Day 35 (Fri, 11 Aug) - Lamu/Nairobi

Had breakfast and packed our gear.

Jo checked out whilst Sarb waited on the forecourt for her. And waited. The boat that would take us to the airport arrived and our main bags were loaded but still no Jo.

Eventually Sarb went into the office to see Jo seated before two stern looking men all of whom were staring at a fax machine. To cut a long story short, the money from the tour operator had not arrived at the hotel. So they were asking us to pay for the whole lot! Luckily Jo asked them to phone Ruth who instructed us not to pay a shilling as it had all been accounted for. So we had a mexican standoff. The hotel would not let us leave unless we paid, the operator said that we should not pay a penny as she already had done so. With the plane waiting, common sense prevailed and the hotel owner said that we should make our flight and they would sort it out later.

A porter led us to the boat in a quick march and we were soon bouncing along towards the airport.

Security at Lamu consists of the staff manually opening and checking the bags. No big issue but just time consuming and tiring as it is so hot.

The departure lounge was a tin hut which offered welcome shade.

Got the flight that took us first to Malindi, a 21minute wait in the airport, before getting back on the plane and flying to Nairobi.

During the flight we could clearly see the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Got to Nairobi and had a welcome surprise when Joshua met us at the airport at about 4.30pm.

Set off in heavy traffic towards the city centre when Joshua got a call from Ruth. We were to have dinner at the Carnivore resteraunt at 6.30pm but for some reason the booking had to be changed to 9.30pm!

This caused a bit of a logistical problem. Firstly, we'd told Sagini, Sarb's friend that we would be staying with that we'd be with him at about 10pm and secondly we had 5 hours to kill!

We made a team decision and killed some time by going to the supermarket where we bought books and toiletries. Phoned Sagini about the change of plan and agreed with him that we would whizz round and drop our bags off before going out to eat.

Went into the city centre and had a few Redds in Kengeles ( a chain of bars easily recognisable as they have been half converted from petrol stations. The other half is still a petrol station).

Went to Sags who lives in Westlands to drop off the bags. Seems weird that we've finally met up!

We all, except Sags, headed off to the Carnivore but were way early so stopped off for more Redds at another Kengeles.

Got to the carnivore where we met Ruth, her husband, her brother and his wife. We were both rather shocked and disappointed that Joshua was not to be joining us for dinner.

Had the Carnivore experience ie. loads of meat and booze.

After dinner Joshua dropped us off in Westlands where we were to meet Sags. It was really sad to say goodbye to Joshua as we'd spent so much time with him. Sags appeared and we headed off to a bar (Havanas) where we met a few of his friends.

This is also the first time that Sarb was introduced to the concept of asking for warm beer. In Kenya, you have two options warm or cold. For some reason Sags drinks warm so Sarb did likewise.

We all moved onto another bar with Sags and his friend Ayub. Had a few more beers before we felt a little tired.

Sags dropped us at his flat and then said that he would be popping out for a few more beers. We finally went to bed at 2.45am; which is quite impressive as we are normally asleep by 10pm.