24th Jan
Our Kenyan visas still appeared to be "pending" and this is a lovely, peaceful place, so we decided to stay and have an easy day. The early morning was nice and fresh and the silvery-cheeked hornbills were honking from the treetops. We did a few of the small jobs such as making new window-sausages. These are an invention of Ian's: a roll of insect mesh which we push in at the top of the mosquito nets on the windows to stop mozzies and moths from getting through the gap. At lunch we sat under a big shady tree full of old weaver-bird nests and enjoyed the garden and the birds. A bateleur came floating right over us at tree-top height.
We spent ages trying to access emails/internet. Our frustrating attempt came to an end after dark when the night-time askari came for a chat. His English was about as good as our Swahili but he was a great actor and communicator and we managed to understand each other a bit and have a giggle.
25th Jan
It took us two hours or so to get organised and leave. We need to get better at that. Worried about a hot smell and stopped a few times but couldn't find the cause. It's intermittent. We drove through the lush green foothills of Kilimanjaro. It;s an attractive area and very productive; busy people everywhere and many rural/agricultural activities going on. At Tarakea we took money out at a smart bank and decided to go in to ask for help with buying Vodacom top-up. A very friendly man was coming out and introduced us to a younger man with excellent English who happened to be a Vodacom agent. He sorted us out and we were able to check on our Kenyan visas but still no luck. It was 11am and as we couldn't predict how things would go at the borde, we decided to spend the night at Snow Cap Cottages and make an early start the next day.
Snow Cap looked the same. Well-tended gardens and more of the white butterflies. It was nice to see Advesta again. She came to see us at the truck and we discussed Trump, politics and world affairs. B got his overalls on and investigated what might be causing the hot smell.
Our Kenyan visas still appeared to be "pending" and this is a lovely, peaceful place, so we decided to stay and have an easy day. The early morning was nice and fresh and the silvery-cheeked hornbills were honking from the treetops. We did a few of the small jobs such as making new window-sausages. These are an invention of Ian's: a roll of insect mesh which we push in at the top of the mosquito nets on the windows to stop mozzies and moths from getting through the gap. At lunch we sat under a big shady tree full of old weaver-bird nests and enjoyed the garden and the birds. A bateleur came floating right over us at tree-top height.
We spent ages trying to access emails/internet. Our frustrating attempt came to an end after dark when the night-time askari came for a chat. His English was about as good as our Swahili but he was a great actor and communicator and we managed to understand each other a bit and have a giggle.
25th Jan
It took us two hours or so to get organised and leave. We need to get better at that. Worried about a hot smell and stopped a few times but couldn't find the cause. It's intermittent. We drove through the lush green foothills of Kilimanjaro. It;s an attractive area and very productive; busy people everywhere and many rural/agricultural activities going on. At Tarakea we took money out at a smart bank and decided to go in to ask for help with buying Vodacom top-up. A very friendly man was coming out and introduced us to a younger man with excellent English who happened to be a Vodacom agent. He sorted us out and we were able to check on our Kenyan visas but still no luck. It was 11am and as we couldn't predict how things would go at the borde, we decided to spend the night at Snow Cap Cottages and make an early start the next day.
Snow Cap looked the same. Well-tended gardens and more of the white butterflies. It was nice to see Advesta again. She came to see us at the truck and we discussed Trump, politics and world affairs. B got his overalls on and investigated what might be causing the hot smell.