Nairobi

Sunday 11 May we arrived in Nairobi. It was very quiet in town so we managed to look around for a place to stay. As we are allergic to rain we decided against camping and found a nice family room, with breakfast at the Heron Hotel. Memories from long ago came back to Ed and Helma. We were placed in this hotel as MSF Aid workers. It was at that time also cheap but definitely not suitable for children because of the nightlife. The hotel has changed and is now excellent for families. They also have a nice swimming pool. In the afternoon we met Paul Dieleman from Malawi and were invited to his place where the boys had another swim in the pool attached to his compound. The next day we were busy with internet, homework and shopping. They have nice shopping malls in Nairobi so Ed was able to buy books that had disappeared in the container and a new roadmap because the other had disappeared somewhere in Tanzania. But most of all we enjoyed ( yes again!) a nice meal at Golden SPUR in Holiday Inn hotel. On our way back we were stuck in one of the famous traffic jams of Nairobi on Uhuru Highway. That evening we met “Dr Hofman, I presume”, also an old friend from Malawi.
The next morning while Ed was busy to obtain our visa for Ethiopia and collecting information from other “overlanders” we went to the Giraffe Centre where we had a lovely time kissing Giraffes, making photo´s and gaining some info about Rothschildt Giraffes. We quickly had a look in Karen Blixen´s House but the entrance was so overpriced we did not enter the place, but the security guard showed us the old coffee machine which was interesting. This was never showed to tourists so we felt very important. Then we had our farewell lunch with Paul and Jan and left yet again a small bag with items with Paul to bring to Malawi or Holland.

We finalized our packing and shopping and were in the evening prepared for the difficult road that lay ahead.