Will's Bar and our night in prison

  Eldoret, Kenya
Monday, July 4, 2005

Day the Twenty-seventh - in which we consume vast quantities of milkshake and don't visit the cheese factory.

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Why do you always need the toilet early in the morning when you are in a tent? It did mean we were awake to witness the mass migration as the overlanding lemmings got ready for their game drive, though. Many of them were wearing shorts - watch for tsetse flies!
We just raised our eyebrows at each other and retreated back to bed to stifle giggles. The walk has made my calf muscles really sore!

Then we packed and had a quiet breakfast. Fortunately we noticed the rat poo in the Weetabix bowl before we ate any. As we were eating, the horses were let out for the morning. As they ran out, they scared the resident ostrich which used that as an excuse to freak out all over the front yard area. They are such funny things. It was running all over, and doing that kind of left-right-left dodging feint thing, with its wings held out away from its body. Bloody ridiculous looking creatures...

And then off we go again. We walked to the cross roads and got poda-podas from there. At Endebess we managed to flag down a passing matutu. The problem with getting them when they are en route to somewhere is that they are generally packed, since they don't leave their place of origin until they are full. Some men actually rode standing on the step on the rear of the vehicle, clinging on to the window. Whenever we approached a police checkpoint they would climb in and lie across everyone's laps. As soon as we accelerated away they would climb out again, still in view of the police, and wave to them. T'was amusing.

At Kitale we found a share taxi again to take us to Eldoret. It took 7 people, but we had to wait a while for a 7th person to appear. The other passengers suggested that we [Stef and I] pay the extra seat so we could all go, and we carefully suggested that we all split the extra seat and pay a little extra each. That went down well, fortunately, and off we went. I think it's an important concept to introduce. This whole sharing thing. It makes sense and if Africa as a whole was more inclined to think along the lines of splitting the load and sharing the cost [metaphorically speaking] then all these countries would be less dependent on the West and external aid. I reckon.

Getting to Eldoret, we wandered around for quite a while - first to buy bus tickets to Uganda and then trying to find somewhere to stay. The hostel we chose later turned out to be rather jail-like in nature, in that there was a gate at the top of the stairs which only a woman had the keys to. A woman who frequently wasn't there, forcing you to wait a while to be released. We tried not to think too hard about what would happen if there was a fire...

Once out we headed to an internet café and then on to a bar for a drink. It was called Will's Bar which amused us slightly, having a mutual friend called Will. We ended up staying for dinner. So much for the cheese factory. The bar had milkshakes - I doubt they'd even touched a cow, but still, nice.

Still pretty tired after the walk, we retreated to bed. More hostel related joys were discovered - namely the freezing cold showers and non-flushing toilet.
Sleep was difficult due to the hostel's situation right next to a main road, not helped by having large open air vent holes in the wall. Africans do like to use their horns!

Leaving Kenya tomorrow! It's been ok, but nothing special. The food has been consistently awful. Still think you should stick to Tanzania, not that that will change the food situation I don't think.