Journey to the Mountains of the Moon - 1994 (6)

Mt Kenya looking up the McKinder Valley to the
scree slope which leads to the glacier (centre).

The next morning, after settling up the lodge bill after breakfast, we were preparing to leave for Nairobi in the Peugeot which Dominic had arranged when the desk clerk ran up to say he had undercharged us by US$90. So much for using a calculator! The Peugeot took the six of us (Dominic and I, the three Spaniards, and the German) along with our packs of course, for Ks700 each. It was somewhat more comfortable than a matatu which would have been grossly overloaded on a journey into the city.

On arrival we booked into the slightly more salubrious Fairview Hotel at US$70 a night including breakfast. This turned out to be much better value than the SixEighty and quieter – being away from the bustle of the city centre. It had maintained a colonial feeling to it which was definitely missing at the SixEighty. We had a nice lunch of samosas at the hotel. We had become addicted to samosas when we lived in Nairobi in the early 1970's so it was good to be able to have them whenever we wanted to. After lunch we headed downtown to check out buses for Kampala. The Lonely Planet guide had mentioned the Akamba Bus Company but we couldn’t locate it. However, we did manage to find a regular service for when we would be ready for the next leg of the trip.

On the way back to the hotel we picked up our suitcases which we had left at the Six-Eighty Hotel while we were ‘up-country’.

On arrival back at the Fairview we contacted old friends Frank and Marjorie Watts. This hardy couple had stayed on in Kenya following Frank’s second retirement and spent much of their time helping out at the animal orphanage attached to the Nairobi Game Park. Frank originally travelled from England to Kenya on the same flight which we had travelled on way back in 1974. He was then taking up his new position as Safety Officer for East African Power and Lighting Company after retiring from the electricity industry in England. I was joining the same company as a Senior Programmer on a two year contract. When we got settled into company housing we turned out to be in the same street and separated by just one other house. It would be good to catch up with them after all these years so we arranged to meet them for lunch at the Fairview next day to catch up on old times.

Dinner that night was a Fairview Special Burger with sides for Ks1000 including drinks.

The next morning we decided on a bit of sight-seeing so we headed off on foot to the Snake Park and Museum. I remembered the Snake Park from our time here twenty years ago. When we arrived there we could not discern any changes apart from having to pay the non-resident price to get in. The snake pit in the middle of the park was literally crawling with legless reptiles - I wouldn't want to fall in!

Green tree snakes in Nairobi Snake Park. How many can you count?

Afterwards we headed back into town to attempt to find the Akamba Bus Company again which we eventually did find it in Lagos Road. The company runs an overnight bus between Nairobi and Kampala so we booked for the 7pm trip the following night. Dominic had arranged to visit the Australian High Commission the following morning so the evening departure would suit us quite nicely. At least that was the plan but the best laid plans ...

For our trip up Mt Kenya we had bought kerosene which was the only stove fuel we could find at the time but it was not good for cooking with being far too dirty and emitting noxious black smoke. For the next leg we hunted around and found some white spirit which burns cleanly. We were able to stock up on drinks and snacks for the bus trip at the same time.

The morning having been successfully taken care of at the Snake Park and doing our shopping we headed back to the hotel by taxi to meet Marjorie and Frank for lunch.

Meeting up with Marjorie and Frank after 18 years was quite a joy and they seemed to be handling their increasing age well. Marjorie told us of some of her experiences at the Animal Orphanage, including being mauled by a young lion which left her with some nasty scars on her arms. They also regaled us with tales about the number of times their house had been broken into although they seemed quite blasé about it. They do have an Askari (guard) looking after the house but from our previous experiences the Askari is not likely to prove much of a deterrent to would-be thieves - they typically run away to avoid trouble. Apart from their security experiences the ex-patriot lifestyle seemed to suit them and, as they told us, there was nothing for them back in England.

The following morning - July 13th - Dominic went off to do his bit of work at the Australian High Commission. He was on leave from the Department of Administrative Services who provided information technology services to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and had arranged to do a technical review of the AHC installation while he was in Nairobi.

I, on the other hand, had woken up with acute diarrhoea, upset stomach and mild fever. From the symptoms I worked out that it was probably amoebic dysentery caught from improperly prepared food or bad water up-country. We had been extremely careful about what we ate and where and we had a pump-style water purifier with us which we used for all of our drinking and cooking water (and for teeth-cleaning water). However, there was no mistaking the nature of the problem so I stayed in bed and dosed up on Lomotil (for the vomiting) and Bactrim (for the other end). When Dominic returned I wasn’t feeling significantly better so we decided to postpone the Kampala trip for a couple of days. I could not envisage sitting on a bus for over 15 hours in this state. The medicines seemed to have the desired effect eventually but it was an unwelcome upset to our plans. I did get to watch a lot of UK TV via cable which kept me in touch with the outside world somewhat.