Marangu - Tanzania & Nairobi Kenya

Today was a day for chilling in the lovely gardens at the Marangu Hotel. The hotel is old colonial in style with stunning views of Mount Kilimanjaro from the gardens and also the porch of our room where we enjoyed an early morning cuppa before starting the day (see photos in July).

We always enjoy reaching here on our travels, not just for the surroundings but also for the good friends we now have here in Fionnuala, Roger & Trudi plus Fionnuala's brothers Seamus and Desmond, so in a way it feels like coming home.

It had rained heavy during the night so Kili was shrouded in cloud when we woke but it was warm and humid so we expected it to clear as the day went on. After a leisurely breakfast of fresh fruit, bacon, egg & sausage and coffee the sun started to peep through the clouds so we chilled in the gardens doing some of the admin jobs we never seem to have time for.

All too soon it was time to go to the bar to meet Fionnuala, Trudi and Roger for sundowners and then before we knew it was 9pm, time certainly flies out here. By now it was a bit late to go to the restaurant for dinner so Fionnuala organised it to be brought to us in the bar instead, having one of the owners as a friend certainly has advantages.

Next day we were heading on again to Nairobi, a bit worse for wear after our session in the bar but still no big thing. As Sue packed I went to check out Rupert before the long journey only to discover the new drive belt, which we had fitted only two days before in Mbeya, had already started to shear from the outside in.

This problem had been dogging us ever since we arrived in Africa, the first time being when we passed through East London in South Africa in 2006, since then a number of belts have had to be changed due to the same mysterious wearing. In South Africa the guys had put it down to a stone or grit on the pulleys but it had been happening too frequently since then for it to be that.

I suspected a pulley was very slightly out of alignment but they had been checked and nothing untoward had been found, at Mbeya they had even tried adjusting the water pump pulley to see if it helped but no luck. It was worrying as we never knew when the shearing would happen plus we needed to keep changing belts more often than we should which was expensive as well.

At the moment however there was nothing for it but to change the belt again, I put back the old belt taken off in Mbeya as this seemed to be the only one which had lasted well for some reason. This belt was different to the others having wider and deeper grooves which I suspected was helping to keep it on the pulley's better.

After a this time not so leisurely breakfast, we said our good byes and headed towards Arusha and the border with Kenya at Namanga. We reached Arusha at 12.50pm in heavy rain, from here the road to the border at Namanga cuts North along what is little more than a single track, surprising as this is the main crossing point between the two countries.

Just before 1.30pm a convoy of Matatu's (local mini buses) filled with passengers approached us at very high speed coming from the border. The first two or three flew past so we moved over as far as we could but the next one taking a bend too quickly came over too far, swerving so we were virtually off the road, the Matatu missed us by inches but it was not enough to stop the wing mirrors colliding with a loud bang and the sound of breaking glass.

Shaken and cursing loudly we stopped as soon as we could and got out, the Matatu driver who must have realised what had happened just kept going hell for leather, the glass in my wing mirror was completely shattered as his must have been but he wasn't going to stop and face the music.

What a bastard, we had a spare glass buried in one of the spares boxes in the back box but it would take a while to find and then fit and we just couldn't afford the time nor was this a good place to do it so there was nothing else but to borrow Sue's hand mirror and use that every now and again to check what was behind me on my side, the back box on Rupert means our rear view mirror is totally redundant!

Luckily the traffic going our way was fairly light so we reached the border at 2.15pm without further mishap. Namanga, is second only to Kazenguela, the border between Botswana and Zambia, as the border we most dread crossing. One, because it is usually very busy hence the officers are slow and generally pissed off, two because it attracts loads of hawkers and con men trying to sell you everything from fruit & veg to insurance and Kenyan shillings.

Our first stop was the exit formalities on the Tanzanian side, passport check was ok as our visa's were still only just a week old, however when we went to get the Carnet stamped the customs guy wanted to charge us US$ 20 extra road tax for overstaying in the country by one day!  We had paid $5 when we entered from Malawi which entitled us to one week to transit the country, today was our eighth day!

We explained we had problems with the car which meant staying in Mbeya an extra day and showed him the garage receipts as proof. At first he wasn't sympathetic claiming we should have warned the local tax office we had a problem as if these offices are round every corner!

He then asked what we expected him to do now so I just said as guests I expected him to thank us for visiting his country, to be understanding and stamp our Carnet!  That seemed to throw him for a moment then muttering under his breath he stamped the Carnet with the warning next time we would have to pay!

