination to be reached other than our final one: Nairobi.

At the customs on the Kenyan border George tells me to write "holiday" on the visa application form, so I have to pay 50 dollars instead of 20. I'm totally pissed, I try to counteract with the customs officer but he replies he can't rip up the visa applied to the passport and provide me with a new one and he claims this is totally my fault. I try to point out that  on my application form it's written that this is a "transit visa for 2 days" but he won't hear of it: I told him to go to hell in Italian and leave totally furious.

We stop in a totally flea-bitten and polluted city to change some money. I'm still thinking of the incident about the visa so that I keep looking on the dark side.

Two things got stuck in my memory today. When we stopped for lunch at a petrol station a kid approached our truck. He's got a sad long face, it's no news after a month in Africa. But he looks sadder than the others. He's obviously dirty and barefoot. He shyly tells the guides "Give me..." but they don't show any interest in him. I couldn't give anything to him but just before we leave I give him a bag of chips from the window. The long face boy leaves with a big smile. He straightaway gorges himself on the chips.

In the afternoon I take sight of a woman which is walking on one side of the road completely naked. She is shouting and squirming like mad: who knows what happened to her?!
It's 5pm when we arrive at the Kembo campsite. It's not bad but it smells like dregs. There's a little little kid, Tanzan, he should be around one, he's white. He's crawling and playing with a German Mastiff, and it's so weird to see how his mum is not worrying at all about his hygiene.

On the subject of weird stuff, in Africa it's normal to see two men or two boys going for a walk, hand in hand. It's also normal to see four or five year-old kids going to school alone, obviously walking for kilometres. Also it's weird to hear African people's complaints about their miserable lives: in fact in all the countries I crossed in one month I've seen a lot of men and boys piddling all day long, between a game of snooker and a nap in the shadow of a baobab. Then they complain about being poor...

Anyways I spend a quite evening at the bar, I'd like to play with Tanzan (such an African name) a bit longer but he already went to bed. The German Mastiff is still around and keeps staying close to a dachshund and holding on to it. It's so sweet to see a giant dog so mistreated by a miniature dog!

4th March 2009, Nairobi

Nairobi is not so distant from here, it should be around 200 kilometres so we decide to take it easy, at least for once.

We take it so easy that we are forced to eat early, before arriving to our destination, when it would be too late to do it. Therefore we stop in a panoramic viewpoint of the Rift Valley. It's really cold, now I understand why everybody's wearing an anorak here!

Nairobi

Do you wanna see all pics taken during the trip in Africa? Then click here.

Then finally Nairobi! It's not that I was looking forward to seeing this city. That’s because it's our last stage, the last day here in Africa and after 5 weeks alone, I start feeling some breathlessness. When I see the hotel I am so so happy. Finally a decent accommodation, I'd rather say more discreet, clean rooms, swimming pool and internet point...

I go sunbathing at the pool and then I get ready for dinner. In the meantime the tour t-shirts have been brought over: what a delusion! Except that I had ordered a small size red one and instead I received a medium size black one, but it's also so badly made. The route is not right, there are countries like Namibia and Botswana which we haven't visited. It was printed in haste, the colour is all run. I get a bit angry for the umpteenth gip and I tell Takalani that a "fucking African system" is in force here.

We go have dinner in a local restaurant not very far from the hotel, you can even play snooker while waiting for the courses. But after more than one hour waiting a hamburger with french fries is the only food they served: "Relax, this is African time" they tell me! It's a holiday so I know I should actually forget about the stress and the haste that usually characterize my life, but I'm hungry!

Soon after dinner we head back to the hotel. I say goodbye to George and thank him. Takalani pops into my room to collect Drifters' questionnaire and together with that I also leave him all the banknotes I've been saving from all the countries we visited. I also add 2 dollars to that. It's not much but that's all I have as a tip for him. I apologize for that and he kindly replies that the most important thing for him is his job. He also adds that no-one else had given any money to him. Nobody!?!? He could have raised at least a 500 dollars tip for a trip like this.... but instead everybody is hard up. Anyways Takalani looks a bit shattered or maybe he is simply exhausted. I give him a hug and thank him a lot for his valuable help.

5 March 2009

I wake up in my room, no tent, no animals, it all looks so weird now. I'd love to sleep a bit longer but I can't, I already good used to the African pace. I have breakfast, trying to eat as much as possible because I'm running out of money and I'm not sure I can afford to pay for some lunch. The breakfast is good even though not so huge. I get back to my room, I relax and take a shower, I pack my bags and leave the room. But then I can't stand not to eat something more, I'm starving! So I decide to use my credit card to get some nibbles from the restaurant. But then I ate so much to be full to bursting point.

Soon after lunch I hear someone speaking Italian: it's Paola, a 52-year-old from Tuscany, she's been living here for 14 years and she works at the hotel as a gastronomic consultant. She even lived in Sondrio, on Via Scarpatetti... Life's full of coincidences!

She's nice, friendly, a bit self-centred and, in my opinion, she maybe told some fibs. She says to be famous all around Kenya and that everybody is looking for her qualities. She even said Palazzo Chigi awarded her for bringing Italian cuisine to the world. Maybe it's true but if she is really in such a great demand, why is she working for this hotel? I mean this place is not bad, but it's definitely not a 5 star luxury one... Anyways I don't care if she tells lies, I find her nice and spend around an hour in her company.

Afterwards I go check my email, to make sure the flight hasn't been cancelled- Nothing appears on the screen yet and I noticed a flight to London this morning was cancelled: I hope not to go through the same channels as last year! At 7.20pm, as regular as clockwork, the driver from the agency I booked for arrives. The traffic jam in Nairobi is wild, the rule is that the strongest will win!

I arrive at the airport on time, flight is scheduled and on time as well. I had to make it through three customs controls and during the last of them they check the bag in which I keep my photographic equipment. The guy looks to be surprised to see a digital camera. He grabs it, turning it over and over in his hands, he inspects it. He even makes me switch it on and then he starts reading the Italian-English phrasebook. Then we finally take-off. I sleep for six at a stretch. Travelling in Africa is tough.

The Transafricana Drifters overland tour (www.drifters.co.za) did cost around 2300 euros flight included, but only for the flight I was granted a big discount by a client. Now I know this tour, organized by this agency, is not feasible anymore.