Thurs 18th. Caught the matatu from mwembe tayari. Unfortunately the journey was a bit slow because the vehicle had a speed limiter on it and couldn’t go over about 50mph. What was worse was the hour wait in Voi as a wheel was clamped until some sort of tax/document was paid for. Arrived in taveta in mid afternoon and collected my key from Mercy.

Basically I spent 2 and a half weeks in Taveta catching up with lots of friends, plus all the gossip. The main one being that businesses/dwellings about 30 metres of the railway track have been served eviction notices due to a new railway line to be built between Voi and Taveta. Malombe has already started demolishing parts of Rockland and is building new premises near the bypass up towards the border. His bar will probably continue serving drinks up until the last minute ! Thumbi had just completed adding a first floor to the property alongside the stage and was all ready to rent out the units, but immediately started taking out the doors and windows and demolishing parts of the building.

The main highlights were my cycling trips on a hired mountain bike that only cost me 200bob per day. First, on the 19th I cycled to Chala to visit Dad’s grave. Nice view of Kili. On the way back I stopped at a bar before the bypass.

On the 23rd , a ride to El Doro. Very bumpy and bone jarring. All these rides require a lot of concentration in finding the best line through all the different sized rocks and stones. In El Doro I had a chai and mandazi. On the way back I stopped at The Place and Burneys Inn.

24th was a meet up at Challa hotel with old friends. The 25th was invited to Michael Mbuthi for dinner. The 29th I cycled to Grogans Castle. No Basil unfortunately as he only arrived back that day from Greece and was in Nairobi.

3rd Sept I cycled to Lake Chala. Beautiful as always. But a hazy day and view of Kili. The road up to the crater rim is non existent and the bike needs to be pushed both up and down. If I had thought about it, I could’ve asked Martina if I could leave my bike at her curio shop at the bottom of the hill.

So, lots of kiti moto with friends. Hanging out. My room was as comfortable as ever. Started meeting Joseph at Utamaduni on football match days. On Sun 4th I booked my ticket for the following day to go to Malindi and on to Lamu.