It was 2.40pm and next was the Kenyan authorities, at least here it should be straightforward, just pay US $50 each for a three month visa and then US $40 road tax for Rupert for one month, it's not cheap crossing borders these days! It should have been quick and straightforward but this is Namanga so it took another 35 minutes to do just this, mainly due to the fat ugly Mama on immigration who clearly didn't like Mzungu's (Whites)!

Finally we left immigration and customs and headed for the gate and Kenya beyond, but still there was still one last thing to do. Here the police stop you and make you fill in an old exercise book with all your details, including your Father's name! I have sometimes asked what happens to all these thousands of grubby exercise books you fill in at the various borders but no one can say, it has been like this for eons and that is just the way of it!

The road from the border to the turn off for Ngong is very bad with loads of potholes, from there to the Athi River bridge it improves a bit but it was still 5.20pm before we eventually reached the Athi, we had just 25km to go but now we were joining the infamous Mombasa - Nairobi road.

Chris Rea should have made this "The Road to Hell" in his song as it makes the M25 seem like a deserted three lane highway. As we joined the traffic coming and going to Mombasa it seemed like thousands of vehicles of all shapes and sizes were trying to squeeze down a diminishing road any way they can and I do mean anyway!

There are constant road works as they try to build a new highway so it can best be described as a potholed dirt road with patches of tarmac and any lane system or road discipline has gone out of the window years ago!

Also Kenyan's are probably just pipped by the Egyptians as Africa's worst drivers, so from Athi it just became a complete free for all as buses, trucks and cars squeezed down any opening, even going through car parks to try and get ahead of everyone else. The Matatu's are easily the worse as they dart in and out on either side, so to say it was not easy without a drivers wing mirror is an understatement.

It took us one and a half hours to do this last 25km and with hindsight this was a good night as on occasions since then it has taken almost three hours! Finally at 6.50pm in the dark we pulled into Indaba, our home from home in Nairobi. We were met by Ruth who had been there last year and a new young Dutch girl called Effjie who had taken over from Hennie and Lusanne as camp manager. For tonight we could have our favourite room, Rhino, with it's en-suite shower but tomorrow we would have to move into a dorm as the room was booked - bugger we should have called ahead and made reservations!

Dinner was being served as we arrived but we decided to quickly pop up the road for a Pizza instead, back at Indaba we were greeted by Bob & Sam the almost identical guard dogs who clearly remembered us from last year not surprising as they always enjoy all our leftovers

By 8.30pm we had all we needed out of Rupert so after a nice shower it was bed for us, forgetting to put down the Mosi net we immediately get bitten then we hear heavy rain, what a welcome back to Kenya!

Up around 8.30am the first thing was to get a cup of tea from Eunice in the kitchen, she tells us she now has a three month baby girl which came as a bit of a surprise as she neither looked pregnant nor was she married when we were last here in December.

Over breakfast Effjie came over to say we could hold onto Rhino for another night, so the first job after breakfast was to dig out the new mirror glass and fix it in place with super glue. Indaba has Wi Fi so next job was to check email and send some messages then it was off to the shopping centre at Karen to get some cash from the hole in the wall and start getting provisions in for our forthcoming trip to the Masai Mara.

It was 6pm by the time we got back to the car, the mall at Karen has lots of security guards knocking about so you always feel safe parking there but when I put the key in to open my door I found it wouldn't go in the lock, then I realised the door was not locked!

Fearing the worse we looked inside but strangely nothing looked amiss,  however I was certain all the doors had been locked when we had parked up. Why the key would not go into the lock was a mystery, maybe someone had tried forcing it using a screw driver or something but had been scared off by the guards before they could get inside, Sue's door was ok and still locked as were the two rear passenger doors!

I asked the nearest guard if he had seen anything suspicious but he said no, the good thing was nothing seemed to be missing, the bad thing was we now needed to buy and fit a new lock before going anywhere tomorrow! Back at Indaba we secured the door as best we could with bits of washing line and  a crook lock.

Up at 8am we find we now have to move out of Rhino into another room called Leopard, this was a pain but not so bad as Leopard was also a private room and had a nice double bed, the only drawback being it had no shower so we would have to use the communal bathroom from now on.

After dismantling Rupert's door panel I managed to fix the lock temporarily so at least it locked when you pushed the button down from inside but the key barrel was totally knackered so the key could never be used again on that door - we needed to get a complete new barrel from somewhere fast.

The nice thing about Indaba is it's out of the way down a small lane occupied totally by large detached houses each behind large gates with big plots of land. All the other houses are privately owned and as Indaba is not advertised nor sign posted unless you knew it existed you would take it for a private house.

