One week down. After all the planning and preparation in the months leading up to D-Day, it was a relief to finally get to our starting point in Nanyuki, Kenya and get peddling (rather than continue to talk and talk about what we were going to do)
Fortunately for us, we landed in Nairobi and were met by the brillianf Karanje who drove us north to an amazing starting set up staying with Martin and Sally Woodcock (Egmont Trustees) in Nanyuki. We relaxed, ate great food and played with their pooches for a day and got our bikes all set up. Luckily, our bikes largely survived the plane save for a slightly bent front disc rotor on Naomi's which we were able to fix up.
When we finally got going on the 30th, it felt very weird leaving the Equator marker knowing there was no going back. In a weirdly positive way, it was almost anti-climatic. After so much talk we were just doing it, and it simply boiled down to keeping the peddles turning. Luckily for us, the first 2 hours were mostly downhill so we got away quickly and feeling good about ourselves. The first 2 days was about getting to Nairobi. Bur our first guesthouse experience was in Sagana. And what an experience it was - Easter weekend is clearly a big deal in Kenya as we were subjected to an all night brass band concert. Not what you want before a big day of riding. The scenery was different to what we expected, extremely lush and green surroundings. Lining the side of the highway (and sometimes even the middle) were hoardes of mango and avocado sellers - I'm not sure we'll be able to go back to Tesco ones after tasting these.
Another surprise were the speedbumps. Bone cracking, bike crunching piles of concrete every 20 metres up giant climbs and down dramatic descents for 45km. The pain and speed inhibition nearly drove us to despair. One of the happiest surprises was how excited people, particularly children were to see us as we rode past. Endless cars tooting, motorbikes slowly saying hello and, most fun, the children yelling out at us 'Mzungu' (apparently a term for white person and not a reference to the former Freo / GWS superstar) or hello. A wave from us would often bring a massive smile from the kids.
After arriving into Nairobi on the morning of the 1st, we spent the afternoon at VAP. An inspiring day (see our special blog). The next day, we left Nairobi early to beat the traffic and the next two days saw a very different side to Kenya. The terrain changed to become more of the scrubland we usually associate with Africa, and it got a lot less busy off the main highways. It was very relaxing, after 3 days in busy cities and towns, to find some quiet: we spent our first night camping in Kajiado county at a lovely little lodge, where we cooked up some of the worst rice, beans and tomatoes you could ever taste.
We moved on through ever quieter countryside and crossed into Tanzania after another blissful morning of mostly downhill. It is sad to already be leaving Kenya, but it is exciting that we are progressing so well to date, and have so much ahead of us. Our first night in Tanzania and the end of our first week of our trip was at Longido, a small village at the foothills of Mt Longido where most of the locals are dressed in traditional Masai costume with stretched ear lobes and cool jewellery. Everything is new and it's all pretty exciting at the moment. BEST BIT: Kids running out and waving at us when we road past WORST BIT: Being woken up at 3am in Nairobi by someone trying to get in our hotel room (we hope it was a case of drunken wrong room finding...)
