After breakfast, we said our goodbyes
to everyone and left the Bandas, taking a brief detour along Kuldip's
Ponds one last time, where we found a large herd of Buffalo. We then
headed for the gate at Mtito Andei and on to Nairobi.
When we reached the Backpackers on
Milimani Road, something was wrong. The gate now said “Manyatta
Backpackers” and inside, most of the place had been demolished. The
girl at reception said that Milimani Backpackers had moved and then
closed down but we knew this wasn't true, so we phoned and found that
Milimani Backpackers has moved recently due to increased security
problems in the old location. The girls at Milimani arranged for a
taxi to meet us and guide us to their new location.
We had a shower and tried to get the
Safaricom modem dongle to work but it still can't find a signal, then
we went for a walk to get our bearings. We had just reached Uhuru
Highway when one of Nairobi's infamous thunderstorms started. If you
imagine the heaviest rain you have ever seen in Europe and then
multiply that by twenty; throw in some hailstones the size of peas
and raucous thunder and you get the picture. By the time we got back
to the Backpackers, we were drenched from head to foot. We dried off
and put on another change of clothes, then waited a few hours for the
rain to subside so that we could go across to the main building for
something to eat.
Fortunately the new and improved
Milimani Backpackers has free wifi, so we have been able to catch up
with the blog. With the heavy rain continuing, we checked the weather
for the Masai Mara and the rest of the Rift Valley and it is forecast
for heavy rain for most of the next week. With the disaster we had on
our way to the Mara last year in mind, we have had to re-think our
plans for camping in the Mara and the Rift Valley Lakes. We will
probably spend another day in the Backpackers tomorrow to re-adjust
our plans.
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