29th Sept…decided on an early 6 a.m. start from Taveta to Mombasa. At Voi, it was discovered that both sets of break pads were worn right through; I don’t know if the driver smelled burning, but glad we were at a convenient place to replace them. Was impressed that it only took just over a half hour to fix.
Otherwise, a good trip. Walked to Ethiopian airlines to ask what I needed to do to change my flight date back to UK and say what good news that Kenya no longer on the Red list. Was informed that even transiting through Bole Intl airport was deemed as having been in a red country. Was shocked and started to rethink my options of returning to UK. The main one being to ditch my Ethiopian return ticket and buy a single that would cost in the region of 500usd. All I could do was hope that travel conditions would change.
Went to Queens cafe …owned by the owners of the Sea Shells lodging on Lamu…for tea and mandazi. Walked back to Mwembe Tayari to catch the Nyali matatu; I knew what I was doing and where I was going this time. Had arranged with Mwangi at Bustani for an apartment again; it worked well last time. No. 29 this time. Met Mark at City Mall. We had a couple of beers. I did some food shopping. A very successful day.
Thurs 30th. Quiet/relaxing day. Went in the opposite direction to the beach. A long walk passed Nyali Beach resort. Hoped to find somewhere selling tea, but no luck. My directions to the beach involved climbing over a locked gate…. Back to City Mall and a coffee plus a little shopping. Bought a 10 litre container of water from the Bustani shop; the previous time I bought one hundreds of meters from the accommodation. Went to the Maasai Beach bar for a drink, then cooked dinner in my apartment. Good WiFi.
1st Oct. A quick visit to the beach as it’s only a 6 minute walk away. Then at midday I took a Bolt taxi to meet up with Mark and we went on to the Kilindini pub in the city ( the oldest pub in mombasa). We’d been there once before, and the proprietors were very hospitable. They bought us lunch and we bought the drinks. Mark was dropped off and I went on to the Maasai beach bar…followed by my apartment.
Sat 2nd. A beach walk in the same direction as day 2. I tried to book an SGR train ticket to Nairobi for Sunday but the second class was full. When I was at the Nyali shopping, a young lady in a cyber cafe helped me buy my ticket online. There were something like 800 seats for Monday, so that was decided for 8 a.m.. I also found a taxi company that would come pick me up and take me to the station for 500ksh.
Sun 3rd. I continued with my routine of going to the shopping centre for a coffee. Met Mark in the afternoon at Maasai beach bar, and we treated to a great live band. There was a dance troupe as well. Mark had left so he didn’t see me being picked out of the audience to sit on a chair on the dance floor and have all the ladies dancing me, as their King. I got over the embarrassment after a little bit. !!! I finished off my food; I had treated myself to some very nice steak for 4 of the 5 nights I was there. Got myself ready for an early departure on Monday morning. A fun Mombasa visit.