"out of Africa"

 9 Mar

The rain and clouds have not moved, so we spent a very chilled day in town. The only thing I did was to clean, wash, and de-mud all my clothes, bags, shoes ...

10 Mar

... an effort I could have saved. It rained heavily in the morning and about 2 minutes after I arrived in camp everything was muddy again. But we had a great day with amazing views of Mount Kenya on the way. That mountain is hazardous for cyclists. It peaked through the clouds at the left hand side of the road. So, I spent half my time looking to the side and almost missed a couple of potholes in the process.

11 Mar

Today was one of those rare prefect days. Clouds and rain have moved on and the morning was sunny and clear. When we left this morning I wasn't checking my gps for kilometers or time but for coordinates. I was looking for N 00'00.000 and found it about 2 km down the road. After taking lots of pictures of ourselves under the sign we cycled about 100 km through beautiful rural Kenya to our campside. It is next to a river with lots of trees, a swimming pool, and a bar. Some of us will go rafting just now.

I am writing this while lying under a tree sipping cold beer.

12 Mar

Today was a loooong and tiresome ride into Nairobi. Heavy traffic made life as a cyclist even more difficult and we only arrived late in the afternoon. We are getting close to the halfway point now and there are friends and family visiting. People are taking time off to go on safari or island trips. Some are even going to climb Kili.

13 Mar

I have taken Finch home today. Finch is the name of my bike and those of you who still remember (or even know of) the 'Out of Africa' era might guess who it is named after. I went to Karen Blixen’s farm house on the outskirts of Nairobi. It has been turned into a museum and it felt like stepping right into the movie. Some buildings at her former coffee plantation have been turned into a guesthouse and restaurant and I spent the afternoon having a long lunch - colonial style.