Taveta
Sun-Thurs 17th-21st Nov.
The Tulia chef pulled out all the stops and prepared for me a great, final English breakfast. By 08:00 I was at the main road and in the front seat of a matatu. I got out at the mosque on Digo road, took pics of mounds of spices in the Old Market and then walked up Mombasa road to Mwembe Tayari. I was immediately in a matatu and soon on our way. Although I was at the back, I was comfortable enough.
I alighted in Voi because I was due to meet Lucy and hang out in Voi as something different to do. She said to meet at Caltex on the Highway. I couldn’t understand why, but took a boda there, only to find there was nothing there. I was slightly irritated, and we caught a boda back and stopped at a hotel for lunch.
Walked to the centre…I spent a lot on shopping for Lucy at Bagwanji?? Went down to Maghonyi hotel for drinks. Although I paid for everything, it was a change and fun. The fact that Mwinyi (Lucy nephew) had come too, pushed up the cost.
We had to wait quite a while for the matatu to head back to Taveta, so it was almost dark when we arrived back. What made it all worthwhile was seeing a herd of elephants and a single elephant not far from the road. Hadn’t seen any elephants along there for ages. Anyway, I went to my room, after giving Lucy and Mwinyi boda money. Oh, Minton had come for the day as well.
Mon-Thurs 18-21.
Nothing of note happened. I didn’t even have my morning tea with Mercy as she was in Mombasa covering for Anne as Anne had gone to her uncle’s funeral in Busia.
So, breakfast was a Texas chai na andazi. Had one meal at Japan’s. Thoroughly enjoyed one of Grace’s kiti motos at Mwangaza. Popped into Challa Htl to greet Ruth.
I made a phone call to Mum…which was good. The Depot was all out of County so I bought 2 bottles of Kenya Cane instead…which were a little bit cheaper.
The last couple of days were partly spent cleaning my room and keeping on top of my laundry before my next adventure.
The weather was on the whole very good. There were a few times when it rained in the early hours, but that meant the daylight hours were clear.
I think it was on Monday that I met Joseph at Rockland and he insisted on having a second small bottle of County without even contributing 100bob. Well, that annoyed me and I didn’t contact/see him up to the time I left for Tz. He got the message..!!
I went to see Rashidi to discuss the fact that my storage space on my phone was running low. He said it was best I go and see Java (who I had known for many years) at his cyber office. I was at Java’s about an hour…he’s always multi tasking with many customers. His solution was to create a new email address which would creat 15 gigabytes of extra space. Ok, am not sure how it will work but I’m giving it a try.
At this point I had decided I was going to Rwanda, so a bit of planning was required for that. On my last day Lucy wanted me to see where she lives in Chechewa…so I went armed with the last of my County.
So that was it. In theory I was going to be away for about 3 weeks.
A short post because I want the next ones to be exclusively Tanzania or Rwanda.