We left the Adventist sports field early, 06:30, with the dean coming to say his farewells. Very nice of him and we wished him well for his sports day.
We drove for about 2 hours until we reached fields and field of tea plantations. We found a secluded spot and stopped to make tea and coffee. The setting was amazing. We reviewed our plan and drove on to the equator. We had selected the town of Nyahururu as the point of crossing.
Before getting to the Equator we stopped in the town of Nakuru to try again to get a Sim-card. We found a shop (not a dealer) and after being caught up in the towns maelstrom we were spat out into a parking in front of the phone shop. 45 minutes later and Stefan walked out with a big smile and we were once again connected. On leaving the shop we went into a traffic circle with taxis everywhere and not a mm between cars. I jostled my way through like the rest of them until a taxi decided that I should not have 4 perfect corners of a car and at least one corner should have some paint missing and a skew bumper. Thanks Mr Taxi guy I now really feel part of the country. There is no stopping, no chit chat, just “move on man & relax”.. Your car still works.
On the equator, (Stefan pointed out that the signs were about 50 meters off the equator) we stopped and had the traditional photo shoot and to celebrate we had a meal and a couple of beers in a small local shack of a restaurant. Here we ordered food but were not quite sure what we would get. It tasted good and the beers were good too. From there we headed east towards Mount Kenya and our spot for the evening was to be the Castle Forest Lodge, within the Mount Kenya National Park.
Here too we had cut it to the last minute and arrived at 6 pm on rather treacherous roads and small bridges. The vegetation here is like a rain forest, thick and dense and we reflected on what a change and diverse landscape we had experienced in a short period.
We quickly set up camp and went though to their lodge for dinner . The set meal was pumpkin soup, fish and potatoes and carrot cake and custard mixed with passion fruit. This place could be a copy of what you would see in the Alps. The wooden huts and the layout was so typical of what you would expect in Austria. We were just off the Equator at 2000m and had a temperature of 15 degrees. It did not help that the rain had decided to come down and we were wet. We were greeted at camp by Peter who had a jacket with Siemens on it! Siemens everywhere, even on Mount Kenya. His service level was really good offering to help set up camp, make hot water and bring us wood. The poor guy tried in the rain, using an umbrella to keep our fire going. No point. Off to bed to the sound of the rain hammering down on our tent. Tomorrow is our last stretch to Nairobi airport.
I envy you more than you can imagine😁😁😁😁. Trust Stefan to figure it the 50 meter difference but it is Historic. Back before GPS satellites were around it was as good as your surveyers and often 50m was the accuracy and in Africa it just stuck historically. Imagine the wars that might be fought over 50m of land x hundreds of km just because. Or shoe on the other foot Africa does not care or get it.
CHEERS