After a lazy start and full cooked breakfast, one handed shower to keep the bandages dry. We had chartered a Matatu and all played being conductor hanging off the door banging the roof to stop etc. all before we set off. We are not brave enough to do it at 30kph like the pros!!
Many crashes on the road to Nairobi reminded us of the perils of road travel in Kenya. Most were lorries overturning and looked like the results of dodgy overtaking. One lorry on the descent from the plateau of Nairobi to the floor of the Rift Valley was teetering (Italian Job like) on the edge of the escarpment and just avoided plummeting to the floor. I was a little apprehensive about my night bus journey to Mombasa that evening!!
Into Nairobi I stopped off at the Mountain View to shuffle my bags and contents around to suit the upcoming beach chill out and then onto Nairobi.
Next a matatu to Machakos to pick up a friend, grab some provisions, get the night bus ticket etc. We were to assemble at 6.30pm and set off at 7pm. My Kenyan friend who had popped home did not turn up till 7.15pm (those who know my time keeping will imagine how calm and relaxed I was about that!!) however the bus still had not arrived (local knowledge!!). 9pm the bus arrived and we all piled on. Unlike Matatu they are more strict on one person per seat on the longer distance buses. That is, except when it comes to children who apparently do not count. We had two of the back seats and a family of 6 had the other 3. My height combined with very bumpy roads 8 people on 5 seats and lumpy seats meant the journey was an eight hour endurance test. We stopped twice to unfold ourselves and stretch our legs, etc. The entertainment for the journey was trying to work out whether we would make it past the latest lorry before hitting the full beam coming towards us. This happened about every 5 minutes! Better than playstation J.
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