A week in Nairobi ....
Aaargh - i know i know ... i havent posted in several millennia .... as many of you have been so kind as to email me and point out .... and to be fair i have not one leg to stand on .... i've been so lazy that even Shashank has scooped me to write about our week together in kenya ... so do bear with me for repeating ....
In an attempt to actually see S for more than just a snatched weekend ... i managed to convince my bosses that skype-able internet connections do exist in Nairobi and that I could work effectively for a week from there .... incredibly they pitied my sob-relationship-story and agreed ....
Perhaps truculent with that success - i disobeyed all my travelling-in-africa-rules about avoiding checking baggage and always carrying my essentials on me ....basically i was determined to take S lots of yummy stuff we get in Cape Town that frankly the rest of africa only dreams about .... but he warned me that Kenyan customs are notoriously persnickety .... and so i obstinately dumped all my necessities in my suitcase .... and instead prioritised secreting into my handluggage the four bottles of wine i'd specially picked out (Kenyan limit is one) .... a mass of gourmet foods .... and a large cake-box filled with a carrot cake for S's upcoming b'day ....
Sods law obviously then had it that when i arrived in Nairobi ... my suitcase didn't ... and to rub further salt into my wounds .... the customs man i'd been warned so much about - only told me i had the face of a "nice girl" and asked if i would consider making Kenya my home ......
My poor luggage remained lost for another 40 hours .... so no clothes, toiletries, contact lenses or make up .... i was smelly, wearing dirty clothes, un-painted and bespectacled .... not ideal when you only get to see your boyfriend every two months .... but luckily i'd brought enough alcohol and cake along to keep his beer goggles on (quick note of thanks to yatin for the saving some of the delicious oban) .... and so we had a grand weekend celebrating having survived a whole year in africa together ..... several gorgeous meals and my first ever time playing gambling properly .... with S trying to teach me to count to 21 after countless (free!!!) drinks and stopping me making the wrong hand gestures .... and yet still walking away with $200 profit (i won more consistently ... and he just won bigger) .... i can't wait to go again ...
I've been to Nairobi for a few weekends before and so this week was essentially just spent working and hanging out .... most girlfriends get taken to bars, clubs and restaurants .... S however took me to press conferences about Ugandan rebels surrendering and Congolese civil wars ..... and an off-the-record-forum on Somalia .... and yes you're right - i geekily LOVED it .... all in all it was a fabulous week ... we both worked bloody hard, ate our faces off, watched lots of Sopranos, cooked (or rather taught S to cook) went to gym and just did normal non-living-in-africa stuff that we both crave ...
However the highlight of the trip (aside from the casino, seeing Jan Egeland, meeting S's boss from Kansas city and even hosting a little drinks party) was our weekend trip to Sweetwaters - a tented safari lodge near Mount Kenya .... our tent faced directly onto a watering hole .... where on arrival we were met by a family of 6 giraffes staring straight at us just a few feet away .... with a snow tipped Mount Kenya as a back drop ..... and one night from our table in the moonlight we saw a mother-elephant with her baby and a teen-elephant coming to drink there ... despite their size - utterly silent and dream-like in the darkness .... one of the most beautiful things i think i have ever seen ...
S and I (now being africa stalwarts) emboldened by a sense of adventure decided to dispense with the normal safari guide drives and head out into the bush ourselves with his beast of a landrover .... and it was incredible .... i don't think i'll ever get tired of turning a corner and running into a huge troop of elephants frolicking in a gorge spraying each other with water .... or watching the immense oddly-other-worldly look of rhinos as they trudge across a plain .... or even herds of zebras, impalas and gazelles bounding around nervously checking for the scent of lions ....
One night (albeit with the help of a guide) we saw a black mamba slither across the road ... and then watched a pack of lionesses and their cubs stalk a Jackson Hartebeest (some deer-type thing) - all crouched low and creeping in the grass ... circling their prey ... terrifyingly coordinated and calculating ...
One of the special features about this reserve is their chimpanzee sanctuary .... all rescued from Central Africa .... they have tragic stories - many of them orphaned by the hunt for bushmeat or rescued from being kept in cages as playthings .... they've all been carefully rehabilitated and introduced into chimp hierarchies .... we had to approach their sanctuary on foot (previously you could go by boat but the chimps cottoned on and began throwing stones at the humans on the boats) .... and since there was just the two of us .... we got to approach a few at very close range .... you can tell that they share almost 99% of our DNA .... the male chimps all hissed at S and were then all flirty with me ... walking alongside me as we went back ....
S nicked all the best pictures - so you will have to visit his site for photos .... but all in all it was the perfect week .... and contrary as to what Yat would have you believe .... Shashank can be quite the host when he's actually there ...
