The Journey

I have left out all of the elements of the trip when not in Africa. Strictly speaking the journey began at 6:30 on Tuesday morning when we got into Dave's taxi, but I will begin from when we landed in Jomo Kenyatta International Airport - Nairobi.

Dad had prepared me for the worst while on board the plane.  Despite the poor design of the building, it was not boiling hot as I had expected (A cool 19 in Nairobi !). The whole single terminal building is very long and thin, with shops on either side and very few seats. On making a quick tour of the strip, we decided to spend our 6 hours wait in Nairobi Jambo Coffee house.

Dad and I managed to watch two episodes of Top Gear, but I was somewhat jaded, having only had 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep on the plane. We decided to save the shops (which all sell exactly the same duty free merchandise) for the return trip.

After some delay scares (We saw that the 8 o'clock flight to Dar had been delayed until 3 in the afternoon) we boarded our plane. For the first time I was outside in Africa. I swear that Nairobi at 5500 ft above sea level (the highest I had ever been) was making me take more breaths. I was also amazed by the lack of hills or even slopes around Nairobi, It is flatter than Suffolk and maybe even Holland.

On board the plane I was able to see Kilimanjaro poking through the clouds, as well as the beaches and islands around Dar es Salam.

Dar es Salam airport was more of what I expected than Nairobi; it was hot and humid and the underground immigration office was disorganized. Luckily we were given an easy time by the immigration officers and went on to meet our driver Alan. We traveled along the central strip into Dar, passing dala-dala (share taxi-buses) and vans with goats and chickens.

We managed to get to the ferry terminal in downtown Dar es Salam. The ferries were similar to those on small Scottish Islands (without the the health and safety).  People milled about between cars, trying to sell sweets and peanuts and climbed rusty steps with no rails.

On the other side of the river we got into the more open countryside, passing small villages every so often. Eventually we got onto some smaller and smaller dirt roads with deeper and deeper pot holes before eventually reaching Ras Dege . The Maasai guards were on duty and greeted us before we eventually got to Jeffrey's idyllic home. On this evening we went for a quick walk, and saw Baobab trees, sea turtles and the rugged Indian Ocean coast.

Thats all for now Hudson