Saturday, June 13: Heading for Mombasa

Waking up at 4:30 is hard for me, but I almost did it. 4:39, and I was out of the mosquito net. We got the van loaded up with all of our stuff and all of us, and were headed south by 5:25. Quite a few of the children got up to say goodbye. I do not know if it was last night's rain, or I am just getting used to Kenyan roads, but the trip seemed smoother than usual.

We drove right past Timothy and Christine who were standing alongside the road across from their house. They had a little bit of a walk to get to the van by the time we stopped. They were so excited. This was going to be their first airplane trip.

At the Kisumu airport, we loaded up 2 baggage carts, and carried the rest in after saying goodbye to Charles. Several small airlines share a rather cramped space. The procedure in Kisumu is to put all baggage through the x-ray, then you decide what to check after you get inside. There were nine of us, and they weighed the twelve bigger bags, and checked them all at no additional charge. The baggage limit is by weight, not pieces. All tolled, our bags were 150 KG and the limit for 9 was 180 KG. They did not care if some of the bags were over, which was good.
We waited in the outside waiting area and watched our plane land. We boarded, stowing the guitars and dulcimer in a little area near the back of the plane. The plane took off, but headed north (Kisumu is south). A little later we landed in Eldoret where Jenny (from Eshel Gardens) is living. The plane makes a circular trip, Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret, and back to Nairobi, so we ended up flying back over Kakamega to get to Eldoret.

I texted Jenny and told her we were in town for 15 minutes and she should wave. She replied that she was waving from her bed, and wished us safe journey. It is fun to know people in different places in Africa.

An hour later we landed in Nairobi, claimed our luggage (no lost bags this time), and met Yeshaia outside. He had agreed to take our extra bags and instruments to Eshel Gardens (where we plan to spend next Friday night) while we went to Mombasa. We waited there for the Coast Lines bus. Lillian, out travel agent, rode the bus from the station to the airport to be sure it picked us up. She had reserved front row seats. It was a nice bus with video screens and a washroom. Much smaller than a typical Greyhound, but about as tall.

The road was pretty bad for the first part of the trip; they are doing a lot of construction. Unlike the US, where most people merge into one lane long before the construction zone to be polite, in Kenya, people drive in the fields along the road, in the oncoming lane, on the far side berm... wherever they can fit their car.

Except for the construction, the road was very smooth, and the trip was pleasant. We saw camels, a zebra, a baboon, lots of goats and cows, and lots of people. The bus stopped halfway (the total trip was about 8 hours) for food.

The videos on the bus were not exactly family friendly. There was a lot of crude language in the movies, and the music videos became so awful that I finally complained. They changed the disc to something else that wasn't quite as bad. I would appreciate being able to choose what I see and hear when traveling, so I will not recommend this bus line to anyone else.

We got into Mombasa around 6:30, and were met by Mattias, our driver. This time we had only a small amount of luggage (yea). Mattias drove us to Nakumatt so we could buy food, then we went on to Mombasa Beach Apartments. The apartments are very nice. The bedrooms are even air conditioned and there is water, even hot water. We snacked on some of the food, and then turned in. We are looking forward to the rest of our adventure which begins tomorrow.