Blogyagi

The flight from Dubai was uneventful. The skies were clear and
I used the in seat TV to watch the external camera showing the
view looking straight down. Kind of like Google Maps but for
real. If you want to play along at home, we passed over:

• Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter (big sand dunes),
• Oman (as above with the occasional man-made oasis),
• Yemen (rocky desert and dry river beds. No signs of life
  except on the coast),
• The Gulf of Aden (water),
• Puntland, Somalia (rocky desert, dusty towns. My imagination
  added camel trains and mad mullahs),
• Ethiopia (first greenery as the desert gave way to the
  fertile highlands),
• and finally Kenya. The clouds had moved in by this stage but
  Mount Kenya managed to raise its top through. Unlike the last
  time I flew by there was no snow at the summit. Global
  warming apparently.

Despite my body clock registering about 4 in the morning, I
“forced” down a few drinks to prepare me for dealing with Kenyan
Immigration. Last time I came through Jomo Kenyatta, I spent hours
in the hands of officers who were sure I was a dangerous drug
smuggler, being poked and prodded and made to sit upon a perspex
toilet while a man with rubber gloves eagerly awaited the contents
of my bowels.

Not being a German porn star, I had found the whole process
quite distasteful. This time however, apart from waiting for about
an hour for my bag, everything went smoothly and I was out of the
airport and on the streets of Nairobi for the first time in over
two years.

but struggling to find decent internet. Have stories to upload when I do. Have been to Uganda, drunk far too much traditional beer, slept in brothels, eaten goat’s balls and all in all had a very good time.

It’s 7 in the morning here in Dubai and I’ve got a couple of hours before my flight to Nairobi. The internet cafe I’m using is somewhat locked down so I won’t be uploading any pictures, but since I wrote last I’ve had a very relaxing time in New Zealand catching up with Mike, Andrew and families.

Last weekend we all went up to Gisborne (the easternmost point of New Zealand) and stayed on a property with Mike and Andy’s Uncle Rob. Amongst general debauchery involving vodka and table tennis, we found time to go fishing on the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. We didn’t manage to catch anything but the scenery was nice.

Then on Tuesday Mike, Sauda, Ali Issa, Omar and I piled into Mike’s stationwagon and went on another road trip. This time we went to Tokaanu (pronounced Tow Car Now apparently) on the shores of Lake Taupo where we stayed in the restored Post Office, complete with a thermal pool in the backyard heated by the nearby geothermal pools.

It seems that quite a bit of the North Island of New Zealand is situated fairly close to large angry bubbles of molten rock alarmingly close to the surface. Very pretty for the tourists and all but it will have to blow one day. None of this was going through my mind as I lay in the pool the night before last with a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other staring up at the stars.

My thermal odyssey had to come to an end though and yesterday morning we piled the family into the car and headed up the highway into Auckland to the airport. After relaxing in rural areas and small towns, Auckland was a bit stressful for everyone but I managed to get myself sorted for a seat. I had hoped that the stop on the way to Dubai would be somewhere actually on the way (Brisbane, Singapore etc.) but it turned out that I was going to stop in Melbourne.

So I said my goodbyes and made my way through. Not much point in duty free shopping because everything is going to be cheaper in Nairobi with or without duty so I just sat around, had a couple of beers and got on my flight to Melbourne, which was uneventful.

Melbourne was more of the same, except I was able to derive some amusement by watching the desperate transit passengers hoping for somewhere to have a cigarette before the 13 hour flight to Dubai. Australian and US airports seem to be the only ones in the world that like to torture their passengers in this way. I solved the problem by pretending I was back in school and sneaking a cigarette in the toilet.

The flight here to Dubai was pretty good considering its length (just shy of 14 hours in the end. Even at 4:30AM, Dubai is busy enough to require some circling. The screaming babies stopped after a couple of hours and the 500 channels of video on demand made things a lot easier to get through. I haven’t had a lot of sleep but I’m holding up fairly well at present.

That’s it for now. I’m only a few hours away from setting foot on African soil again for the first time in over 2 years and I’m pretty excited about that. I’ll be spending a few days in Nairobi organising communications and banking and so forth and should head out to Lamu in 4 or 5 days time.

Thanks go to Mike, Andy and families for looking after me so well while I was in NZ. I had a great time and look forward to returning for a few days on my way back. I have to go now as this computer is telling me my time is up, but I’ll be back in the next couple of days to update for my arrival and upload some NZ photos.

Until then…

I’m off to Gisborne on the East coast for the weekend and will be away from the computer. Then next week I’m off on the road to Auckland to get the flight to Nairobi on the 1st.

I picked up a new camera in duty free on my way out of Melbourne. It’s shockproof and waterproof and thus ideal for my rough handling. Anyway, here are my first few attempts at photography. Click on the photos for larger images.

Milk Train coming through Manawatu Gorge.

Read more

My travel adventures may be here soon. Or not.