Day One - Why East Africa?

Why East Africa? Well, we already did South Africa and the safari thing. The truth be told it had to do with frequent flyer miles. I like spending them! Jeff doesn’t but that has never stopped me! I tried to book us to the Seychelles, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. British Airways kept saying no - sold out of frequent flyer mile seats and this was last October! In frustration I finally asked where I could go and they said Nairobi! Nairobi? All I really knew about Nairobi was it was the place of a terrible bombing in 1998 when the US embassy was blown up by murderers linked to Osama bin Laden (more than 200 people died that day). OK, I thought and booked the seats! I don’t remember exactly how the wilderbeest connection came about but somewhere in the dim recesses of my mind Jeff & I once had a conversation that went some thing like – wouldn’t it be great to see the wilderbeest migration? I swear to God we did! I called our wonderful travel agents at 2001 Travel and bob’s your uncle we were booked! Malaria pills in hand, our Africa adventure would begin with spending a night in Nairobi before catching a flight to the Western Serengeti in Tanzania. Yes, we were going camping without the children! Little nervous? You betcha – but we were only staying the night in Nairobi before we would take the trip of a lifetime!

Saturday morning, we left home for Heathrow Airport at 7 am as scheduled and everything went smoothly with all the security scares and bombings of recent days in the UK. Our 747 was late leaving but we were comfortably settled in World Traveller Plus on the two seat side. The weather was fine and the flight pretty smooth. We flew a route to Luxembourg down the coast of Croatia (Dave & Holly were right – Croatia is beautiful! - added it to the travel wish list!). We then flew over Crete (a reminder of a wonderful spring break trip I had taken with Beth in her flying days!), and then crossed onto the African continent over Egypt. Heading south, the great expanses of the Sudanese desert were fascinating from the air. Every once in a while you would see an irrigation canal cut into the desert like a blue ribbon.

It was dark when we landed at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. We knew we had arrived back in the third world when there was only one person manning a line for Kenyan Citizens Only at passport control. What about the rest of us? One person for a 747 load of people? Confusion reigned until eventually more immigration personnel showed up and they let us into the country! We headed down to baggage reclaim. Of course my bags were some of the last to show up but it was fascinating to watch baggage crews behind the scenes through large windows put the bags onto the carousels. Never before have I seen the process so open to inspection. I bet that keeps them honest! Yeah, right! I didn’t realize at the time that this was a sign for some of the upcoming airport experiences we would have over the next two weeks!

We were met by our CC Africa Representative tour rep., Rose outside the barriers and treated to a brief tour along the way to the Norfolk hotel in downtown Nairobi (or Nairobbery as Jeff often called it!). The streets we dark and deserted for a Saturday night. Seemed odd.

Nairobi was established in the 1890’s on a small stream called usaso nairobi (cold water in the Maasi language). Prior to that it was a frontier town! It's importance lay as a railroad town. At the Norfolk we were greeted by a doorman in a top hat and a soldier with a machine gun! This was the place to stay when it was built in 1904. The grounds were green and leafy with a horse carriage stuck here and there for show! The walls were adorned with some really great photographs taken during the colonial days of the British Empire. There was even a photograph of Denis Fitch Hatton – how Out of Africa is that? The room was a disappointment though. For the amount of money we had spent on this holiday I expected something a little nicer! We had a standard room at the back of the hotel with a lumpy bed. We had a room service dinner of a club sandwich and calamari and went to bed. It was only for one night I kept telling myself! I began reading the Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley one of the books I had purchased in London with an African theme to read on the trip. You maybe remember the movie? It is an account of the author’s childhood in Kenya prior to the First World War. She mentions the Norfolk Hotel at the beginning of the story. Cute huh?

The next morning our real trip would begin! On Sunday morning we did have a nice breakfast and I received some omelette making tips from the hotel chef at the buffet. Our tour rep picked us up and we headed off to Wilson Airport. We were on our way..........................