When the overland trucks are not in it is lovely and quiet but today two trucks came in full to the gunnels and on one was a local driver/guide called Innocent who was introduced to us by Effjie as her boyfriend.

The trucks had just returned from the Masai Mara and Innocent had brought back a tiny puppy which he had picked up in one of the Masai villages as a surprise for Effjie. Effjie was clearly overjoyed with the pup and all the overlanders were making a fuss of the little guy who despite being full of fleas was very cute, to us he still looked too young to be taken from his Mum but our main concern was how Bob, Sam and the two cats would take to his arrival?

The next day we went out early to Karen to get a new tyre for Rupert. We use Bridgestone All Terrain tyres and in 2005 we had shipped Rupert with two new spares but the heavy mileage and rough roads since then had taken their toll and although we had yet to have a puncture, an achievement in itself, the tyres were starting to show their age with one in particular looking a bit past it.

Finding replacements, however, had not proved easy as Bridgestone are expensive so most private individuals here use the cheaper Asian ones and whilst some safari companies use them they tend to fit the Mud Terrain variety as their vehicles spend most of their time in the bush and these are better in the black cotton soil.

At Karen we found Kingsway Tyres had new Bridgestone AT's for 18,000 KSHs ( ~ £140), this was 50% more expensive than what we paid for them in the UK but I didn't want to start mixing brands and out here good tyres really are a must.

By 11.30am the new tyre had been fitted and Paul the operations manager at Indaba had turned up to pick up the old one for his vehicle, even though all his other tyres were different nothing gets wasted out here.

Next we had to do the tortuous drive across town to Impala Spares on the industrial estate for the door lock. This meant negotiating the infamous football stadium roundabout where the Mombasa road arrives in Nairobi city proper. Not for the faint hearted the only way across this roundabout is to force your way in front of the trucks, buses and cars constantly coming from your right and left, Sue hates it but as I now drive like a Kenyan anyway I fit right in!

Impala is about the best and cheapest place in Nairobi for car spares, always buzzing, like a lot of East African businesses it is owned and managed by Indians but most of the sales staff, and there are loads, are Africans. The customers are separated from the staff by massive metal grills through which you tell them what you need and usually within minutes a part mysteriously materialises from the stores at the back. 

A new lock barrel cost just 350 KSHs (~ £2.50), it would mean  from now on the drivers door would always have it's own key but at least we would be able to lock the door again from the outside. While I was there I showed them the damaged drive belt I had changed at Marangu hoping they might have a belt like the old one I had replaced it with, the one with the bigger and deeper grooves but they didn't. They suggested I stop at CMC the Landy Dealer to see if they could help but by the time we got there the spares dept was closed for lunch and as lunch here is variable we decided to try again another day.

Next stop was Uchumi Hypermarket to carry on with our food and drink shop then it was onto the Nairobi National Park Headquarters a short distance away to check how much was loaded on Fionnuala's Smart Card which she had kindly loaned us again.

Loaded with US Dollars and Kenyan Shillings these cards are the only way nowadays that you can enter Kenya's National Parks. We wouldn't need it for the Masai Mara as that is a Game Reserve with it's own system but we had plans to visit Samburu and Lake Nakuru so we would need it for them. We found the card had US$ 330 and 900 KSHs on it and once again we were struck by how trusting Fionnuala was to just let us wander off with it, not knowing when or if we would be back - a very nice gesture.

By now it was late afternoon when we finally arrived back at Indaba, looking forward to a shower and a cold drink. The place was virtually deserted, the overlanders having moved on. As we walked to our room we were stopped by a Dutch couple who  warned us Effjie was very upset.

It turned out after seeing Innocent off on the next stage of his trip she had gone out to buy a collar, lead, basket, flea powder, toys and food for her new puppy leaving it in a box in the safe keeping of the girls in the kitchen.

However, as it was still very young it was constantly crying so after a while the girls lost patience and put it and the box outside where somehow it had got out of the box and wandered off. No one knows for sure what actually happened next but while the gate guard was busy Sam and possibly Bob must have found the pup and attacked him savaging him to death, Effjie had found the body when she returned!

We had feared this might happen but not so soon,  the poor little sod had been away from his Mum for less than 24 hours. Later we saw Effjie and she was very very upset, it turned out Innocent had left to carry on with the overland trip and would be away for a few weeks so the pup had been a going away present and to signify their relationship was a long term one as next year they planned to get married.

Not knowing Effjie very well and having only met Innocent briefly for the first time last night this was all news to us, the sad postscript was that night as we went to bed outside Effjie's room was the new dog basket full of the new puppy bits and pieces!