1st October 08

Date: 1st October 08
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Weather: Scattered clouds, sunny and hot with late thunder. 34°c
Status: acclimatising well to the city of Nairobi, Colonel been to the doctors today.

Up at first light as the rain started lightly first thing, packed away the tent and enjoyed Allan and Lynita’s hospitality with a full breakfast washed down by REAL Kenyan coffee in a cafetiere!!

Headed out into the melee of the Nairobian traffic and found the Sudanese Embassy with no problems only 10 minutes down the road, again the Lonely Planet being totally wrong with age old information!

It the end on Ramadan today as so every business with Islamic employees is closed for the day, but the very helpful gate guard did let me know all of the information I required to start the application process for the visa once I return to Nairobi in a few weeks time.

We then headed to the David Sheldrake Trust, a charity set up to care for orphaned elephants and rhinos in the late 1970’s. The sanctuary is only open for an hour a day between 11.00am and midday and is very popular but what an amazing hour. The park is within the confines of the huge Nairobi NP and the little chaps can wander where they like but generally stay with their keepers.

There’s 20 in the camp most of which have been orphaned by human interaction, some have fallen down wells, others have lost their parents but all are taken in an cared for by the dedicated keepers. The youngest of the babies is only 3 months old and so cute! They were given their bottles to guzzle down their milk and then played for a while in the mud bath before heading back out in to the park. A great experience.

We then went to the Sanic market to try and get a good deal on a load of key fobs for my friends but couldn’t haggle and barter the sellers down enough…so left! Back to the camp and then with Allan the owner drove out to his Land Rover mechanic to investigate where the ticking noise was coning from on the Colonel.

Appears that the brake vacuum pump is worn and needs replacing, damn it first failure possible! Titch the very knowledgeable owner who’s worked on Landies for years said it was a problem but wouldn’t need replacing just yet and that it would last to Dar Es Salaam where Dad would bring a new one out too and we’d do the job ourselves. Price for parts in Kenya: £220, price for parts in UK: £125!!

Back to the camp and met with Titch, his girlfriend and Allan + family, had a beer discussing Landies, babies and hair drying!?!? Then bed.

End of day location: Nairobi, Kenya
Distance covered: 75kms