Hello!
Long bus ride, followed by a long car ride. It was 270km from Arusha to Nairobi, but more than half the road was out, so we were mostly on dirt roads. The bus was surpisingly pleasant - one size up from the matatu, it seats 21 US style (an isleway so people in the back can exit in an emergency), or 28 with the isle seats in place. And we only had 19. But off_roading about 100 miles in a bus is the suxxors, especially when at the end of the bus ride, you meet a guy with a taxi, and then you ride for 200 more km. Ugh!
The Kenya-Tanzania border is less secure than the California-Nevada border. At least in Cali, they ask if you have fruit! We arrived at the 'leaving TZ' side and dropped off customs forms and ou passports for stamping. One woman stood at the back of the line and when a few of us had finished, she joined us in walking to the Kenyan side. We went into the building for stamps, she went straight to the bus. No record of leaving or entering and it was never checked. Nice..
On the taxi ride, we passed many vendos hocking fresh fruit. My guide bought a bunch of pineapples and mangos and then bought me and himself sliced, peeled pineapple. All the alarms in my head wee ringing. I already got the shits once and went through my antibiotics course, which means the flora in my stomach/intestines is probabl devastated and i'm susceptible to getting sick, right? But I didn't want to offend... And pineapple is so good... So I accepted his gift and ate it. Mmmmm, sweetest pineapple ever! I sure hope I don't pay for this on the mountain!
BTW, I'm wearing a cotton t-shirt. A day of bus/taxi in 80s-90s weather... Damn, I smell worse than when I got off Kili!
OH, speaking of which, my guide says to expect -15 C (about 0 F) at the summits of Nelion and Batian (the 2nd and 1st highest peaks of Mt Kenya). He says we'll talk details tonight, but if I'm a solid climber, he thinks I can grab Nelion in 4-6 hours (20 pitches), traverse to Batian in 2 hours (about 3 pitches plus crossing the top of a glacier), return across the gap in the same time, and rappel down quickly, making it a 1-day (albeit very long) affair, avoiding carrying sleeping gear.
Sounds crazy. Looking forward to the discussion tonight!
OH^2: My guide boasts that Kenya makes the best coffee in the world. I told him I was woefully dissappointed in TZ. He promises to show me real coffee. Mmmmm...
Joel
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