After briefly meeting up with Garth we’re off via Perth and Johannesburg arriving at 6:20AM to 2°C in the middle of their coldest snap since 1964! Time for some name dropping. While waiting to board our flight to Nairobi at Jan Smuts Airport the familiar face of Desmond Tutu appeared in the crowd mixing with true ecumenical egalitarianism. He only had time for a quick ‘Hi Bert’ before leaving (OK that’s a lie).Our initial impressions of Nairobi after nearly 20 years were that it was busier and dirtier than remembered and that there were a lot more beggars and touts on the streets. These impressions may have been the result of faulty memory coupled with having lived now for many years in places where you don’t get accosted every few paces to ‘buy this’, ‘take this tour’, ‘shine your shoes;, or just plain outright begging. The first reaction of tourists to beggars is often ‘oh – poor things, better give them something’ and that is exactly what they count on. The best approach is to watch what the locals do and follow suit. There is no doubt that westerners coming to Africa are seen as being unimaginably wealthy and are therefore easy pickings for street-smart beggars in the larger cities. It is, perhaps, instructive that when you get away from the cities and into rural towns the incidence of beggars declines very rapidly. Unfortunately the same is not true of the touts. After being in Nairobi a few days we had swotted up on our basic Swahili again giving us the key phrase ‘Siyo! Kwenda!’ (‘No! Go away!’) accompanied by a dismissive hand gesture. This ‘hardened’ attitude did not stop us giving to those whom we felt were genuinely in need.
For the first few days of our trip we stayed in the SixEighty Hotel right on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi’s heart. Eighteen years previously this would possibly have been a 3-4 star hotel but on our return in 1994 it was officially rated at 2 stars. It was adequate though and at $US65 a night for the two of us, relatively inexpensive.
After check in we had a stroll around to some of the old city places we remembered. The City Market seemed to be conducting the same sort of fresh vegetable business and was very familiar. At the Thorn Tree Hotel we stopped for a tea for me and a Coca Cola for Dominic. It still provides a useful place to stop and watch the world go by.
In these first couple of days we also checked out the ground transport situation at the unofficial Matatu bus ‘depot’ on the corner of River and Accra Roads. It was, and no doubt still is, really just a matter of turning up and finding the next one leaving and then negotiating the price. We were quoted a general going rate for Nairobi to Nanyuki of around Ks250 (250 Kenya Shillings – roughly Ks60 = US$1) plus Ks100 per pack each.
One of the first things you have to work out in a strange place, and Nairobi was strange after nearly 20 years away, is how to feed yourself. Fortunately we found a ‘Burger King’ that did a good breakfast of baked beans, two poached eggs, toast, juice and tea for Ks63. Any resemblance to a Burger King anywhere else on the planet was only in the name but it was OK. For dinner on the second day we found an Italian Trattoria near Kenyatta Avenue that was as good as any in Melbourne’s Lygon Street. Nairobi, and Kenya in general, is not the sort of place where a 'must do' is totry the local cuisine. Apart from game, mostly from farmed sources, there is nothing to tempt foreign palates in Kenyan food. However, Kenya has a rich history of Indian and Pakistani settlers who have added to the local food scene. These along with other ethnic groups provide quite a reasonable selection for evening dining. Breakfast always seems to be the hardest meal to get 'right' though and the Burger King was probably the closest we would get except for in the better hotels.
On July 3rd, after breakfast at Burger King, we put our suitcases into storage at the SixEighty in preparation for our journey to Nanyuki. This is common practice as many people travel up-country for a few days and then return for the next leg of their holiday. There is no point in carting around stuff that you are not going to need but it is nice to know that it will be looked after and kept for your return for a very modest fee.
At River Road/Accra Road we located a Matatu which was going to Nanyuki ‘soon’. It had room for us and our backpacks for Ks200 each. That is Ks200 for each of us and each of our packs. The Matatu is typically a Toyota High Ace with seating for maybe twelve passengers but typically they take about sixteen plus luggage, parcels etc.
After the inevitable African wait, we were off to Nanyuki. The ride was enlivened somewhat by John who knew ‘everything that there is to know about trekking Mt Kenya, where the most reliable guides are to be found, and the only hotel to stay in’, and he had the inside running on all of it. We let him enjoy his short period as ‘information king’ as it alleviated the bum-numbing discomfort of the thinly padded seats which was exacerbated by nursing a 25kg backpack. We had no intention of following his advice but it was easier to agree with him than get into a pointless argument.
On arrival in Nanyuki we headed for the YHA which was our intended destination all along, slipping away from John without too much trouble. The YHA is run as part of a church school by the very friendly and helpful Margaret. On hearing of our experiences with John she reassured us that we could follow our original plan without giving him another thought. The YHA accommodation – essentially a separate room within the school compound was basic but fine at Ks 100 each for the night. We had to cook outside under the stoop but that was no problem. After settling in, we had a bit of a walk around Nanyuki. I had changed into shorts as the waist cord of my Kathmandu splits was broken and I hadn’t had time to replace it. I’m not sure whether it was the shorts or my legs but something sure amused the locals. Glad I could brighten up their day!
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