Home » Kenya » Cycle to the Summit Part 16 - Nairobi to Dar es Salaam

Celebrating Toby's 24th Birthday in style in Nairobi. Spending a few days talking to students of the Moshi International School. Being offered a nights accomodation at a very posh hotel on the way to Kenyan border. Sleeping in a variety of places including a restaurant, mosque and a service station. Paul and Owy's lucky escape from thieves. Relaxing on the beaches of Tiwi before making our way down to Dar Es Salaam.

Cycle to the Summit Part 16 - Nairobi to Dar es Salaam

Toby Hammond
2006-06-25 20:04:17

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metal weapon isn't going to stop Paul from reaching the shop for beer, likewise me for ice-cream, so we continued on at speed over the potholes till we reached the shop. Not being from the fearless Massai warrior tribe, and taking the advise we had been given, we decided to enlist a taxi driver to shadow us back to the campsite. It was no coincidence to me that before leaving on this particular trip to the shop one of the seedy 'beachboys' was hanging around listening into our conversation. After enquiring into whether we were heading to the shop and having heard our conversation about needing to change dollars he had slunk off. You give people the benefit of the doubt. In hindsight maybe we shouldn't have, but things are always clearer in the rear view mirror. Keeping with our weird variety of sleeping places we sought out some once we had crossed back into Tanzania. Two nights ago we found ourselves camped inbetween small grass huts along the road, somewhere, this small village has no name. The helpful Mariam and her sister (left) sat beside me whilst cooking dinner, holding the candle and teaching me Swahili for the various ingredients I included in my concoction. Mariam couldn't speak English, when I wrote the alphabet out for her she could easily pen each letter, but didn't appear to know their pronunciation. I have since realised that Swahili contains all but the C, Q and X letters from the English alphabet, so maybe my attempt at contributing to the education of one Tanzanian girl was in vain, but the laughs we had were well worth it.
Last night we found ourselves sleeping on the lush concrete of a petrol station. The manager of the station was more than helpful in providing us with water, lights and armed guards. It was in fact an excellent place to stay in that you could have anything delivered to your 'concrete pad' by the many busboys selling everything from BBQ maize on a stick to UHF TV antenna to the waiting coach passengers. After having our dinner delivered to our concrete space we found the cold chocolate found in the fridge behind the counter too tempting to refuse. We will be returning that way after leaving Dar Es Salaam and think we might stay there again!