Out of Africa

A solid 10 hours sleep did me some good, and I woke up at 8am feeling pretty much back to normal, barring a bit of a dry cough which is far more bearable than continually drowning. I had breakfast and then checked out of my room before paying for the taxi I had arranged yesterday: it’s an hour and a half back to the airport, what a pain!

To my pleasant surprise I was also offered the chance to have a shower in some random unoccupied room before I left, which was great news: I’d expected my shower this morning to be my last, and it is hot to be wearing trousers (necessary since shorts won’t cut it back home, and I didn’t know whether there’d be an opportunity to change). With the confidence that I could cleanse myself, I decided to take a walk down the beach to my time killing activity I had planned: a turtle sanctuary.

As expected the walk was hot, though occasionally there were clouds, and I had purposefully gone right after checking out at 10 to beat the heat of the day. It was a 20 minute walk as my information had suggested, but unfortunately the price was not as suggested! I was expecting $5, but when I arrived it was $10. 

This probably seems like it wouldn’t be a big deal, but it was in fact a deal breaker for me! I had $20 left (in mixed shillings and dollars), and with that I needed to buy lunch, and at least a snack and some water at Nairobi airport to take my aspirin. $10 is pretty much the minimum for a meal here, so with $15 left after the Turtle Sanctuary and being frugal I would have just enough. $10 remaining would not be enough, and there are no cash machines up here, nor would the sanctuary take card, so my morning activity was limited to a walk. Oh well, others from my group had been and said it was “nice but not amazing”, so I probably didn’t miss anything spectacular.

Without being able to see the turtles, the surprise beach cows were one of the highlights

There was a lighthouse, but I couldn’t see a way to get close.

Back at the hotel there is a cat with kittens. Shame it isn’t puppies but still rather nice

I found a sun lounger conveniently in the shade, which allowed me to take my shirt off a bit to cool down, as it had been sweaty work walking along the beach! I lazed around killing time for a couple of hours, before going to a restaurant I had picked out beforehand for a burger and chips, which was exactly $10 including drink and a small tip. Not very exotic I know but in my weakened state I need to eat things I’m used to!

After eating it was 2pm, so I decided to go see about that shower! Unfortunately the message had clearly not been received correctly, as they were now saying it would be $20. Aside from the fact that that is a rip off, we all know I don’t have that kind of money. That seems to be a common issue with this hotel, though thankfully the message about the taxi had been passed on, because it arrived a couple of minutes early. Great!

What was not great on the other hand was the driver asking if it was ok to give his mate a lift. There’s being nice, and there’s being kidnapped by 2 burly African men (ok neither was particularly burly but the point still stands!). I was going to politely say no, but immediately after he asked, we stopped, and the mate was in! On the plus side I survived: the mate only got a lift for about 15 minutes, and thinking about it they would have to stop to kidnap me, at which point the number of mates set up to kidnap me could be limitless. Still would’ve been happier without mind!

I arrived at the airport in good time, around 4:20. Too good probably, since it was 3 and a bit hours until my short haul flight set off, but it was lying about here, or lying about at the hotel, and the WiFi here was better, plus the shops were more reasonably priced (which tells you a thing or two about the cost of food and drink in north Zanzibar)! Thankfully I could check in already, plus boarding was supposedly at 6:55, meaning 40 minutes less to wait.

Security was... lax. I realised when I was on the plane that I had a 200ml bottle of sun cream in my bag! Guess I’m a pro smuggler now. The wait actually went very quickly, I was just reading my book and such, but there was ample seating, and as I mentioned before food and drink were cheap at ~$1 per bottle. I gambled and got a bottle now; hopefully it won’t be confiscated in Nairobi!

At 18:55 on the dot, exactly the time stated, the flight started to board. That’s probably a first in any airport for me! Not only that, loading was completed quickly too. I was greeted by a man who read my ticket stub and said “oh, Christopher, that’s my name too”, which was somehow quite nice. Even better I got a seat with no neighbor! Hopefully this hasn’t used up my luck for the long flight.

The plane was a propeller one, but not quite as small as Arusha to Zanzibar. Boarding was completed fast, to the mellow tunes of “the animals cames in two by two”, smooth jazz version, and Christopher 2 was the lead cabin crew person who explained the flight would take 10 minutes less than the stated time. How nice. Not only that, but we ended up departing 15 minutes ahead of schedule. There was absolutely no messing about, and any worries I had that a delayed flight could produce shenanigans in Nairobi (I need to get my ticket for the long flight printed there) were extinguished.

After we had ascended, whilst I was happily sitting around I had a sudden thought. The sun cream is aerosolised (it’s the fancy stuff), and in a metal container... it won’t explode will it?! I figured the cabin being pressurised should stop catastrophic eruptions, but I didn’t want all my stuff getting sun cream on it, plus if there is a second check in Nairobi it will be taken anyway, plus I’d have the same worries on the next flight, plus there wasn’t much left... all in all I decided it was time to retire the sun cream. I put it in the air sickness bag to prevent it from escaping; maybe some cleaner in Nairobi will find it useful!

Nairobi airport was unfortunately a bit of a shambles. The airport itself isn’t bad, with all the facilities you’d expect... but my flight was “boarding” already when I arrived (3 hours before departure), and I had to “board” to get my ticket as they couldn’t issue it in Zanzibar. That was alright though, even if I had to pass through security a third time, then have my bag go through ANOTHER scanner after that, THEN have my bag searched by hand (they were doing this for everyone, not just me). The bad part was that once you were in the departure terminal it was boiling, there weren’t enough seats for everyone, there were no shops etc to buy a drink, and there were no toilets. If you needed the toilet, you had to go back through the checking area, then get rechecked on your way back, and they made no mention of this beforehand! If you can avoid Jomo Kenyatta airport I suggest you do

The flight was delayed setting off, but the first officer kept us very well informed: a bulb on the wingtip had gone after the engineers had done their checks, we needed it because it was a night flight and without it other aircraft wouldn’t be able to see us, and he gave us updates every 15 minutes. Good job BA! We got away about 40 minutes later than expected, but I watched Deadpool 2 anyway as I didn’t want to sleep before we’d finished ascending (it’s great if you like that sort of film). 

After that I went straight to sleep, which is amazing for me on a chair! I would like to take this opportunity to thank my new Trtl travel pillow; something I saw on a lightning deal on prime day and went for on a whim. It isn’t really a pillow at all, more a fairly sturdy plastic frame wrapped in cushioning, attached to a scarf. You rest your chin on the frame then tie it round your neck, and it basically stops your head from bobbing about. FAR superior to traditional travel pillows, which slither away at the first sign you are falling asleep!

I think we were part of the sunrise!

All in all I managed around 5 hours of pretty solid sleep, probably more than I expected, though still not exactly a good night! We landed about half an hour behind schedule, but that was ok for me as I needed super off peak (aka after 9am) trains anyway! By the time I got my bag and got the tube to kings cross it was 8:45am, and there was a 9:06 train I could catch that just had the platform number go up, so I could go right away and get settled.

No toasters... who was making toast on the train?!

I had told my family that I’d be home about midday, and I got in to Rotherham at 11:57. Pretty good guess if you ask me! I said a cordial hello to dad and Vicky, and a tearful hello to Misty (Misty I missed youuuuu ;_;)! Another successful trip completed, and time for some well earned rest!

The alpha and omega (of this blog!)