11 June, Nairobi again

Well we are back in Africa and the traffic did not disappoint.  We flew from Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam to Cairo and then caught a connection flight to Nairobi all with Egyptair.  We were very pleasantly surprised with the good service and clean (ish) aircraft that we received from Egyptair.  The only problem was that the passengers on the Cairo to Nairobi leg were all very noisy and we did not get any sleep.  We arrived in Nairobi at 2.30am (3.30am local time) and decided that we would wait at the airport as we probably wouldn’t get into Jungle Junction at that ungodly hour.  No place to lie down at all, not even a small piece of carpet to lie down and we managed to find a small coffee bar that was open so at least we could sit!!  Which we did until 7.30am and then we took a taxi to Martin Air to start trying to clear our bikes.

We arrived at the Cargo Terminal and we (including the taxi driver) had to be searched and eventually were allowed in.  Our main luggage weighted 43kg together had to be carted into the lobby of the main Kenyan Airways building and I promptly sat down on it while Larry went up to the Martin Air Offices.  All the staff for Kenyan Airways were arriving at work and were very concerned to see me sitting on the luggage and all asked if they could help.  One lady by the name of Mqeni Ndunda came back and said that she could not leave me sitting there like that and she and a friend came back and helped carry the luggage to the waiting area of Kenyan Airways.  She later during the day took me to the staff canteen to get a plate of food for Larry and myself.  Thank you very much for your kindness Mqeni!!

The normal hurry up and wait when dealing with customs and getting cargo released, we also had very good and pleasant dealings with Martin Air and in particular Jacky.  Larry was told that we could not clear the bike ourselves we would have to use a clearing agent, he managed to get hold of Martin (very professional) and he helped us getting the bike cleared.  We were at the Cargo Terminal from 7.30am until 2.30pm.  Jacky told me that this was very quick as it normally takes at least 2 full days to clear cargo. 

The pallets were brought out into the front of the warehouse and the crowds gathered to watch and see who the first person was to get the pallets.  We had agreed with Martin that he could have the pallets if he could hang onto them.  Martin, Jacky and I moved the luggage to the bikes and Larry had already got most of the bubble and cling wrap off both bikes and shortly we had my bike off the pallet and I could start packing cloths into the panniers.  It took about 1 hour for us to get both bikes off the pallets and re-packed and loaded and we were ready to leave.

Back to driving on the left hand side of the road and straight into the worst traffic that we have experienced on our journey.  The normal pushing and shoving to get into the traffic and we had 24km to travel to get to Jungle Junction.  This took us 2.5 hours in the rain, potholed roads and grid locked traffic.  Both bikes started overheating and we had to stop at least 3 times to let them cool down.  We did try and take a short cut along the pavement (normal practice in most large African cities) and I got stuck in some nice mud and Larry had to come back and help me!!  Just shows you the conditions of the roads and pavements here.  We arrived at Jungle Junction very tired and thirsty and I had the second beer of the trip!!  We managed to get some mundazi, local bread/ rolls and had our tent up and our tummys full in record time, we slept for 12 hours and feel a whole lot better.  The stress of packing and airfreighting the bikes and then the flight here and getting them out of the cargo depot had made us exhausted (and the ride of 24km).   We are now getting ready to do some shopping and then an afternoon sleep!!

Jungle Junction is still here, and still the same, with people coming and going – but no bikes this time!  We even got our same spot under the tree. 

From here we will head for Arusha again tomorrow, to Wayne and Birgit, where we stayed on the way up.